I Think Therefore I Am a Machine

By Yoram Har-Lev

Philosophers, scientists and researchers, writers, scholars and educators have attempted to delve into some of the many aspects of understanding the other person. But as the philosopher, Emanuel Levinas, noted: “The face of the other is always that person which is not me. Therefore it remains an unsolved enigma.”
This book seeks to unveil the enigma behind “the face of the other”. It approaches the issue of understanding the other human being in an original, resourceful manner, different from all approaches to date. This is done by exploring the way in which the human mind works including the challenges that our brain was forced to solve by evolution, and the social factors affecting our thoughts and actions.
In this book we explore the human difficulties to understand the other person, particularly when the other does not belong to the same cultural group as our own. This book presents new theses, explaining the roots of the issue. One can find here handy tools that assist in coping with the difficulty of bridging the disparities existing in the current theories. I hope it will help to bring about new insights, which will impact the conduct of individuals and groups.
In this book we'll delve into broad scope of issues, with insights which help to link all these issues, in a clear coherent structure.
Despite the complexity of some subjects and fields with which this book deals, it is presented in a highly accessible way, offering an enjoyable read, and accompanied by original illustrations by the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yoram Har-Lev
• Release date: Feb 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370083572

Yoram Har-Lev

I am an Electronics & Control Engineer, specializing in computer communication and complex large-scale project management. My professional life primarily involved developmental and innovative frameworks, and integrating diverse disciplines. I produced several conceptual breakthroughs and innovations, demonstrating an original way of thinking. Contrary to the common belief, the most important characteristics a development Engineer should have, is imagination. In this book of short stories I exhibit this characteristic.

Book preview

I Think, therefore I Am a Machine

Exploring the thinking-of-the-Other

Yoram Har-Lev

Copyright 2017 Yoram Har-Lev

Published by Yoram Har-Lev at Smashwords

ISBN 9781520236155

Smashwords Edition License Notes

 This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

I dedicate this book to:

The human race,although I would never presume to understand everyone’s thoughts or agree with the values that drive them; I respect all of them.

The Jewish Peoplehas many and variant sub-groups, with most of which I do not agree. Nonetheless, I am proud to belong to this people.

My many friends and acquaintances,left and right, women and men, whose company always makes me happy.

And most important, to my family,each of you, dear family members, carries some part of me. I love you all.

"I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them." – Baruch Spinoza, Tractates Theologico-Politicus

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

SUMMERY

INTRODUCTION

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One man broke out of the herd,

He climbed on the wall, fled in despair.

On top of the wall he sat, feeling sad ...

Looking down ... but no man was there.

The March of Folly

In her book, The March of Folly,Barbara Tuchman describes decisions made by leaders against their own interests. She defined 'Folly' by quoting Plato: "When the soul contradicts the viewpoint, or knowledge, or wisdom, all of which are natural laws, I call this folly". 

The march of folly did not stop with the Vietnam War which was her last example of folly. The march of folly continues until today. Some will argue that US President Obama's Middle East policy, was a demonstration of a foolish march, causing the Arab spring and marking the decline of the power of the US in the world. This folly caused the bitter Shiva/Sunni war and, perhaps, even initiated the clash between the Western/ and Muslim civilizations.

Some will argue that Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, brought about the end of Christian Europe, with her invitation of millions Muslim refugees. We can argue that we in Israel practiced our own self-made folly in the Oslo agreement, which brought the defeated enemy - the Fatah organization, into the heart of our land. It resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews lives, and complicated the Arab-Israel conflict beyond repair.

We have to ask what makes leaders ignore logic, and act against their own interests? It is not lack of knowledge that cause modern leaders to join the march of folly. They have the largest database ever - the Internet - and on their side are legions of intelligence personnel whose job is to find information. Despite this, this foolish march continues. Apparently, information, knowledge, and intelligence are of no help in preventing the tendency of leaders from repeating the 'march of folly'. The answer is that all these foolish decisions have one common denominator: the inability of these leaders to predict how people of a different cultural group, will react. Time and again leaders have displayed this inability. Sadly, this lack of understanding often leads to disaster.

