The "MIND" of Mankind
 Human Imagination - the source of Mankind's tremendous power.


Chapter  8

     

HUMAN IMAGINATION

Human Imagination consists of two distinct types of imaginations, our Learning Imagination and our Creative Imagination. As you read this page you are using your imagination. As your eyes scan these ink marks you imagine they are ideas, things, actions. Your imagination gives you the ability to instantly associate these inks marks with mental pictures in your mind. (If they were written in another language that you did not learn to associate with certain mental images they would simply look like meaningless symbols). This is our Learning Imagination. Everyone has this type of imagination, the amount varies from person to person and helps determine our level of intelligence. It is our primary imagination.

We can learn to imagine associations and abstract thoughts that are taught to us such as talking, reading, writing, math, all sorts of relationships, facts and skills, etc. Everything we learn. This along with a good memory to store all this knowledge makes us quite capable of living a very normal successful life. We can become doctors, lawyers, teachers, carpenters, machinists etc., people in every walk of life. All people have a Learning Imagination in various levels. Animals also have a learning imagination but it is extremely limited to their survival and procreation and does not include abstract imagining. Young animals learn from their parents and experience.

As I stated in a previous chapter, the Creative Imagination is our special imagination. It enables mankind to rise to a higher plane of intellectual achievement, to progress. There are certain people that, in addition to having the Learning Imagination have developed this Creative Imagination. These are the idea people. They create mankind's new things, concepts and ideas. They are responsible for mankind's progress throughout its existence. They are the innovators among us, the inventors, entrepreneurs, philosophers, artists, storytellers, composers, scientists, etc. These are the people who originally invented our words languages, physical tools, etc. They made it possible for people to communicate sophisticated concepts and ideas to each other.

These are the people who relentlessly probed into the unknown, in every possible direction, throughout the forty thousand year history of mankind, constantly adding to and expanding mankind's knowledge. These are the people who are not satisfied with the "Status Quo". We owe a great deal to these imaginative creators for propelling us step by step, to our present, sophisticated standard of living. Imagine if we went backward in time and as we pass the time when the innovations were created, they are subtracted from our lives, how difficult our lives would quickly become.

All of mankind benefits greatly from its imaginative innovators. The invention of the “movable type” printing press is a good example of this. It was an invention whose time had come. Printers were already reproducing pictures on cloth using engraved blocks of wood. This type of printing was developed in the Orient as early as the sixth century. Many books and scrolls were printed there, using engraved blocks of wood to print whole pages at a time. A movable type printing press was the next logical step. Casting each letter of type, individually, in metal so that they could be lined up to form any word and sentence and used again and again.

Johann Gutenberg is the imaginative innovator who is credited, in Europe, with inventing the movable type printing press. What appears so simple and logical to us now was actually a giant intellectual leap for mankind. Gutenberg spent years developing and perfecting his invention. He was probing into the future using both his learning and creative imaginations to their utmost. He envisioned the advantage of using single individually metal cast alphabet letters that could be set down in any combination to make up a page of text.

He had a tremendous advantage over the Chinese printers since he only had to design twenty six phonetic alphabet characters and ten numeral symbols whereas the Chinese had to come up with hundreds of pictogram characters. The Chinese had never made the next step in writing. They never progressed from pictograms to a phonetic alphabet. A step in progress some innovative Sumerians had invented in ancient times for western culture.

Gutenberg had the Roman alphabet and the Hindu/Arabic numerals to work with. Using these thirty six symbols (plus a few connecting symbols such as the comma, period, etc.) he could print every possible idea that mankind would ever imagine. What a powerful tool for mankind to use! Other innovators had invented the paper for the words to be printed on, the book/binding to hold the pages, the words and language to be printed, the spaces between the words, the wine press to impress the words on the paper. This printing system was a product of the “Mind”.

Gutenberg brought all these technologies together and invented the missing parts to create this new system. As a metal caster and goldsmith craftsman, he could imagine the advantages of metal cast characters over wood or ceramic material. He worked with painters to invent the special ink that was needed, he adapted the wine press concept into a printing press. Many problems had to be solved to come up with a working system. He solved them all but unfortunately he took too long and his financial backers took possession of the invention and reaped most of the benefits. Something that has happened again and again to our creative innovators.

In Europe during the early middle ages (from 600 AD to 1200 AD) only people connected with the church had the privilege of learning to read and write. Its schools were used to educate new priests, it's monks copied the books laboriously by hand. They copied not only their religious texts but also the works of the other ancient writers. They are great works of art. This ensured the preservation of human progress through the dark ages. Later as commerce developed, successful merchants also began to establish schools where boys could learn about law and commerce. The merchants needed to draw up business contracts, etc. During this period only a relatively few privileged people had learned how to read and write. There were also some universities established in the 13th and 14th century in Bolonga and Paris that brought philosophers and scholars together but they had to rely on hand written manuscripts.

