A human sees the world in 3 dimensions. That is a simplification. Humans are fundamentally limited, generalizing creatures living on autopilot. Categorization is the brain’s tool to organize nearly everything we encounter in our daily lives. Grouping information into categories simplifies our complex world and helps us to react quickly and effectively to new experiences. Categorization and classification allow humans to organize things, objects, and ideas that exist around them and simplify their understanding of the world. Categorization is like your brain’s very own personal assistant, grouping similar things together so you can find what you need, when you need it.
Our brain categorizes continuously: not only chairs during childhood, but any information at any given age. What advantage does that give us? Pieter Goltstein says: “Our brain is trying to find a way to simplify and organize our world. Without categorization, we would not be able to interact with our environment as efficiently as we do.” In other words: We would have to learn for every new chair we encounter that we can sit on it. Categorizing sensory input is therefore essential for us, but the underlying processes in the brain are largely unknown.
Social categorization is a fundamental human cognitive process because it allows for the quick simplification of complex social information. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have now shown that also mice categorize surprisingly well. The researchers identified neurons encoding learned categories and thereby demonstrated how abstract information is represented at the neuronal level.
While categorization is a natural and necessary mechanism to cope with the complexity of our world, it perilously inhibits our ability to address the most pressing and tangible problems of our time. The psychological force at play here is a need to categorize — to fit things into neatly defined, clearly labeled boxes. In times of increasing complexity, such categorization can be extremely useful, creating order in a world that is fundamentally messy and establishing structures so that we can better organize, analyze, and manage it. Yet also, extremely limiting in understanding the natural deeper complexity of life.
We are all Interconnected even with the Universe 