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We must rely on shortcuts to understand things
Monday, 10 October 2005
The world we live in is infinitely complex. The more humanity understands about it, the more we become amazed at just how intricate it is. Even something as small and simple as the head of a pin can contain thousands of bacteria and chemical reactions, interacting in ways that would take years to understand fully.
Look around you right now, what can you see? Now look again at the detail, the patterns the specks of dust form as they fall on surfaces, the care with which the furniture was put together, the way the light reflects from various surfaces. If you had to write down in detail everything that you can now see, it would probably fill a number of books. And that's just using one sense in one location. Imagine adding to that everything you can smell, hear and feel. Now multiply that by how many other locations and situations you will find yourself in during the day.
And these are just the things you can witness with your raw senses. On top of that, there is a huge amount of activity happening at a microscopic level. There are also countless things occurring in the world right now outside of your view that will certainly affect your life. Perhaps the government is making a decision that will affect you, perhaps a tax inspector is looking over your file, maybe someone who will become a close friend has just moved to your city.
The point is that there's so much going on that could affect us, it's impossible for us to keep track of it all. So how do we cope?
The answer is that we create mental short cuts. Our minds must select from the huge amount of stimulus available to us at any time and decide what's the most relevant. We must try to collect as much information that is important as we can about what's going on that may be affecting us. Perhaps we will read a summary of government decisions in the newspaper. Maybe a friend will fill us in on something that's important.
If we could have all the information we need to make decisions, that would be great, but it's impossible. At best, we can hope to pick up a tiny fraction of it. Then, we must use the tiny fraction of knowledge we have about the world to interpret that tiny fraction of information. In other words, we're operating almost blind.
It's not an ideal situation, but it's a fact of life.
So what are the implications?
This fact means that we can never assume that we've got things completely right. Any police officer knows that five different witnesses to an event can give five different accounts.
We must honestly understand within ourselves that the events and circumstances that affect us are so complex that we can never fully understand them. The truth is, our decisions are based on less than perfect information, and there's a good chance the assumptions we've made in making those decisions are wrong.
Always be prepared that you may be incorrect - that you may have missed some vital fact. And be prepared to change your mind.
Also, understand that other people will likely see things very differently to you. They are also faced with having to create mental shortcuts to explain their infinitely complex reality. Their shortcuts probably differ greatly from your own.
If you find someone else's world view difficult to understand, consider that they have certainly chosen different short-cuts to interpret reality than you have. Looking at it through that prism, the differences between us can become much easier to accept.
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