There was little reason for the common man to learn how to read or write since there were no newspapers or magazines to read and all the books were handwritten and very expensive. When the printing press was invented in Europe around the middle of the fifteenth century it is estimated that less then eighty thousand hand written manuscript books existed in Europe. These books contained just about all recorded knowledge of our western civilization. There was also a vast treasure of knowledge available in Moorish Spain that also contributed immensely to the European renaissance.

With the invention of the printing press things changed rapidly. Books became more readily available and much cheaper. The common man began to acquire knowledge that was not available to him before. More people learned how to read and to write, (reading and writing depends totally on mans' ability to imagine), some just to read the Bible. Over one hundred and twenty editions of the bible were printed in the next fifty years. By the beginning of the sixteenth century it is estimated that more then seven million copies of books had already been printed. With the influx of all this new information becoming available, people became smarter, their imaginations began to expand. It was the beginning of the rise of the common man.

This rapid spread of all types of knowledge had a chain reaction effect on mankind's progress. It created an explosion in new imaginative thinking. It challenged people to use their creative imagination. Imaginative people could now communicate with each other much better, feeding off of each other's ideas. The creative innovators and people with important knowledge to contribute, were now able to publish their ideas. Great manuals and guide books on many subjects that other creative imagineers could use became available. It caused a chain reaction of new ideas to spread across Europe. It stirred man's creative imagination. It was the beginning of modern technology, it helped standardize the national languages. The invention and development of electronics, computer and communication technology are the latest steps of this ever expanding technology.

Greek and Italian writers were able to contribute their knowledge of their ancient cultures to the northern Europeans. They published their knowledge of ancient Greek science and philosophy and the ancient Greek and Roman architecture. Our modern world is a direct result of the invention of the moveable type printing press. The Mind of Mankind has benefited greatly from this invention, there are many, many others. They all arose from the creative imagination and effort of one or more innovator, always building on the accomplishments of their predecessors.

The immense power of the dissemination of ideas via the printing press can be illustrated when, Martin Waldseemuler, a canon clergyman in the Duchy of Lorraine, published a map around 1507, naming (South) "America" on it after Amerigo Vespucci and a book suggesting America be the name of the newly discover lands. This idea caught on so fast he was unable change it when he tried. The new continents became permanently named North America and South America.

The ability of the printed word to rapidly spread knowledge to the common man had a very unsettling effect on the vested interests of the day. It became increasingly difficult to dominate their subjects with all this new knowledge and stories floating around. It was like a powerful imaginative genie was let loose upon the world, spewing out new ideas of every sort. It increased the power of the storytellers immensely. It contributed greatly to the reformation. Martin Luther recognized its power and used it extensively. Even though he and other reformers such as John Calvin used it, they brutally suppressed the publication of any competing ideas if they could.

The idea of free press and speech was just too much for the vested interests of the day to tolerate. They did their utmost to suppress the common man's awakening imagination. Just thirty four years after the first book was printed, the first state censorship office was established in Frankfurt, Germany. Many others soon followed. In the ensuing years thousands people were tortured, hung and burned at the stake for publishing their ideas or speaking their mind by both the government and religious authorities. Galileo Galilei barely escaped this fate by recanting his colossal ideas and living under house arrest for the rest of his life. (He knew these ideas would spread regardless of his fate.)

The church has just recently apologized to Galileo. There were many men who were more “bull headed” and went to their death rather then recant. Repressive governments and religions still keep tight censorship control of their peoples' printed words and ideas. They also now have to deal with other powerful idea spreading mediums such as radio and television with its satellite dishes. (At the present time there is a death threat on an author who published his controversial views about the Muslim religion.)

Another great invention, the steam engine, started the industrial revolution that changed the world and did much to raise the standard of living of the common man. (James Watt, the creative imagineer so greatly improved the steam engine by giving it a separate condenser that he is incorrectly been given credit for its invention). Today we have billions of machines doing every sort of work imaginable for the benefit of mankind. We have machines to transport us anywhere we want to go (even to the moon), to help raise and harvest our food, to help us build roads, buildings and other machines and unfortunately, to help us carry out the most brutal wars imaginable. They have raised mankind's standard of living to its present level and are now also a threat to its very existence.

