Thinking machines

Submitted by infojunkie on Tue, 2008-02-26 00:25.
in

Humans are thinking machines, among other things. We think, we learn how to think, we are asked to think (or not). Some would go as far as saying we think therefore we are.

Why think?

We think to solve problems.

What is thought?

Let's ask language what it says about "thought" ((In what follows, I am using everyday language as my guide for the subject matter, i.e. thought. It is my belief, perhaps substantiated, that language represents our unconscious collective knowledge about the world, both physical and mental, and the relationships among its constituents.)). Simply, let's list some expressions involving the word itself or its context, in the hope of catching some glimpses of the different facets of the concept:

  • Thought process
  • Chain of thought
  • Flow of ideas
  • To reflect
  • Deep thoughts
  • To examine an issue from all angles
  • To shed light on an issue, to clarify it
  • A point of view
  • To under-stand
  • To com-prehend (com-prendre)
  • To ex-plain (ex-pliquer)
  • Com-plex (com-pliqué)
  • Happy thoughts, sad thoughts, funny thoughts, angry thoughts
  • To be on the same wavelength
  • Circular argument
  • Far-fetched
  • Disorganized thoughts
  • Brainstorm
  • Stream of consciousness
  • Vague idea
  • My mind is racing
  • My mind is blank
  • To think outside the box
  • Lateral thinking
  • To think creatively
  • To think hard
  • To suspend your thoughts
  • What do you think of this?

It is obvious that language represents thoughts or ideas as existing in a geometrical space where light moves. Thinking is represented as a process (i.e. a time-based sequence of events or function.) that puts a structure to thoughts. Thinking can flow or be blocked, it can also go around in circles.

There is a point observer that sees thoughts, by reflecting (light?) upon them. Complexity seems to refer to thoughts that are folded onto each other (the stem plex or pli in French) - and thus hard to grasp. To explain (expliquer) seems to refer to unfolding complex thoughts onto one plane - so that we can under-stand these thoughts. In geometry, that's what transformations do, especially projective transformations.

The content of a thought is a statement about something. "This blog entry sucks" is a thought that comes to mind :-)