A maze of glistening, tinkling spheres, bound by silver thread.

The mind is all in how we think about it. Just looking at the rather squishy mass of neurons isn’t enough to understand it, because what the mind “is” is not defined by the brain. What the mind is, is a complex environment. If using a metaphor for computers, it is the operating system and the software, capable of modifying and adapting itself to ever changing circumstances. It must also deal with filtering information- discarding the fluff and keeping only what is important. And then, everything is assembled into a maze of interlinked glistening, tinkling spheres, all connected in some way by a silver thread of association.

Why the mixed metaphors, you ask. The way that we think of and describe the mind is an ever changing thing. We really don’t quite understand “how” people think, and so we can only describe its consequences. Using many metaphors for how thinking seems to be, we can gain a sort of understanding about it.

But the metaphors that we use are not only limited to how we think about the mind. They, like many other metaphors, have applications elsewhere. When we attempt to design a system that acts in a similar way to the mind, it is important that we think of how the mind works. Since we fail in complete understanding, any endeavor will eventually come down to the metaphor that is used. In terms of computation, we have organized data into “folders”- meaning that each document, each “file” exists within a single place, organized hierarchically from most general to least general. The words we use reveal the metaphor we are using. Where would one find a “file,” a “folder,” and a “desktop?” The metaphor for the modern computer is the desk and filing cabinet. Even earlier in the development of the computer, the metaphor was a piece of paper and a typewriter- attached to a smaller filing cabinet.

In thinking of new metaphors, as did Vannevar Bush, we come closer and closer to how the mind works. The eventual conclusion of such thinking and technology might be a computer which works in the same way that the mind does. Thinking about associations and filtering, rather than files and cabinets.

There is definitely a difference between thinking of the mind as a printed page, and as a web of trails. On the page of paper, everything is arranged in order, from first recording to last. And while the ink on the paper may become smudged, everything will still remain in its order, in the same positions that it was created in. The piece of paper metaphor shows that data is created and it illustrates some of the clarity with which we remember things. But at the same time, paper hides the associations that make the mind run. A web of trails describes the way that associations work far better. The more one walks down a certain trail, the deeper it is beaten. At the same time, a trail which is not walked more than once will become overgrown and eventually disappear. While the trails metaphor shows the association factor, it completely hides what is being stored in the trails. One does not find words or images worn into the dirt on a forest trail. In that case, a page of paper represents what is actually stored far better. But as to how it is stored, the trails metaphor is superior. So why not combine them? At the end of each trial is a piece of paper… It is more complex as metaphors go, but it also relates better to how the mind stores and retrieves information.

No matter what metaphor we use, it will still be a metaphor. And like any imprecise description, there will always be something that will be hidden or deemphasized. Then again, sometimes a metaphor is our best bet for understanding things as complex as the mind.