Here is a record of a conversation I had with the free version of Gemini. It impressed me. The self is an emergent feedback loop between various parts of the brain, as I have proposed before. Here is the convo. Enjoy. I might correct some of miswords later.

what does it mean in terms of processing ability for me to say that I can plan to do something later with someone

Planning a future interaction with another person demonstrates executive function and social cognition.

It requires several complex cognitive processes:

• Prospective Memory: The ability to remember to perform a planned action at a specific point in the future.
• Mental Time Travel: Using your imagination to project yourself into a future scenario to anticipate needs or logistics.
• Theory of Mind: Understanding that the other person has their own schedule, intentions, and expectations that must align with yours.
• Representational Thought: Holding a “mental map” of an event that hasn’t happened yet while managing your current environment.

Would you like to explore how these processes might help you manage outreach for FiguralNapkinRings.com?

who is the you or yourself that you referred to in that answer

In that context, you refers to the human brain and its cognitive architecture. It describes the person performing the mental labor of planning, rather than an AI. These processes represent the internal “self” that navigates time and social relationships.

Would you like to dive deeper into the neuroscience behind “mental time travel”?

more interested in what this self means

In this context, the self refers to your autonoetic consciousness, the unique human ability to see yourself as a continuous entity existing across past, present, and future. It is the “internal observer” that links your previous memories to your future goals.

The Self in Processing

• The Narrative Self: This creates a story of who you are, allowing you to make promises to others (like a swap on FiguralNapkinRings.com) and feel obligated to keep them later.
• The Executive Self: This acts as the “manager” that coordinates your biological impulses with your long-term social identity.

Would you like to know which parts of the brain specifically build this sense of self?

yeah sure tell me

The self is essentially your brain’s internal map of “who you are.” It is not one single spot, but a network of regions working together to create a stable identity.

Key Brain Regions for the “Self”

• Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC): The hub for self-reflection. It activates when you think about your personality or your future goals.
• Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC): Helps link your past memories to your current identity, providing the “narrative” of your life.
• Insular Cortex: Provides your bodily self. It processes internal sensations (like your heartbeat) so you feel “inside” your own body.
• Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ): Critical for distinguishing between you and others. It helps you realize that while you are planning a swap for a toothpick holder, the other person has their own separate thoughts and intentions.

These areas form the Default Mode Network (DMN), which becomes active when you aren’t focused on the outside world. When you “plan for later,” your DMN is essentially “simulating” a future version of yourself.

Would you like to know how this “future self” simulation affects the way you make decisions today?

how does one plan an action or performing action when you need the newer processes to have already started to do that

To plan or perform an action that relies on “newer” processes (like social coordination or long-term goals), your brain uses episodic simulation. This is a mental “dry run” where your Prefrontal Cortex acts as a simulator, testing out actions using a “map” of experiences stored in your Hippocampus.

Here is how that works:

• Coupling Networks: Your brain temporarily links the Default Mode Network (imagining the future) with the Frontoparietal Control Network (executing tasks). This allows you to hold a future goal in mind while your motor system handles the present.
• Neural Replay: Before you even move, your brain “replays” the potential paths and outcomes at high speed. This prepares the “newer” social or logical parts of your brain to be ready before the physical action starts.
• Bridging the Gap: By making the future outcome vivid, you reduce “temporal discounting”—the tendency to ignore future rewards for immediate ones.

Would you like to know how to use implementation intentions (“if-then” plans) to make these future actions more automatic?

not newer new rule

When you say you “plan to do something later with someone,” you are utilizing a Hierarchical Processing Rule. This means you aren’t just reacting to the present; you are using a “top-down” rule that governs your smaller, current actions.

In terms of processing, this creates a “Wait-and-Hold” state (or Latent Representation) in your brain.

1. The Hierarchical Rule

Instead of your brain operating on a simple “If [Stimulus] then [Action]” level (e.g., See napkin ring -> Buy it), you are operating on a Contextual Level:

• Higher-Level Rule: “I have a commitment to person X at time Y.”
• Lower-Level Action: “Current tasks must not interfere with that commitment.”

