One Mile Walk

Predictions

         My interest in consciousness lead me to read an article in The Atlantic, 'A Neuroscientist Prepares for Death' last week. The crux of David J. Linden's article:
         The field of neuroscience has changed significantly in the 43 years since I joined it. I was taught that the brain is essentially reactive: Stimuli impinge on the sense organs (eyes, ears, skin, etc.), these signals are conveyed to the brain, a bit of computation happens, some neural decisions are made, and then impulses are sent along nerves to muscles, which contract or relax to produce behavior in the form of movement or speech. Now we know that rather than merely reacting to the external world, the brain spends much of its time and energy actively making predictions about the future—mostly the next few moments. Will that baseball flying through the air hit my head? Am I likely to become hungry soon? Is that approaching stranger a friend or a foe? These predictions are deeply rooted, automatic, and subconscious. They can’t be turned off through mere force of will.
         What piqued my interest was 'the brain ...making predictions'. Of course, based on what? The recent past, history, only observations?
         No. It must be the qualia. Those cumulative impressions and rethunk experiences, both current and ancient, that forms your consciousness 'at the moment'.
         The rethinking is the hardest to define. How many times have you seen/recalled a baseball approaching you? A professional ballplayer... millions; a young grade-schooler... thousands; a toddler... maybe dozens (depends on Dad's expectations). And, as with all other unsupervised learning, requires repeated re-observation/recall. Each one slightly different. But the qualia is the sum total.
         What equation do you use to estimate the number of sensory experiences and recalls that make up the qualia? How many senses contributed to the recalls? Is there a way to predict the predictions?