First Blog

Impossible is a vague word. Yet, we use it all the time.  It has several meanings, and it’s best to be aware of which you are using next time you evoke the word. ·         Impossible currently? – As in a disease uncurable today but maybe not next year. Rabies, polio, tuberculosis, and measles, once impossible are now cured. ·         Impossible logically? - As in some kind of paradox that has no resolution. The barber paradox is just one example. ·         Impossible problem? – As in some problems unsolvable and no hint to solve. Many in mathematics and physics are so numerous, it would take a book to explain them. ·         Impossible situation? – As in a real-life situation that cannot occur. How about the flying elephant, unicorn, and all manner of Utopias? ·         Impossible project? – As in a wicked problem that may have multiple solutions. Just try to build a beltway around a large city and you’ll see a zillion problems with no clear starting point and multiple solutions. ·    

 What is the main reason to take a vacation? To leave your problems behind. To simply relax from the cursed conflicts back home. To seek internal peace of mind - like for a whole day or two.  If the vacation becomes a problem, it's not a vacation. If you take your problems on vacation, it's not a vacation. If you only see problems on vacation, it's not a vacation.  If family issues become problems on vacation, it's not a vacation.

The Eight Stages of Understanding . Problem-solving is a broad category of intellectual activities. It requires knowledge of multiple sorts as outlined below. It is part of the pyramid of understanding, but a seriously important part. However, most of us can have successful careers having only problem-solving skills. Higher-order understanding is more significant in the world of theories and ideas, the meaning of solutions, and how they fit into the intellectual scheme. The list below is reminiscent of Bloom’s Taxonomy, but refined for our purposes. One of our tools for problem-solving, used by all, is at the very base. One can’t know everything, and we’re never protected from it. Thus ignorance, and how we deal with it, is in everyone’s world. ·         Ignorance:  lacking knowledge or awareness. ·         Awareness: awareness that there is something unknown or not understood. ·         Knowledge: acquisition of factual information and concepts related to the subject. ·         Compre

  Can We Ever Solve Every Problem? G Donald Allen Introduction. The fundamental problem of this section is to consider reasons why we have not yet reached the point in human evolution where we can solve all of our problems. This seems to have a popular origin in the Sherlock Holmes film, “Dressed to Kill [1] ,” where Dr. Watson, expresses the notion, “There is not a problem the mind can set that the mind cannot solve.” In the next section, we show quite the opposite. Some of the greatest of unsolvable problems are related to brain capacity, evolution, conceptuality, prediction, scale, vagueness, complexity, and more. These present roadblocks to problem-solving, and form the background for many almost unsolvable problems. There are multiple reasons, by no means the smallest class of them being the so-called impossible problems to be considered in another chapter. As well, we need to discuss further methodologies for solutions to come in the next chapter. Here are a few examples,

Surviving AI. The people smart enough to ask the right questions will survive the AI invasion. This implies the need to read the AI answers and determine what’s missing. Or is the answer relevant, or is the answer biased, or is the answer wrong? So, don’t throw away those books just yet. Keep sharp. Keep connected. Keep reading. Know what you’re doing. Know what’s important. Know what the problem truly is. Know how to solve problems. In general, up your AI survival ante. Remember: If you don’t know it’s there, you won’t know what to ask about. AI is not substitute intelligence , it is after all only artificial and just supplementary.

                                               Illeism – The Lost Art of Problem Solving Introduction .  Often in the throes of problem-solving, we get emotionally involved or otherwise locked in. We want a solution, but subconsciously we want a particular solution and dwell on that outcome, to lasting frustration. When this happens, we don’t talk to ourselves asking, “What’s wrong here?” Not asking nor having a willingness to ask such basic questions is called cognitive freezing as opposed to flexible thinking . Overcoming this requires the objectivity of self-reflection, that is looking at the problems from the outside. Overcoming this requires an alternative to self-involvement, no matter how compelling. Witness if you will, the greatest of geniuses have been willing to ask and look for alternatives, which are among the hallmarks of genius. The most famous of all was Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who through his thought experiments explored new worlds of physical explanations, imp

This exposition may seem a little odd, even weird. We are not advocating our planet is sentient, but that its layout has evolved to what has worked for billions of years.   Every year, many species become extinct, simply by their inability to survive. New species emerge. These are facts. In a sense, we are guests of our planet, which has very strict rules for survival. It will do what planets do everywhere. It survives and responds to threats. Fires burn out because it limits the extent of forests. If, for example, the planet was lush with forestation throughout, a single fire could  extinguish forests on a continental level.  Species die out because they destroy their own food supplies. Storms fade out because they cannot sustain their energy to continue. Plagues of locusts cease for lack of food, though they would destroy all life, themselves included, given a continuous food supply. Volcanos stop erupting because the exploding pressures are exhausted. Earthquakes end because of tect