Problem-Solving - Obsession

Problem-Solving - Obsession

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. Henry David Thoreau, Walden, "Economy," 1854.

 

Introduction. Many facets of problem-solving are well-known and understood. They range from vast knowledge to critical thinking, to intuition, to insight, and to experience. Today, we add a characteristic, though an important ingredient. It’s more like a condiment-to-food, or a sauce to a delicacy. It’s needed though sometimes not essential. It is mostly helpful with big problems, difficult problems, or imossible problems. It is the quality of obsession. Each of us has experienced obsession in one form or another and is often relieved when the problem is solved. One literally leaves oneself becoming an engine driven to resolve the matter. Obsession is an all-consuming state of mind, possessive, jealous of distractions, and impervious to interruptions. Thankfully, it passes as the problem is resolved.

Freeman Dyson. The great physicist Freeman Dyson* (1923-2020) observes, “If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.”

 

Figure 1 Freeman Dyson

Ultimately, and Dyson knew this, it was all about solving the problem, damnation down the road not being a factor. Individuals, groups, teams, and even large corporations can become obsessed with solving the problem, oblivious to the consequences. Few ponder moral, ethical, or even financial consequences at the moment. It is best to consider a few examples, but there are thousands.

 Obsession. We know, of course, about Thomas Edison, who between 1878 and 1880 tried at least three thousand filament possibilities to bring the light bulb into existence. Steve Jobs had a pure obsession, driving his teams to the maximum, to develop his Apple computer. The large team at Los Alamos worked tirelessly to develop various components of the A-Bomb, though flying high above was a chorus of distinguished voices** warning of the possible consequences. Ford Motors became obsessed with building the EV, only later to discover it was an unwanted child of innovation – at the cost of billions. The entire European continent remains obsessed with EVs, and now faces a possible future of foreign dependency as well as dealing with mountains of highly toxic, heavy, and useless old lithium batteries. 

The latest obsession is ongoing and all around us. It concerns AI and Autonomous Weapons.  The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to the creation of autonomous weapons, which can make decisions and engage targets without human intervention. The danger is easy to see as the deployment of such weapons raises ethical and security concerns, including the potential for unintended escalation in conflicts, loss of human control over lethal decisions, and the risk of AI-driven warfare becoming uncontrollable. The obsession with AI-driven military superiority could lead to a new arms race with unpredictable, dangerous, and even unknowable consequences.

Though less dangerous, AI and algorithms are responsible for much trading on the stock markets. A bit of news comes out, which is read instantly by AI indicating a level of risk. Then the algorithms execute huge trades and within a few minutes of the news, the market can drop hundreds of points. This single example illustrates the pure obsession of hundreds of corporations to harness AI to a spectrum of ends, many financial, but many with unknown long-term consequences.

Conclusion. Historically, problem-solving obsession can lead to the greatest good or the most horrific ends. Nonetheless, because obsession opens every mental channel to the task of a single problem, it is often a necessary factor for solving big problems. Obsession is the ultimate form of getting involved. Both Thoreau and Dyson make valid points about the negative aspects of toys, but both missed the nature and dominion of obsession in bringing them to reality. However, there’s no doubt (to me) that both spent some time in a state of obsession, the handmaiden of genius.  As a word of caution, obsession has a dangerous aspect. It can take over your entire being, never to release you, even if you solve the problem. In that way, it can become addictive because it creates a cycle of reward, compulsion, and reinforcement that mirrors the mechanisms of substance addiction – right down to the release of dopamine. You may be familiar with the dopamine release experienced by long-distance runners – another type of obsession. You become emotionally and cognitively attached to the obsessive mindset, leading to a loss of control and negative consequences in your life. The literature contains an extensive body of work on the addiction-from-obsession factor. In brief, sometimes you need obsession, but you don’t want it to take up permanent residence.

*Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, 1979. (Columbia). Freeman John Dyson (1923-2020), FRS, was a British-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his work in quantum field theory, mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and engineering.

** This chorus was directed by Albert Einstein, who even wrote a letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt urging him to cancel the Manhattan (A-Bomb) Project. Note that Einstein himself probably became obsessive through his thought experiments to develop relativity theory. 

©2024, G Donald Allen