There is now, a machine designed to carry out any endeavor we undertake. (I am composing these words with the help of a magic machine system, the computer and its software.) The invention of the printing press and steam engine were the two revolutionary sparks that ignited the imagination of countless other creative imagineers to carry on, invent, and improve their own innovations. They catapulted the Europeans to the forefront of world leadership! These endeavors are continuing today at an exponential pace. Just as the invention of farming and writing made possible the creation of early civilization, the invention of the printing press and the steam engine made our modern world possible. What Johann Gutenberg did for the printed word, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Lee De Forest did for the spoken word. By inventing the phonograph, telephone and radio they opened the door of an entirely new vista of communicating for all of mankind to enjoy.

While the movable type printing press was a next logical step for the printed word, the phonograph, telephone and radio were entirely new innovations for the recording and transmission of the spoken word. It was the doorway to a new maze of challenges that have kept our creative innovators busy ever since. These three inventions made possible the dissemination of the spoken word and music to every corner of the world. They were innovations that added immensely to mankind's enjoyment of life and standard of living. Challenging mankind's creative imagination is the keystone to its progress.

The Humanoid and the Human children.

The humanoid children had keen animal senses but limited learning imagination and virtually no creative imagination. Their intellectual ability was much greater then the great apes but far below their human counterparts. They were “human” physically but they had not yet received their Special Gift. After the transformation they were no longer humanoid, they were now human children. They now had their special gift, they could “see” with their mind. They could now form mental images, visualize, wonder, etc. They could now imagine. These are the mental tools all human children start with at birth. As they grow and develop they begin to recognize many sounds. They use their imagination to learn by associating the vocal sounds they hear with things they see in everyday life. They associate these sounds with the mental pictures that they store in their memory. Their brain seems to have an innate ability to quickly learn words and then the syntax of a language. Either a vocal sound language or if they are deaf, a sign language. Its all part of their Special Gift.

When a child hears the word “dog” he learns to visualize (imagine) in his mind, the image of a dog. He learns to associate the image of a dog with the vocal sound for "dog". If he cannot hear he will associate a specific hand sign he sees with a dog. Children store these associations in their memory. This stored information is their "memory tool chest" that they use and add to throughout their life. They can draw on and use this information nearly instantly any time they want to. They learn to understand the sounds they hear and afterwards how to mimic the sounds, (to speak). As they grow and develop physically, their imagination also grows and develops. They learn new words. This enables them to imagine more and more complex ideas.

Later in school they learn to imagine that little specific marks (the alphabet) written in a certain order on a blackboard or paper form the words and ideas they know as sounds. They start with simple things and gradually learn more and more complex words and sentences. The children can, not only imagine “things” but also actions, abstract thoughts, sentence structure etc. These are learned associations that our imagination makes possible. Children's early environment have a profound effect on their learning and development. They will talk and act the way their parents and other people around them do, for better or worse. This is all made possible because of their Special Gift.

A child at play, can be deeply absorbed in imagination. Young children play with their dolls pretending to talk back and forth with them or pretend to drive their little toy cars, etc. They enjoy drawing and looking at the pictures in their books. They can become deeply immersed in their imaginary world. They can romp and play like the other young animals do but they also have the ability to imagine which the other young animals do not.

When I was a young boy of six
my mind still fresh and empty.
I played with my cars, airplanes
and little toy soldiers.
I cared little what the grown-ups
did as they shuffled about me.
One day I was a cowboy out in the west,
then I was a pilot flying my airplane
through the rooms of my house.
It was a busy happy time for me
deciding just what I would do next,
In my private imaginary world.

The ability to concentrate our imagination on learning new facts, making associations, and mathematical relationships, developing physical skills and storing them in our memory tool chest, there to be used anytime we need them, is our total personal education. It comes from everyday life experience imparted on us by our family and society, formal schooling and extracurricular studying and reading etc. All of this is made possible because of our Learning Imagination. We can learn to talk, to read, to write, to play a musical instrument etc. from other people's experiences.

From the time we are born until the day we die we should continually strive to add to our mental tool chest and use these tools constantly. Just as a weight lifter builds a bigger, stronger physical body by challenging his body to lift heavier and heavier weights so to can people challenge their minds to become stronger intellectually. Both our memory and our imagination can become stronger by challenging them through concentrated intellectual effort. We may not become a mental giant such as Isaac Newton but our intellect will certainly improve.

