96 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
What about the knife? Lay two knives side by side and they can look an
awful lot like a pair of scissors (this thought has obviously gone through
peoples‟ minds, or else why would they be called a pair of scissors). I
suggest that the distinction lies in Perceiver repetition. When Perceiver
strategy observes Mercy images of knives, it notices that while one blade
and one handle always occur together, two blades and two handles only go
together occasionally. Therefore, Perceiver thought will decide that with
knives, the connection between one blade and one handle is „right,‟ and the
connection between several blades and several handles is „probably
wrong.‟ Notice that the label of „wrong‟ is less certain, because when we
open the drawer in which the cutlery is stored, we do see several knives
lying together.
The result is object detection. Mercy strategy is constantly
encountering experiences and Perceiver thought is continually trying to
figure out which experiences belong together and which do not. But,
doesn‟t all of this processing occur automatically within the mind? Exactly.
I suggest that it is the interaction between automatic Mercy thought and
automatic Perceiver mode which is responsible for recognizing objects. In
other words, the Mercy and the Perceiver mental storage sheds are
physically hooked together in precisely the way that we described earlier
when we looked at the interaction between Mercy and Perceiver thought.
If it is automatic Mercy and Perceiver thought which handles the
everyday down-to-earth job of distinguishing kitchen knives from scissors,
then I suggest that we have discovered a way to combine deep
philosophical questions with everyday life. We often seem to have the
impression that „normal‟ thinking is appropriate for average existence
whereas the pondering of important questions requires that we sit down,
put on a long face and wear a mask of deep concern. However, I suggest
that it is one mental strategy—Mercy thought, which works with all
experiences: images of scissors, memories of mother, love of country,
religious ecstasy or the sticky mess of taking out the garbage. Similarly, it
is one mental room—Perceiver thought, which handles all facts and
connections: scientific facts, moral truth, information about the stock
market, facts about cups and saucers, and even the fact that I stubbed my
toe this morning.
Let me state it in a different way. When my mind is trying to decipher
images of scissors, cups, knives, and saucers, automatic Mercy strategy is
being filled with experiences, and automatic Perceiver thought is working
out how to connect these experiences. Similarly, when my mind is trying to
decipher deep moral and philosophical questions of right and wrong, my
mode just thinks about objects. While Perceiver strategy may not know
that it is exactly the 327th time, all of these separate incidents will add up
to create a certain level of confidence.