[jhaenchen]

The issue is that we are prone to inflate the complexity of our own processing logic. Ultimately we are pattern recognition machines in combination with abstract representation. This allows us to connect the dots between events in the world and apply principles in one domain to another.

But, like all complexity, it is reduceable to component parts.

(In fact, we know this because we evolved to have this ability. )

[agalunar]

Calling us "pattern recognition machines capable of abstract representation" I think is correct, but is (rather) broad description of what we can do and not really a comment on how our minds work. Sure, from personal observation, it seems like we sometimes overcomplicate self-analysis ("I'm feeling bad – why? oh, there are these other things that happened and related problems I have and maybe they're all manifestations of one or two deeper problems, &c" when in reality I'm just tired or hungry), but that seems like evidence we're both simpler than we think and also more complex than you'd expect (so much mental machinery for such straightforward problems!).

I read Language in Our Brain [1] recently and I was amazed by what we've learned about the neurologicial basis of language, but I was even more astounded at how profoundly little we know.

> But, like all complexity, it is reduceable to component parts.

This is just false, no? Sometimes horrendously complicated systems are made of simple parts that interact in ways that are intractable to predict or that defy reduction.

[1] https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262036924/language-in-our-brain