Monday, June 23, 2008

As our world grows ever more difficult, we must become ever more intelligent in our choice of actions or we will not survive. I think it is time we revisited some tools to help us with that goal.

From the 2002 SynEARTH Archives: A major division of synergic science is the study of human intelligence. Many are familar with R. Buckminster Fuller who studied synergy in physical universe. Today I featured an article by N. Arthur Coulter on Responsibility on CommUnity of Minds. Here, I present some of my work on understanding human intelligence.

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The Vectors of Human Intelligence

Timothy Wilken, MD

In my search to understand human intelligence, I have discovered seven states of mind that when accomplished increase human intelligence, they are:  calmness, awareness, synergy, validation, motivation, adaptability & responsibility.

CALMNESS —def—> The ability to process information without physiological response.  

An individual who has mastered calmness knows that all internal thinking is symbolic. If my body responds to every thought of danger let alone every real danger, then I will truly come to know the meaning of the sentence: “The coward dies a thousand deaths the brave man only once.”

Today most of us die a thousand deaths. When we imagine our problems and stresses, our bodies tense and strain. When we think of danger, we feel afraid. When we think of hurt, we feel anger. The feelings of anger and fear are just our internal sensings of our bodies as they prepare to fight or flee. But when our bodies prepare to fight and flee, they shut down vital systems.

If these systems are shut down for more than a few moments, we shorten our lives and become sick. In a world of chronically frighted and chronically angered individuals, all our lives are shortened, and all of us are sick.

In our modern world, calmness is a survival skill. Calmness is the ability to think of danger and hurt without feeling fear or anger. Calmness is ability to process information without physiological response.

AWARENESS —def—>  What I know of the whole / Total known about the whole

Awareness is a variable of knowing. It applies to the all phenomena in universe. Some examples of increasing awareness are: A newborn baby has minimal awareness, not even responding to his own hands and feet. A child is usually only aware of self. A good mother carries an awareness that includes her children and husband. A good manager will carry an awareness of his entire department. A scientist seeking peace may carry an awareness of six billion other humans.

Awareness —def—>         Who I know 
                                            All living on earth 

Awareness means that when I decide, I have considered all I am aware of. So another way of thinking about awareness is: The child's decisions concern only himself. The mother's decisions considers not only her needs, but the needs  of her children and husband as well. The manager's decisions considers the needs of everyone in his department. And the scientist's decisions considers the needs of four and one-half billion other humans.

SYNERGY—def—> The WIN-WIN relationship.

It is when a relationship is good for me and good for you— it is when we both benefit from the relationship.

The Primary retardent to efficiency, productivity, and quality of life is CONFLICT. Synergy is the elimination of conflict. Synergy is the win-win relationship.  

VALIDATION—def—> The human state of feeling approved of. 

It involves both self-approval and other-approval. An ideal state is when an individual has both self-respect and other-respect.

Approval is frequently hard to come by in our present world. All humans experience numerous and frequent episodes of disapproval. This produces what I call validation damage. This damage  produces humans who are highly polarized in terms of validation.

Some individuals seek only other-approval getting nearly all their validation by pleasing others. Within their relationships they are most concerned about  other's needs. Their posture may help other win, but often self is ignored and loses—lose/win.

These strongly other-validating individuals tend to be oversensitive and underconfident. These individuals tend to fail when they need self.

Another large group of individuals seek only self-approval getting nearly all of their validation by pleasing self. They are most concerned about self's needs. Their posture may help self win, but often other is ignored and loses—win/lose.

These strongly self-validating individuals tend to be undersensitive and overconfident. These individuals tend to fail when they need other.

Optimization occurs when an individual becomes balanced. Seeking his validation needs by seeking both self-approval and other-approval. He seeks a relationship with other that is good for both self and other. This posture may help both self and other to win—win-win. These balanced validating individuals tend to be both sensitive and confident. These individuals tend to succeed.  Validation is the human state of feeling approved of.  

 MOTIVATION —def—>The strength of the urge seeking action.

The strength of ones motivation is a primary determinant of success. Dual Mind Theory sees Motivation resulting from both the Space-mind's desires and the Time-mind's goals. Space-mind is motivated by an attraction to fun and pleasure, and a repulsion from pain. Time-mind is motivated by  attraction to meaning and a repulsion from boredom.

The human mind is most interested on those tasks that it finds both entertaining and meaningful. Applied to education, the most powerful forms of instruction are entertaining and educating. This is producing a new approach to instruction called “EDUTAINMENT”.
 
Motivation is best when my life is enjoyable and meaningful—fun and interesting. One lesson we can learn from motivation is that when what we are doing isn’t fun and interesting, then we should make changes until it is fun and interesting. Motivation is the strength of the urge seeking action.

 ADAPTABILITY—def—>Ready, able, and willing to change.   

An individual with 100% adaptability lives what he knows. The highly adaptive individual is always seeking to adjust himself to optimize his relationship with reality. He lives what he knows, if he knows cigarette smoking is unhealthy, he chooses not to smoke.

In a universe that is always changing adaptability is of great value. It involves a sensitivity to change. Adaptability is being ready, able and willing to change.  

 RESPONSIBILITY—def—> The ability to respond—Response Able. 

 This requires an individual to accept the consequences of his actions or non-actions—to accept the risks and benefits and consequences of those actions not for himself, but on all others as well. Responsibility is the ability to respond.

The greatest productivity occurs in an environment that is highly supportive of these vectors of human intelligence — calmness, awareness, synergy, validation, motivation,  adaptability & responsibility.

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