Thinking In Written Words

Thinking, An Exercise

If you want your muscles to get strong, you need to exercise them. That's a fact. Writing is an activity performed by your brain, an organ that needs to be treated like a muscle, and more. If you don't use your brain, it will lose its capacity to do quickly and efficiently that which it's designed to do: think, invent, imagine, create, solve, decide, write, speak, dream, and similar things. Those are actions. They're all performed by our brains. When you say I, what do you imagine you're referring to? Your brain! Of course, what else?

For some people it's simply impossible to accept the fact that our brains are the organs in our bodies that execute our actions of thinking. All of our memories exist within our brains. Nothing that we imagine, that we decide, think, dream or feel has its origins in any other part of our bodies, but our brains.

What a fantastic piece of design our brains are! They are so incredibly fantastic that we reject to believe that when we say "I", it's our brain the one that's speaking, thinking, deciding, remembering and making choices. We have not been able to design any machine even close in power, to our biological brains. Computers, and the network of them have an incredibly efficient memory system at the service of millions of brains. But they are way less powerful than one single human brain.

We've been able to teach our computers to make decisions. If they're capable of moving robots and robotic arms and robotic storage houses, then they're close, but not quite that close to mirroring what our brains do. Our brains make decisions considering a literal myriad of factors simultaneously. Computers are capable of reasoning down a gigantic hierarchy of if-then-else's at lightning speeds — probably much faster than our brains — but we don't seem to have been able to make any computer consider, simultaneously, variables chosen by the computer itself, in order to end up with a refined decision. Our brains do that all the time, and we don't even know they're doing it!

Also, the most powerful computers — as far as I know, maybe some of you know better — are ordered to consider a preset collection of conditions, including any conditions that might derive from the initial tree node, but not any conditions outside the initial node of reasoning — which is really that hierarchy of if-then-else statements.

The closer we push computers to do what our brains do, the more energy they need to fulfill their tasks. That should give us an idea of the efficiency with which our brains are capable of using energy. The energy we provide to our brains is fed into our system via the carbohydrates of the food we eat. That's all our brains need to function. The modern and most integral dietitians recommend that our calories should come from protein, fats and carbohydrates. We need only 5% of our calories to come from proteins, which leaves 95% to come from carbohydrates and fats. The myth of "high protein diets" for muscle building has been busted. (Please, investigate the details by yourself and let me know what you found out.)

This Was All About Thinking

That's it! We said that at the beginning, and there isn't a good reason — at least, one we could think of right now — to change our minds: this was supposed to have been a thinking exercise. As such, we are free to consider it concluded anytime we feel our muscle — our brain — has worked enough.

And it has! Just as I sat to write this, it occurred to me that, after all, it's our brains the ones that have generated every single piece of culture that exists today or has ever existed on the surface of our planet, The Earth.

And I have questions that were the result of this exercise, and I asked you, the readers, to proceed to finding answers to those questions. Are we getting closer, with computers, to the way our brains work? Have we chosen — randomly, of course — a line of development that will force the increments of technology in our computers to follow a line different from the line our brains followed during evolution?

What then, once your life is over?

Life is special in every way. It's statistically rare, improbable. However, it's great to be in it! Feeling life at liberty is what this is all about. We can't live life focused in worries about death. What happens once our bodies cease to function? So far, we have no connection with those who have died. Once they're gone, we only hear more from them by their acts and deeds, but never ever from them personally. They aren't persons any more, their bodies have ceased to function.

It bothers people to imagine that their thoughts and images exist only within their bodies. It's incredibly difficult for most people to accept that once life ceases, thoughts and images and feelings are gone for good. So, we better enjoy our special state, while we are awaken and alive.

Most matter around us, near or far, in our planet or in our Universe, is not conscious of itself, except us. We are matter, too. We are made from the same atoms everything else is made of. It's true: our combination results in thoughts, feelings, memories, images, creativity, love, hatred, selfishness and altruism. But that's all it is: our very special combination. We are living systems; we are conceived, born, educated; we love, hate, think, get anxious, stay calm, get sick, get well, enjoy, die.

