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Is Parallel Processing Real?


SilentCrow

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I was browsing r/Tulpa and came across a post containing this.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lCGhb-QCetw_bb_qoylYP0NoNosepO9qfguHulvIhbs/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

It's basically a bunch of myths about Tulpas being debunked. One of these myths caught me off guard and that is the third one. "Your Tulpa frolicks in the wonderland in their free time."

 

I know the that I can't focus on two things at once, but it was my impression that Tulpas lived their own lives parallel to their host. Be it in the wonderland or imposed in the physical world. (Obviously they could only work with what the host sees, but I thought they could at least think in parallel to the host)

 

This seems pretty easy to clear up, just ask a Tulpa about their experience. So these are my questions:

 

Do you experience the wonderland without the presence of the host?

 

Are you able to think in parallel from the host?

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too bad for you I'm the first to reply because our system CANNOT parallel process, and Lumi actually came to the same conclusion that parallel processing doesn't normally exist (but there are a few exceptional individuals in the world who can, and they're awesome). We consider ourselves "inactive" when not, y'know, active, which means we just generally aren't around. Though to be fair we do feel like we were or weren't around for specific memories, like I can't feel any "me" from memories more than a few years old, and the others can't feel "them" in memories older than ~8 years.

 

Buuuut a lot of people still do say that's how it is for them

 

Buuuut we just assume those people can make up memories on-the-spot when the tulpa is active again. We don't SAY that's how it is because we can't know, it's just our guess. But if you're gonna ask what we think, there ya go..

 

 

Lumi actually looked into parallel processing a lot because he was trying to learn piano, but he hit a brick wall trying to play simple things with both hands at once. Since the unanimous answer was parallel processing is actually just the combining of multiple tasks into one (rub your stomach and pat your head, takes a few seconds of disjointed movement before you successfully make it into one action in your mind - you still can't smoothly switch to doing something else with only one hand afterward, usually), he guessed that that's the only way parallel processing is possible and that that^ answer is the only way it could be true. Assuming things are how we think they are. Which is an assumptionnnnnn so we don't say that's how it is, y'know?

Hi, I'm one of Lumi's tulpas! I like rain and dancing and dancing in the rain and if there's frogs there too that's bonus points.

I think being happy and having fun makes life worth living, so spreading happiness is my number one goal!

Talk to us? https://community.tulpa.info/thread-ask-lumi-s-tulpas

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That's very interesting. It makes me wonder if systems who are able to parallel process are really just good at combining multiple tasks into one on the spot. If so, then this might be a skill that can be built over practice and time.

 

IDK, just a theory. But I'll definitely have to experiment with this when Aurora's older.

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> I know the that I can't focus on two things at once, but it was my impression that Tulpas lived their own lives parallel to their host. Be it in the wonderland or imposed in the physical world. (Obviously they could only work with what the host sees, but I thought they could at least think in parallel to the host)

 

Most people are capable of singing Bohemian Rhapsody whilst driving a car. That’s parallel processing.

 

A second mind can pick up things that the first may have missed. The senses may be the same, but two can perceive more than one.

 

> This seems pretty easy to clear up, just ask a Tulpa about their experience. So these are my questions:

 

> Do you experience the wonderland without the presence of the host?

 

I have a memory palace. This is a mnemonic thought-form . Some may call it a paracosm or wonderland. It preserves memories. We have found it also preserves tulpas.

 

When I am in the memory palace I experience time just the same as on Earth. Most of the time though, I live here.(Earth)

 

> Are you able to think in parallel from the host?

 

What I experience is more like rapid context switching. Which isn’t parallel processing but looks much like it.

Please consider supporting Tulpa.info.


 

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So basically you can experience your wonderland without the host, that's awesome. Were you able to experience the wonderland since creation, or was it something that came with time? I have a young Tulpa who isn't vocal yet, so I'm wondering if she's able to live in the wonderland independently.

