The Limits of Human Stacking Capacity
Humans possess the innate capacity to differentiate between various musical patterns from birth. Fresh from the womb, we can recognize different pitches and rhythms. Even the most musically inept have some natural ability to connect with the organized sound of music.
I'm taking on the immense challenge of reading Douglas Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize Winning Book, Godel, Escher, and Bach — an Eternal Golden Braid (GEB). Admittedly, the "metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll" is above my reading level.
As someone who typically reads a book a week, I've had to slow my pace, reread pages and chapters, and take breaks to allow my processor to cool. After reading the twenty-or-so page preface, I asked myself, "Am I smart enough to understand the rest of this book?"
The jury is still out.
In GEB, Hofstadter aims to reconcile the mind's software with the brain's hardware, a lofty objective. He argues that the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that sustains it. The book is as complex to summarize as to comprehend, and I'd only make a twisted mess of the ideas if I tried, so I recommend reading it for yourself.
Hofstadter excels at linking seemingly unrelated concepts, and his approach to connecting these ideas is contagious. Of the three (Godel, Escher, and Bach), I have most enjoyed Hofstadter's exploration of the music of Bach. I've long enjoyed Bach's music but lacked the musical theory to understand why.
Hofstadter describes the development of Bach's preludes and fugues like a music teacher, explaining how Bach worked up various themes and notions and then did some fancy finagling to produce wild, crazy, and wonderful music.
One of the hallmarks of Bach's genius is his skillful modulation, which involves changing the key during a piece of music. Most music is composed in a specific key, or tonality, that serves as a home base for the listener's ear. A skillful composer strays away from the tonic, building tension that is eventually resolved — much to the listener's delight.
In a display of his breadth, Hofstadter uses computer programing language to explain how we process music. Specifically, he enlists the terms push, pop, and stack. Here, I'll focus on stacking, as it is essential to understanding how Americans, like some Bach listeners, have become confused.
A stack is "a table telling you such things as (1) where you were in unfinished tasks (jargon: the 'return address'), (2) what the relevant facts were at the points of interruption (jargon: the 'variable bindings')".
Basically, the stack helps us keep information straight. But there's a problem — our capacity to stack is limited.
Bach's music can sometimes be challenging because he pushes the listener's ability to stack. Hofstadter says, "Any reasonably musical person automatically maintains a shallow stack with two keys. In that 'short stack,' the true tonic is held, and also the most immediate 'pseudotonic' (the key the composer is pretending to be in)…That way, the listener knows when the true tonic is regained and feels a strong sense of relief."
But most listeners can only handle so much shifting. Fortunately, Bach's talent enabled him to surpass these limits and keep his audience engaged, even when they became lost in the elaborate layers of his carefully composed music. As Hofstadter dove deeper into the human mind and its relationship to music, sparks of something darker started igniting in my neurons.
Upon reading Hofstadter's analysis of Bach's "Little Harmonic Labyrinth," I found myself mulling how our limitations for stacking information are being exploited by politicians, media conglomerates, and individuals alike to foster a society that is rife with confusion, division, and anger.
I understand that my suggestion may seem paranoid, but hear me out.
Back in 1940, the daily information intake of an average person was approximately 1000 bits. However, by the year 2000, this figure had risen to around 34,000 bits per day. As of 2023, the average person now consumes a staggering 170,000 bits of information daily.
Today, we consume almost 90x more information in bits than in 1940 and 4x more than just twenty years ago.
Remarkably, even with this increase in consumption, the proportion of consumption to creation is at an all-time low. This means that the information available is growing even faster than our consumption.
Although the human brain is a highly advanced supercomputer, it has limitations. How does the brain cope with the sheer volume of information?
We rely more heavily on Person 1.
In Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, Person 1 represents the fast, intuitive, and emotional system of human thinking. He makes quick judgments and decisions, often with little conscious thought. This system is very good at detecting patterns and making quick decisions but can also be prone to errors and biases. Above all, system 1 seeks a coherent story.
“The measure of success for System 1 is the coherence of the story it manages to create. The amount and quality of the data on which the story is based are largely irrelevant. When information is scarce, which is a common occurrence, System 1 operates as a machine for jumping to conclusions.”
