When riding in a Level 4 high-automation vehicle, two systems work together to navigate the environment successfully. The first is the automatic self-driving system, which makes the first decision, with the second being the driver who can take manual control when required. Similarly, recent neuropsychological discoveries now reveal that the human brain uses two complementary processing systems to navigate its environment.
In 1977, William Schnieder and Richard Shiffrin introduced the idea that the brain uses two separate but parallel systems to process information, calling them System 1 and 2.1 In 2011, psychologist Daniel Kahneman made the idea of two systems working as one mainstream with his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.2 These two individual systems collectively produce and manage cognition, emotion, and behavior.3 Every decision we make originates from one of those systems.4 In the human Level 4 high-automation vehicle, System 1 is the nonconscious self-driving system, and the conscious driver is System 2.5
System 1 is always on, fast, automatic, and continually generating suggestions. 6 Anytime we open our eyes, it generates a three-dimensional projection that visually represents objects in our line of sight, their orientation in space, and labels what they are.7 With that, System 1 has an interface that allows it to sense its environment, detecting and responding to what it encounters.
Think of a self-driving car that has a response to everything it comes across. If a pedestrian jumps in front of the vehicle, it will stop; if another car swerves into its lane, it will move to avoid a collision. The vehicle senses its environment, processes information, and automatically responds, with the driver experiencing the result.
Our human vehicle operates similarly, with System 1 working in the background to process information and react instantly to what it encounters.8 These are automatic, survival, habitual, and intuitive responses that are hardwired or tuned through experience, operating nonconsciously outside of conscious driver awareness. 9
Every automatic decision a level 4 car makes will have a corresponding vehicular response. Likewise, in humans, every rapid System 1 response has a corresponding chemical response, which we, as the driver, experience and label as emotions. Nonconscious System 1 is fast acting and automatic, using learned associations backed by chemicals to generate emotional responses to what it encounters.10 These are impersonal reactions that are sensitive to context, forming our biases and preconceived notions, which fire automatically, resulting in our emotional responses.11 Most of the feelings and emotions we experience are byproducts of circuits firing outside of our awareness, originating from System 1.
When we are idle and do not encounter much in our environment, System 1 activates default or mind-wandering mode.12 These are also nonconscious thoughts, backed by chemicals, that the driver experiences after they happen. All of the nonconscious System 1 circuits responsible for these responses originate from structures positioned medially, or closer to the middle, of the brain.13
Examples Of Nonconscious Self-Driving System 1 Responses
• Ducking when a ball comes at us from nowhere.
• Getting food while watching a cooking show.
• Looking in the direction of someone you find attractive.
• Going to the bathroom when there is an urge to pee.
• Honking at someone who cuts us off.
• Unlocking our phone without thinking.
• Drinking coffee when we wake up.
• The urge to throw something out of frustration.
• Recognizing a friend in a crowd.
• The anger we feel when someone cuts in line.
• The excitement we feel when our favorite sports team is winning.
• Experiencing Deja-vu.
• Instantly knowing the answer to 2+2.
• Ruminating on a conflict with someone
• Daydreaming about winning the lottery
As we can see, nonconscious System 1 works hard, accounting for at least 80% of our thoughts, actions, and behaviors, while we are the driver experiencing it all.14 Who we think we are and identify with as “I”, is System 2; our conscious driver.15 16 Lateral circuits residing in exterior regions of the brain give rise to system 2, representing our executive capacities to plan, reason, and exercise self-control.17
System 2 is slow and deliberate, serving as an additional level of processing that involves conscious reasoning and deliberation.18 The automatic operations of System 1 generate surprisingly complex patterns of ideas, but only the slower System 2 can construct thoughts in an orderly series of steps.19 System 2 is the driver at the wheel, with additional processing power to evaluate System 1 decisions and take control of the vehicle when required.
