Michael Edward Johnson introduces his novel vasocomputation theory, proposing that the brain's vascular system acts as a computational substrate for active inference. He views life as a set of games, emphasizing the "game of experience" and the concept of enlightenment.
Speaker Michael Edward Johnson presenting on "The Games of Life"
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Contrary to the traditional view of blood vessels as simple plumbing, the theory suggests that smooth muscle around blood vessels can "clench" to stabilize neural patterns, literally forming the "hand of the mind." This clenching can become semi-permanent through a "latch-bridge mechanism," which he links to deeply held priors, psychological trauma, and reduced experiential freedom.
Enlightenment is framed as the process of "unlatching" these frozen sensations, often through practices like meditation, restoring phenomenological freedom and a sense of "magic" to experience. The theory has implications for understanding individual differences like aphantasia, and suggests new avenues for neurotechnology to precisely "pop" these latches for therapeutic or enhancement purposes.
He argues that minimizing these latches in upbringing could lead to a more humane socialization, and that traditional practices like Chinese medicine and Buddhism can be understood through this physiological lens.
The speaker, Michael Edward Johnson, a neuroscientist and philosopher, introduces his work, including "Principia Qualia" and the recent "Vaso computation" theory.
Enlightenment is central to human and AI alignment, but its nature is often unclear (e.g., "non-dual experience").
Key questions: How good is it? Why want it? What does it feel like?
The speaker is particularly interested in how enlightenment can be a discrete, irreversible event leading to a significant increase (10-20x or more) in moment-by-moment pleasantness, as noted by Shinzen Young.
1. Significant Blood Flow Variation: Blood flow in healthy tissue can vary by a factor of 20, not just minor percentages.
2. Blood Flow Precedes Neural Activity: Changes in blood flow precede changes in neural activity, suggesting the vascular system actively directs neural processing, rather than merely responding to metabolic demand.
The body can selectively direct blood flow with high precision (100-400 micrometers), corresponding to 21 million to 1.3 billion "vascular addressable units" (voxels) in the brain.
Education and mental development involve learning precise ways to clench and stabilize specific micro-regions.
"Brain soreness" after intense thought is analogous to muscle soreness.
Individual variations in the ability to flex smooth muscle in different brain regions could explain conditions like aphantasia (lack of vasomuscular access to visual cortex).
Speaker Michael Edward Johnson standing next to a screen displaying a meditation graphic
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Newborns experience "blooming buzzing confusion" (William James), a state of sensory chaos.
As we grow, we use smooth muscle clenching to stabilize patterns and build a cognitive map to navigate this chaos.
The body creates latches (glues patterns shut) when it finds "good solutions" or in response to traumatic events ("never let that happen again"), restricting dynamic range in certain "unsafe" areas.
Latches are linked to fear and accumulate as a "sense of self" develops.
This process is influenced by reinforcement learning, including "human feedback" that enforces cultural norms by installing latches to block unwanted behaviors.
While useful for social coordination, each latch reduces "felt sense of freedom" and drains "magic from reality," making things mundane.
The Process of Unlatching through Meditation [00:24:22]
As adults with developed coping mechanisms, we could afford to release many of these latches, which can last minutes to decades or a lifetime.
Meditation is proposed as a method to build nervous system capacity to function without these latches, and then to systematically "tease them open."
Non-dual experience is equated with a reduction in these "frozen sensations" or latches, offering a quantifiable measure of one's distance from a non-dual state.
Example: A deer likely has fewer latches than a modern human.
Emotional growth and equanimity are seen as literal muscle deconditioning—retraining the reflex to stabilize or "reify" sensations with vascular pressure, aligning with the Buddhist concept of "Tanha" (craving/clinging).
The core goal of optimizing experience is to regain the phenomenological freedom and sense of magic lost in childhood.
This involves building "nervous system virtue" to handle this freedom, tuning down the "Tanha muscle reflex," and systematically training the capacity to flex more smooth muscle to stabilize more complex and subtle patterns.
Training can increase the "number of fingers on the hand of the mind" and their precision. This could lead to a new science of psychometrics.
Enlightenment and Being a "Good Person" [00:29:29]
While not all enlightened people are good, and vice-versa, removing suffering (via unlatching "frozen shards of sensation") opens one up to "what is actually real," providing more options for not being "bad."
Implications for Neurotechnology and the Future [00:30:32]
The vasocomputation theory has profound implications for targeted neurotechnologies and societal evolution.
If someone figures out how to precisely "pop" smooth muscle latches (e.g., using transcranial focused ultrasound), it would be world-changing.
This could be analogous to psychedelics, which are thought to randomly open latches or temporarily increase blood flow to latched areas.
A critical question is the safety of popping latches: what percentage are safe versus potentially problematic, and how unique are individual "latch maps"?
Given that the body uses this tension system to "program" itself, interfacing with this system might be the most natural way to interact with the body.
A key principle is that removing tension is generally preferable to adding it, as tension incurs a cost.
Latches could potentially explain specific memories (e.g., "what's the capital of Florida?") by creating stable neural loops.
Any neural circuit, including sensory input, can get latched, leading to preferential interpretations (e.g., seeing X instead of Y).
Interpretability and Safety of Latch Popping [00:37:01]
The safety of popping latches depends on whether they are convergent across individuals (e.g., fundamental early-formed latches) or unique.
For unique latches, rules of thumb might be developed (e.g., safe to open in one brain region, but not another) based on their hedonic, phenomenological, or predictive effects.
Michael Edward Johnson answering a question from the audience, with the meditation graphic still on the screen behind him
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TCM's understanding of blood and muscle (e.g., acupuncture, chi) aligns well with the vasocomputation framework, suggesting a physiological basis for traditional practices.
The speaker is interested in "naturalizing woo"—translating ancient concepts into a Western scientific framework without losing their essence.
Definition of Enlightenment and Cultural Impact [00:44:53]
Enlightenment in this model likely involves unlatching a few "big latches" in fundamental brain regions (e.g., brainstem, thalamus) that are common across people.
It's suspected that modern humans carry more latches than people did 2000 years ago due to technological conditioning and social structures requiring more mental "holding."
Latches may also be influenced by family/social environment, where nervous systems converge to the average of those around them.