It's important, I would say, not to live under false promises, expecting things which won't be. It's important to be conscious of how valuable our condition—matter conscious of itself—can be. Our cultures seem to be built upon strange grounds: "games" that might have worked at some past time, do not work now. Today we need to face reality as positively as it can be understood by our most careful methods of studying it. It would certainly help to move around using basic scientific attitudes.

Why can't we teach our children that we are alive and, in so being, we are privileged beings? Why can't we help children understand life and death? Anything taught soon enough, will become understandable reality for any being capable of thinking. We hide death from them. Why do we do that? Why do we lie? We cherish honesty and truthfulness, and yet we plan our children's education upon lies—that we dare to call practical. Why haven't we decided collectively that designing our cultures orbiting truths will certainly be more liberating than making people face hidden realities deceptively.

Living is our great privilege. We have some choices. We aren't as free as we would like to believe. We need to be realistic about our true limits. Not everything is possible, however, most reasonably envisioned goals are attainable applying proper methods and strength, will strength. Are we truthful with our children as we speak to them? Do we let them grasp reality in its wholeness, or do we purposefully hide dubious corners from them? It's time, now, to rethink our universal culture. And, yes, it's an absolute necessity, this new culture must be universal. Every single human being must be included. Our planet has already become small enough. We're all incredibly tight together.

So, what matters is your life today, now. We are mandated by existence itself, to enjoy life fully and ethically.

Metaphysics, a waste of time?

"War of the Worldviews", written by Deepak Chopra (pro spirituality) and Leonard Mlodinow (pro science), is one incredibly interesting book. I can't stop reading it; I can't put it down. Page after page, both authors deal with this eternal discussion about our origins. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Is it important to know why we're here? Do we need reasons to exist? Does our Universe need reasons to be? Is existing not complete in itself? Does it need initial reasons? Is everything planned ahead? Are we the result of preconceived ideas? Is our Universe planned of self designed?

Today we understand better than ever every single force that participates in generating our present material and conscious reality. We know with high degrees of certainty, that our consciousness is something that emerges due to our brain cells combining and interacting amongst themselves. Our consciousness is the final totality of what we experience. It forms itself as pieces of information enter our brain through our senses. We have at least two sources of information feeding our brains regularly: our senses—providing images, sounds, smells, feelings and taste of that which is outside of us—and our memories, combining information from our senses with information from within. Thirdly, we need to be very careful in including what our bodies need, which they communicate to our consciousness through our drives. There we have: three sources of information, of stimuli. Each one exerts its special degree of influence over every single decision we make.

Why do so many people—more than 56%—insist on explaining consciousness as something that can only exist if everything is within a greater, superior, transcendental consciousness?

When we say, individually, "I, me", who is there? Who speaks and thinks and refers to herself/himself as "me"? Is it not that combination of what entered our brains through our senses, mixed with our memories and our drives, what builds up our final consciousness, which, incidentally, is continuously changing?

Anybody with some understanding of processes will categorize human reasoning as something very special. It is! That can't be denied. However, the origin of such richness in handling complex issues is what is being debated. Some will fearlessly affirm that such complex processes are indicators of our spiritual nature. Thinking is first; existence comes after. Do we think consciously because of our brain's processes, or our brain processes are possible, because we originated from intelligent entities, beyond matter?

World views are radically split in at least two groups: skeptics and spiritualists. Skeptics account for less people than spiritualists. This is not something that would be expectable today! What happened? Why haven't most people been captivated by such beautiful methodology as that defined within anything scientific? Is it because perhaps it's one more deception, similar to discovering realities concerning Santa Claus?

Why do we insist on raising our children upon lies? Do we like to see them deceived as they find out reality? What is good about such game? We hold honesty and truthfulness as human utmost valuable assets, and yet we grow our children telling them lies that we amiably call "fairy tails"? Do we not know, yet, that deceipt is highly conducive to frustration and misbehavior? Why are we tolerating such falsehood as something "nice"? Is it because it generates sales?

We need to find ways to free people from illusions. Some of us are convinced without any hint of doubt, that freedom depends highly on depending on what is true.