The Evolution of Thoughts
Sometimes I wonder if I have ever had a novel or original thought in my life.
Think for a moment – Have you ever had a truly novel thought?
There are many ways to define originality, but in this case I mean a thought which has never been formed by anyone in all of human history and even pre-history (e.g., before written records existed).
There is no way to know for sure. I suppose if you work on developing modern technology, which would not have existed in the past, then it may be more likely that you will have a new thought that no one else has ever had.
However, in my experience, we all tend to hold similar thoughts to the people around us – our thoughts are defined by our location, family, culture, religion, and peer groups. Whatever they tend to think – you probably share many of those thoughts.
Sometimes it bothers me that I cannot be certain that I have ever had an original thought in all of my life. I consider myself an original thinker, but time and again, any thought that I believed to be original, I ended up realizing that someone else had had the same one before me. And often, their thoughts were better developed.
I sometimes read philosophy, psychology, or sociology books where I feel that I have already had some of the same thoughts they are discussing. But if I dig deep enough, sometimes into Eastern philosophy, I end up realizing that some people have thought through my own “original ideas” (or those which I used to think were original) and they have thought through them more deeply, elaborated them more fully, and created vocabulary that could properly express the ideas.
And so this is a pattern, that if I search hard enough, I end up finding books or sources that discuss my ideas that I thought were original, in a deeper way than I ever would have.
And this makes me question: Have I ever had an original thought in all of my life?
Of course, as I am a writer, the fact that I have created sentences no one else has ever written, makes them original. But this is superficial. In the end, the sentences express thoughts. To me, the real question is whether any of those thoughts are truly original. And then to make the task even more challenging, if there are any original thoughts, are they meaningful?
In the movie Garden State, Natalie Portman’s character wants to know that she has done something that no one else has ever done. So, every day she produces some strange combination of bodily movements, so that she can know she has done something no one else ever has.
If someone committed themselves, surely they could string together the most bizarre thoughts. But what is the point, if this isn’t useful in some way?
The point of originality isn’t just to do something new, but hopefully to do something great.
Another way to define originality is to say that something is original if it is new for you. If a child discovers how to do long division on his own, without any formal teaching, then this is quite original for that child. It is truly an accomplishment. However, of course, this is not original when we consider all of humanity.
Often I think that when we discuss new ideas, thoughts, or ways of doing things, that they are rarely new at all. Often, we are applying something that has been done in the past to our current situation. It appears to be new and original, but in many ways it is just an extension of what was already there.
What seems to be new and original, is more like a natural evolution. Perhaps even, it was inevitable. I actually think of Darwin’s theory of evolution. In animals, some of the unnecessary features gradually become lost in time. Those features that are critical to survival end up becoming instincts in the new generations. These processes take generations upon generations to become visible, but it is part of evolution.
With thoughts, perhaps something similar happens. The thoughts evolve based on prior thoughts. The useful thoughts tend to be more common. They may aid with survival, or accomplishing goals, or building social bonds, or solving complex problems. I used to have thoughts that were not so useful, or that were inefficient – in time my thinking has improved. As in evolution, the parts of my thinking that are not helpful for any useful purpose are being dropped off. And the parts that are useful are staying, or adapting and being modified. The thinking is evolving.
I sometimes laugh on the inside, when someone is praised as being some great and original thinker. Usually these people do deserve credit, but I believe now that most of us do not realize that to a single human being, 99.99% of all knowledge out there is original.
For 99.99% of what is known to humans as a collective, I probably am not aware of it, even as an educated and well-read individual. There are so many topics that I know little or practically nothing about. If someone takes a moment to discuss such topics with me, everything will seem novel and original and brilliant.
My point is that sometimes the original and novel thinker may not be so novel after all. He may just have access to all kinds of knowledge that is not frequently known.
The question I have for you is this: If someone reads books no one else is reading, watches movies no one else is watching, travels to places rarely traveled to, and associates with people who think differently, will this person eventually become an original thinker, or just have the appearance of being an original thinker? Even if he absorbs and repeats what he experiences, to most people these will be original thoughts, because they will be new to most people.
But when we consider all of humanity, these will not be original thoughts, of course.
How can we have original ideas to begin with? How can I come up with something that is fully new? Everything I come up with will be in the context of what is known, what I have seen and observed, my goals, my culture, the way I was taught to think, and so on.
Or is original thinking just a natural evolution? Perhaps some original ideas may even be like mutations, where they happen unintentionally, but they can still be useful somehow.
Do you think most original thinkers are truly original, or do they just spend more time with sources that are unfamiliar to most people?
As another explanation, perhaps some people are credited with original thoughts, yet really they were quite logical and analytical and their thoughts went so deep that most of us could not keep up with them. This means their thought processes were not original, but somehow the outcome of their thinking was original, as they discovered something new.
It seems to me that true originality is quite difficult to find - what do you think?