Person 2, in contrast, represents the slow, deliberate, and logical mode of thinking. She is often described as "conscious" or "controlled" and is responsible for complex judgments, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Both Person 1 and Person 2 play vital roles in our decision-making process. A balance between the two systems is necessary for good decisions. Today we face a crisis where Person 1 is relied upon excessively, leading to error-prone thinking.
"Let no crisis go to waste."
The evolutionary role of Person 1 is to help us make quick decisions in dangerous or uncertain situations. Our ancestors lived in a world where they were constantly exposed to danger. They needed to make quick decisions about whether to fight or flee or whether a particular food was safe to eat. Person 1 enabled our ancestors to make quick survival decisions.
By almost every imaginable metric, we inhabit a safer world today. However, the constant panic promoted by governments and media suggests otherwise. It's as if they are composing their own version of Little Harmonic Labyrinth, which Hofstadter describes as "a piece by Bach in which he tries to lose you in a labyrinth of quick key changes. Pretty soon, you are so disoriented that you don't have any sense of direction left."
Person 1 is fully consumed, protecting us from the latest threats like terrorism and pandemics. At the same time, Person 2 patiently waits for a less overwhelming moment to process the deluge of information — but that time never comes because as one crisis ends, another begins (or so we're led to believe.)
Individuals in positions of power exploit our biases, specifically, our inclination to trust and believe authority figures. By repeatedly presenting information as fact, they can sway our opinions even if there is no basis to support their claims. Lies, therefore, can become reality.
Media companies have mastered the art of clickbait, using sensationalized and fear-mongering headlines to capture attention and keep readers engaged. A constant appeal to our amygdala is profitable but harmful to the health of society.
The success of these exploitations can be attributed to a concept that Kahneman extensively discusses - WYSIATI.
What you see is all there is.
WYSIATI encourages us to "focus on existing evidence and ignore absent evidence." Person 1 can rapidly construct a plausible narrative from scant evidence, which can then be validated by Person 2 and become ingrained as core values and beliefs.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to tell who is who, what is what, right from wrong, and truth from fiction.
Beneficiaries of a given outcome often fund research studies. Massive corporate campaign donations influence candidates. Government agencies are captured by insiders of the industries they regulate. Corporations and media work hand-in-hand to quiet dissenting voices. News is reported as fact before being confirmed.
The mind's software is changing more rapidly than the brain's hardware. In the past 80 years, our information intake has increased by almost two orders of magnitude, but our hardware has remained virtually unchanged. Our stacking ability cannot handle the load being asked of it — so system 1 does what System 1 does best, creates a story.
It's no wonder everyone is confused.
What can we do?
I often feel lost when listening to Bach's masterful fugues — Contrapunctus XI from BWV 1080 does this to me. The piece showcases three inverted and combined voices, creating virtuosic music that can quickly fatigue the ears and mind. In analyzing it, Gavin Black said:
Contrapunctus 11 is the centerpiece of The Art of the Fugue. It is probably the most complex contrapuntal creation of J. S. Bach, as well as one of the most deeply and powerfully expressive. It is a contrapuntal fantasy making significant use of at least ten different themes, and including five fully worked out fugue expositions. It is related to what has come before and what will come after in more ways than it is possible to describe.
When lost in Bach's web, I pause the music. To continue listening only causes extreme dizziness. Kahneman suggests slowing down to make better decisions:
“If there is time to reflect, slowing down is likely to be a good idea.”
We cannot turn off System 1. Even if we could, doing so would lead to paralysis anytime a snap decision had to be made. But we can give him a break once in a while.
We can turn off the fear porn we're accustomed to seeing and hearing.
We can spend more time engaged in activities that pass the cognitive load to System 2, like reading.
We can resist the urge to believe everything we hear right away.
We can remember that people in positions of power are also prone to biases.
When I return to Contrapunctus XI after a mental pause, I hear the voices again and can make more sense of the themes and subthemes. Clarity makes the music all the more enjoyable. Life, too, is more enjoyable when we can navigate the labyrinth with clear thinking.
