Article Series: The Nature Of Thought

We are made of thought. All of our ideas are made of thought. Thought is a big deal. So what is thought?

Greetings fellow thinker. I hope you’re thinking happy thoughts today.

This post begins an article series on the nature of thought. Given that all of us are made of thought psychologically, and given that all the ideas, beliefs, values and assumptions that make up the foundation of our lives are also made of thought, the nature of thought seems like rather a big deal.

So how does thought work? How does the nature of thought impact the human experience, and the world we create around us? How does the nature of thought influence science, religion, politics, ideologies, our beliefs, opinions, choices and personalities?

The Medium Of Thought

As the title suggests, this article series will be less about analyzing the content of thought (this idea vs. that idea) and more about the medium of thought itself. What are the properties of this information management medium, how does it work, and how does the nature of thought influence both all of the ideas it produces, and those who think them?

Again, not only are all of our ideas made of thought, we ourselves, the thinker, the “me”, is made of thought as well. So whatever the nature of the medium of thought may be, it should have a profound influence upon the human experience, and is thus worthy of investigation.

AI Inspired

I’ve been writing about the nature of thought for some time, and was inspired to do so again here on TannyTalk due to the education I’ve been receiving from artificial intelligence journalists Alberto Romero and Gary Marcus.

AI is clearly a big deal, and getting bigger all the time. AI seems poised to have a substantial, or even revolutionary, impact upon our culture. The nature of thought will have a profound influence on AI, just as a human parent is a primary influence upon it’s human child. So the hope here is that by understanding ourselves a little better we might also come to a deeper understanding of AI and our future.

Thinking About Thought

This can be a pretty abstract topic, so if I haven’t made something clear enough, please feel free to present questions and challenges in the comments. Where possible I’ll try to include real world exercises you can do to help you find your own insights in to that which you are made of.

It will probably help if you read the articles in this series in the order which they are presented, so I’ll include navigation links at the top and bottom of each article to assist with that.

So let’s get started. What is this thing that we’re made of? How does it work?

Continue To Next Article

Article Series Table Of Contents

---

The Nature Of Thought - Part 1 - That which is one becomes two.

---

The Nature Of Thought - Part 2 - The divisive nature of thought is the source of our genius, and our insanity.

---

The Nature Of Thought - Part 3 - Suffering is made of thought.

---