As you can probably tell by yesterday’s post, my thesis is still young, not quite formed, and has a few holes. As an exercise, I am considering cataloging cognitive behavior (especially economic behavior) in terms of reversibility. I am wondering if the results of this exercise, which might have a physical basis in neurobiology, could result in a kind of “periodic table of elements” for human behavior. Could it help point the way to better understanding of the neurobiology of various behavioral mechanisms? This would be a mult-dimensional map, including:
- Degree of irreversibility
- Irreversibility seeking versus irreversibility maintenance
- Irreversibility recognition (do you know it when you see it?)
- Defense of property (irreversibility maintenance)
- Economic transaction (irreversibility seeking)
- Social bonding (irreversibility seeking while bonding, maintenance afterwards)
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (irreversibility seeking, but unable to recognize it when it occurs)
- Schizophrenia (brain randomness: low irreversibility/bias, high irreversibility seeking behavior)
Consider the potential mapping along these dimensions:
| Reversible ← | → Irreversible | |
| Successful recognition ↑ | ||
| Recognition failure ↓ |
Indeed, I am having a difficult time expressing what is on my mind. I will try to read more literature on behavioral economics to see if others have already tread these waters and also to see if I can get some hints on how to express my thoughts better on this topic. Of course, this work might be a nothing but a snipe hunt, but I think I might at least learn something from the exercise.