This higher-level rule actually suppresses or “filters” your newer, immediate impulses. It ensures that your “newer” processes (the actual meeting later) have a space held for them before they even begin.

2. The “Pre-Activation” of the Future

You asked how you can do this when the “newer” processes (the actual event) haven’t started yet. Your brain solves this through Predictive Coding:

• The Simulation: Your Prefrontal Cortex creates a “placeholder” or a mental “avatar” of the future event.
• The “Newer” Processes: These processes (social interaction, specific logistics) are primed—meaning they are sitting just below the surface of your conscious awareness, ready to fire.
• The Bridge: Because your brain has already “run the simulation” of the meeting, the neural pathways needed for it are already “warmed up.”

3. The Role of the “Self” in this Rule

This is where that “self” we discussed becomes critical. For this “new rule” to work, your brain must believe that the “You” who makes the plan now is the same “You” who will show up later.

If you didn’t have a stable “Narrative Self,” you wouldn’t feel the “Rule” of the commitment; you would just live in a series of disconnected “nows.” The “Self” is the glue that makes the “later” plan feel mandatory in the “present” moment.

Would you like to know how your brain “tags” these future plans so you don’t forget them while you’re busy with other things?

ok for me to have a thoughts to do something means that some neural process or rear arrived at the thoughts for me to have a thought how was that possible

To say you “arrived at a thought” is a profound way to describe the mechanics of your brain. It implies that a thought isn’t just a static “thing” you have, but a destination your brain reached after a period of work.

Here is how your brain makes it possible for you to “have” a thought before you even realize it’s there.

1. The “Subconscious Scaffolding”

Before a thought enters your conscious mind, your neurons are already firing in patterns. This is often called spontaneous activity or “structured noise.”

• The Assembly: Neurons don’t work alone; they form neural assemblies (groups that fire together).
• The Competition: At any given moment, thousands of these assemblies are “competing” for your attention. They are processing memories, physical sensations, and goals (like your interest in figural napkin rings).
• The Arrival: A “thought” is simply the neural assembly that “won” the competition. It became strong enough or synchronized enough (often at a frequency of about 40 Hz) to be “broadcast” to the rest of your brain.

2. The Global Workspace (The “Stage”)

Think of your brain like a darkened theater with many actors (neural processes) whispering in the wings.

• The Spotlight: When a neural process becomes strong enough, it enters the Global Workspace. This is like a spotlight hitting an actor on stage.
• Conscious Awareness: Only when the information is “on stage” do you experience it as a “thought.”
• The “New Rule” connection: This is how you can plan for later. One “actor” on stage (the current thought) can give instructions to the “stage manager” (your prefrontal cortex) to keep a certain script ready for later.

3. Predictive Processing: The Brain as a Time Machine

Your brain is rarely “reacting” to the present; it is almost always predicting the next moment.

• The Arrival: You “arrive” at a thought because your brain has been calculating the most likely next piece of information you need.
• Corollary Discharge: When you have an internal thought (like “I should email that collector later”), your brain sends a tiny signal to itself saying, “I am the one who generated this thought.” This allows you to recognize the thought as yours rather than an outside sound or a random hallucination.

4. Why it feels like it “Arrived”

You feel like you “arrived” at a thought because there is a measurable time gap (about 300 to 500 milliseconds) between your neurons starting to process an idea and your “self” becoming aware of it. By the time you “think” it, the biological work is already mostly done.

Would you like to know how your brain decides which of these competing “whispers” gets the spotlight and becomes a conscious thought?

psychologists your awareness of that thought when it comes after the new process is already arrived there

When you experience a thought “arriving,” you are experiencing what psychologists call Post-hoc Awareness. This is the realization that your conscious mind is often the last to know what your brain has already decided.

