Descartes' logic (i.e. "cogito, ergo sum") is I think, therefore I am. Modern Western culture and civilization is based on this bias. That is, consciousness is the governor of cognition.
Formulations of free will and the hard problem of consciousness are manifestations of this logic. The inversion of this logic, that intuition (i.e. what's below consciousness) is what drives cognition is not as well known or accepted by society.
It's a commonly held belief that the unconscious is an unruly and untamed mind. It is the mind of beasts. The feral mind where if it were not for the governance of the conscious that all hell will break loose. One loses his mind when the governor fails.
In physics and mathematics, the term 'degenerate' is used often. Degenerate is used in its old meaning where it means 'to lose its original identity'. A degenerate energy state is one that is not from a unique quantum state. A degenerate triangle is one with sides of zero length.
The word degenerated has also been co-opted to describe people. It is a derogatory word. To lose one's identity is associated with losing one's mind. What is identity other than one's self?
In the inverted logic of intuition as the core of cognition. That is intuition being the mechanism that maintains the self (in my model, many selves), the degeneration of the mind happens below our consciousness.
The intuitive mind is always aware of implicit information of its environment and tacit knowledge in its mind. It is in constant balance between the present, the past so it can condition its future.
But where does it learn the heuristics to perform this balance? Humans are unique in that our growth stage lasts for a little over 20 years. Our interactions with the world create the heuristics our intuition employs. We construct our cognition over a prolonged period.
Our consciousness is a manifestation of this accumulated intuition. An alternative way to think of this is that our brains develop an internal and private neural language. This language is 'spoken' in the brain, but all our thoughts can only be expressed in this language.
It would be a mistake to argue that this private neural language is the same for everyone. The neural code is very unlike the machine code that is shared by computers. You can upload new software into computers because they share the same machine code. Not possible for brains.
This is because the 'manufacturing' of brains happens through a lifetime of a person. To upload or download knowledge requires an improbable encryption and decryption algorithm.
Geniuses like Einstein and Picasso create their minds through years of systematic interaction with their craft. Einstein had been dreaming all his life as to how it feels to be riding on a photon. While he wasn't daydreaming, he was fine-tuning his systematic thinking.
Systematic thinkers have a different private neural language than people who have never made it a habit to think systematically. That is why it should be no surprise to anyone why a majority of the population cannot seem to follow the consistency of arguments.
We are our unique identities because we have constructed a unique private neural language that serves as code that drives our intuition. We are a self not because we can reflect on our thoughts but because we are an expression of the totality of our experiences.
@threadreaderapp unroll
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
