I. Higher Order Thinking is Expensive

In the quantum theory discipline, linear human thought gets tripped, as linear logic runs into a decidedly nonlinear system we can only dimly perceive.

In our human reality, our everyday actions to thrive & survive, linear thinking serves us well.

Linear thinking gets us through the challenges of the everyday, maximizing our survival.

Thinking beyond pure logic, into perception of more complex patterns, patterns which don’t fit into linear models, is higher order thinking.

This higher order conceptual thinking is only available to a human who has not only mastered linear thinking, but who exists in a higher order culture, one where higher order thought is valuable.

While nature is profligate in some respects, nature is stingy with the expensive line item of supporting the expensive energy budget necessary for higher dimensional thought.

As we made clear in Brain/Universe, brain power is exceedingly expensive, and expanded spending of it is purchased only when survival has been secured.

Human history is replete with examples of higher order creative thought, with a secondary application of brain power dedicated to conceptual thought beyond survival.

While life itself is not always able to find a way, with extinction being a rule and hardly an exception, evolution appears to possess a hidden order.

An order with a very long and expensive time span, where nature spends lavishly in vast expanses of time, yet conserves energy like the stingiest accountant.

Because energy is so expensive and brain power so energy intensive, cognition is diverted to survival first.

In human history we celebrate the instances of higher order creativity and cognition, which, in retrospect, appear as plateaus or renaissance periods of achievement.

Period’s seemingly wrested expensively out of preceding chaotic periods of high threat and low survival.

A human history, where brain power diverted toward higher order cogitation, is purchased at an exceedingly high cost.

Hold onto this concept of higher order thinking as a radically expensive line item.