Humans think in text? You should be studied.
It then becomes apparent that a great number of things are able to be done without an inner voice. Volition seems to occur spontaneously and it becomes ambiguous whether narration proceeds volition of volition proceeds narration.
It's still unclear what the limits of action-sans-monologue, reading seems especially hard for the sub-vocalist, conversation, or planning. But who knows, it's a fertile ground for n=1 experiments.
Have you heard of the Libet experiment? There are variations on it now that can predict your decisions from brain scans more than 5 seconds before you become aware of having decided. [0]
Most studies seem to show that thinking is largely post-hoc: a story we tell ourselves to justify decisions after already having made them.
> We had asked a simple question: How does the left hemisphere respond to behaviors produced by the silent right brain? Each hemisphere was presented a picture that related to one of four pictures placed in front of the split-brain subject. The left and the right hemispheres easily picked the correct card. The left hand pointed to the right hemisphere’s choice and the right hand to the left hemisphere’s choice [see illustration at right].
> We then asked the left hemisphere, the only one that can talk , why the left hand was pointing to the object. It did not know, because the decision to point was made in the right hemisphere. Yet it quickly made up an explanation. We dubbed this creative, narrative talent the interpreter mechanism. [2]
Taken together, there's a very disturbing sequence playing out all the time in your head. A great deal of your brain, inaccessible to your conscious mind is incorporating sensory input, making decisions, and taking action while a small part is observing what's going on and narrating it to you in a way that makes it look as if the narration is involved in the volitional process.
It's a nightmarish version of epiphenomenalism[3] that, I suspect, most people would care not to believe is true. Although, reports of some expert meditators read as if they found intuitive evidence this is true and have also made peace with it or in some cases found the insight liberating.
In any case, I have a pessimistic sense that any definitive proof of the limits of consciousness that don't align with people's felt experience or common sense won't ever be accepted as truth.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-brain_interpreter
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215020736/https://courses.d...
Well said. I've been attacked online so ferociously for mentioning it, that I suspect saying it in person would start an actual fight with some people.
I recognize that free will is foundational for society, but all right thinking people she be able to recognize that it is only a useful model - not descriptive of the actual territory.
> Although, reports of some expert meditators read as if they found intuitive evidence this is true and have also made peace with it or in some cases found the insight liberating.
Very much so. When I was taught to meditate they started by having me observe my own breathing, and then my thoughts and feelings as they came and went without judgement. After doing this for some time and learning to just quietly observe my own thinking as thoughts came and went they then sprung the trap: "If the thoughts are you, who is it that's been watching them?"
You come to accept that most thoughts happen the way breathing does, they're not something you "do", it's just something that brains do on their own. "You" are no more in control of them than you are your heartrate.
It's also not clear that an internal monologue corresponds to "thinking in text".