The Birth of Imagination
August 8. Thank you for joining me. Grab a coffee and let’s get smarter together.
Our mind is the rapid deployment unit of the consortium of cells that make up our body, giving the cells the opportunity to work through the vast amount of additional gathered data that the rapid deployment unit ignores. The mind generates models of the physical universe in rapid succession. These models are geared towards optimizing the chance for fruitful interaction between the cell consortium and other patterns.
Why this specialization? All material things seek both their lowest energy state and to be in an equilibrium with their surroundings. This requires all material things to bond into ever bigger patterns. In the first place this means, material things and patterns thereof must meet.
That’s why our model of the physical universe is one of three dimensional space. But it’s also one of imagination. How does that fit in?
Malcolm MacIver, a neuroscientist from Northwestern University, has a theory how the ability to imagine different possible futures came about. His theory comes down to the difference in vision the first fish that climbed onto land, most likely a now extinct bony fish species called tiktaalik, must have experienced first.
Even in very clear water – and with lenses adjusted to the refracturing of light in water – vision is limited to your immediate surroundings. So, as soon as a fish sees something, it must react right away: interact or not, and how? Other patterns that might be worth interacting with are missed.
On land, especially on a clear day, visibility can be possible for miles. Far more patterns become an option for interaction. And there’s something else. It’s not jut about reaction anymore. In many cases, to initiate an interaction, action will be required. You will have to do something to ensure that paths cross. The different hypothetical futures always existed for the fish, too, of course. But now the information is perceived with the sensors of the being and can be stored and processed, when the capability exists aka in the process of pattern shaping enough energy has been released from the parts that came together.
Processing means exploring, thinking through different scenarios centering on the question: what does it take to interact with a pattern I’ve made out, and what could be the results? In the end it all comes down to, what is the best target to interact with to get closer to achieving the overall goal of all material things? It means including memories of past interactions. And thus it makes sense that it’s done in the same area of the brain in which we bring up past scenarios. Past memories + present awareness + future hypotheticals creates the impression of a flow of time – the 4th dimension.
We pick our best bet, and thus, imagination serves the optimization of the chance for fruitful interaction between the cell consortium and other patterns, interactions that help achieving the main goals.
Explore. AKA think. Make a habit out of thinking. Let’s turn thinking into the norm again.
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