Why you don’t see things like I do
This is a bit outside my normal wheelhouse, but it reflects some reading I have been doing on why artificial intelligence is able to discern things that humans can’t.
The human mind tries to generalize by grouping things together. This was an important survival mechanism but it can also lead to problems in today’s society. For example, let us suppose “early man” comes upon a lion and is attacked, but escapes. The next time that “early man” comes upon a lion, he is likely to avoid the lion. If one lion is bad, then all lions must be bad.
People read in a paper about a “greedy” corporate executive. Pretty soon they generalize and assume all corporate executives are greedy. So if they are greedy and have become wealthy on the “backs of the working man”, then it is only right we “fix” that by taking away their money. As a politician, you can use those feelings to get elected.
Depending on what media outlet you listen to, your brain is being presented with “generalizations” and specific experiences to reinforce that thinking. In the past, women would state “men have no idea what its like to be a woman”. We simply don’t have their “experiences” and so they generalize and say we can’t understand. Maybe that is true, but are all women’s experiences the same? Is there really a “sisterhood” that men can never understand, no matter how hard they try? They even have made some humorous movies on that topic.
My guess is someday, someone will say, “Democrats have no idea what it is to be a Republican” and “Republicans have no idea what it is to be Democrat”. Neither will comprehend how the other arrived at their values and political beliefs. Because individuals tend to view media that reinforces what they believe and so their “experiences” are devoid of the experiences that the other side uses to arrive at their values and political beliefs.
I will use one example. To a pro choice advocate a woman has a right to choose whether she wants to have a “fetus” aborted. To a pro life advocate the woman is aborting “an unborn baby”. Notice how the word choice has been ingrained in the thinking of both sides… fetus vs unborn baby. What is the real difference? Aren’t both sides talking about the same thing? But each side of the debate has “locked in” their views and those views are constantly reinforced by the media they choose to watch.
Can you imagine pro choice advocates saying women have a right to abort an unborn baby? Can you imagine pro life advocates saying women do not have the right to abort a healthy unborn fetus? The two sides have “generalized” this exact same action into two totally different things with different imagery. Anyway, this article is not about abortion, so I will move to another example.
What is the difference between an illegal alien and an undocumented worker? Why use different terms? As Americans we should all be aware that really smart people understand how the human mind works and are using what they know to influence how we “see” things and consequently how we generalize. They are loading our minds up with experiences designed to drive “generalizations” that fit their political agendas. How much are we really “thinking” when we discuss politics and how much are we simply repeating the “generalizations” that have been implanted in our brains?
So if the media is unwilling to help us develop a more well rounded view on political issues is there anything we can do to prevent becoming nothing more than robots repeating what we have been told to believe through a series of media “experiences” intended to lead us to a specific “biased” generalization. Perhaps it is important for us to always search for generalizations that do not fit our own and debate with those that hold them (not to persuade them or be persuaded) but simply to understand how their experiences led to a different conclusion. Then maybe I and you will understand why others don’t see things like we do.
