Information processing (is it the key to riding faster?)

I was ruminating the other day, as I was beetling to work, on the
Duke....

I became aware of the way that the brain was working, taking all the
road input and sort of squiritng it into the cortex with direct links
to fingers covering brake and clutch and right hand on throttle.

Sort of like this:

"OK, him, a quarter of a mile ahead, he's dawdling in my lane and two
cars have overtaken him on the inside already. I ain't following them
because I reckon he must have noticed now and will be moving over
soon... bet he doesn't indicate, either...

"...that bloke will pull out suddenly to overtake the truck... it goes
down to two lanes soon, so there'll be nowhere to go...."

'''big gap up ahead... gas it now, get behind him, and when he pulls
over, and he will because he knows what he's doing, then I'll be up
behind the bloke in my lane, except that he'll have moved over by then,
and it'll be nice and clear by then so I can start winding it up to a
ton or so..."

"Yep, there he goes.... thought so... hm, bit of roughness on the
over-run there. When did I last check the chain?..."

And everything seems to happen slowly, if you know what I mean. And all
of a sudden you find that the jockey on the sports 600, who's evidently
in a hurry and has been filtering at 80mph, is now just in front of
you, and he clocks you in his mirrors, cranks it up, and whistles
between two vans....

And it's all virtually subconscious. I only sort of woke up because I
found that I was talking to myself: saying: "Told you so!" or something
similar.

Thing is, you find yourself covering ground bloody fast on this sort of
auto-pilot and I dunno whether (a) it's riskier than deliberately
having all sensors set to maximum or (b) whether I'm the only one who
does it.

 

Isn't that what police driver training entails? Giving a running
commentary of everything that happens, whether as an internal monologue
or out loud as they have to do on the test.

I've tried it, and didn't notice a massive difference, though it did stop
my mind wandering quite as much as usual.

 

"and that car has come out of nowhere and, shit. I'm flying through the air.
Oh dear, is that my femur I can see."

 

When I spent 7 years working at the same place on the other side of town
I'd often arrive there and realise I didn't remember a damn thing about
the journey. Pretty sure I'd have reacted to and remembered anything out
of the ordinary, but sometimes the brain just seems to discard repetitive
information.

 

I've got no idea.

No - many's the time when I've suddenly realised that I had no
recollection of covering the last 30 miles or so, but I obviously had,
and I can't believe there have been any "incidents" or I wouldn't be
here to tell the tale.

 

Vary your commute. YKIMS.

 

TOG@toil wrote:

I do that all the time, thinking quite far ahead as to what will happen
or what might happen if the driver of car X is as stupid as I think he
is. On a couple of occasions Ive seen accidents and been fairly sure
they'd happen about a minute before they do. ie. you see nova 1.2
chav-boy driving like a ****, and you know whats up ahead. You just KNOW
that hes going to try something stupid like try flooring it past a white
van which he has no chance of getting past etc.

 

I find myself following a similar process myself, especially around town.

"Hmm. Potential pull-out that one, I wonder if I should do pork chops for
tea, Whoa! wheres she going" etc etc etc, and I`ve caught myself, in a
similar moment of clarity, talking to myself about it all. It`s a sort of
"In the zone" feeling, and I do feel I make quite rapid progess whilst doing
it. All senses, thoughts and actions combining nicely into one stream.


As for totally blank periods of autopilot, same as others, I`ve also noticed
that. Most recently coming back to Liverpool from Hull. I remember passing
the services by Leeds. I remember debating whether to take the A580 near
Swindon for a change of scenery or to continue onto the M62. Can`t remember
a bleeding thing in the middle...

 

I know what you mean, but I don't know if it's as pronounced as that.
I think the words, but it all happens that much faster. I did try the
talk-through-the-journey thing, but I was noticing and thinking about
more stuff faster than I could say it.

I've just got back from the 955's recall, and thinking about the ride
I'd have to say the thoughts come as grunts, but I know what each one
means. A sentence in a sound kind of thing. It's the same sort of
stuff though - "Can I smell diesel?", "It's damp anyway", "whee!",
"oops - bit too much throttle there", "hello, is this guess where I'm
going?", "quite a few trucks ahead, best watch for people overtaking"
etc.

