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I don't think it's the brain but rather our consciousness that is limited. Our sensory inputs are always on and processed by the brain, but our consciousness is very picky and also slow.
People can sometimes recall true memories that they weren't aware of, or react to things they didn't think of and such.
Consciousness is also somehow lagging behind the actual decision making, but always presents itself as the cause of action.
Sort of like Windows telling you that you removed a USB stick 2 seconds after you did it and was well aware of it happening. Consciousness is like that, except it takes responsibility for it too..
When it encounters something that it didn't predict, it'll tell you that "yeah this happened and this is why you did that". Quite often the explanation for doing something is made up after it happened.
This is a good thing mostly, because it allows you to react faster than having to consider your options consciousnessly. You do not need to or have time to make a conscious decision to dodge a dodgeball, but you'll still think you did.
This isn't really what OP is talking about.
We really can't see very well at all outside of the centre of our focus. this paper says 6 degrees, I heard this as a coin held at arms length.
Our minds "render" most of the rest of what we think we see.
You're right that we discard most of our sensory inputs, but with visual inputs there's much less data than it appears.
There are interesting stories about tests done with split-brain patients, where the bridge connecting the left and right brain hemispheres, the corpus callosum, is severed. There are then ways to provide information to one hemisphere, have that hemisphere initiate an action, and then ask the other hemisphere why it did that. It will immediately make up a lie, even though we know that’s not the actual reason. Other than being consciouss, we’re not that different from ChatGPT. If the brain doesn’t know why something happened, it’ll make up a convincing explanation.
NAILED IT! Yeah, our subconscious is driving and only sends an executive summary up top. And we think, "I did this!" Nah. You didn't. You are just along for the ride.
People hate this notion because it negates free will. Well, yeah, it kinda does.
Everybody reading these comments and considering the implications needs to go read Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's a first contact story set in the near-ish future, and really goes into consciousness and intelligence. Very thought provoking if you thought this comment chain was interesting.
That assumes "you" are just the conscious part. If you accept the rest of your brain (and body) as part of "you", then it's a less dramatic divide.
You can train your subconscious! Well, at least influence it's decisions. Videogames are a great example. Trained reaction/response. Repeated response to similar stimulus can create a trained subconscious response.
However, I have difficulty, especially now that I'm older, where subconscious and conscious will compete and I will lose acuity of what I actually did.
That and my memory is getting worse. :/
It is also possible to consciously alter the subconsciousness. For instance, by creating sensory input for yourself by saying things out loud to a mirror. Your ears will hear it, your eyes will see it, and your subconsciousness will then process it just the same as any other experience.
With enough repetition it will make a difference in which neurons are active whenever the brain comes to making a decision on that thing.