Best Guess

What is involved in the action of choice or reaction?

Every day a typical person makes dozens of choices and has dozens of reactions. What are the concepts involved in the process which the mind performs during these choices and reactions? 

I use the terms “choice” and “reaction” as the 2 basic types of processes which an individual can have, if the mind is used in a scenario of options. “Choice” is still a reaction, but refers to more in depth mind functions, using awareness and comprehension of factors involved in the options, and arguably requires conscious awareness. A reaction (involving the mind) by an individual, other than choice, can be considered subconscious reaction, which does not use conscious awareness. The function of subconscious reaction is likely quite relevant to this overall topic, and I explain more detail of my understanding of subconscious, in a post from about 10 months ago; Subconscious Subjection.

Many reactions and choices throughout the day might seem obvious to do, but it seems that basically every situation involves the mind making a best guess, whether the individual is aware of it or not. Assuming that nobody has perfect knowledge, that means no choice or reaction is 100% certainly correct. If every choice or reaction is not 100% certain, then the reaction is only determined by the best guess which that individual can make, based on the information they have. Whether the estimate is 99.999% probable, based on the information they have, or 1% probable (if all other options are less), it can still be considered only some degree of a guess. 

In the scenario of conscious choice, the mind accesses memories of information relevant to the factors involved as options. Usually cause and effect will be comprehended through conscious analysis of how the involved factors will interact, and whichever factor is estimated to cause the most preferable reaction, will be chosen. This process is a best estimate based on memory information of cause and effect, which involves understanding of the interaction of factors. I explained more detail of my understanding of this concept of conscious thought, in a post from almost 2 yrs ago; Conscious Comprehension. 

In the scenario of subconscious reaction, the mind still accesses memories of the factors involved, but does not access details of cause and effect, or how the factors interact. The mind will access memories of the closest resembling factors, and result in a reaction to the options, based on positive or negative reinforcement linked with those factors. Without the awareness of the individual, the mind will cause a reaction of pursuing factors saved in memory with positive reinforcement, or avoiding factors saved with negative reinforcement. This is still a concept of best guess (if the term “guess” includes subconscious memory access), as the subconscious is determining a reaction to the options, which is the most probable based on the information it has.

Which situations are considered to require a choice or reaction, is indistinct, and it may be plausible that every single action an individual takes, as a result of using memory access, involves some degree of the concept of best guess. Some situations may have 2 or more distinct options which need to be chosen between, or reacted to, but most situations do not have such distinct options. For eg, you may have 2 distinct options of which shirt to wear today, but the options of how quickly, or what time you put the shirt on, does not have such distinct options. Every subtle movement or motion that you take (such as to stretch your leg, or even adjust your foot position by 1 cm) is a reaction caused by memory access, and could be considered some degree of a best estimate. Since options are indistinct, as everything seems to be to some degree (as I further explained in a post from about 1.5yrs ago; Indistinctivity), this makes scenarios which are considered applicable for making a choice, indistinct as well.

Since it seems there is no perfect memory access of information, this means that every reaction of the mind, is only making a guess of probability, based on the best information it has. Whether its consciously choosing, based on analysis of likely cause and effect, or subconsciously reacting, based on probability of reinforcement triggers linked with memory of factors, every action taken in life, seems to come down to a Best Guess.