POW is a thought augmentation system that uses simple software to augment a user’s thought processes. This article will describe some of the potential benefits of using the system.
This is not a researched article on the topic of thought augmentation systems. As a matter of fact, at the time this post (October 2018), a Google search of “thought augmentation” does not return any results except for this website. On the assumption that the POW system is in fact unique, we will begin by defining the term as used on this site.
Thought augmentation is a way of producing better thought, not by attempting to directly impart thought or knowledge but by systematically facilitating a user’s skill in creatively producing original thought. In this article, the emphasis is primarily on the inputs to the thought process. The system is useful in all modes of thought but for illustrative purposes this article focuses primarily on social perception and problem solving. For a variety of reasons, including competitive advantage, this system (or one like it) will, in the near future, be used by every thinking person.
It is reasonable to assume the following, based on the presupposition that thought augmentation as described on this website is achievable:
It will not only be essential to institutional education, it will be, for those who value and wish to preserve independence of thought, a prerequisite to institutional education as well as the current prerequisites to that process. For this reason, the core system will usually be self-taught.
Better access to more inputs facilitates original thought, which leads to improved opportunities for individual problem solving. Original thought aggregated leads to improved opportunities and hopefully a more receptive environment for collective problem solving.
It may well be true to say that the need for effective collective problem solving is more pressing today than at any other time in modern history. It might even be fair to say that given the advanced state of our technologies, the survival of our species has become increasingly dependent on our capability for collective problem solving, which at its root, is an individual cognitive function. We are divided unnecessarily on cognitive lines, and given our tendencies and our technologies, time may be running out.
Human Thought – 3.0
Our cognitive operating systems are outdated. Significant updates to core thinking skills have been few and far between. We have filled our minds with knowledge (learning) but have not recently attempted to expand (augment) our core processing abilities.
Centuries ago, at about the time that our needs for counting and measuring surpassed ten digits, we innovated a system of ten unique symbols (numbers) and ways of skillfully combining them. The results, manifested in science and mathematics, have been impressive.
When our primitive symbols could no longer satisfy our communication needs, we innovated a system using unique symbols (letters, in the English alphabet) and developed skill in combining them. That development also produced very impressive results.
Since building our systems of numbers and letters, we have not produced subsequent, universal upgrades to our core thinking skills. The volume of competing thoughts produced through language and literature has become overwhelming as have the risks posed by impressive advances in science and mathematics. Just as we innovated tools to organize our numbers and our letters, we now need to innovate new tools to organize our ideas. The purpose of this website is to provide such a tool.
As a thought augmentation system, POW changes a user’s thought process by distinguishing between reasoning and the inputs to that process, in the same way that numbers are distinguished from arithmetic, and treats the ability to access and combine inputs to thought as a skill that can be learned, practiced, measured and significantly improved.
The objective of the POW system is not to suggest what a user should think but rather to make a particular (subtle, yet very pervasive) change in how a user thinks, in terms of the range (and speed) of inputs available to that process. The change is made using a method that is consciously controlled by the user. As with most processes, the quality of the output of the thought process relies heavily on the range and quality of the inputs to the process.
Thinking about thinking is inherently difficult, but thinking of it as a process enables thinking of it as a skill, which can be improved upon like any other skill. If thinking is a skill, then it is by far our most important skill. Yet, despite the extensive training opportunities that are available to develop virtually every other imaginable skill, it is difficult to find ways specifically designed to directly improve the skill of thinking.
For example, the process of learning an alphabet is a form of skills training since it involves memorization, drills and practice, and then leverages that skill into results not otherwise possible – the ability to read. Yet, the exercise of learning an alphabet and ways of combining letters into words and words into sentences are ways of learning to read, write and communicate. They are not ways of directly and specifically developing the skill of thinking.
Books and courses are useful, but they are usually a way of learning about someone else’s thoughts which might, in a derivative way, influence a reader’s thoughts, but are not designed to directly improve the reader’s actual skill in producing original thought.
POW is designed to augment specific skills which facilitate original thought and may also be used to enhance one’s ability to learn from external sources such as books and courses.
The POW system (beta) is very easy to use and at this time resides on an Excel platform. At this point, access to Microsoft Excel is required, but knowledge of Excel is not needed, other than to open the file. Once you have accessed the file, benefits can be achieved in less time than it will take to read the content of this website, none of which is in itself necessary to use the simple software.
As mentioned above, thinking about thinking is inherently difficult and this website is filled with assertions and opinions on that topic. Most of these assertions are based on the belief that augmented thought at a personal level, when aggregated, will increases the potential for better problem solving at a social level.
The software, even in its current beta form, will enable a user to map one hundred particular words into memory in a very specific way. From there, in most cases, the user’s mind will do the rest and construct, in a sense, a prism through which all subsequent incoming and outgoing thoughts may be filtered and processed for the benefit of the user.
The core system consists of one hundred generic, non-ideological words/ideas easily mapped onto a virtual two dimensional grid. To a user of the system, the actual written words will soon become superfluous. For example, the grid image on the Home page of this website contains three highlighted cells which, to an experienced user, instantly invokes three random ideas in the realm of human thought – Imagination, Awareness and Failure.
For the purpose of collective problem solving, this idea grid may be a significant step in the right direction because of its characteristic of universality. By translating only one hundred words, the image on the Home page contains the same quintessential idea content regardless of native language. The idea holds the space regardless of the particular native language.
