in brief, within the human brain lies a set of neural structures uniquely adapted to the representation of our social knowledge. we use the same database to encode our self-knowledge and to accumulate information about others. these brain networks build a mental image of our own self as a peculiar character sitting next to others in a mental database of our social acquaintances. each of us represents "oneself as another".

if this view of the self is correct, then the neural underpinnings of our own identity are built u in a rather indirect manner. we spend our life monitoring our behavior as well as that of others, and our statistical brain constantly draws inferences about what it observes, literally "makign up its mind" as it proceeds.

learning who we are is a statistical deduction from observation. having spent a lifetime with ourselves, we reach a view of our own character, knowledge, and confidence that is only a bit more refined than our view of other people's personalities. furthermore, our brain does enjoy privileged access to some of its inner workings. introspection makes our conscious motives and strategies transparent to us, while we have no sure means of deciphering them in others. yet we never genuinely know our true selves. we remain largely ignorant of the actual unconscious determinants of our behavior, and therefore we cannot accurately predict what our behavior, will be in circumstances beyond the safety zone of our past experience. the greek motto "know thyself," when applied to the minute details of our behavior, remains an inaccessible ideal.

our "self" is just a database that gets filled in through our social experiences, in the same format with which we attempt to understand other minds, and therefore it is just as likely to include glaring gaps, misunderstandings, and delusions.

consciousness is the mind's virtual reality simulator. but how does the brain make up the mind?