Causality, Predictions and Consciousness

Causality is a concept that is considered axiomatic in the workings of the universe, or at least in our daily experience. The concept of causality as understood in our working sense is simple, "Cause precedes action", a natural seeming concept. Every action, which here also means a result from another action or a seeming change of state, is not a standalone concept but bears it's root in a cause or a reason for it's existence. And the result is seemingly influenced by factors of space, time and causation, or simply the circumstance. And this rule is very strong founded in our experience of how the world works and also in how we are taught it works. But in an experiential sense, it may not appear so, for perceptions are naturally stained and limited and our proof too that proceeds from the data bank of these senses which are further selectively assimilated by our mind, for it is too an imperfect and limited instrument, a sense that governs senses. And this post seeks to look at it from the perspective of experience.

Bias and Original Thought

Note: Sorry about the long hiatus, but I can't seem to maintain a schedule well. I'll try to get some posts running and the blog back on track soon. For now, I hope you enjoy this post.

Bloom's taxonomy is a simple presentation of the cognitive heirarchy in learning, and the higher processes represent a more refined and deeper understanding of an idea or subject. We begin with the base of the pyramid, which involves a rote memorization and basic memory of the subject involved, a fact collection stage. After this the understanding, application and other stages which are more or less self explanatory from their names. But the pinnacle of this pyramid is creation, which represents the deepest level and highest cognitive process that can be called upon when we are using the fundamental ideas we have gathered at the fact collection stage. This also involves a great deal of understanding the facts and also their interplay with different scenarios and facts.

Bloom's Taxonomy

But even with all that, even at the highest stage of creating, there is an inherent dependence in the facts learnt at the bottom of the pyramid. And in fact collection there is a great deal of prejudices and opinions that are gathered too. And the inherent problem in this is that, unconsciously, we become conduits for ideas, and opinions of other people. What we call as identity is simply degraded into a mere confluence of ideas and emotions that have been collected over the span of a person's education or lifetime. In such a situation, where does original thought exist? How many of us present the ability to express an idea that is truly original and not born out of the many prejudices and influences that have made their impression on our mind?