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