In this book we argue that all of us, not just our leaders, have a limited understanding of the other person. It is very important for everyone to understand how other people grasp events, and how they react to them. Unfortunately, this is no easy task. The philosopher, Emanuel Levinas, noted that: The face of the other is always what I am not and therefore is always an enigma. We know very little about the ways in which our brain works, and less than nothing about what goes on in another person's mind.

My interest in exploring to what degree we understand the other person, was aroused by realizing that my intelligent friends cannot understand how someone like me, remains faithful to ideas that they perceive as utterly unfounded on facts and logic. Of course, I also wonder how intelligent people like them, could have illusions that are clearly not based on logic and facts. Obviously there is some aspect beyond people’s logic that determines our way of thinking. A person can be sure that he has the right ideas while the other person is wrong, whereas the other will think exactly the same of that person.

Before we try to go farther, we need to acknowledge that vast differences exist among people, especially among people coming from a cultural group other than our own.

 To all of us it is clear that there is a difference between men and women, between the slim and the heavily-built person, between a tall person and a short one. Differences also exist in the aspirations and mindsets of different people. But as the philosopher Levinas noted; for each of us others are the other face and therefore enigmatic.

Allow me to invite you on a research journey into that mysterious terrain of the face of the other, in the hope that by the journey’s end, we will have at least a slightly better understanding of how others think and react.

Just before we set out, let us open up our mind. It would not be the first time in human history that what was obvious to everyone turns out to be a false idea. After all, none of us believes any more that the earth is flat, or that the sun revolves around it. Some of the premises that we will present on our journey, will seem to you as no less distorted, than the strange notion that Copernicus had when he told our ancestors that the sun, rather than the earth, is in the center of the universe. After all, people could see with their own eyes, how the sun moved around the earth, which stood still in the center of the universe. Only that stubborn fellow, Galileo, insisted that: Eppur si muove (and yet it moves). And he was right!

In this book I have attempted to open up our understanding of how the other person, the person who is not me, thinks and behaves. Further on, I presume that the way in which we humans think and react are emotion-based, as well as the result of logical thinking. Therefore, understanding the other person requires among other things, understanding the reasons for these emotions in a person.

Scientists, busy in their laboratories, try to map the brain and find out which brain cells are responsible for various functions. Were we to know exactly how every synapse in the brain functions while we carry out one function or another, we would still be unable to estimate what the other person think, feels, and how he will behave. The primary thrust of scientific research is to understand how the brain is structured and how it processes data fed in by our senses. Yes, of course this is important information in the overall attempt to understand human behavior, but no less important is the information stored in our brains, the mutual impact of community and the individuals in it, as well as the norms of culture which dictate the scale of values by which we conduct ourselves.

Scientists study how the brain works; here we'll try a different approach. We'll try to explore why the brain functions as it does, rather than in some other way. We will do this by investigating which brain mechanisms were developed to meet the challenges that humans face, in spite of the brain's organic structural limitations. Then we will study how our culture influences our thoughts and actions, since none of us is disconnected from the community in which we live.

In Chapter 1, we explore the basic mechanisms behind the act of thinking and reactions, inside the individual human brain. Chapter 2 presents the impact of our community on our thoughts and responses. Chapter 3 will delve into understanding human communities. This is important for having some clues about which ideas and feelings the community implants in our brain.

 I hope that when you finish reading this book, you'll know more about how people think and react.

Why is it Important

Throughout the centuries, philosophers, poets and authors have written on the subject of human nature. There are millions of words describing how people think and behave. This extensive study into people’s minds has been carried out for a very good reason. It is important to understand how the other person thinks and reacts, since this can guide us as to how we should conduct our relations with that other person. A wise person tries to understand the reactions of other people, and takes them into consideration when making decisions. In fact, people are in a constant process of assessing the behavior of others. They do it with consciously or subconsciously considerations, and with rational or emotional considerations.  A couple on their first date will make emotional assessments. Each one will want to know how the other feels toward him or her. Marketing experts try to assess the reactions of potential consumers to their new products. A politician will assess the responses of his constituents to his speech.

