Engaging with New Territory
Have you ever heard that adage 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks?' Funny isn't it. I haven't heard it for a while and maybe that is because things in our environment are changing so rapidly now. If you don't learn the how of something, you either have to get your kids or neighbour to do it, or you sit down and figure it out or end up being on the end of a very long phone call to a service centre. We are being quickly conditioned into new things all the time - like tapping our card so we don't have to hold up the queue for at least another 12 seconds...
But in all this new learning, are we really learning or are we just doing something that saves time in its functionality, it serves a purpose, frequently an economic related one. Saves time, saves money. However, are we weighing up the real costs? The cost of not really using your own brain any more to figure things out. The reasoning capacity, working along a series of processes to get to the end of something.
We are getting conditioned to using a series of screens that tell us what to do next. Our phones tell us, our cars tell us, computers and pads tell us. My concern arises when I watch someone, doing a fairly simple straightforward task, go into complete overwhelm - too much information, too hard, too many words to read, can't see the whole forest because their face is pushed against the tree.
Our body with it's brain and nervous system is the most outstanding processor ever created. Please don't lose sight of that. No artificial intelligence (AI) will ever come close because it will always be limited. Whereas with us, we are unlimited in our potential to keep growing and learning. Regardless of our age, we can grow neural connections and continue on a path of evolution, if we choose. I prefer William Henry's version of AI - Awakening Intelligence.
So my thoughts are this - always keep your consciousness moving, exploring, learning, experiencing, growing. Ask yourself some open ended questions that bump up against your 'known' universe and see what opens up for you.
..."If I were to experience something new and interesting today, what might that look/feel/sound like?" and open your senses to the unexpected.
