The Way We Think

Every scientist knows that the characteristics of the measuring instrument influences the results obtained. Each instrument has its own particular way of distorting the "reality" it measures and, if you do not compensate for this, errors creep into the results.

Similarly, our brain has its own "measurement" characteristics and we need to know its limitations if we are to compensate for its distortions of the reality it senses. Philosophy helps us to do this by examining the differences between physical reality and the image of physical reality that our brain creates for us. This gives rise to what is called the identity problem as described in the following story, familiar to philosophy students.

When Theseus, a famous Greek warrior, died his ship was preserved in the town square. As its planks rotted these were replaced. Eventually all the planks were replaced and we are asked to answer the question, "Is the ship with all new planks still Theseus's ship?

If you think this question is difficult consider the following addition. All the rotting planks that were removed from the ship were preserved and an enthusiast reassembled them. Which of the two ships is Theseus's ship?

This story draws attention to the way our brain works. Our brain creates a simple simulation of the physical reality that our senses report on. This simulation is informationally sparse, it is made up of a minimum set of "bits" of information and merely represents the physical reality that our senses tell us exists in the external world. (We are tempted to think that what we see "is" reality, but it can only be a simple representation of that reality.)

Each of us creates a simple simulation of external reality and we use our senses to keep our individual simulations synchronized with the physical world. If asked, each of us would describe a different image of Theseus's ship, none of these would be Theseus's ship as that is a physical thing while our images are not physical.

Because there cannot be a one to one mapping between physical reality and our simulations of physical reality, each of us naturally develops a different simulation (impression) of physical reality.

Our brains create the simulations that we perceive to be our external reality. This is a wonderful facility, but has serious limitations as these simulations have to be very simple representations of the realities they represent. They cannot even approach the complexity of the external world they represent. So when we seek the "truth" about say, "the situation in Iran," we are bound to fail as we only have the capacity to simulate some small aspect of that situation and this cannot represent "the truth."

Our simulations must be heavily influenced by the information we get, so if the news reports we hear are always talking about war, we naturally create a simulation of a world at war.

This is an error. Of the 6 Billion people in the world, a very small percentage are engaged in armed conflict. Almost the whole world is peacefully engaged in constructive pursuits almost all of the time, yet we are encouraged, by news reports, to think that it is in a state of conflict.

We need to break the cycle of fear creating conflict thaqt creates more fear that creates more conflict. Understanding the way we think and how we respond to fear are tools that can empower each of us to do this for ourselves.