Jump to content

Parallel processing / mental maths


waffles

Recommended Posts

I was thinking a little while ago about parallel processing stuff - there have been a few tests that didn't really conclude much. I wondered how prevalent 'hard' parallelism is - that is, not just being thinking things at once, like you would in a conversation, but actually carrying on two attention-requiring trains of thought at once. So I picked mental maths to test this - two-digit multiplication is good, I think.

 

Personally, I can do fuck all. I can multiply, tulpa can multiply, but both at once? Nope. Asked around for a few other people, didn't get much. So here I am. Questions to you:

 

 

- If you attempt to do two hard mental maths tasks in parallel (with your tulpa), is it faster than doing them serially (by yourself)?

 

- Can you and your tulpa both do any thought-intensive task at once? Is it faster in parallel than serially? (Is mental maths indicative of this?)

 

- How does the above relate to switching (or any kind of dissociative) ability?

 

 

What got me thinking about this was claims about parallel experience streams - where you are doing something and a tulpa is off experiencing something else imaginary (or vice versa). Does this actually require 'hard' parallelism (in which case any reports without it would be falsified, so I think unlikely)? How does it feel when something requiring 'hard' parallelism is framed in the context of 'soft' - e.g., you sit down at a wonderland desk to do some calculus - for a tulpa? What about for a host with the ability to switch?

 

My early thoughts on this are that 'attention' is the key - I know of some anecdotes where attention is shared, but not of pacing (because micro context switching could account for it). From what I've seen, splitting attention is hard, even with a tulpa - this is why I'm concerned about the pace; are two attention streams extant, or just one shared? I doubt that full attention is needed to experience things fairly vividly, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I, Jason, actually have a theory that might explain this, at least partly. Our system has been working together to take some summer classes on neuroscience and cognitive psychology, and we've been learning quite a bit about how the brain processes things. We've also been trying a few somewhat unscientific experiments ourselves along the same lines as what you mentioned.

 

From what we can tell, it seems that Tulpas still rely on the physical brain of the Host to process things when they are active. Since different areas of the brain have different functions, a Host and Tulpa should be able to do two different mental tasks, or one physical and one mental task, simultaneously. Our "experiments" seem to support this in various situations.

 

The problem with attempting similar tasks lies in the limitations of the physical brain itself. While the Host and Tulpa can individually perform a task, when both attempt it at the same time it can be too much for the somewhat limited "processing power" of the area of the brain needed. It is possible to "queue" tasks to alternate between the Host and Tulpa, and it seems to work slightly faster than one or the other serially performing the tasks alone, at least for us.

 

In short, our theory is thus:

 

1. Two different tasks can be performed simultaneously due to differing areas of the physical brain being stimulated by each.

 

2. An attempt to perform two similar tasks will slow down both, due to competing demands on a single brain structure.

 

3. Serial tasks appear to become more efficient when the Host and Tulpa alternate, possible due to "reset time" for each while the other is in control.

Current System: Ziya (Formerly Einulf), Mizan, Aura, Dark, Lucia, Rand, Jason, Akira

Here's our Tumblr, if anyone wants it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^That is a very useful post. Unfortunately it doesn't say much for the possibility of having two+ true consciousnesses running at once. You actually gave the same reason as me, too - the limited processing power of very specific parts of the brain. The rest is encouraging though. I appreciate your research.

Hi! I'm Lumi, host of Reisen, Tewi, Flandre and Lucilyn.

Everyone deserves to love and be loved. It's human nature.

My tulpas and I have a Q&A thread, which was the first (and largest) of its kind. Feel free to ask us about tulpamancy stuff there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night me and Elisae actually performed a similar "experiment" that determined very much similar results to what you found Jason, but also something else that I think can show some evidence, to a certain degree, of effective tulpa-host parallel processing.

 

I'm good at math and science, while I suck at drawing. Elisae, on the other hand, can draw and paint wonderfully, but doesn't do much with math or science. Our "experiment" was composed of three tests: one was where I would do math in the wonderland while Elisae did absolutely nothing that would require mental processing power beyond not completely giving me the brains entire processing power (if that makes sense), then we would swap places. Next, mostly in response to the results of the first test, we would do two different tasks simultaneously, she would draw a relatively complex picture using no wonderland abilities, while I did several math problems until she was done, in an attempt for us to use different areas of the brain, and would try our hardest not to "steal" the others processing power when we focus on our own tasks. Lastly, sort of the opposite of what our first test, she would draw a complex picture without any wonderland abilities, while I jogged around the wonderland and did nothing requiring brain power beyond not giving her any of mine and not taking any of hers. We didn't do the reverse because this wasn't so much an experiment as much as "hey let's see what happens if we do this" sort of thing, but the results are enough to make me want to do an actual experiment on this. I would even like to do similar tests (only, I guess better; actually utilizing the scientific method and such). The results were interesting, however, but I will post them later because I've got to get ready to go to my REU meeting today and I think the results will take too long to post, so wait patently I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Two different tasks can be performed simultaneously due to differing areas of the physical brain being stimulated by each.

Yeah, interesting. What kind of experiments did you do here?

 

 

3. Serial tasks appear to become more efficient when the Host and Tulpa alternate, possible due to "reset time" for each while the other is in control.

