The slightly chaotic character of mind goes even deeper, to a degree our egos may find uncomfortable. It is very likely that intelligence, at bottom, is a probabilistic or statistical phenomenon-on par with the law of averages. The distributed mass of ricocheting impulses which form the foundation of intelligence forbid deterministic results for a given starting point. Instead of repeatable results, outcomes are merely probabilistic. Arriving at a particular thought, then, entails a bit of luck.
Outsiders are never sure who they are talking to.
At different times of our life, and in different moods, we too shift our character. And that, Minsky says, is exactly what we do. It is like the transient form of a whirlpool held upright by a million spinning atoms of water. It can be scattered with a fingertip. But a moment later, the shroud reappears, driven together by the churning of a deep distributed mob.