Digging a Ditch on the Hill: A Paradigm Shift in Life and Intelligence
The Framework of Columbus’s Egg
Concepts such as Columbus’s egg, the Copernican revolution, and paradigm shift show that changing the underlying premise of our thinking can lead to significant discoveries. This underlying premise of thinking is called a framework. A broader premise of thought is termed a paradigm.
When one comes up with or learns and understands a useful framework, the way they perceive and comprehend things changes according to that framework. Organizing information and knowledge using a new framework can lead to discoveries.
Adopting a new framework to change one’s thought process may seem like a high-level intellectual task. However, once you know and understand a useful framework, it becomes harder to revert to the original way of thinking.
The anecdote of Columbus’s egg mentioned at the beginning is a story about a simple method to stand an egg upright. Everyone tried various methods to stand the unstable spherical egg, but Columbus showed them by cracking its bottom. Some argued that breaking the egg was against the rules, but no such rule existed.
The belief that the egg shouldn’t be broken was everyone’s framework. When Columbus broke the bottom of the egg, many people’s frameworks crumbled. Once they knew the framework that it’s okay to break the egg, everyone could easily come up with ways to stand the egg, and they never reverted to their previous assumptions.
Moreover, this story can be applied as a framework to think about other problems without preconceptions.
Digging a Ditch on the Hill
Imagine a landscape with gentle undulations. Occasionally, rain falls, and water flows. Water tends to flow from higher to lower points. Although it aims for the lowest point, it follows existing rivers. Even if there’s a lower expanse beyond the hill, water finds it difficult to cross the hill, and so it flows along the existing river.
In this image, the framework is like the river, and thoughts are like the flow of water. Many people think along the existing flow without noticing the lowlands beyond the hill.
Discovering new frameworks, like Columbus’s egg or the Copernican shift, is akin to digging a ditch on this hill. Initially, it’s a narrow and shallow ditch, but as water flows through it, it can flow to lower areas more quickly, unveiling new vistas.
Every time rain falls and water flows through that ditch, the ditch erodes, becoming deeper and broader. If the terrain is steep, it might eventually become a bigger river than the existing one.
Those who first discover this ditch are adventurers aiming for different destinations, needing foresight and intuition. While not everyone can emulate this, once someone digs it, others can easily change the flow of water by digging similar ditches.
Self-Amplification and Energy Minimization
The expanding ditch indicates a mechanism of self-amplification. The ditch attracts water flow, and the flow widens the ditch. The expanded ditch then attracts even more flow. This is self-reinforcing.
Water flowing to steeper terrains is for energy minimization.
Objects at a higher altitude can produce energy by falling and thus can be seen as possessing potential energy, called gravitational potential energy. The higher they are, the more potential energy they have.
Water flows from high to low points. This can be explained as a movement towards minimizing energy. The reason water flows towards steeper areas can be interpreted as such.
Flow of Thought
Digging a ditch on the hill corresponds to coming up with or understanding a useful framework. Thinking along that framework naturally enhances its presence in one’s mind. This can lead to faster solutions or new discoveries, which will attract and reinforce the thought flow.
Our brain activity is known to use relatively significant amounts of energy. Hence, finding meaningful answers with minimal thought is preferable.
Using a useful framework allows for thinking with less energy, which conserves energy essential for human survival. Thus, it’s believed our brains are naturally structured to flow thoughts towards useful frameworks.
Digital Thinking and Analog Thinking
I conveniently call the approach of clearly analyzing things and building thought in a logical and deterministic manner “digital thinking.” Conversely, the method of intuitively grasping the ambiguities of things and delving into thought non-deterministically while seeking balance is what I call “analog thinking.”
For problem-solving, both digital and analog thinking are often required. This holds true whether it’s a modest daily problem or a large organizational or societal issue.
To use resources and time effectively for the best solution, a clear analysis through digital thinking is essential. On the other hand, many problems have multifaceted characteristics, including various requirements, constraints, opportunities, and risks. For instance, let’s say one hour of work can reduce stress for a person. Whether it’s worth implementing or if that hour should be used for something else can’t be logically evaluated unless there’s a measure of value. It would depend on various situations. Hence, analog thinking, which relies on intuition and sensibility, is also essential.