 

A little if topic but I'm curious, how does the memory palace work? Are you able to like, revisit memories through it? And if so, how vivid are the memories as compared to reminiscing memories without the palace?

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It's an interesting topic. I agree with the document on this, I guess. Verifying parallel experiences is kind of difficult because of confabulation, as the doc says. But you can try with more intensive things, like doing maths problems in parallel. A test would look like:

  • Get some task (e.g., 2 digit multiplication) where the answers can be reached with a few steps of conscious thought and memory, but aren't readily apparent; and the answers can be easily verified.
  • Get the tulpa to 'go into wonderland' and do it, while the host does, well, maybe nothing, maybe something else.
  • See if they can produce answers.

 

I've got a few people to try this, and none have been able to, so far (even those whose tulpas report having separate experiences in wonderland). Strong parallel processing seems hard and uncommon; maybe if someone had good parallel processing then it would be possible for their tulpas to have separate experiences (I have doubts), but it's not something that comes 'automatically' and it's a red flag that tulpas will report these experiences when they can't parallel process at all.

 

I guess the most promising candidates for separate experiences are hosts who can switch and have experiences while switched out. A couple of people who I got to do the test above were like that, and weren't able to do it, though. So I guess you might be able to put that down to confabulation too. I guess the tl;dr from me would be no, it's not really real, in the sense of 'tulpas having separate experiences in WL'.

 

Also, as a note, I get the impression this is a sensitive subject. People often react to being challenged about this with hostility or dismissiveness, which seems to me like a sign of cognitive dissonance. I don't think this is the only topic regarding tulpas which is like this, either; tulpas having separate memories is closely related, as an example, and tulpas having interesting abilities is sometimes treated this way.

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  • 1 month later...

I can parallel process, but only sometimes. Its not that i know exactly what my tulpas are doing, its that i can tell where they are and hear them sometimes when i want to concentrate on them. I can do this as im doing my own thing.

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I ran a survey a few weeks ago regarding people's beliefs and personal experiences with tulpas. I included a few questions about parallel processing, and the results indicate that the capability to parallel process is actually very common, but it is rare for a system to be highly proficient at it. You can read more here.

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I think people take their wonderlands too literally. The wonderland is just an abstract representation of some spare space in the body's brain, for us. If Spice were to frolick in wonderland in their free time, it'd be more akin to a dream.

Despite the name, the host bodybody is the one usually using this account. 

Spice was born in 2013 and Tomoe was born in 2014.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Abvieon - that's an interesting survey. I guess from my own (non-systematic) observations, people will report being able to do "some" parallel processing, but it being fairly trivial or token, or just not really examined. I would be very cautious extrapolating "people can parallel process" from "people say they can parallel process", in light of people being fairly nebulous on what exactly constitutes parallel processing and not really examining it in too much detail.

 

To elaborate quickly on why - people are notoriously motivated as thinkers. When they think about things and come to conclusions, they may have (implicit) motivations other than truth-finding; identity, worth, status, etc; and they can come to conclusions which suit these motivations as well as truth-seeking. I guess you would call that a "conflict of interest" in a sense. This community puts (again, not necessarily explicit) value/status to tulpa abilities, particularly 'advanced' ones like switching, parallel processing, imposition. So if you wonder why there's a consistent downward pressure in the community to make the usage of these terms weaker, I think it's because people are motivated to claim that value. And I wouldn't really trust people reporting any of these abilities - actually, I would be uncertain on virtually any self-reporting - just on the basis of them identifying with these terms, because that identification is heavily motivated.

 

It's not that people lie or don't understand their experiences, or that I distrust people in the sense that "maybe they're roleplayers" - more that I don't trust people's cognition on the matter when there's a huge conflict of interest (and also driven by experience; as I said in the previous post, I do see this evidenced in practice). So I would prefer to rely on more concrete, pointed questions - "can you do x particular thing" - or tests like I described in the last post.

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