Why we conflate them

We systematically mistake pattern-recognition for pattern-matching because conscious thought IS serial. Logic, language, and reasoning operate through sequences: cause-then-effect, premise-then-conclusion, if-then-therefore. The very idea of “explanation” involves a narrative that exposes arguments step by step.

This serial nature of conscious reasoning makes us experience everything as sequential, including recognition—which isn’t sequential at all.

The “cause and effect” paradigm reinforces this confusion. We learn from early childhood that everything has a cause which precedes the effect. But as Bertrand Russell noted, there’s no “cause and effect” in physical equations. F=ma doesn’t say force causes acceleration or acceleration causes force. The equation describes a unified relationship.

Similarly, Pattern-Constellations don’t have perception causing reaction. The constellation IS both simultaneously.

Our thinking imposes sequence on what isn’t sequential. We experience “see cat THEN feel affection THEN reach to pet” because that’s how serial consciousness narrates parallel events. But the cat-constellation activated whole—seeing, feeling, and reaching-readiness arose together.

The sequence exists in our conscious narrative, not in the constellation activation itself. This phenomenological seriality emerges through selective inhibition: the constellation activates as a whole, but cortical inhibition can suppress motor components while allowing sensory components to reach consciousness, creating the illusion of sequence.

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