Lakes, Marshes, and Wetlands
When likened to the flow of water, the flow of ditches and rivers is akin to digital thinking. Even if one thinks repeatedly, it usually flows in the same direction, and if it’s a well-defined river, it rarely overflows its banks. “1 + 1” always flows through the river of addition to reach the delta of “2”. If given knowledge that humans need food and that Socrates is a human, one can understand, by traversing the river of syllogism, that Socrates requires food.
On the other hand, analog thinking corresponds to lakes, marshes, and wetlands. They spread out over flat areas without clear lows. New water entering these areas may remain for a while before flowing out through some river. When repeated, it’s not guaranteed to exit from the same place, and it may flow out through multiple locations. Sometimes it might remain indefinitely. From the outside, one can’t see, but within there might be very profound depths, which one might eventually reach.
The final resting place of the water becomes the goal of that thought.
Digital thinking merely flows and cannot become a goal in itself. Only analog thinking can determine if that place is a suitable goal. It’s okay to have multiple goals. Whether it’s desirable for water to accumulate in these places can only be judged subjectively, based on intuition.
If it’s not desirable, one might attempt various things like blocking the river flow, digging a new ditch, increasing the amount of water, and so on. Through such efforts, one strives to ensure the water reaches its most desired places.
On the Quest for the Origins of Life
I am engaging in a philosophical exploration of the origins of life. I believe that the chemical evolution inherent in the origin of life bears many similarities to the evolution of human knowledge. Consequently, I am adopting an approach that seeks to understand the evolution of human knowledge and cognitive mechanisms, then eliminate phenomena unique to intelligence, to elucidate the elements that might also pertain to the mechanism of chemical evolution during the origin of life.
The concepts of digital thinking, analog thinking, and the metaphor of flowing water, I believe, can be applied to the realm of the origins of life.
In the chemical evolution of organic matter, basic simple organic molecules combine through chemical reactions to form new organic molecules. These newly formed organic molecules are products of chance and might not necessarily continue to be produced consistently. However, if a produced organic molecule promotes its own production process, then its formation becomes more likely. This is a self-reinforcing phenomenon through a feedback loop.
Application to the Quest for the Origins of Life
The flow of a river corresponds to the flow of energy in the origins of life. Instead of rain, chemical reactions driven by external energies like geothermal heat, solar heat, and sunlight form this flow of energy, akin to the flow of a river.
Finding a synthesis of organic matter equates to digging a channel. In thinking, one consciously seeks and digs this channel, but in the origins of life, we can’t assume such conscious endeavor. Instead, a vast variety of organic matter combinations on Earth is tested over immense spans of time.
This can be likened to random notches appearing at the edges of flowing rivers, ponds, swamps, or wetlands. If there’s a slight slope beyond a notch, water may seep through, and with some luck, a new stream could form. This indicates a break that was favorable for the flow of water or energy.
If the initial terrain doesn’t have paths for such streams, no matter how much time passes, they won’t be found. However, over time, new streams intertwine and form a complex flow, evolving and advancing. Essentially, the original terrain had an intricate layout that allowed life to emerge. This terrain is vast and corresponds to the patterns of organic matter synthesis.
Lakes, swamps, and wetlands represent gatherings of newly formed organic molecules. Here, various combinations occur, and to find subsequent streams, notches are randomly made at their edges. Repeatedly, water flows to lower points, creating lakes, swamps, and wetlands. Lower levels signify the creation of more complex organic matter.
In Conclusion: The Landscape Revealed by Organic Terrains
In normal physical terrains or inorganic terrains, water eventually flows to the sea, where it disperses chaotically.
However, in the terrain space of organic matter synthesis patterns, energy seems to continually dig deeper and deeper. As it delves deeper, not only does energy efficiency improve, but order also forms. Both aim for energy minimization, but whether it’s dispersion or order, inorganic and organic terrains present entirely different landscapes.
Not just for organic matter, but the terrains for the synthesis patterns of genetic material, knowledge, academic evolution, and cultural evolution are all similarly organic, forming order while evolving in a complex and diverse manner.
