THINKING

Our senses take in information from reality and transmit it to other areas of the body. This information can be from within our body, or from our external environment. Most of this information ends up in the brain.

Thinking is the brain processing the information. We use our brain to make sense of the world, so that we can best decide how to respond to it. Thinking is the analyzing of the information and the control to act.

Primitive nervous systems could handle limited sensations and reactions to them. Nervous systems evolved to develop more complexity and capacity. These improvements increased ability to survive in more complex and challenging environments.

Complex nervous systems utilize more energy resources. Easier survival meant that more energy could be devoted to increasing brain and thinking abilities. As we became more capable, we could afford even more capabilities.

Our brains are not capable of containing all of reality. But, with increased complexity and capacity, we could contain more of it. To save energy and capacity, we developed symbols to represent the sensations. So, our brain contains symbols.

We categorize and arrange these symbols in relationships to give us a picture of reality. The picture is also a symbol, it is not the actual reality. It symbolizes what we interpret to be reality. We hold that picture in our brain. That is a memory.

As memory capacity increased, we were able to hold a more complete picture of reality and the interactions of the things around us. We compare and contrast sensations. We identify things around us and give them additional symbols. We categorize them. Sensations grew into labels.

We developed more and more of an understanding of what is going on around us. Our reality picture became a more complex map. The map became a three dimension representation.

With increasing memory, we are able to see how things change over time. We compare them to what they used to be, so we could determine cause and effect relationships. Our reality map became a 4 dimension representation that included time. The symbols are now ideas that represent everything that we have labeled, as well as their cause and effect relationships.

Memory developed and we could hold more complex ideas. We knew if we did this, that would happen. Our reality map became more complex. Memory stores the entire reality map.

The reality map is part of reality, but is not reality itself. All ideas are symbols that are an over simplification of reality. Reality is always more complex.

The brain uses our reality map to determine what we should do. The brain controls the body. It processes sensations and then determines what the appropriate reaction should be. The simple if this, then do this evolved. It became if this, and this, but not this, then do this specific thing, in this specific way, at this specific time.

We do not have the capacity to think everything out all the time. You cannot go through life thinking that you have to take a breath every so often. You cannot consciously think about your balance and foot placement for every step that you take. Some of the thinking is automated to save energy and capacity. Then automation became more complex.

Automated thinking means automated actions.

Our brains built up by adding one layer of control over another. Primitive memory became instinct. Some sensations from internal systems combined with some external sensations in automatic programming called emotions. Emotions are not always right, and sometimes new sensations occur, so we have higher brain centers that can think and react.

Thinking does not just occur at one level. It is occurring at all levels, at all times. The higher brain levels have more control, because that gives a survival/evolutionary advantage.

Thinking processed at the conscious level are thoughts. When we have a thought, we have a picture in our mind that represents a partial view of what we think is reality. A more complex thought is an idea.

All thinking is in symbols. Conscious thought is limited by language. The words are the symbols representing thoughts. We think consciously in words. You can't think about something without having a label for it.

We have to have the vocabulary to define the reality to be able to consciously think about it. The larger your vocabulary, the more accurately you can describe something. The smarter your dog is, the more commands he can understand.

We can transmit ideas to others with language. This is communication. It is a transmission of symbols, but the other needs to have the same meaning to the word that you do. They have to understand your language.

Language is not all words. You can transmit ideas in other ways also. Such as body posture and movements. You get cues as to what others are thinking the way their body acts. Children know what the looks their parents give them mean. I know what my wife's sigh means. She knows what my grunt means.

You can even transmit ideas to other species once you both have an understanding. You can direct a horse with your knees, you can command a dolphin with your hand, your cat can demand to be fed and petted.

Subconscious thinking doesn't require language. You can have feelings and emotions without being able to talk about them. That is why it is hard to put feelings and emotions into words. It is only required to put them into words if you want others to understand them.

Subconscious thinking happens by definition without you being aware of it. If you are aware of it, it is conscious thought. All of our lower level automatic programming happens without our awareness. So our automatic reactions happen without awareness. Sometimes you become aware after the action and say: Why did I do that?

As our brain capabilities have increased, our reality maps have become more complex. We will never be able to hold all of reality inside of our brains, so our reality map can never be complete. We cannot be all seeing, and all knowing, for all of time.

Each person can only hold so much in their brain. You can develop and add to your reality map to give you better understanding. The more you understand, the more capable you are.

Critical thinking involves the thinking that is most critical to us. Critical thinkers break it down to what is most important. They use all the information available to best determine reality and what we should do.

Critical thinking includes being able to be critical of your own thinking by rationally evaluating it. Improving your thinking as you gain more information. The brain tries to become more accurate at it's reality map, predictions, and actions.

The better you understand the relationship of everything, the better your reality map. The better the map, the better understanding you have of reality.

The main goal of critical thinking is better foresight. Being able to predict the future better, so you can better interact. If you know all the cause and effect relationships, you will know what to do to get the outcome that you want.

You make a plan to do something to get the outcome that you want. If you can think, you can plan. The better plan, the better outcome.

The ability to think is a tool that we can use to make our lives better. Some have sharper tools than others, but you should use what you have in the best ways that you can.

One of the best ways that we can improve our lives is improving our thinking. Thinking is a skill that can be developed and improved on by anyone.

We should all do the best that we can with what we have to make our lives better.