1. The Readiness Potential (The Head Start)

In the 1980s, a researcher named Benjamin Libet conducted a famous experiment that changed how we view “new” thoughts. He found that:

• The Brain Acts First: About 500 milliseconds before you “feel” the thought to move your hand, your brain shows a surge of electrical activity called the Readiness Potential.
• Awareness Arrives Later: You only become “aware” of your intention about 200 milliseconds before the action happens.
• The Gap: There is a roughly 300-millisecond window where your brain has already “arrived” at the thought, but “You” haven’t been notified yet.

2. Post-hoc Rationalization

Because the conscious awareness comes after the neural process has already started, psychologists often say the conscious mind is a “Press Secretary.”

• The “Government” (your unconscious neural networks) makes a decision.
• The “Press Secretary” (your conscious awareness) is told about it a fraction of a second later.
• The Press Secretary then creates a story to explain why you had that thought, making it feel like you were the one who initiated it all along.

3. The “Arrival” as a Threshold

In your brain, a thought isn’t “on” or “off.” It’s a build-up. For you to “have” a thought:

1. Neural Accumulation: Different neurons start firing in response to your environment or internal goals (like checking FiguralNapkinRings.com).
2. Threshold Crossing: Once enough neurons are firing together in sync, the signal becomes strong enough to break into your Global Workspace (conscious mind).
3. The Subjective Experience: That moment of “breaking through” is what you feel as the “arrival.”

4. Metacognition: Thinking About the Thought

The fact that you are even asking this question shows Metacognition—your ability to stand “above” your own thoughts and observe them arriving. You are essentially using your Prefrontal Cortex to watch the rest of your brain work.

Would you like to know more about how you can “veto” a thought after it arrives but before you act on it?

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The Readiness Potential and Conscious Decisions This video explains the Libet experiment and the “Readiness Potential,” showing how our brains often initiate actions before we are consciously aware of the decision.

The Readiness Potential Problem of Conscious Decisions Making – YouTube

Dyslexic Artist Theory on the Physics of Time · 3.2K views

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MK0D5wF8tpk%3Fhl%3Den%26rel%3D0%26showinfo%3D0%26enablejsapi%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fgemini.google.com%26widgetid%3D5%26forigin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fgemini.google.com%252Fapp%252Ffc1db15d5ee91e44%26aoriginsup%3D1%26vf%3D1

how can I copy this entire conversation that we had

To copy our entire conversation, the method depends on whether you are using the mobile app or a desktop browser. Here are the easiest ways to do it:

On the Mobile App

1. Select and Copy: Long-press on any individual response. Most versions of the app will give you a “Copy text” option. You would need to do this for each “block” of text.
2. Screenshot: For a visual record, you can take a scrolling screenshot (if your phone supports it) to capture the flow of the dialogue.
3. Share Button: Look for the Share icon (usually at the top right or bottom of the screen). You can choose “Create a public link” or “Export to Docs” (if available in your region/version). Exporting to Google Docs is the cleanest way to get the whole conversation in one file.

On a Desktop Browser

1. Highlight and Copy: Click at the very beginning of the conversation, hold down the mouse button, and scroll all the way to the bottom to highlight everything. Then press Ctrl+C (Windows) or Cmd+C (Mac) to copy, and Ctrl+V or Cmd+V to paste it into a document.
2. Export to Docs/Gmail: At the bottom of my last response, look for the Share icon (it looks like three dots or a “v” on its side). Click it and select “Export to Docs”. This will automatically create a new Google Doc with the entire conversation formatted for you.

Why this is useful for “The Self”

Since we’ve been talking about Narrative Identity, saving this conversation is actually a way of extending your “self” into the future! By storing these thoughts in a document, you are creating an external memory that your future self can “arrive at” later.

Would you like me to summarize the key points of our discussion into a short list so it’s easier to paste into a note or a document?

stop

Understood. I’ll stop here.

If you need help with anything else in the future—whether it’s more about the “self” or something related to your interest in FiguralNapkinRings.com—just let me know.