That so? How large is the speedup?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jason's asleep right now, so I'll answer for him. Like he said, our experiments were very unscientific, but mostly we tried working on low level math, specifically introductory statistics homework, while singing or having a conversation over the phone. We also have carried on a conversation via text while taking notes and asking questions in class, but that was more difficult since we could only look in one place at a time.

 

As for the amount of speed up when we tried alternating serial tasks, it wasn't much to be honest. For that one we alternated while solving multi part statistics problems, again on the homework. There wasn't any difference on the first problem for either of us, but we normally have to pause after each one to prevent confusion over which numbers go to which problem, and we also tend to start slowing down after four or five problems in a row. When we alternated we were able to completely remove the pause between problems, since Jason's problems effectively were my pauses and vice versa, and we completed the last problems in a set of thirty in roughly the same amount of time as the first few.

Current System: Ziya (Formerly Einulf), Mizan, Aura, Dark, Lucia, Rand, Jason, Akira

Here's our Tumblr, if anyone wants it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok sorry for the late response. When I got back I answered someone's question and then was too tired to post my results. So, here they are now.

 

So, for the first test we did, I did some simple math, wasn't hard, got a few multiplication problems done. Elisae said that it wasn't hard to not get focused on what I was doing, a few times she got focused on what I was doing, indicating a few times I took some of her processing power, but she was able to take it back. However, when she went to do some math problems, while I did nothing but make sure some of my processing power wasn't taken, it was difficult for me to do that and found myself focusing a lot on her doing her math problems. I kept trying to pull my processing power away, and this created too much difficulty for her to do the problems and she said it was too difficult for her to do them. The reason why I don't think it was hard for me but was for her to do the problems was because I'm good at math, while she isn't. Thus, I needed less processing power than she did for them.

 

The next test, she would draw something while I did lots of math until she was done. What she found was that it wasn't hard for her to draw the picture of the tiger she drew, and her focus was usually only drawn back to me when she stopped drawing to figure out what to put next, showing that I only took processing power away from her when she wasn't actually drawing, but she was able to take it back relatively easily. For me, it was close to the same: while working on my math problems, my attention usually wasn't taken to her drawing, but in between problems (when I tried to figure out new problems) my focus would be taken to her drawing. This shows she usually only took my processing power when I wasn't working in solving a math problem.

 

For the last test, she would draw a picture of some face while I jogged around the wonderland and not try to take her focus or let her take mine. There were a few times when my focus got drawn to her drawing, but I was able to pull it back easily. As for her, the only time she got her focus pulled away was when I started thinking about a hypothesis involving parallel processing. In other words, she didn't have to take too much of my processing power to effectively draw her picture.

 

Our findings more or less support your theories, Jason. It also shows that tulpas can be good at things that the host isn't good at, and vice-versa for the host. I'd be willing to repeat this experiment only with a few more tests and utilizing the scientific method in conducting them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

- If you attempt to do two hard mental maths tasks in parallel (with your tulpa), is it faster than doing them serially (by yourself)?

 

For Thunder and I it has always been faster to try to resolve a mental math task, I got her used to it at early stages of 'vocality' so that might have something to do with it. No harsh training but doing it a lot in front of her and making her understand the thought pattern and the reasoning definitely helped with all of that. I understand cases like yours though which seem really common, and perhaps it is an indication that tulpas grow more independent and more into their personal space and personal knowledge. If I asked Thunder about something she doesn't know she'd enter the library and look up memory records on the said question. Also considering that we grew really close and accustomed to, well, doing things together.

 

- Can you and your tulpa both do any thought-intensive task at once? Is it faster in parallel than serially? (Is mental maths indicative of this?)

Never really tried to do so.

 

- How does the above relate to switching (or any kind of dissociative) ability?

When we first tried out possessing and switching, she didn't feel comfortable. Points out to the fact that even though we can pretty much work on a task together, we can't do stuff separately.. or rather, she couldn't stand doing so. She's against possession, she can move her body through 'space' alright since we impose too. Also against switching.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Parallel processing should be tested using different regions of the brain and not the same region at once. If the same region is used at once it woukd just force the brain on queue mode when it comes to multiple functions on whatever it is.

 

If you are good at math and have your tulpa do math problems at that same time as the host it will still force the brain into queue mode but since that region is well developed it would be able to handle multiple problems with no adverse effects.

 

If the host math region is not as developed and both host and tulpa try to use this region it will just cause cluttered up queue.

 

I definitely believe that the brain could be trained and further develop certain regions of the brain to improve the queue times. Improving queue times means faster times and it might seem that parallel processing is almost achieved in the same region.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Parallel processing should be tested using different regions of the brain and not the same region at once. If the same region is used at once it woukd just force the brain on queue mode when it comes to multiple functions on whatever it is.

 

The model sounds quite compelling, but I admit to having tried various combinations of mental maths/drawing/talking/visualisation/listening/what have you, with no particular success. At the least, is the distribution of ability for different area vs. same area parallel thinking different? [insert_Name_Here]'s stuff supports it, I guess. Einulf, I don't think you said, how do you manage doing similar tasks in parallel? (And anyone else who could do both.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...