subsequent determination and application of policy to effect this interaction. In particular, by understanding the levels of trust derived from our own experiences we can project that trust to interactions involving others.

We observe an interesting parallel between mirror neurons and the basic concepts of a technology found within the computing world called object-oriented programming. During the earliest days of computers, there existed something of a dichotomy between data (information) and procedural processing. The two concepts were viewed independently and consequently required a significant amount of attention within computing systems to establish a coherent context that related data to the appropriate processing. In the early 1960’s, two Norwegians, Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard developed a programming language called Simula that is today considered the first example of an object-oriented language. One of the most basic characteristics of an object-oriented programming language is that data and appropriate actions on that data are combined within a context called an object by a process called encapsulation. By stimulating an object through an appropriate action, sometimes called a method, a context appropriate response can be evoked from the object. This is very similar to the apparent operation of mirror neuron structures and, as with object-oriented programming, this allows for rather quick connections of cause and effect of ostensibly generic and tenuously related stimuli.

For example, coming back to the mirror neuron experience of watching someone eating ice cream firing the same neurons that are activated when we eat ice cream ourselves, here is how the computer would perform a similar action. Let’s consider the operation of displaying a file on a screen or on a printer. The two actions have in common the part that consists in reading the file and understanding the kind of data it contains. Where they differ is in formatting the data differently for each output device. So we can consider the part of the program that reads and understands files as the mirror neuron part of the operation, just as the sequencing of seizing the ice cream and bringing it to one’s mouth is common to both watching and eating the ice cream. The sensori-motor domain is where the experience differs. The computer directs the data to either the screen or the printer, activating those mechanisms. Similarly, in the case of watching the ice cream, we activate our visual mechanisms. In eating the ice cream, we activate our maxillofacial apparatus. The way the computer represents the mirror neuron part of displaying the file is by defining an object encapsulating the actions of reading and understanding the files. The sensori-motor part is made of two different methods on that object, one that directs the result of the actions of reading and understanding a file to a screen, and the other that directs them to a printer.

Earlier, we considered the differences between analog and digital computer systems. The mechanisms pertaining to the dynamic processes of the brain that we’ve reviewed in this chapter are most likely illustrative of analog processes, i.e. processes that directly reflect the physical phenomena they interpret. On the other hand, digital processes pertaining to computer systems are virtually always time based. The binary bits that form the atomic units of computation of digital computers are generally established by sampling a particular quantity according to some repetitive time interval. In such a mechanism, the amplitude of the quantity is unimportant, as long as two distinct levels can be unambiguously determined. Thus, by sampling the quantity at a systematic time interval, the value of the quantity can be determined and mapped to a value of zero or one; thus, establishing a binary value. We have noted that with neuron functions, the state of the neuron can behave somewhat digitally in that once a neuron fires, at some future time the neuron will be reset back to a stable state, waiting for another stimulus to cause it to fire again. However, unlike a purely digital system, the various reset functions found within the nervous and other systems fire and reset on varying time intervals; in the computer world we would say asynchronously. In fact, within the brain time per se is not the independent variable in most cases.

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