Skip to main content

The Logic of Discovery

 

Dream States

At this point, with most of the well-defined problem-solving techniques explored (in a previous post), we delve into the great known unknown, the mind’s secret weapon, the dream.  Therein lies a power most certainly unknown. Let’s begin at the movies.

What happens when you watch an intense movie late at night?  Your mind is absorbed in the pictures, dialogue, and sounds of the film.  Your mind still dwells on these, computing, digesting, and ruminating on all of these even into sleep. In your dreams, your subconscious mind recalls all these thoughts but convolutes them as only dreams can. Maybe you wake up with yourself a part of the distortion. Maybe, you make it through the night of restless sleep but your wake troubled. Dreams fade quickly, happily.  Has this happened to you?  To me, many times. As a pre-teen, my dad took me to the movie, The Man with the Atom Brain.  The imagery and plot of that movie stayed with me for years.

Welcome to one aspect of creative thinking, invention, and conceptual revelation.  How’s that?

Let’s reshape the movie episode. Let’s consider you’ve been working on some issues/problems/situations intensely for days or weeks – right up to bedtime. Haven’t we all? It’s the same story. Your thoughts before bedtime weave their way into your dreams. You wake up the next morning.  This morning you resume your work, but something different happens.  There appears a new idea. It might work, you think! Where it came from is best described as “out of the blue.”

Welcome to the world of discovery! What is described does happen. It’s happened to many, me, and maybe you. This is the power of incubation of thought and the dreaming mind. It is not by formula, and it’s not by logic. It reveals powers of mind unquantifiable and scarcely unqualifiable. It happens rarely, but it happens.  Alas, more often than not, your new idea is no better than any precedent. But how many an ancient hunter woke up one morning with a new approach to their craft? Even the great Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834), Lyons weaver extraordinaire, perhaps woke one morning in 1852 with the concept of the punched card programming of looms. It revolutionized weaving – surviving to this day. (They are now electronic.)

Nonetheless, the mind is far more powerful, though decidedly unpredictable, than any assessment has yet shown. The marvel of insight, even through dreams, is essential, fundamental, and without valuation. Logic is but one solution tool, often transcended by the full powers of your mind. Dream-state solutions are so difficult to classify as a method, they cannot be put into our general categories.  They are an essential part of the mind’s toolkit but are rather unreliable. Different from Einstein’s thought experiment, they enjoy no controlled intellectual guidance.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please Comment.

Popular posts from this blog

UNCERTAINTY IS CERTAIN

  Uncertainty is Certain G. Donald Allen 12/12/2024 1.       Introduction . This short essay is about uncertainty in people from both secular and nonsecular viewpoints. One point that will emerge is that randomly based uncertainty can be a driver for religious structure. Many groups facing uncertainty about their future are deeply religious or rely on faith as a source of comfort, resilience, and guidance. The intersection of uncertainty and religiosity often stems from the human need to find meaning, hope, and stability in the face of unpredictable or challenging circumstances. We first take up the connections of uncertainty to religion for the first real profession, farming, noting that hunting has many similar uncertainties. Below are groups that commonly lean on religious beliefs amidst uncertainty.   This short essay is a follow-up to a previous piece on certainty (https://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2024/12/certainty-is-also-emotion.html). U...
Post a Comment
Read more

CERTAINTY IS ALSO AN EMOTION

  Certainty is also a Feeling Certainty is often viewed as a mental state tied to knowledge and confidence, but it also functions as a feeling with distinct emotional and physiological components. While it arises from cognitive processes, certainty also has a subjective and emotional quality that makes it more than just a rational judgment. It provides a sense of assurance and security that shapes human experience in profound ways. Emotional Dimension . At its core, certainty evokes emotions that influence how we perceive and interact with the world. When someone feels certain, they often experience relief, comfort, or empowerment. These emotions are particularly strong when uncertainty or doubt is resolved, offering a sense of closure. For example, solving a complex problem or having a belief validated by evidence brings not just intellectual satisfaction but also emotional reassurance. Subjectivity. Certainty is inherently personal and subjective. It depends on individual...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lies, Deceit, and the National Agenda

The world you grew up in is no more.  The world of reasonable honesty and reasonable lies has been replaced by abject dishonesty and blatant lies. Lies.  Yes. People have always told them.  You have told them; so have I.   We need lies; they are a foundational structure of social living.  They both deceive and protect.  Children tell them to their parents to avoid consequences, like punishment.  Adults tell them to their bosses, to enhance their position and/or avoid consequences of poor performance.  Our bosses tell them to their boards to suggest business is good, the project is on target, or the detractors are wrong.  The boards tell them to shareholders to protect their own credibility and most importantly, stock values.   Our politicians tell lies to their constituents, though sometimes innocently with them not actually knowing much more than they've been told.  They enhance their positio...
2 comments
Read more