Introduction to Neural Wiring:
So, the brain itself is a complex network system that expand and contracts based on genetic and stimulation or lack thereof. A single neuron can connect to as much as 10,000 other neurons via synapses, likewise a single astrocyte can connect up to 10,000 neurons.
The saying “Quantity breeds quality” is especially true for the brain as it develops skills at a physical level in amazing ways. Have you ever wondered why it is so hard for most people to remembers names, numbers and informations, but driving, learning or riding a bicycle are forever ?
It doesn’t require anything special, it’s a basic reality for humans. Children need to learn how to walk on two legs, it takes time and effort, they also have to exert a great deal of efforts to learn the alphabet, basic letters one by one.
After years of training, teenagers can read entire texts, books, hundreds of pages easily, perhaps even in foreign languages. Not just walk, run with a ball against opponents in competitions and adapts in the moment.
This explains why individuals who appear gifted in very cognitively demanding task such as chess, often don’t show any other signs of superior intelligence, in fact appear to many observant as disappointingly average. These are learnt skills, consistent practice and stimulation created the physical structure that pretty much automates the thinking. Once one learns how to write each letter, sentences with punctuations and grammar, it becomes so easy that most people don’t realise the effort that it took to get to that level. It appears like a natural aspect of life.
These can be thought of as cognitive gadgets, learned mental skills with physical circuitry specialised in doing these tasks. These circuits in turn can compounds with other learned circuits to create higher level of complex thinking, automating various processes where the last one left off.
Many of these circuits are a given, inherited. We are born with a wide sets of cognitive tools and the ability to learn a seemingly infinite amount of skills if it was not for the time and effort that it takes to stimulate the creation of these circuits. The majority of them are not conscious, they are not integrated into our awareness leading to different unconscious, subconscious behaviours and influences.
We have the means here, to create new circuits allowing for many new skills and traits: from becoming aware of our own inner processes, regulating them consciously or automating series of mental and physical/motor steps. We can design abilities from scratch too, leading to unheard of superhuman-like results. In a way this is learning very fast before doing instead of slowly learning by doing.
The trick is finding the right way to do so. Luckily for us Dream is a powerhouse of innovation and discovery while also being willing to produce and educate others.
This explanation obviously involves many shortcuts and simplifications, but I hope you find it informative in some ways.
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