The Creative Imagination is different then the Learning Imagination. Anyone can develop a Creative Imagination by challenging their imagination in a different way. (It should be started at a young age.) For this you have to consciously want to innovate, to create new inventions, philosophies, writing, music, art, scientific theories, architecture, etc.. Wherever your talents excel. You must challenge your mind to go down new imaginary mental paths, be curious about everything you encounter. Try new offbeat ideas. Look for an easier way, even when the idea seems wrong, ridiculous or not immediately suitable. When a crazy new idea pops into your head, do not immediately reject it. Play with it for awhile, project your imagination to see where it leads, then store it in your memory for future use. Sometimes its fun to go down these imaginary paths to see where they lead. (Be careful not to let your imagination expand on immoral or evil ideas. It is best to reject these ideas immediately. Prisons are full of people who let their imagination lead them down these wrong paths.) The creative imagination is an extremely powerful human force and it works both ways.

In order to expand your creative imagination, you must be skeptical about things that are told to you or have read. You must bring different ideas together. You must be unsatisfied with the "Status Quo". You must develop a new eccentricity, (creative people are often thought as being “strange” by other people). You must keep your mind actively imagining, always learning new things. This is how you develop a Creative Imagination. Throughout the history of mankind it is these creative innovators who have been responsible for all of mankind's progress into the unknown (and much of its woes). If it were not for these people we would still be sitting around the camp fire hardly able to communicate with each other. The level of a person's curiosity and interests are a good indication of their creative intellectual potential. Children’s curiosity and interests, always asking Why? and What?, How come?, etc. are a healthy indication of their creative intellectual potential.
A person with little creative imagination accepts facts as they are taught, the creative person questions the facts. A good example of this is Aristotle's statement that heavy objects fall faster then lighter objects. This "fact" was accepted for two thousand years until it was questioned and proven wrong by the great creative genius, Galileo Galilei. Great intellectuals like Socrates, Newton, Einstein, da Vinci, etc. were curious about problems and concepts that ordinary science philosophers were not even aware existed. They did not accept the Status Quo.
Memory is the other mental tool that can be strengthened by challenging it. All our life experiences are stored in our memory, some remain and some fade away if they are not used. Imagination and memory work closely together. Human Imagination enables us to visualize, learn, comprehend, create, theorize, etc. and our memory enables us to store this information in our mind for future use. Getting this new information into our mind requires concentration and hard work. Being curious and interested in the subject you are trying to learn helps a great deal. Learning the alphabet, new vocabulary, how to read and write, the multiplication tables, mathematical relationships, poems, stories (both funny and serious), history, geography etc. all require concentrated effort but it is worth it. Once they are firmly established in our memory we can draw on them anytime in our life. The more worthwhile information that is stored, the better educated we will be. Rote memorizing in schools seems to be out of style now a days, it requires some effort. I think it is still a good way to help fill our mental tool chest.

Specialized learning such as playing a musical instrument, learning to be an accountant, studying medicine and law, developing skills in a sport, etc. are all examples of utilizing the Learning Imagination. It requires a lot of hard work and time to learn these subjects but it does not require a Creative Imagination. Creating new styles in playing the musical instrument or writing new music, inventing and designing new machines, creating new techniques in operating, etc. are examples of the creative imagination at work.

Creative Imagination adds to mankind's total knowledge, Learning Imagination does not. When an artist paints a picture of a scene, he is using mostly his Learning Imagination to transform the scene through his eyes, mind, hands and brush to the paint on the canvas. Techniques and skills he has learned, plus his natural talents. If he invents a new technique or style he is using his Creative Imagination. A music composer also learns his skills from others, sometimes he imagines the music in his mind before he writes it down or plays it on an instrument. Both of these artists are using their Learning and Creative imaginations in varying amounts to accomplish their creations.

All creative innovators use their Learning Imagination (things, ideas and skills they have learned from others) to start with and then build upon this knowledge using their Creative Imagination. If mankind suddenly lost its creative imagination at this point in time, we could probably still get along very well on our past accomplishments. We could still build new buildings from old plans, we just couldn't design new innovative buildings. All inventing would cease, no new plots to stories would be written. Scientists could continue to do their work, they would just never come up with any new ideas. Teachers would continue to teach their subjects, they just would never come up with new innovative teaching methods.

Philosophers would not come up with any new ideas or concepts. Doctors would continue to do their work, never inventing new procedures. Artists and sculptors would simply never create new techniques or styles of art or sculpture they could only copy the old styles. This would surely be a strange world for us for awhile but we would probably soon become used to it and possibly become quite content but rather bored with this new existence. Our creative imagineers would be gone, nothing new would be created, we could no longer progress. Mankind as we know it, would no longer exist. It would be like continuously watching reruns of old movies, no new movies would be created, no new stories written. Is one of the requisites of mankind, that we must progress for as long as we exist? Do we take our creativity for granted?

