Thinking about thinking

Thinking about thinking? I don’t think so!
I think, therefore I am? Don’t believe it!
Is thought an illusion? Perhaps.

I prefer to start with something more universal, something that is true throughout the universe, shared by all. I prefer to start with survival.

To survive means to persist, from one moment to another. Usually, these moments are connected together in something I experience as “time”. I am the result of a long string of time, the survival of a way of being, which I know of as DNA. I am also the result of my own experience, which I will call my perspective. My DNA has survived through a process of trial and error, the adventures of a particular collection of atoms over many trials, many errors. I am a result of this process. My DNA has built-in connections to other moments, successful trials. These “instincts” guide me towards survival. But to allow me the flexibility to respond to my environment more immediately, more contemporaneously, my DNA has also given me consciousness, the ability to be aware of myself and my surroundings, at least in some limited form. And my DNA has given me memory, a way to organize my awareness across different moments. My experience, which builds my perspective, contributes to a system of memory, recording trials of cause and effect perceived during my lifetime. Insofar as my perspective contributes to my survival, some piece of my perspective may survive beyond my lifetime, through my recombined DNA.

But there is a more powerful way my DNA has contributed to my survival. I have been given the ability to communicate with other instances of DNA. This is done by sharing my lifetime experiences, communicating them to another, via my thoughts. This is the sharing of memes, ideas, thoughts, experiences.

The biological process of two-sex reproduction is shared by many other non-human forms of DNA. However, the sharing of experiences, the trials and errors during my lifetime, is not used by many forms of DNA. Humans have developed complex language to share their experiences. With language, I am able to share my experiences with others, who may pass them on, sharing my experiences beyond my lifetime. I can tell a child, “don’t touch the stove, or you might burn yourself”. If they understand me, and believe me, my experience can be passed on to another generation, potentially saving them from burning themself.

Even more powerfully, humans have developed technologies beyond language (books, PDF’s, and now AI) that allow life experiences to be shared over many moments in time and across great distances in space. If my thinking is persuasive, if I am able to communicate in such a way that people believe me, my thoughts might be passed through these powerful technologies to many humans, now and in the future.

The question then becomes one of “Whose thoughts should I listen to? If two people disagree, how shall I choose between them in a way that helps me survive?” Humans have developed a technology for this, too. We call it the scientific method, a process of comparing experiences across time and space, to come to a shared belief in experiences. Science focuses on that which can be reproduced, that which is potentially experienced by all humans. The scientific method helps us build models of our world based on observations that we all can experience. The models allow us to easily, efficiently, communicate our understanding of the world.

And we’re good at building models.

Of course, we went after the easiest models, first, including ones that could be mapped into simple mathematical equations. These models had few variables, with limited interactions. But that meant the harder models, equally important, with lots of variables and lots of interactions, were not developed or understood. Ecological systems, social interactions, weather systems are just a few of the models that we are now only beginning to understand and develop.

“I think, therefore I am?” Perhaps not. Perhaps it is more like, “We think, to discover who we are.”
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(1) This was today's prompt from Collective Journaling led by Peter Limberg, which I was offered through the Internet Real Life sessions from The Dark Forest Collective on Metalabel:

Welcome to Collective Journaling, a place where we write in silence, together… with music :)

Song of the day: Money https://open.spotify.com/track/7hUuYv8NT8feTPZMG4RS5R?si=2c69928ee9094aa5

Quote of the day: "Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night." - William Blake

Prompt of the day: When is thinking bad? When is it good? What makes it so? Is there such a thing as good or bad non-thinking? And what makes that so? (Or just write about whatever is alive or bothersome for you today.)