The phrase makes some kind of sense to me (although not in that particular case), so in case you’re not just trying to drop a geeky reference, let me try to explain what I make of this phrase.
Assume members of alien species X have two reasoning modes A and B which account for all their thinking. In my mind, I model these “modes” as logical calculi, but I guess you could translate this to two distinct points in the “space of possible minds”.
An Xian is at any one time instance either in mode A or B, but under certain conditions the mode can flip. Except for these two reasoning modes, there is a heuristic faculty, which guides the application of specific rules in A and B. Some conclusions can be reached in mode A but not in B, and vice versa, so ideally, an Xian would master performing switches between them.
Now here’s the problem: Switching between A and B can only happen if a certain sequence of seemingly nonsensical reasoning steps is taken. Since the sequence is nonsensical, an Xian with a finely tuned heuristic for either A or B will be unlikely to encounter it in the course of normal reasoning.
Now, say that Bloob, an accomplished Xian A-thinker, finds out how to do the switch to B and thus manages to prove a theorem of high-value. Bloob will now have major problems communicating his results to his A-thinking peers. They will look at a couple of his proof steps, conclude that they are nonsensical and label him a crackpot.
Bloob might instead decide (whatever that word means in my story) to target people who are familiar with the switch from A to B. He can show them one of the proof steps, and hope that their heuristic “remembers” that they lead to something good down the road. Such a nonsensical proof step may be saying “Shut up and to the impossible”.
So, I suspect that humans do have something like those reasoning modes. They are not necessarily just two, it might not be appropriate to call all of them reasoning, but the main point is that thinking a thought might change the rules of thinking.
I think this idea is very close to the whole area of NLP, hypnosis, and some new-age ideas, e.g., Carlos Castaneda explicitly wants to “teach” you how to shift your mind-state around in the space of possible minds (which is egg-shaped incidentally). Not that any of these have ever done anything for me, but I also haven’t tried following them.
From self-experimentation (sorry), Buddhist meditation seems to be a kind of thinking that can change the rules of thinking, and I think there is some evidence that it actually changes the brain structurally.
Given the possibility of certain thoughts changing the rules of thinking, what is the rational thing to do? If there’s a good answer to this I’m grateful for a link.
Assume members of alien species X have two reasoning modes A and B which account for all their thinking. In my mind, I model these “modes” as logical calculi, but I guess you could translate this to two distinct points in the “space of possible minds”. …
An Xian is at any one time instance either in mode A or B, but under certain conditions the mode can flip. Except for these two reasoning modes, there is a heuristic faculty, which guides the application of specific rules in A and B. Some conclusions can be reached in mode A but not in B, and vice versa, so ideally, an Xian would master performing switches between them. …
So, I suspect that humans do have something like those reasoning modes. They are not necessarily just two, it might not be appropriate to call all of them reasoning, but the main point is that thinking a thought might change the rules of thinking.
Excellent comment! You have hit the nail very nearly square on the head. Allow me to make one minor adjustment to your aim, and then relate your analogy back to the fields of self-help, NLP, Zen, normal waking consciousness, etc.
See, it’s not the content of the thought that switches modes, but how you think the thought, or rather, what portion of your thoughts you pay attention to.
In suspension of disbelief—and hypnosis, suggestion, etc.-- you simply refrain from commenting on your experience in-progress, because it interferes with the perception of the experience itself. (See e.g. current studies on how explicit commenting can reduce satisfaction with decision making and accuracy of classification.)
So if “B” is experience, and “A” is commenting-about-experience, to the extent that you do both at the same time, one or the other will suffer, just like your experience of a movie will be degraded by a running commentary by audience members… unless you prefer the humor of the commentary to the experience of the movie. (But in that case, the movie still suffers relative to the commentary, you just like it better that way!)
Now, whether you refrain from commenting on something is partly determined by what you already believe. Movies that violate my understanding of say, computer technology, will be much more tempting to internally dispute or comment on, thus voiding my enjoyment and use of “B”-mode thinking. In contrast, someone who knows less about computers will not be induced to comment by the same scene, and thus not suspend their disbelief.
Self-help techniques use B-mode thinking, but the more intelligent you are, the more ways you can find to object to the “truthfulness” of thoughts that you nonetheless would find useful to have installed in your “B” system. But if you give in to the temptation to meta-comment on those thoughts, then you will not succeed in installing them in the “B” system… assuming you didn’t already throw the book down in disgust, long before even trying to!