As for not remembering anything you've just done, I don't think it's
much to worry about. If you're taking it all in, processing and
dealing with what comes at you and just not storing it, then it's no
big deal. It sounds like a very good definition of unconscious
competence. If you're tonking along with your brain closed for
business then there's a problem.

 

Typical day out for me on the R!

"wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

 

wrote

Dunno, life has been something of a blur in the last few days.

 

<TOG@toil>; <>; <>
wrote in message

SNIP!

You have described the process that Kelly regards as the basis of psychology
in his development of "Personal Construct Theory".

"Just as a scientist aims at a better control of reality by predicting
events, every individual tries to predict the course of events in his/her
life and to control their outcome. Everyone of us has his/her explicit or
implicit theories about the world around us (including the persons important
to us), develops hypotheses and checks them against "reality", in an almost
experimental, in any case empirical way. Therefore "man as scientist" is the
central metaphor of Kellyan theory. We anticipate events and experiences, we
"construe" our reality, and find our constructions eventually validated or
invalidated and subsequently keep to them or modify them." (Sheer 1996).

On a bike, at speed, if your constructs are validated you arrive safely at
your destination. On the other hand, a construct that is not validated may
result in much pain and bent metal.

Tony

Tony

 

Interesting observation.

I don't do this in anyway shape or form on the bike, prolly cos every outing
is still an adventure.

However, in the car, particularly on motorways I do precisely what you have
described, "autopilot" is definitely the right description.

When I was a sales rep, I had to go to Wales (Cardiff) quite regularly. My
journey plan was thus:
Wake up at 05:00hrs, leave house at 05:30.
Concentrate for about 45 minutes during drive from Bicester to Swindon,
enter M4 and go to "sleep".
Wake up at Cardiff exit and concentrate for about half an hour until arrival
at depot.

Also, when coming home from deepest Wales (Swansea), once I was over the
Severn Bridge, as far as I was concerned I was nearly home (about another
1.5 to 2.0 hours driving).

Bloody odd stuff.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)
M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R
BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

You're definitely not the only one doing this. Sometimes I do so
much riding or driving without conscious thought that I get scared
when I realise it.

A bloody great book that, among other things, deals with
how and why the subconscious information processing works
is "The User Illusion" by the Dane Tor Nørretranders. Not
all easy going but recommended if you're not allergic to science.
And one gets to learn about Maxwell's Demon and Turing
machines.

One fact I got from that book is that our conscious process is
slow, like an old modem connection on a bad line. Subconscious
processing OTOH is more like broadband, it needs to be as
it processes things like all the data from our sight and not only
things we happen to look at.

One slightly worrying thing to many is the indications in this
book that we [1] might not be "in control" at all but mostly
experience and consciously think about things slightly after
our subconscious part has discovered something,
processed the information and started to take action.

[1] As thinking beings.

 

Hmm, no "whee" factor on the Blackbird then ? ;-)

P.

 

HooDooWitch says...

I used to do that when commuting to Slough every day. Some days I'd
filter down lane 2a of the M25 at 80, others I'd filter at 90. That's my
version of variety

 

ogden wrote

Heh, i've had my mind wander, admittedly more in the cage than on the
bike, but i've done boring runs back from France and been on autopilot
virtually all the way (usually nursing a hangover

Depends where you are dunnit and the road conditions. I'm more alert
in the twisties and when motorway filtering at speed, than when
hooning on a deserted dual carriageway. I'm a bit more steady in the
wet too !

P.

 

I was alert when following WC through London this week. Every time he
looked round I was there with him, which I thought was quite good,
considering that I'd never ridden in London before that day.

 

I was on autopilot (albeit with a shit-eating grin) for the whole of
the journey down from lincs on sunday, despite being on a bike I've
dreamed of owning since I was a teenager [1].

So much so that I almost failed to notice the camera van somewhere
south of Buckden. 12 days of doormat-watching to go and counting...

[1] Have to say, though, I fucking love it

 

Muck wrote

Yep, commuting in London varies between being fun and a penance.

Brings a whole new meaning to 'playing in the traffic'

Cheers

Paul.