The Mind is Mightier: Reflections on the Historic Rise of Cognition and Complexity by Bar-Giora Goldberg, Authors Pace, 2020, ISBN: 9781628-656619; 462 pages.
By Rabbi Dr. Michael Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — Bar-Giora Goldberg’s The Mind is Mightier: Reflections on the Historic Rise of Cognition and Complexity offers a novel and panoramic view about the cognitive evolution of the human race—not an easy topic, but it is one that the author transforms into an exciting intellectual journey. The author posits an interesting thought in his introduction: “The world as we know it is not far from the Platonic model (matter and form). There is reality out there (matter), but the world is also our idea (form).”
As someone who has studied Platonic thought, I sensed where the author was going with his concept. The civilized world derives its existence from our species’ innate ability to recognize the building blocks of how the world functions. As we continue to decipher the mysteries about our Universe’s existence, from the macro to the quantum, we had discovered the vast complexity that began when human beings first became cognizant of their environment and began questioning about the purpose of their existence.
The machines’ functionality can give the impression that they possess the ability to “think.” We see this especially in its ability to play chess better than the world’s top grandmasters. Yet, as Goldberg observed, “they might beat us in chess, but they do not realize they are playing chess.” As a Chess master, I have often wondered about that! His statement shows the paradox of how the mind works. When people ask me: How do you know whether God exists? I always point out that I can ask the question: “How did this cosmos come into being?” “Why am I able to understand the cosmos?” “Why does something exist instead of nothing?” Or “Why do I exist?” These questions reflect our unique ability to be self-reflective and aware of our consciousness. Our capacity to experience wonder is the most remarkable aspect of human cognition. The astrophysicist Paul Davies likens this phenomenon as “the Big Bang within the Big Bang.”
One of the essential tools that has advanced human evolution is language. It isn’t easy to imagine how the world would look today if human beings never learned to communicate through language. Goldberg noted, “Because of our ability to express ourselves intricately and communicate in such a rich manner and thus influence others, store information and conceive ideas and beliefs, we had the ability to create large communities and create a cognitive world-view; this cognitive capacity gave us dominion over the earth”
Goldberg pointed out that historians are seldom “objective” in narrating the great events that shaped human history on the subjects of History and historiosophy. Historians of the past and the present add their bias to how they interpret their craft. This applies no less to how religious thinkers of History reinterpret their historical evolution. I liked his quote from Oscar Wilde, who quipped, “The one duty we owe history is to rewrite it!” I agree. We may say the same about biblical commentators who often reveal more about themselves than they do about the biblical text they are commenting about. Yet, the author points out several of the deep patterns that emerge from a philosophical reading of the Bible, most notably, “The biblical narrative presumes that life has a purpose, even if it is divine and a mystery to us. It ascribes purpose to living the righteous life and obeying God’s commandments.”
Goldberg’’s book is a fascinating read. In his section on mythology and religion, he concurs with the mythologist Joseph Campbell who posited the thought that the origin of myth derives from two questions the ancients wondered about: the riddle of death and the concept of time. These qualities once again reveal why human beings are qualitatively different and superior to the animal kingdom. Add this to our growing awe of the Universe as we discover its hidden mysteries; every new generation realizes that the complexity of our existence is much more profound than we can ever have imagined.
I think Goldberg might have considered discussing some of the ideas expressed in the brilliant scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines (ASM). Kurzweil argued in 1998 that human evolution would eventually blur the boundaries of separating human and machine cognition as human technology would advance.
Kurzweil noted, “Some observers question whether we are capable of applying our own thinking to understand our own thinking. AI researcher Douglas Hofstadter muses that “it could be simply an accident of fate that our brains are too weak to understand themselves. Think of the lowly giraffe, for instance, whose brain is obviously far below the level required for self-understanding—yet it is remarkably similar to our brain.” However, we have already succeeded in modeling portions of our brain—neurons and substantial neural regions—and the complexity of such models is growing rapidly. Our progress in reverse-engineering the human brain … demonstrates that we do indeed have the ability to understand, to model, and to extend our own intelligence. “This is one aspect of the uniqueness of our species: our intelligence is just sufficiently above the critical threshold necessary for us to scale our own ability to unrestricted heights of creative power—and we have the opposable appendage (our thumbs) necessary to manipulate the universe to our will…”
Goldberg’s book held my interest. I think the subject about the evolution of human cognition is a very rich subject, one that thinking people will enjoy reading.
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Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel is and author and spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista. He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com