Abstract Thought

Humans have the ability to conceive and think of things strictly in their own minds. We can, for instance, imagine a world where we could fly. We are born with a unique creativity to imagine things that don’t even exist. It allows us to do things such as talk about Potentialism and Q4P in the first place.

This ability to imagine also allows us to create. We can conceive of things that don’t exist yet to solve problems, then build what we need. Abstract thought is what drives us to progress, learn and create – whether it is building pyramids or putting a man on the moon. Before we could do it, we had to imagine it.

It is also a necessary component to understand philosophy – the study of knowledge, reality, and existence itself. Indeed, it was philosophy that allowed Birnbaum to craft the Theory of Potentialism.

To do so, it required thinking of the nature of the universe itself, examining it to look for patterns and consistencies, then work backwards to try and find that missing universal drive – Q4P. In fact, before humanity, the riddle of the universe had no one who could even attempt to solve it.

123

As evidence of this, you’ve only to consider what our abstract thought has given us. Mathematics is a purely abstract exercise. You may not have ever considered this, as it is used to accomplish real-world tasks, but math is purely a philosophical discipline. It is a mind exercise in categorizing and quantifying (a fancy way of saying counting) things.

Without math, there would be no Industrial Revolution, let alone computers or programming. We’d never have been able to reach to and explore the heavens. Yet, at the end of the day, math was born purely in the minds of humankind.

Abstract thought is one of the most wondrous aspects of humanity. Our ability to dream and fantasize is one of our most powerful tools. It allows us to look beyond what is and imagine what could be.

Let us remember that the SuperFormula drives the universe on a set path:

Q4P∞ → C+ → E+

Historically, it has done this alone, striving towards Extraordinariation. Humanity changed this, though. Q4P, in making humans, had finally created something that could assist in envisioning that E+ goal and actively help the universe along.

124

This time, it wasn’t through simple physical processes. Instead, humanity could take an active role in realizing what they were actually a part of and seek to help Q4P along in the process.

Remember this: In all the known universe, you are the first thing that Potential has created that can actively and intelligently assist it in seeking complexity.

We are the universe’s first computers it designed to assist itself. Unlike machines, we are organic systems which gives us so much more potential and complexity as we can ponder both the physical and the metaphysical with equal ease.

125