Religion works in roughly the same way, of course: you’re discouraged from meta-commenting, so various B-mode thoughts can be installed and left running.
Of course, we all know that this is bad, but it’s not because B-mode itself is bad, it’s because religions include many poor-quality beliefs, in addition to the ones that might have some personal or social utility!
Part of the foundation of NLP, however, is a set of principles known as the “outcome frame” and “ecology”—attempts to codify quality standards for “B-mode beliefs”, based on well-formedness rules for the beliefs themselves, and standards for evaluating the likely long-term systemic effects of carrying that belief.
Most of the original NLP clique have also been very careful, when defining their techniques, to offer guidelines for what kind of beliefs to install in people, and how to avoid “junk beliefs”.
(For example, one is cautioned to prefer installing beliefs of capability rather than ability, e.g. “I can learn to do this better”, not “I am the best there is”.)
Most self-help material—including much popular work on NLP, alas—does not adhere to such standards.
From self-experimentation (sorry), Buddhist meditation seems to be a kind of thinking that can change the rules of thinking, and I think there is some evidence that it actually changes the brain structurally.
My experience of Zen meditation is that it trains you to refrain from commenting on your thoughts and experiences, which is why it provides benefits for learning skills that require you to focus on experience instead of commenting. (See e.g. “The Inner Game of Tennis”.) So, AFAICT, it’s definitely related to the same “B” mode as other self-help modalities, and really just consists of practicing trying to stay in B mode, no matter what thoughts try to pull you into A mode.
In contrast, hypnosis tries to get you so relaxed that it seems like “too much work” to do any “A” mode thinking, versus just drifting along with your ongoing “B” experience.
NLP techniques, including my own, work on controlled alternation of attention between the A and B modes.
And normal consciousness for most people also alternates between A and B, but “A” dominates, and we actually spend good money (e.g. on movies and other entertainment, hobbies, etc.) so we can spend some quality time in “B”.
(For example, one is cautioned to prefer installing beliefs of capability rather than ability, e.g. “I can learn to do this better”, not “I am the best there is”.)
I’d generally agree with that, but I was recently at an excellent qi gong workshop taught by Yang Yang, who told the students to do qi gong with an attitude of “I am a master”. As far as I can tell, this has the advantage of overriding habits of thinking “I’m just a student, I’m not very good at this”. It might also override habits of thinking “I have to show how good I am”.
I’d generally agree with that, but I was recently at an excellent qi gong workshop taught by Yang Yang, who told the students to do qi gong with an attitude of “I am a master”
Note that “I am a master” is not falsifiable, unless you also have some idea of what being a master consists of. This isn’t a problem if you believe (for example) that a master is someone who is always learning and improving, and who makes mistakes.
Of course, at that point, you are right back to having a capability belief. ;-)
The phrase makes some kind of sense to me (although not in that particular case), so in case you’re not just trying to drop a geeky reference, let me try to explain what I make of this phrase.
Assume members of alien species X have two reasoning modes A and B which account for all their thinking. In my mind, I model these “modes” as logical calculi, but I guess you could translate this to two distinct points in the “space of possible minds”.
An Xian is at any one time instance either in mode A or B, but under certain conditions the mode can flip. Except for these two reasoning modes, there is a heuristic faculty, which guides the application of specific rules in A and B. Some conclusions can be reached in mode A but not in B, and vice versa, so ideally, an Xian would master performing switches between them.
Now here’s the problem: Switching between A and B can only happen if a certain sequence of seemingly nonsensical reasoning steps is taken. Since the sequence is nonsensical, an Xian with a finely tuned heuristic for either A or B will be unlikely to encounter it in the course of normal reasoning.
Now, say that Bloob, an accomplished Xian A-thinker, finds out how to do the switch to B and thus manages to prove a theorem of high-value. Bloob will now have major problems communicating his results to his A-thinking peers. They will look at a couple of his proof steps, conclude that they are nonsensical and label him a crackpot.
Bloob might instead decide (whatever that word means in my story) to target people who are familiar with the switch from A to B. He can show them one of the proof steps, and hope that their heuristic “remembers” that they lead to something good down the road. Such a nonsensical proof step may be saying “Shut up and to the impossible”.
So, I suspect that humans do have something like those reasoning modes. They are not necessarily just two, it might not be appropriate to call all of them reasoning, but the main point is that thinking a thought might change the rules of thinking.