When System 1 encounters a scenario it does not have an answer for, it will grab the attention of our conscious System 2 driver to help out.20 When engaged, System 2 is a higher level of processing that can step in with an original solution, allowing us to rise above our purely automatic System 1 responses. When someone insults us and we want to snap back or send an angry email, that is System 1. Catching that response and not responding is the heroic effort of our System 2 driver.21
We can take the wheel to control and override System 1 responses at any time, whether for corrective action or just to drive. Although System 2 can take the wheel and use its additional processing power to rise above our automatic self-driving responses, it rarely does. System 2 is generally in a low-effort mode, disengaged as we sleep at the wheel, while System 1 does the driving.
Our System 2 circuitry is still developing when we are first born, leaving our early experiences unvetted, becoming System 1 responses. Our System 2 driver develops from childhood through our mid-twenties, taking on a more active role in vetting System 1 responses. As we grow into adulthood, System 1 generates impressions, intuitions, intentions, and feelings for everything we encounter. If our System 2 driver endorses them, they can become our beliefs and voluntary actions.22
By the time we reach early adolescence, our System 2 driver has helped to wire the automatic, self-driving System 1 that drives us. Since we helped to wire our self-driving responses, we are aligned with them and rarely interject. System 1 will say “I am not good enough”, “I can’t do that”, “I am not talented”, “I am stupid”, “I can’t change”, “I can’t be successful”, and our System 2 will be in alignment, letting them go unchecked. System 2 can take the wheel from the self-driving system whenever it wants, but it rarely does because it usually agrees with System 1’s suggestions.23
Our conscious System 2 driver watches the self-driving system, agreeing or disagreeing with its decisions. When we agree with the self-driving response, we associate with what it is doing, reinforcing that response. If the driver disagrees and takes control, providing a different response, that will replace the automatic System 1 response for next time.
Our experience wires every automatic System 1 response we have. When we override a self-driving decision with our driver, that new System 2 response replaces the automatic one. By repetitively correcting self-driving responses with our driver, we can overhaul and rewire System 1. In that way, anyone can use System 2 more often to retrain System 1 to drive better. If we don’t challenge System 1 responses, we’ll only reinforce them, and they will remain the same. However, we can change if we engage our driver more often to challenge our self-driving reactions.
The brain does not ask questions; it makes connections, and driver judgements determine the automatic responses of System 1. It has taken a lifetime to wire our brain the way it is, and it may take a lifetime to rewire it with System 2. Just engaging the driver to realize how automatic we are is a step in the right direction. We will continue to uncover more about our self-driving System 1 and how we can use our System 2 driver to rewire it.
Endnotes
- Whybrow, Peter C. P.58. The Well-Tuned Brain: The Remedy for a Manic Society. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.
- Buonomano, Dean. P.161. Brain Bugs: How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives. W. W. Norton & Company, 2011
- Harris, Sam. P.75. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Simon & Schuster, 2014. Kindle file.
- Buonomano, Dean. P.169. Brain Bugs
- Buonomano, Dean. P.169. Brain Bugs
- Kahneman, Daniel.P.323. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Doubleday Canada, 2011.
- Kahneman, Daniel P.95. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Doubleday Canada, 2011. Kindle file.
- Buonomano, Dean. P.169. Brain Bugs
- Whybrow, Peter C.. P.58.The Well-Tuned Brain
- Buonomano, Dean. P.169. Brain Bugs
- Buonomano, Dean. P.161. Brain Bugs
- Brewer, Judson P.86. The Craving Mind
- Brewer, Judson P.86. The Craving Mind
- Whybrow, Peter C..P.7. The Well-Tuned Brain
- Kahneman, Daniel. P.27. Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Kahneman, Daniel. P.415. Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Brewer, Judson. P.87. The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love—Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits. Yale University Press, 2017.
- Ledoux, Joseph. P.81. Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety. Penguin Books, 2015.
- Kahneman, Daniel. P.20. Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Kahneman, Daniel. P.24. Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Harris, Sam.P.75. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Simon & Schuster, 2014.
- Kahneman, Daniel. P.24. Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Kahneman, Daniel. P.24. Thinking, Fast and Slow