High-Level Brain Functions

I have noticed over my 53 years that the brain doesn't always work as smoothly or efficiently as we mostly suspect if does.

Over the years, I believe the brain adapts shortcuts over the years so that repetitive common processing tasks are executed in a way that requires less work from the brain, and thus speeds them up. It's my feeling that we are evolved mostly to save energy, so we have evolved this to save energy, not time.

The reason I'm thinking about this is that i recently "caught" myself, I was going through the common task of deciding whether I was in favor of something for good reason or if i was against it. If it's a hot issue my brain usually kicks something back almost instantly, but if the issue is not quite so hot I can sometimes observe my brain and noting the processing steps it goes through, predictably, in established sequence.

So, in order to decide if I agreed, I asked my brain to tell me if it had any memories of me agreeing with this concept, and if it was my latest memory on the subject.

My brain churned, essentially replied "Memories found, now retrieving memories..." at which point I commanded my brain to break out of the process, because I was satisfied simply to know if I agreed with this concept, I wasn't in a position where I needed to defend my view or explain it.

So there must be a "controller" brain, usually the same as the one we hear talking to us in our "interior dialogues"...and it monitors activity and results in real time and works to save effort by evaluating whether the intent of the current query has been exercised.

Well, at least I have it. Maybe I am an alien.