I think this idea is very close to the whole area of NLP, hypnosis, and some new-age ideas, e.g., Carlos Castaneda explicitly wants to “teach” you how to shift your mind-state around in the space of possible minds (which is egg-shaped incidentally). Not that any of these have ever done anything for me, but I also haven’t tried following them.
From self-experimentation (sorry), Buddhist meditation seems to be a kind of thinking that can change the rules of thinking, and I think there is some evidence that it actually changes the brain structurally.
Given the possibility of certain thoughts changing the rules of thinking, what is the rational thing to do? If there’s a good answer to this I’m grateful for a link.
Excellent comment! You have hit the nail very nearly square on the head. Allow me to make one minor adjustment to your aim, and then relate your analogy back to the fields of self-help, NLP, Zen, normal waking consciousness, etc.
See, it’s not the content of the thought that switches modes, but how you think the thought, or rather, what portion of your thoughts you pay attention to.
In suspension of disbelief—and hypnosis, suggestion, etc.-- you simply refrain from commenting on your experience in-progress, because it interferes with the perception of the experience itself. (See e.g. current studies on how explicit commenting can reduce satisfaction with decision making and accuracy of classification.)
So if “B” is experience, and “A” is commenting-about-experience, to the extent that you do both at the same time, one or the other will suffer, just like your experience of a movie will be degraded by a running commentary by audience members… unless you prefer the humor of the commentary to the experience of the movie. (But in that case, the movie still suffers relative to the commentary, you just like it better that way!)
Now, whether you refrain from commenting on something is partly determined by what you already believe. Movies that violate my understanding of say, computer technology, will be much more tempting to internally dispute or comment on, thus voiding my enjoyment and use of “B”-mode thinking. In contrast, someone who knows less about computers will not be induced to comment by the same scene, and thus not suspend their disbelief.
Self-help techniques use B-mode thinking, but the more intelligent you are, the more ways you can find to object to the “truthfulness” of thoughts that you nonetheless would find useful to have installed in your “B” system. But if you give in to the temptation to meta-comment on those thoughts, then you will not succeed in installing them in the “B” system… assuming you didn’t already throw the book down in disgust, long before even trying to!
Religion works in roughly the same way, of course: you’re discouraged from meta-commenting, so various B-mode thoughts can be installed and left running.
Of course, we all know that this is bad, but it’s not because B-mode itself is bad, it’s because religions include many poor-quality beliefs, in addition to the ones that might have some personal or social utility!
Part of the foundation of NLP, however, is a set of principles known as the “outcome frame” and “ecology”—attempts to codify quality standards for “B-mode beliefs”, based on well-formedness rules for the beliefs themselves, and standards for evaluating the likely long-term systemic effects of carrying that belief.
Most of the original NLP clique have also been very careful, when defining their techniques, to offer guidelines for what kind of beliefs to install in people, and how to avoid “junk beliefs”.
(For example, one is cautioned to prefer installing beliefs of capability rather than ability, e.g. “I can learn to do this better”, not “I am the best there is”.)
Most self-help material—including much popular work on NLP, alas—does not adhere to such standards.
My experience of Zen meditation is that it trains you to refrain from commenting on your thoughts and experiences, which is why it provides benefits for learning skills that require you to focus on experience instead of commenting. (See e.g. “The Inner Game of Tennis”.) So, AFAICT, it’s definitely related to the same “B” mode as other self-help modalities, and really just consists of practicing trying to stay in B mode, no matter what thoughts try to pull you into A mode.
In contrast, hypnosis tries to get you so relaxed that it seems like “too much work” to do any “A” mode thinking, versus just drifting along with your ongoing “B” experience.
NLP techniques, including my own, work on controlled alternation of attention between the A and B modes.
And normal consciousness for most people also alternates between A and B, but “A” dominates, and we actually spend good money (e.g. on movies and other entertainment, hobbies, etc.) so we can spend some quality time in “B”.
I’d generally agree with that, but I was recently at an excellent qi gong workshop taught by Yang Yang, who told the students to do qi gong with an attitude of “I am a master”. As far as I can tell, this has the advantage of overriding habits of thinking “I’m just a student, I’m not very good at this”. It might also override habits of thinking “I have to show how good I am”.
Note that “I am a master” is not falsifiable, unless you also have some idea of what being a master consists of. This isn’t a problem if you believe (for example) that a master is someone who is always learning and improving, and who makes mistakes.
Of course, at that point, you are right back to having a capability belief. ;-)