Some contemporary hunter/gatherer tribes in remote areas of the world seem to be in this state of existence. They have not progressed beyond a certain point for centuries. Does their society lack creative imagineers or do they lack the stimulation necessary to foster the desire to progress? Are they just too content? Primitive societies seem to be very successful in their way of life. They are much more compatible with nature then we are. Their populations are fairly stable. Are the Euro/Asian civilizations a part of modern humans that has run amok? Did the invention of farming and the constant challenges, chaos, turmoil and discontent of the resulting population explosion prod our civilizations into continuously progressing? Euro/Asia has certainly had its share of this in the last ten thousand years. Is this the reason for the present high state of sophistication and turmoil of our societies?

Imagination and memory are the two basic intellectual tools that man has to work with. A good memory and learning imagination along with the ability to be interested and concentrate on the subjects at hand plus hard work are what is needed to be a successful student in school. A person can be very successful in school without having a creative imagination. In fact sometimes a creative imagination can be a detriment to learning if the student is a day dreamer and cannot concentrate on the subjects at hand. The person with little creative imagination does not have a lot of extra ideas banging around in his head and therefore may be able to concentrate better. They can accept the knowledge that is taught them. If they do question some facts and come up with different answers, they may be just considered wrong and receive a lower grade.

Einstein and Edison were not a great school students but they had colossal creative imaginations. The Learning Imagination is our primary imagination. It is the ability to learn what has already been accomplished by mankind so far and to carry on at the same level, but not to progress.

The down side of this scenario is that these successful students, with very good Learning Imaginations and memories but rather limited Creative Imaginations, graduate and become our leaders (military, corporate managers, politicians, etc.). Our society can then end up depending upon these very smart people that lack Creative Imagination in critical situations and positions. They know the text book by heart but are unable to deal with situations that require this type of imagination. They lack the ability to provide the creative leadership needed. We found this out the hard way in December 1941 when our unimaginative generals and political leaders were caught totally off guard by the Japanese navy. In our Civil War, President Lincoln fortunately had time to locate some tough imaginative generals that could prevail.

Creative imagination is very important but not the only trait necessary to be a successful leader. Boldness, bravery, knowledge, experience, common sense, etc. are some of the others. Creative Imagination is the "gravy" imagination, it comes up with the new ideas. Perhaps only one idea out of a thousand may be worth while but it is nevertheless, the essence of human progress. Creative imagination builds upon the learning imagination. As Newton is said to have said "I stand on the shoulders of giants". (Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Gilbert, Plato, Socrates were truly some of these imaginative giants). He first learned all there was to know about the subjects that he was interested in, from these predecessors and then added his theories. The level of Human Imagination, and memory potential a person possesses determines their total all round intellectual potential.

The Mind of Mankind is a diverse reality whose knowledge and intelligence is the sum total of the talent of all its population, each one of us are but one of its cells with a specific talent, interest and intellect. If we are able to contribute to this diverse reality's total knowledge in some small positive way, that is about the best we can hope for in a lifetime. If we can create some positive contribution that will add to mankind's progress in some small way our life shall surely be considered successful.

Fortunately our country's political framework was built on the creative imaginations of intellectual giants. Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin are two of these men of great vision. Jefferson was author of our country's Declaration of Independence. He was inspired by the revolutionary ideas of John Locke, Patrick Henry and others, for freedom and equality of all people and for religious tolerance. His paragraph in the Declaration of Independence condemning slavery was deleted by the other members in attendance. If this paragraph had prevailed it would have saved a lot of bloodshed in the next century. In regard to his own slaves he felt they would be better off, at the time, to keep them rather then to set free to fend for themselves. I don't know what the slaves thought about this.

Franklin was a creative genius noted for his diplomatic statesmanship and experiments with electricity. He especially embraced the unique idea practiced by the Iroquois tribes that government should be a servant of the people instead of visa versa. Both of these men were creative geniuses brimming with new ideas. They along with our other forefathers were the storytellers who created a positive political environment that encouraged our country's future creative imagineers (the entrepreneurs, scientists, inventors, artists, writers, architects, etc.) to do their thing.

They have done this with great vigor, changing this country from a beautiful rural land into the dynamic power it is today. As long as our government does not stifle its innovators and entrepreneurs with a lot of unnecessary laws, regulations and burdensome taxes and provides a positive economic environment, our country should continue to grow and prosper. The success of our future depends upon this type of encouragement.

The "MIND" of Mankind's knowledge is continuously expanding, leaving its humble beginnings further and further in the past as it progresses deeper into the mysteries of the universe. It has an energy all of its own.

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