On thinking
On thinking
You know, people often say that now, when TikTok with its short videos has taken over the world, and AI can generate text on any topic in a minute, the main thing people (especially kids) are losing is the ability to think.
But sometimes I think, maybe I wouldn’t mind not having the ability to think. Some non-thinking people seem to enjoy life much more than those who think.
Where did this trend of wanting to be smart even come from? It seems to me it’s about time being not smart became the new trend.
On the other hand, thinking, as I see it, was given to humans evolutionarily so they could entertain themselves. Imagine, you’re sitting somewhere, and all you have is a stick, a pile of some animal’s dung, and a wolf’s hide. You start thinking about them, doing something with them, and the process gives you some kind of satisfaction, like scrolling TikTok for 30 minutes.
Now imagine you’re in prison. Or there’s a war and you’ve been captured. Or for some reason, everyone has locked themselves up in little boxes and stopped going outside, maybe nuclear winter has begun. At some point, all the material things you could distract yourself with are gone. The only thing left to occupy yourself with is thinking. Not even as a distraction, more like a main activity. You can think about anything, analyze everything you remember. But in that situation, everything you have exists only in your head. And if there’s nothing in your head, you’ll go crazy from idleness.
What am I trying to say with this? When everyone switches to cloud technologies, digs up the last rare metals, and raises the price of electronics so high that only 1% of people can afford them, the only thing left to rely on will be your mind. So maybe it’s not such a bad thing, being able to think.