#Thinking
The power of #questions is immense, as Matthias Gruber has studied. They are the basic tool to start thinking, the ignition point. They stimulate and create new synapses, thanks to neuro-plasticity, which combine to give an answer, and the less expected the question is, the more convenient its answer.
The book, Why think? opens up the philosopher's reasons for his why, but, what if the question had been What risk does not thinking imply? a gap of sinister omens would open, of shadows that invade and provoke the prevailing nihilism. I think it is a more convenient question, because it is more provocative and exciting.
Combining the two orientations is my way of finding a brief summary-commentary for this exquisite publication by Fina Birulés, Jaume Casals, Raül Garrigasait, Marta Jorba, Josep Ramoneda, Xita Rubert, and Grupo Planeta Edicions62 and Llibreria Finestres, whom I thank for putting these cards on the table.
Thinking is a unique cognitive process that allows us to analyze, interact, make decisions and find solutions to different situations, without forgetting that without action, thinking is only fruitless intellectuality. It is a process that consumes energy. I am referring to Daniel Kahneman's system 2, slow, analytical, comparative, which is sought with solutions and decisions. It is a system that involves the DMN (default mode network) that includes the prefrontal cortex, the cingulate cortex and the hippocampus, mobilizing dopamine, adrenaline, serotonin, glutamate and naturally the rest of the brain, which on the other hand may have been ahead of its time in giving impulsive, automatic responses that respond more quickly to pleasure and fear. This system 1, fast, accelerated like current life, can be ahead of its time, simulate modernity, and give immediate decisions, but perhaps not the most correct ones, that is not thinking.
Thinking is deciding for yourself (Kant, Montaigne), building your solution, different, surely contradictory to the prevailing culture, dissident and certainly mobilizing a new future. It is the force that reconstructs the new culture, the culture of progress, critical, which we have glimpsed in the Enlightenment and the Renaissance, and which will perhaps turn humanity into a truly evolved species, into sapiens sapiens, with critical species consciousness as Eudald Carbonell and Yuval Noah Harari point out. Not thinking is giving away our brain, it is throwing ourselves into the abyss, into a deep well of involution.
What do you think? This is the most important question, because it is your opinion that we must confront with mine, with that of others, so that in dialogue and contact sparks are born for a new energy, new thoughts, new cultures. Without thinking, we anchor ourselves in a pond that can dry up and take us only to suffocation and nowhere.
Personally, I feel, and I think that we are shipwrecked in a sea of nihilism, comfortable conformism, for having many things, perhaps for this reason, we have abandoned the art of questioning, of dissenting, of reformulating, of rethinking beliefs. This state of lack of #curiosity, and #criticism leads to the absence of new knowledge as Michel Foucault points out, it drags us into slavery, sooner or later you will "say" without knowing why you say it. However, it is so comfortable not to suffer the contempt and the generic look of others (usually the majority) who accept without debate, say without polemizing, speak assuming the dominant trend. The opposite is annoying, they push you aside, you are not accepted. It requires energy and courage.
Nowadays, mobbing is not only in schools, it is in social networks and editorial lines aimed at adults, in the strategies that some companies impose, in the modus operandi of a devouring and hypnotic capitalism that, like Moggli's snake, abducts us and precipitates us into consumerism, beliefs, phrases, and behaviors that are not proper of a free thinker. People say what is politically correct, perhaps without being so.
I cannot, nor do I intend to give many examples, but a few. We have imprisoned the journalist J Assange for denouncing despicable acts of some military personnel. In Catalonia, a referendum was held (democratic, paradoxically illegal, it was only about listening to the feelings of a people) and it was crushed by the forces of law and order. Yesterday I heard the feelings generated by 6 victims, of course Westerners, of Palestinian terrorism, without feeling even a whisper for the more than 60,000 deaths (The Lancet) of people in Palestine. A war in Ukraine, surely plus a move of interests, another one here, and there. We do not think. We do not build true solutions. Any fake paralyzes us without shouting: I do not agree!
Let's go after the companies. Some are run by soulless strategies, by investors who justify creative destruction by simply winning, buying and throwing away. Not oriented towards the intelligent win-win of and for all. Organizations need dissidents, annoying opinions that provide new solutions and ways of proceeding, that incite and invite innovation. I think that what we call our thinking is nothing more than a quick and hasty response towards immediate benefit, not towards the true sustainability of society. Critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability requires adaptive intelligence in thinking, even collaborative thinking flourishes in respect for the thoughts and ideas of teams and individuals. These are the skills of companies that will survive, of course this requires leaders capable of listening and thinking, not just being cogs, foremen, of a hierarchy.
There is a correlation between societies, organizations that think and respect the diversity of thought with progress, GDP, innovation, it is subscribed by Richard Florida, Thomas Piketty, Joseph Stiglitz. I am not scared at all by #AI, but I am very much afraid of the inability to question algorithms that kill, autonomous systems free of legality. I am afraid of the pseudo-humanity that does not think, the lust for control, the forgetfulness of the transcendent purpose as proposed by DPMC Portugal, Beyond Business and Carlos Rey. I am afraid of not thinking that leads to a lack of humanity, to dehumanization, to the totalitarianism of irresponsible power.
We are responsible for the next steps. Not guilty, but responsible.
Your opinion, your arguments, wrong or not, must be expressed like the fragrance of a flower in spring. It is what will save us. Thinking, critical thinking as developed by the Critical Thinking Foundation CTF, or as defended by Klaus Schwab (@World Economic Forum) or Satya Nadela (Microsoft) is time to develop humanistic skills, empathy, adaptability, curiosity that we need to amalgamate with technological ones. We need to think more than ever. We live in a great opportunity.
Thinking makes us human, not thinking is a dangerous path.
More at https://epr-evolutionprogressresults.blogspot.com/search?q=pensamiento
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