These are typical of the assessments we all make, day by day. The common denominator is the need to understand how the other person, who is not me thinks, feels, and responds. We all feel that need to crack these enigmatic aspects, as noted by the philosopher, Emanuel Levinas.

Assessment is so vital to our functioning that nature, in its evolutionary wisdom, has equipped us with a range of tools that helps us to carry out this task. Some of these are direct tools, others are indirect, some are inborn, and some are acquired during our life time. Direct tools include smart reading of body language. For example we notice very small facial gestures, which we use as lie detectors. Indirect tools include intuition, and stereotypical patterns engraved in our minds, enabling us to reach a speedy assessment of the other person. An example of an inherited tool is the ability of infants to identify their mother's face. An example of an acquired tool is a combat pilot's skill at identifying the silhouette of enemy planes.

These tools are unfortunately, limited. They are not effective when the other person masks his feelings, especially if he conducts himself according to rules and habits unknown to our culture.

In the process of assessing people, it is essential first of all, to honor them. I appreciate all people, and this gives me that objective starting point to analyze what make us tick.

How Dare I Write the book

The first question that immediately comes to mind is this: How can a layman like me have such pretentious aspirations as to succeed in a task where even the best philosophers and neuron-scientists have difficulty? Here are some reasons in my defense:

I do not pretend to explore and understand how exactly the brain works. That task is handled by many scientists around the world. Rather, I attack the problems in a different way, as is explained later in this book. In a nutshell, I am confident that evolution has found the best way to develop our brain in order to help us survive. Therefore any trait found in our brain is there for that reason. All ideas presented here are based on the discoveries that scientists have made in their research. I am merely trying to build a complete picture, using these facts to understand how the human brain works. Over many millions of years, evolution has improved traits that helped humanity survive and thrive. I am like a person who has no idea how television works, yet knows enough to use it by pressing the appropriate button to see his favorite channel. I have no need to know how the data are processed in the integrated circuits inside the TV box, in order change the channel. Equally there is no need to know how the brain circuitry works to know what makes a person feel. All we have to know is that he does his best to survive. I am trying to investigate these kinds of phenomena in the-book. This way we can understand better what makes a person react in one way and not another; in short how the other person will react. Here is a hint about the nature of some of the insights that will be discussed in detail later; the other person does not necessarily react the way in which I would, given the same situation.

The results of studies and experiments conducted by neuron-scientists are available on the Internet for anyone to see and use. One does not have to be a scientist to make sense of this research; on the Internet, there are plenty of professors explaining the meaning of such studies. Thus all one has to do is to fit all these pieces of information together into the puzzle to get the full picture.

Brain research is still in its infancy. Professional neuron-scientists do not understand much more than the curious laymen.

To investigate the brain mechanisms, one does not need expensive laboratories: he can test his own brain, and the reactions of the people he knows. This was the way in which Professor Freud developed psychoanalysis.

Traits of the human brain have been perfected over millions of years. It can be assumed that many of the traits existing in our mind, originated due to the mechanism of evolution, preserving the necessary features necessary for our survival. Understanding of evolutionary processes could help our understanding of the brain’s function.

As Newton said: "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants". Since his day, the 'giants' of today have been growing bigger. That is why, sitting on their shoulders, we can now see much farther into the horizon.

Nature tends to develop in simple ways. Therefore it is likely that one can understand the basic mechanisms of the brain, even though the brain is very complex.

And one more thing – we must not rely blindly on experts. Studies have found that experts have difficulty in creating new ideas. Sometimes the experts refuse even to accept new ideas presented to them. Most experts are so confident in their own knowledge concerning their narrow field of expertise, that they cannot pluck up enough mental courage to admit that they may have been wrong. One example of such an attitude is how the chaos theory was treated by the scientific community when it was first presented. Many ideas that