10 levels of thought

The random image selected was "7 Straws in a Human Brain" - These ten questions I pose about it are an example of apophenia - based on a random image, we can dissect all human understanding / thought on a hierarhical level.



1. why 7?

---The primacy of numbers. One could postulate that human language, culture, emotion is all just fluff, but math is the language of the universe that we happened to stumble upon. math is the most basic. thus the first question has to be why 7?


2. really happening or just a story?

---One level from numbers is the distinguishing of "real actions"
from "imagined actions" . Like Plato's cave, what is real and what is not real can be from our POV, but at this basic level we operate
merely to say is it reality or fiction - as if these are absolutes
(which they may be, but more on this later)


3. whether really happening or not is it a metaphor? if so, what is
the metaphor?
---one level from the real or imagined, is what is the meaning in the
subtle realm - the realm of ideas? The event can transcend to point to a larger issue.

4. whether or not really happening, are the straws in the brain for a
medical procedure?

-- so metaphor tells you about life/existence, but next we try to make meaning of the actual event outside any posed metaphoric function -at level four we seek to understand why on the "Gross" level - the physical world- the thing happened

5. what can straws extract and who - if anyone - is at the other end of these straws?
-- Beyond deciphering meaning on the gross and subtle level - there is the world of action, of "the will" - going from "why does this aspect of the universe exist" to "why is this being done to something in the universe?" In other words to accomplish what aim? this aim can be metaphoric as well as physical. obviously if the thing is really occurring we want to know the effects (harm or benefit) more than the metaphoric significance. On the flip side, if it is fiction then harm or benefit to the character is secondary, the meaning of that harm or benefit, is more important

6. will the procedure kill or harm the brain? What is the effect on
the recipient(s) if any?

-- this will sound much like level 5, but this points more to ethics
and cause/effect - moving to the action of the "will" we then must ask what is the result of the action brought into being by the "actor"

7. Could the straws be there by accident?
-- we have to of course accept that there may be no meaning at all. random chance, no purpose

8. Is the brain a human brain?
-- seems like this should come earlier but it is actually less basic
to get into the particulars, the idea of meaning transcends the
particular details, to use a metaphor: First you would ask the archer why did you shoot me with the arrow? Later at the hospital when they remove it, you might ask the archer about the type of wood and feathers that made the arrow fly so quickly.

9. If not an accident could the straws be put there by something other than a human?
-- we assume higher level actions, like straws in a brain, can only be done by our species. Science fiction is often embraced by the dreamers and the more intellectual - these Sci-Fi fans are open enough to inquire that there could be other "Actors" on the stage who are equal or better than humans. This is an evolution of thought. Belief in deities, demons, faeries, angels and indeed aliens are all an attempt to explain but for the sci fi fan, this goes beyond cosmology to humility as the alien's purpose and power may be amoral as opposed to angels acting for good, demons for evil, and faeries for mischief.

10. Are there straws in my brain, seven straws, and I am simply
unaware of it, and this idea occurred to me out of a dim awareness and if I keep thinking about it will I be able to feel the straws and
trace them to the source?

-- step 10 also unique in that it makes it personal.. as in "is it my
brain?" - as will step 8 the presumption would be that the personal is more basic, that step 10 should come earlier, but to use the arrow metaphor, you need to know that arrows exist - and what they do - before you can process what it means that you have one sticking out of your right butt cheek. but even more important is - taking sci-fi theme further - the humility to accept that I may not know what is going on at all (straws could be in my head and I don't even know it), this acceptance of ignorance (ironically) is the highest level of thought.