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1.4 Stage of Systemic Thinking (continued)

 

The brain is a system in which things happen according to the nature of the system. What happens in the brain is information. And the way how it happens is thinking.

 

Since thinking in this broad sense determines what people do on any level from the most personal to the most international, it could be worth looking at some aspects of the brain system.

 

The first useful thing that can come out of knowledge of a system is the avoiding of those errors that arise through thinking the system to be something that it is not.

 

The second useful thing is awareness of the limitations of the system. No matter how good they may be at performing their best functions, most systems are rather poor when it comes to performing the opposite functions. One would no more go racing in a shopping car than shopping in a racing car. Where one can, one chooses the system to fit the purpose. More often there is no choice, and this means that a single system will perform certain functions well, but others not so well. For instance, the brain system is well suited to developing ideas but not always so good at generating them. Knowing about the limitations of a system does not by itself alter them. But by being aware of the nature of the system one can make deliberate adjustments.

 

The third way in which one could use knowledge of a system would be to make use of the characteristics of the system to improve its performance or to achieve some end.

 

Some understanding of how the brain system handled information could be very useful. It might then be possible to recognize some of the errors and faults inherent in this type of system, to show, for example, that there was a tendency to arbitrary and self-enhancing divisions which were extremely useful in most cases but could also be the source of a lot of trouble. Apart from becoming aware of the errors of the system, it might also be possible to make more effective use of it through understanding its nature in order to make the learning process easier and more economic. It might be possible to do something about communication.