Rational thought, that single unexplained process which seems independent enough of instinct to differentiate humanity from the common animal.  Arguments run back and forth as to what “thinking” is really.  Is it a function of the brain granted to us by superior mental equipment?  Or perhaps it’s a construct of the elusive “soul;” felt yet unexplained.  Regardless, the ability to reason beyond instinct is what sets us apart or, at the very least, allows us to believe we are different.  Complex thought is one of the most widely used, manipulated, examined, and considered tools in the arsenal of humanity.  Thought it is, very simply, what allows us to both deceive and be deceived.

 Alan Turing once put forth an idea of how to “test” a theoretical computer for the ability to “think.”  To sum up the end result:  we will be reasonably assured that a computer can “think” when it makes us believe it can.  This brings me to what I intended to write about.  the Latin Words “In dolus, veritas” mean “In deceit [there is] truth.”  Mankind has a history of not just deceiving but in wanting to be deceived.  Truth is something we cannot assimilate or something of which we can ever be certain.  In the end we believe in sets of personally held truths based on axioms.  Axioms, self evident truths, are nothing more than belief.  Be it religion or science each side is still based on a set of axioms passed along, evaluated, re-evaluated, forced through power struggles, discovered, and rediscovered.  Mankind finds its truths in a series of carefully handled lies.

 This is not to say that everything in the world is a lie, that’s ridiculous, it is to say, however, that everything is uncertain as to its veracity.  It is impossible to definitively say “this is truth.”  Typically this is where some would grant the demonstration of “the Earth is flat” as proof of man’s fallacies.  A better example is one that has been proven within the past few decades; the difference between a chaotic theory of the universe and the Newtonian universe.  Within the past 50 years, scientists have based our studies on a deterministic universe.  Every thing in the universe moves in a preset path.  If you repeat the same experiment the same way you will retrieve the same result.  Makes sense except for situations where no discernable difference exists and yet the result has changed.  Edward Lorenz, the mathematician who coined the term Butterfly Effect, is credited as the father of the chaos theory ideology of a non-linear universe.  While deterministic events occur as part of life; it’s not the foundation it was previously believed to be.

 Returning to axioms, the basis of beliefs; our thoughts work in an almost, like most things, cyclical pattern.  One way to explain this relates to a fractal known as the Mandelbrot set.  In a less than accurate layman’s definition; fractals can be considered to be shapes or images that repeat themselves in sequential outward or inward magnifications.  The mathematical formula for a Mandelbrot set uses the result as part of the equation itself.  This allows for infinite repetition as the result, and thus the equation, constantly changing.  Truth is like this because to say something is true it must be proven.  However if truth is proven with any method we have then it is proven using something that must itself be proven.  Each concept along the way eventually falls to a separate set of axioms which, when one tries to prove them, cannot be proven and must be accepted.  A “truth” based on general acceptance is possibly erroneous and can’t definitively be called truth. 

 We fall to believing the “lie” that generally accepted truths are incontrovertible.  It makes sense because truth is something that is beyond the comprehension of human understanding.  A real truth is something proven undisputable yet does not rely on concepts that have been observed or theorized as “true.”  It is a sad concept that all of our “truth” might be nothing more than a lie we have failed to see through.  You might say “but science” except science is based on axioms.  Mathematics such as simple addition (unproven yet generally accepted) or sciences such as the theory of gravity are nothing more than cleverly devised axioms.  There is a core truth in existence somewhere but I doubt if mankind will ever divine that truth.  Choose your poison and choose well.

Image borrowed from The PROTOMEN

Consulted:

Bradley, Larry. Chaos & Fractals. N.p., 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2010.