The last year has been a very interesting one. I can't decide if the increasing sense of insanity and surreality are by-products or foundational to the new ideas that have developed in me during 2013.
My hopes and aspirations have changed dramatically. Previously I wanted to study for a PhD and take a role in computer science research. I may still do this, but the drive to move in this direction has waned. I now want to write a book of the insights gained this year. In essence the theory goes like this:
1. Consciousness is illusory. We have brains, evolved to succeed in the world, that construct a sense of the world for our benefit. The idea that we are somehow "fit" for the current world is nonsense and is a complete arrogance (hence the title for the book - The Arrogant Ape).
2. Ego drives our actions.
3. The very structure of our perceptions and thoughts are overlaid upon our more primitive brains. For example our idea of Mathematics being somehow the intrinsic nature of reality is wrong. When we add one to one (and hopefully make two) our mind is simply aware of, and interpreting, the underlying primitive structures' work. This primitive brain doesn't actually use numbers, but a pre-existing set of structures evolved for the world. Maths is not a useful skill for us to have evolved the understanding of; we are able to use this because our Cortex is a set of structures that interpret the primitive aspects of cognition into something that makes sense. This is, of course, not to say that maths isn't useful and that it doesn't work. It does! What I'm saying is that it's a co-incidence that we have understanding of it and that we think it's a true reflection of reality. It isn't.
4. We have to consider ourselves much more similar to other animals than we currently do. Humans have a habit of thinking of themselves as better than everything else in the universe (that arrogance again!), when the truth is that we are simply slightly more thinky than other creatures. Our brains are bigger, but that part that's bigger has a function of giving us sets of awarenesses of our primitive brains. The Neo-Cortex does a lot more than that, however it seems that everything is ultimately filtered through the primitive brain since that's the connection to the world in which we live and thereby the imperative element in our existence.
5. Intelligence is not confined to humans (despite what we may arrogantly think). Intelligence is more accurately defined as a predictable reaction to an input. When we talk about intelligence we need to be more specific about what we mean. Trees are intelligent, atoms are intelligent. Humans, however, can build aeroplanes (trees can't do that yet).
6. The idea that we have now reached the end of an intellectual journey from amoeba to human is a false, but pervasive one - yet again linked to arrogance. In the same way that a field mouse probably cannot understand complex physics, there is a whole heap of understanding out there that is out of our reach - simply because we don't have the brain capacity to be able to comprehend it. The work of particle and quantum physicists shows this. When humans peer into the detail of how the universe works they end up with a theory that's completely crazy to us! Quantum physicist say that if you think you understand it then you probably don't. This is precisely because of the fact that we can't understand it - yet we believe that we should be able to - more arrogance!
It's still early days for the book and I have lots of work to do simply to understand. It feels to me like I'm probing that boundary at which humans can understand - a very difficult and, by definition, impossible task.
My hope is now to write the book that I've been working towards my whole life. Wish me luck!
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