UniVerses

Cogito

My mind’s abuzz with chemical reactions:
electrons’ cryptic choreography
translated via nuclear interactions
that guide their orbits’ shared topography.
What catalyst provides the best condition
to coax these molecules to intertwine?
What process guides scientific intuition?
How does the mind interpolate design?
The possibilities defy imagination
but one provides the optimal solution
a hunch resounds a neural plex vibration
a feeling formed synaptic distribution.
Experience and learning integrate
to guide us when we contemplate.

What are ideas? We express them in words, but are they distinct from words?

Ideas are forces that shape the earth, drive buildings and space flight. But what are they?

In Physics we often analyze through a mathematical framework that uses no words, and often have trouble translating the results back into words that are intelligible. Thus language, like math, is a prism for articulating thoughts, but it is not thought.

When we imagine a relationship between concepts, is that an idea? Some ideas "work" while others do not. How do we "know" which are more promising than others? Clearly some people "have better instincts" than others, meaning they are more likely to be correct, but how?

Speech is an abstraction, linking a sound with an object. When we string together words in a structure of a sentence and sentences in a paragraph we are building relationships between nouns and verbs, and those constructs become extrapolations. The ability to extrapolate is a key element of thought.

Through history people who describe the creative process often express it as though they are tapping into some subconscious source. Sometimes the string of connections skips some intermediate steps, which seems confusing until the missing links are elucidated. This intuition into the relationships we call insight.

We assume the description of a "source' is purely metaphorical. Perhaps there is a process analogous to "tunneling" where we connect with ideas and knowledge outside ourselves. What is theheart of intelligence?

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