I hardly remember anything from my pre-'five year old' childhood. Why? The answer strikes me like a bolt from the blue - because then, my thoughts were only of the immediate 'present'.The deeper future and past were simply non-conceivable! With language, come thoughts, and abstractions.
I tried this simple experiment recently. I focussed on what I was 'thinking'. I then tried thinking about the 'thinking I was doing'. I further tried thinking about the 'thinking about the thinking I was doing'. That's it, I could proceed no further. Though theoretically 'infinite regression', should be possible, our mind cannot handle more than a few layers at a time.
I sometimes wonder, had humans not been gifted with the ability to form words- and thus language- would our thoughts, be as sophisticated as they seem today. I don't think so. Strictly from the evolutionary angle, too much of thinking may not be conducive to our well being as a species. Off course, longevity of a species, defining it's success, may in itself be disputable.
Most of our conscious actions emanate from thoughts. Generations have gone by in trying to shape thoughts, that would lead to actions which were in our best interest. Unfortunately, reining in destructive thoughts, is well nigh impossible. And if it is so, 'thought policing' and 'thought surveillance', which will certainly be possible in the not too distant a future, be the solution? As compared to the Orwelian '1984' thought policing, what technology can do today is indeed very frighting , I tremble to even think of such a possibility. During these, troubled uncertain times, no one seems even to discuss, our right to privacy. Even giants like 'RIM', the owners of the ubiquitous 'Blackberry' brand may have to cave in.
Come what may, I, for one, would like to live, only and only, as long as, as Tagore says, the "Mind is without fear, and the Head is held high".
