Metacognition: Kite Runner

“Imagine people's minds, their psychology and thought as spheres. Imagine that each of these spheres is filled with liquid, much like a water balloon. This liquid resembles the myriad of thoughts and opinions every person contains. Now as humans are inherently social creatures, imagine that each of these spheres has a gravitational pull, representing this desire to be social. But of course, as the spheres become closer, they are put under increasing amounts of pressure. Thus they must maintain equilibrium in which not only is the gravity in place, but there is not too much pressure. This idea can also be seen in the ‘Hedgehog's dilemma’ constructed by Schopenhauer. While any contact at all can result in one of the spheres affecting another, the closer the spheres are, the greater the volume of the effect.” –Me, on the mind

Now, let’s apply this to my thinking process. First off, I am not a god, and thus my ideas do not spring forth from nothingness. As I am assigned to think of something by my brain, I start pulling any relevant (and sometimes irrelevant) pre-existing knowledge or observations. As these ideas and thoughts start piling on each other, the gravity of the creation becomes greater (my mind is trying rather hard, to figure it out, so it’s pulling all sorts of thoughts in). Eventually, something happens. No one is quite sure what it is, whether the pressure is too much, if there is some chemical reaction or some greater realization, but what happens is that this concentration of ideas explodes outwards. Now, within my own sphere, my mind, this explosion has endless bounds. Are all ideas without bounds? Resulting from this explosion, things begin to form. And, maybe, someday, life will come into existence.

Of course all of this only matters if the person that is supposed to be receiving this idea understands it. In order to do that, they have to be able see its composition in its fullest. And while they may find more meaning in a particular idea, they will never see it the way I intended. It’s nearly impossible. The probability of such a thing happening is the same probability of me spontaneously appearing on the other side of a wall (and it IS possible). To communicate the entirety of an idea is to communicate your full identity.

“Your environment, your entire life's experience is you and is a product of you, returning to affect the identity of others while they continue to affect you. But how do you come to understand this concept? … It must be impossible. The only way to do so would be to have the boundaries of the spheres … deteriorate, so that humans could actually truly know each other. But then, would we not lose or identity, our individual selves? Thus, by definition, ‘who’ cannot possibly be articulated from one person to another. If it was possible, there would be no identity to speak of.” -Me

Best of Week (Margot's Kite Runner Comment)

The most insightful point of the week was brought up by Margot regarding Kite Runner and tea. The comment references pg. 197 "dropped three sugar cubes in my tea." and pg. 225 "blackest tea I'd had in years". This is a metaphor for Amir's ignorance, obviously. It also connects with how he has, time and time again, tried to deal with his problems by burying them. He tries to bury his past by fleeing to America, just as he tries to bury the bitter tea in sugar. Of course, once the full magnitude of the truth is revealed to him by Rahim Khan, he's drinking the blackest tea ever. Wonderful craft by Hosseini.

This really relates to Life of Pi, in which Pi tried to ignore his own brutailty by burying the truth using "Richard Parker". Last year, we discussed at length the "good story" as compared to the "better story".

"Pi ran away from his problems, from himself. That is why he complains of no clusure. This is why 'Richard Parker still preys on his mind.' Instead of confronting and resolving his problems he ran away, making his past actions the predator and himself the prey. In my opinion reason and reality are far safer bets than that which is comforting for the psyche. Like with Oedipus, truth needs to be realized to minimize loss in any situation."

-Me, on Life of Pi

I feel much is the same for Amir, he failed to have closure with Hassan, and this is why he is plagued with guilt and remorse. Not until he confronts his past is he able to obtain closure and feel at terms with himself. This is why he returns to Afghanistan, this is why he writes this "memoir". And what do we learn from this? We learn that Baba is right, when you lie, you steal someone's right to truth and that is one of the worst sins. The truth is necessary for one's life to be meaningful.

Carry It Forward- Memoria ex Machina

On the nature of memory. There is no soul (not bound and defined by matter). Everything must have some physical manifestation. Our emotions, our thoughts, our memories. How are these manifested in our brains? Moreover, how is that this physical storage of memory effected by the nature of the memory itself. It is rather well known that memories with strong riveting emotions tend to last longer. But why? Are they branded in the mind so that they take time to fade? Is it an evolutionary survival attribute? It makes sense that organisms should remember life-threatening situations so that they can continue to survive. Are periodic and habitual actions thus also saved, like in the migratory flight of birds and the periodic tinkering with an alarm clock?

While we speak of physical manifestations how is intelligence manifested? Do smarter people perceive things as being slower, have a faster rate of thinking? If a smart person saw things through a stupid person's eyes would walking appear to be running? The important thing is how can we find how this speed of thought is determined within the brain. Can we engineer how smart we are? Can we give some humans a near infinite speed of thinking, so that they have near infinite amounts of perceived (by them) time to solve humanities problems? Can we make ourselves more intelligent?