Imagination

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I had an interesting discussion with a friend last night. I'm still fired up, so I thought I would bring the debate here:

Is imagination nothing more than a disorganization of our experiences?

 

My first reaction to that question is "huh?".

Imagination is one of the things that set human beings apart from the other animals. It is what leads to discovery, to the advancement of knowledge. Like so many things it is both good and bad or prehaps I should say; the use of it can lead to good results or bad ones.

 

I don't understand the question.

 

I would submit that imagination is an extension or enhancement of our experiences. Imagination takes us beyond them.
Disorganisation of experiences on the other hand is rarely positive.

 

I do believe that this is so - my experiences with imagination are MOSTLY alterations and combinations of various things I encountered in RL, games, movies, books, etc.

These, (other then the RL bit) were in turn based in various mythological sources - and didn't *those* often come from 'imagination', where people mis-interpreted their experiences and added what seemed 'likely', from their *earlier* experiences?

I don't know who supported what point, but I agree that imagination is (at least mostly) a disorganization of experiences.

 

I suppose you could conceivably disorganise your experiences and it would be imagination (or maybe closer to a drug trip...) - an extension of out experiences is probably far more common though. Disorganising experiences sounds ... difficult. I can't think of any way to do it but getting high or maybe dreams - but then, isn't all that just an extension anyway? Is it even possible to disorganise experiences? They seem like a pretty integral thing.

Or maybe I just don't know what you're talking about...

Edit: Eek, if Hugo is thinking what you're thinking, I think I might agree ... I'm confused now.

 

Dreams are a dis-organisation of our experiences. Imagination can be something more, otherwise some inventions are unlikely to have occured.

 

Seems like more people than LNT and his buddy have been puffing on the wacky tobaccy

 

I agree with carcaroth. Imagination makes new things possible.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein

 

Imagination is based on human experience but I'm not sure if there's any disorganisation in it. Exaggeration, extrapolation, surrealistic conjunctions. Yeah. But disorganisation? No. What I said in the previous thought suggests that the road from logical thinking to imagination is not so long as it might seem. It's still rational, in a way. You could probably argue that it's exactly what you mean by disorganisation of human experience. Possible. However, while we don't have a whole set of prefined platonic ideas in our minds, we don't have a blank chart (tabula rasa), either. You could call it a starting point, something native to a human being, like a part of the organic build, or collective memory of the species. There's probably a little of both. As I mentioned, the way the processes are handled in our brain is also key. The conclusion is probably going to be that we don't know and it isn't so simple. Or rather that it's quite simple but we still don't know. I don't know. I'm just thinking. Imagining, perhaps.

 

Imagination is what makes SP possible. Imagine a world without SP.

 

Well I might get more work done.

 

So does that mean the more you have experienced, the greater your imagination? Because I feel that my imagination was a lot better when I was 7. Or maybe it means that the more you have experienced, the more capacity for a greater imagination, you just don't generally use it as much when you're older?

 

I think imagination is meant to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, in order to keep the as yet unused parts of our brain from atrophying. As it gets filled up with experience and memory, imagination is needed less, and eventually either goes away or turns into paranoia.

 

Here is another mystery...

Where do we get our sense of good/bad?

This sense seems to be one of the most integral parts of consciousness. In fact, you could argue it is the single backdrop against which conciousness can be illustrated upon.

Consciousness seems to be the ability to make a choice. But inherent to the nature of choice is the differences between the choices. These fall under two categories: good or bad (with gradations of course).

The relativeness of good/bad can be confusing. An example: To Jane, her SUV is good because it can accommodate her children as well as their friends. To Jim, SUV's are bad because they use up too much gasoline and block his vision on the highway.

It seems good/bad is entirely inherent to the individual consciousness.

The dissonance between a single good/bad and a different but logically connected good/bad within the individual can be confusing as well. An example: Jane hates to see animals in pain and would never harm one, yet Jane organizes her entire family to eat that same animal.

Where do we all get this good/bad sense and furthermore, what the hell is it?