The many positive implications of this, such as the prospect of a universal language, as well as significant memory augmentation, will be described in the ‘Be the Book’ section of this website. This article focuses on just one layer – the idea layer, of a multi-dimensional system. The system provides additional tools which, presently, are beyond the scope of this article.
The purpose of the content below is simply to provide background information for potential users who want to understand the nature of the system prior to actually using it.
The idea layer of POW might be thought of as a three level system – the Power of words/ideas, the Plain of words/ideas and the Path of words/ideas.
The Power of Words (POW)
They are those which reveal to us unsuspected kinship between other facts, long known, but wrongly believed to be strangers to one another. -Mathematician Henri Poincaré
The POW system is built, in part, on the premise that not all words are created equal in terms of the ideas they represent. Acknowledging this attribute of words enables the ability to rank them according to their potential power and the ability, with the help of software, to place certain words/ideas (the more powerful ones) into a better place in memory for use in thought, discussion and problem solving.
Unless there is already a better system available, this one, or one like it, will eventually augment the way most people think. It is very easy to use and the potential benefits are universal.
Benefits will accrue to a user in proportion to the effort applied, with no upper limit. The only effort required is a form of mental activity that millions of people, through television game shows and various online games, habitually seek out for relaxation and enjoyment.
The POW system enables your mind to recognize and process idea content using a vocabulary of one hundred ideas (such as justice, freedom and equality), representing the entire spectrum of ideas, at speeds faster than normal, conscious thought processing.
Plain of Words
Using this system, users visually map a virtual storage and retrieval system at the front of their memories. It begins as a two dimensional grid – ten by ten in dimension – with a unique and important idea stored in each cell.
In a less clinical way, it might be useful to think of the grid as a flat plain where, for the sake of contemplation, all ideas begin at the same level so that users can individually consider their relative importance.
Different individuals will have different opinions of the relative significance of particular ideas. For example, in considering the oft-contended trade-offs between freedom and equality, some regard the idea of freedom as more essential than the idea of equality. Yet Eric Hoffer provides a different perspective in ‘True Believer’ by proposing that “equality without freedom creates a more stable social pattern than freedom without equality”.
This precept applies to thought as well. Thought may, in a sense, be free but it is far from unencumbered. According to Rousseau, “Man is born free but he is everywhere in chains”. In this system, despite numerous built-in encumbrances to free thought, it is considered essential that all ideas are equally available and are equally considered at the individual level, if we hope to create more stable social patterns.
This level of the system could also be thought of as a palette of ideas, but ‘plain’ better captures the vastness of the full realm of ideas which gives the system its pervasive quality, once the first layer of ideas is mapped. It provides the potential for a less encumbered thinking experience as opposed to the traditional ideological obstacle course, and an opportunity to actively coalesce a wider set of ideas.
For most users, the system will eventually become three dimensional as additional layers and portals are added, depending on individual informational preferences and needs. Association with prior layers makes each additional layer easier to embed.
The result is a more useful source of reference for inputs to thought. New combinations of common ideas might yield useful insights needed for better collective problem solving. Here are ten random examples that summarize the content of this posting:
1/ Fortunately, nature is free to us, unfortunately, it is not free from us. Neither are we free from it.
2/ Our concern for our environment must begin with the environment of thought and discussion.
3/ Thought augmentation. If you are not able to imagine changes to your abilities then you may need to change to your ability to imagine.
4/ Growth is the essence of life and truth is essential to growth.
5/ Growth is a function of Freedom and Freedom is a function of growth.
6/ Ultimately there is a universal duty of duty to the universal.
7/ Our most powerful opinions tend to be opinions about power.
8/ Instead of being angry about truth, use truth to dissipate anger.
9/ In discussion, our mode should be opposition to security, not security from opposition.
10/ Failures of discussion often precede discussions about failure.
Path of Words (Be the Book)
‘Be the Book’ is a way, figuratively speaking, of creating and mapping individual paths across the plain of ideas described above. The Be the Book, Introduction page on this site describes this feature of POW and provides a practical test to determine interest in this third level of the system.
The Battlefield of Ideas
On a daily basis, the effect that this vocabulary of 100 ideas can have in directly augmenting a user’s thoughts and opinions will likely be pervasive. After all, mental life, social life and political thought are all, to some degree, based on philosophic ideas.
The POW system recognizes that letters and words, by themselves, are not as important as the ideas they represent and focuses on the separate and distinct technical skill of idea processing.
Improved skill in this sense means the ability to better recognize the idea content that is operative, ubiquitous and implicit in all significant daily interactions.
In case you haven’t already noticed, there are many large, well-organized groups and individuals who care a lot about your mental life, specifically what you think and believe. It is not an exaggeration to say that there is now and always has been, at various levels and on many different fronts, an ongoing war of competing thoughts and ideologies. For example, if you have ever stood in an audience, in any setting, and repeated words spoken from a podium, then you have been active on the battlefield of ideas. The fact that messages delivered this way are often well-intentioned does not change the fact that this method of repeating and reciting always has the effect of pre-empting a listener’s future ability to think freely about these inculcated matters.
One premise of the POW system is that minds lacking practiced skill in noticing, recognizing and processing the full range of idea content and the full context of incoming, often inculcated messages, are at a disadvantage and potentially susceptible to becoming, in a sense, prisoners in the ongoing war of ideas and ideologies. Prisoners in the sense that the cumulative effect of this repeated external messaging might permanently encumber one’s ability to think freely and independently about those inculcated subjects.
POW provides a systematic way of constructively handling incoming idea content.