jordan on thinking

jordan (green)hall (2018) On Thinking and Simulated Thinking

via dante-gabryell monson fb share [https://medium.com/deep-code/on-thinking-and-simulated-thinking-5e434e92cf86]:

The problem that I am noticing in the contemporary environment is that we seem to have run aground on a very dangerous reef: we have replaced authentic thinking (a fluid use of both “explore mode” and “habit mode”) with a simulation of thinking. A form of “habit mode” that represents itself as the totality of thinking.

Simulated thinking shows up as thinking, takes itself as thinking and, armed with a vast and often nuanced script of pre-defined signals and ‘appropriate’ responses, even resembles thinking. But it is not. It is habit, not learning. And, as a consequence, it is completely incapable of creatively responding to (changes in) actual reality.

Broadly speaking, we have become stuck in “simulated thinking”.

This is extremely dangerous. In fact, I’d like to invite you to consider that this might be the central problem of the moment. To be sure, a whole lot of the ideology floating about these days is a mess. And we will have to deal with that as well. But without thinking we can’t even really take the first step. We are trapped using old tools to solve new problems. And that can’t end well.

or perhaps rather.. ongoing wrong problems

But, and here is precisely where things start to go wrong, it is possible in some cases to move from “learning” to “being taught.”

any form of people telling other people what to do.. any form of m\a\p

Do this long enough and your native capacities begin to atrophy. And in our modern environment, this is how we end up spending nearly all of our time.

wilde not-us law – other people’s thoughts

Unlike nature, which is fundamentally “complex”, every game can be gamed. After only a little while, you get a feel for how it works and then begin the process of turning it into habit.

The developmental environment of broadcast teaches that nuanced emotions and feelings (the primal toolkit of thinking) are largely irrelevant. That your ability to skillfully sense and respond to the world has little to no effect — and that the correct (only?) use of your agency is to select from a pre-fab menu of possible choices (what shows are on? what is my favorite show?) and then to respond appropriately (laugh when the laugh track tells you that funny happened, cower when the sound track tells you that scary is happening, change the channel when you are bored).

yeah that.. spinach or rock ness of finite set of choices.. decision making is unmooring us law.. we need to try curiosity over decision making

This brings us back to school. School is, by and large, formally broadcast. It is a rare student who doesn’t learn (and, sadly, this lesson is probably an example of real learning) that their job is not to think. It is to listen attentively to find out what the pre-fab set of inputs are and then to carve the correct responses into a nice habit. Just the thing to get an A+ in a 60 minute exam. Quickly. Reliably.

yes that.. but actually.. all of life is.. ie: maté parenting law.. graeber parent/care law.. et al..

And, while we are at it, how about the social environment itself?

The result is that precious few of our social relationships (particularly during childhood and adolescence) are generative of real learning and thinking. Instead, most of our time is spent “gaming social groups”. Figuring out how to “fit in” by becoming sensitive to “good opinion” and how to craft and simulate an identity that works for the ephemeral social group that we happen to be swimming with. When you have reached the point that “keeping it real” is itself a performative simulation, you have a pretty good idea where you are.

maté trump law.. brown belonging law.. and the how we need to org around legit needs (a&a)

We are born thinking. And then we are immersed like Achilles in an environment that is omnipresently pushing us to optimize for simulated thinking.

not yet scrambled.. diving into sea world.. hari rat park law et al

Here it is. Simulated thinking works. For a while.. For a while, it can make things pretty easy — and can superficially show up as a “golden age”.

The problem is that “habit mode” can’t adapt to changing circumstances. 

am thinking adapt ness is a form of habit/simulation as well.. we assume that how legit free people would act on the world.. what if that’s too passive/responsive/refusalish.. what if the changing we need comes from us.. from find the bravery to change your mind.. from the it is me ness..

need 1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature ie: tech as it could be

imagine if we listened to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & used that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)

So, why aren’t we rediscovering thinking? We are.

Consider, for example, the way that attention is moving from the “legitimate” arbiters of good opinion to odd and unusual people like Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Joe Rogan, Dave Rubin, Bret and Eric Weinstein. Something is happening, but it is going slowly.

oi.. to me that’s an ie of simulated thinking.. that listening to people.. is thinking.. it’s still finite set of choices.. it’s not curiosity over decision making.. so.. same song

Anyone who chooses to can re-learn learning. Not without effort, and until there is a critical mass of other folks taking the same journey, not without social consequences. But it can be done.

(to me).. imagine a turtle ness and the need for a legit global re\set

humanity needs a leap.. to get back/to simultaneous spontaneity .. simultaneous fittingness.. everyone in sync..

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