The Tricameral Mind

Our brains are evolving

The Bicameral Mind

The human brain is physically bicameral. This means that there are two main physical components, or chambers, of the brain: the left and right hemisphere. By cooperating in unison they can specialize in different areas of information processing and ultimately compromise on interpretations and reactions to their environment. For clarity, my use of the term environment is not limited to anything external to the mind; our brain allows for the mind to operate within itself and therefore does not necessarily need external stimuli to become active because it stimulates itself.

Julian Jaynes published a theory of bicameralism in 1977. This theory was founded on the idea that our hemispheres originally played separate talking and listening roles in our brains and only began acting in unity around a millennium ago.

Science fiction has dramatized how important the bicameral structure is to our personalities. In the novel Origin by Dan Brown and the TV series Westworld, the stories suggest that the key to achieving consciousness in a synthetic mind is by enabling a bicameral information processing system to interact with itself, generating internal chatter.

In Philip. K. Dick’s classic, A Scanner Darkly, the author intimates that by severing the connection between the two hemispheres, each hemisphere would develop its own independent mind which would compete for control over the individual’s consciousness. This ultimately deteriorated the health of the affected character's mind.

The truth of the matter is that bicameralism isn’t actually hard science. It was a very human way of creating a psychological theory based on the brain’s physical appearance. Being a conscious human being does not necessarily require you to have a physically bicameral mind. The brain could operate with only one hemisphere given the right conditions to adapt; albeit with a much less robust operating system. Additionally, Jaynes Joyce's theory of bicameralism was received as controversial and lacking strong neurological evidence.

That being said, the concept itself, taken metaphorically, is quite sound. Our brains are broken up into interconnected areas that specialize in processing information so that other areas can specialize without leaving gaps in our ability to think. This constant interconnection fostering collaboration and competition in the mind has proven fruitful for the prosperity of humans.

The Tricameral Mind

We are now in the process of expanding our mind by adding a third chamber.

The plasticity of the brain allows for new dimensions of information to be integrated given the right conditions to adapt. However, from the research I’ve done on this topic, I can’t find any record of anyone attempting to add an additional hemisphere to a person’s brain. That being said, an additional hemisphere would likely be an inconvenient addition to the brain. Since the brain already adroitly manages interpreting stimuli, reacting to its environment, and managing itself and the body, this new additional hemisphere would need to provide some ability to the brain that it could not already do to be useful.

The tricameral mind is not a concept that involves adding a third hemisphere to the brain but adding infrastructure to our brains that could specialize and compensate for all the things your brain can’t currently do very well. The human mind has plenty of room for improvement. Our memory, our ability to accurately measure stimuli, our method for accessing new information, our methods of communication, etc… are all fraught with quantifiable room for improvement.

By using technology to improve our lives, we’ve already begun to develop this third layer and it will only continue to increase in sophistication.

Technology has always been an extension of our mind. From the invention of storing information that we could pass on to others in the form of pictures and books, we evolved to have handheld devices that can store information, access new information, communicate with others, and even make suggestions. It may even be fair to say that our senses are being expanded on with our modern technology. For example, by having a phone vibrate when a diabetic individual’s insulin levels are low, we are essentially doing the same thing that the nerves in our skin do when informing our brain that it's touching too hot of a surface; we are receiving information to react to through physical sensation.

This third layer is continuing to evolve at an incredibly fast pace. We are on the cusp of integrating this technology so closely to our biology that we will become dependant on it to interact with our society. Without a connection to the internet, we would already miss out on a mind-boggling amount of information. Entire events occur online, numerous stores exist entirely online, some information is only accessible online, the list goes on. To not be connected to the internet in this day and age is a handicap: you are less capable than others by not being connected.

The Tricameral Future

We will eventually have technology interacting directly with our neural energy. We’ll first become more and more comfortable with having accessories such as our watches, glasses, shoes, shirts, and perhaps eventually headwear feed us information before we begin effectively augmenting our biology with technology. Once we are comfortable and accustomed to having tech constantly feed us information, we’ll seek more convenient ways to do this.

Early on, the technology will be as noninvasive as possible, reading our minds but not writing them. Then, the pros of having technology a part of our minds and physically integrated into our biology will greatly outweigh the cons.

Our digital identity will become as familiar to ourselves as our bodies are. We’ll be able to access information without needing to learn about it. We’ll be able to communicate directly with anyone in the world through thought. Our senses won’t be limited to the small spectrum of information our current bodies use to understand our external environments. Our memory will flawlessly capture every moment of our lives in so much detail that to reminisce will be to relive the experience of a moment.

We’ll have less and less of a need for an organic physical body. Eventually, we’ll all be digital people with optional synthetic bodies.

How our experience of life will change as we evolve into a digital life is certainly worthy of its own blog. Stay tuned.