Intuition: Superstitious or Science?
In my previous article, we have talked about assumption and how it can be dangerous to make a decision using assumption because there is no data we use and it can lead to a series of process failure (if you missed it, you can read it here). There is even a quote about the assumption that said “ Assumption is The Mother of All F**k Up”
If we ask the people based on what they make the assumption, then most of them will say it just a feeling, an intuition. Something that they feel it got to be this. They don’t know exactly why, but they feel it should be like that.
The question is, is there a good decision based on intuition? If the intuition provenly good, is it just a coincidence or is there any science behind it?
If the intuition provenly good, is it just a coincidence or is there any science behind it?
Have you ever felt when you meet someone, you just knew that you feel right about him/her? A friend of mine said that when he met a girl, he just knew that she is the one and yes in the future they become husband and wife. My other friend said that she can know which mango is sweet and which is not, just by seeing. I also have experience when I ride my car going home from work, at the beginning the road looks clear, no bad traffic jam, but when get half of the way I just feel that I should use the alternate road because I just feel the road ahead will have a traffic jam and you know what, I’m right.
So do I choose the alternate road because some vision from above or is it happen because I have experiences of travelling home?
There is a book with the title “Blink” from Malcolm Gladwell. It’s a good book, telling how intuition or hunch can be trained by experiences. On the book, there is an example how a curator can detect a forgery statue just by looking at the statue, or a marriage analyst can see a couple will last or not just by seeing them. All these things are done just using the intuition or hunch which they said they practice their intuition for years.
So let say we want our computer to do data verification and we want this computer to learn about the data and can identify what we want based on data we give to the computer. On our computer, we put the Bayesian engine there. Then we create the model for the learning process. For example, we create a “ Rotten Eggs” model to start learning about the rotten egg. Then we give input all kind of egg image and we mark which egg is rotten. With the Bayesian engine and all the inputs, the system eventually can identify which egg is rotten just by giving the egg image.
What if this computer running in our brain? What if our brain is a supercomputer and there is a Bayesian engine inside, which can learn time after time from the data we input to our brain from all of our sensors like eyes, ears and nose? If the brain process data the same like a computer with Bayesian engine, then it will be using the same principle, intuition just a mathematic formula. Every experience we have, every practice we do will enrich our data which we can use as what we called “ an Intuition”.
If the brain process data the same like a computer with Bayesian engine, then it will be using the same principle, intuition just a mathematic formula
Well, it just my assumption describe the process in the brain the same as the computer. But of course, we can’t install any machine learning engine to our brain. So we still have a question of how intuition happened. Or probably the simple way to answer it is that the intuition is a revelation from God (or other will said probably from a genie).
I guess, this intuition thing for me is like a Dialetheia Paradox. Both true and false at the same time. If it happens then is true, but when it didn’t happen then is false. Until there is a piece of evidence that can find out how our brain process data or tell how intuition works then it’s still a paradox.
You know, the wisdom that can be taken if we process the data same like what Bayesian formula does, in Bayesian if we put the same data over and over again we will get the same result. We will have a different and more accurate result if we put different data. So if you think what you do always end with the same situation, then probably you need to change what you do.
So if you think what you do always end with the same situation, then probably you need to change what you do
But from my intuition, I said that you already bored when you half-read this article…
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
