Like a river flows, gently to the sea

When a cricket fielder throws a ball from the boundary to the wicketkeeper, the ball takes a parabolic path to its target. The trajectory of the path is well-defined by the projectile motion formula in physics, characterized by the speed and the angle at which the ball is thrown.

How is the ball able to follow the path it is supposed to follow?

Where is all the computation about the path of the ball being carried out?

Consider the reverse of this - a fielder running to catch a ball. The fielder runs a long distance at a great speed towards the ball and reaches the ball just in time to catch it.

How does the fielder compute his path to be able to reach to the ball just in time?

We certainly know the answer to this one.

He doesn't compute anything.

At any point of time, the fielder is aware of where the ball is headed to. This awareness allows his body to adjust the direction and the speed of his movement as he frantically runs towards the ball. He may need to move to a little left or to a little right or keep going straight based on his current assessment of where the ball may land. He may also realize that he needs to go slower, go faster or maintain the same speed. The fielder is focussed on the movement of the ball, and his body does all the adjustment required in a spontaneous, natural way.

There are no computations happening. There are two decisions being taken at each moment -

• which way to run?
• how fast to run?

Using a continuous, ongoing, iterative process of feedback and course-correction, the fielder reaches the ball and catches it with extreme precision.

"The car is throwing tantrums. Again."

It is natural for us to project our style of thinking on everything around us - living or non-living. It's kind of impossible for us to conceive a way of thinking and a way of being other than what goes in our own inner world.

We often refer to other people, beings, inanimate objects and natural phenomenon in a very anthropomorphic form. We often end up describing the world around us as if everything is just another human being thinking, feeling, acting and reacting exactly like we do.

Science defines a number of well-formed formulas for us that seem to work accurately in the scale of physicality relevant to us, and we interpret it that these are the formulas "governing" everything around us. Although just a matter of semantics, to say "nature follows the law of physics" is turning it all head-side down. The popular sentiment always indicates that nature CANNOT disobey the laws of Physics. Rather than indicating that it is Physics that is trying to discover the functioning of the nature in tiny bits and pieces, we often come across as if it the nature that is bound to obey the formulas of Physics.

This is yet another example of projecting our thinking style on everything around us. Our entire popular language and semantics is imbued of this bias.

However, it not how the nature works. The nature doesn't follow any "formula". It doesn't pre-compute a distance-time map for the motion.

Like the fielder running to catch the ball, no computations are required to determine how an object moves.

Nature works in an existential way. Everything around us is a result of a gradual, constant unfolding. Everything in nature responds to the present-moment state and stimulus, and just transitions spontaneously to another state in an infinitesimally incremental fashion.

An accrual of these spontaneous transitions, when interpreted in totality, shows us a pattern, which we interpret as a formula. But it is just an interpretation, a rational outcome of a rigorous retrospective analysis. It is not a governing mechanism.

That's how the universe functions.

That's how we think.

That's how we communicate.

The Spontaneous Intelligence of the Universe

Moving objects don’t calculate their paths. The concept of a trajectory is analytical and can only be fully understood when viewing the entire motion as a whole.

A moving object just moves to its next infinitesimal location, as enunciated by The Principle of Least Action in Physics, which at any given point, causes the object to move to a position that minimizes the energy expenditure, and minimizes the energy configuration of the system.

The ball, already in motion and influenced by various forces, moves to a nearby point in a way that minimizes the energy required for its movement

Every movement in the universe results from an immediate response to the current context and stimuli. At each moment, the action is to transition to the next viable state, guided by the system’s energy configuration.

In the grand scheme, this may give the overall path a certain shape, potentially aligning with a precise formula. Yet, at each moment, an object simply responds to the immediate conditions, performing the necessary action based on real-time factors.

The nature functions in a spontaneous way in the present moment, acting on forces and energies involved in that present moment. 

This results in what we interpret as patterns through the lens of our analytical, rational mind.

Universal Intelligence operates in such a way that seemingly disconnected pieces of a puzzle, even when they appear to fall into place randomly and at different times, ultimately come together perfectly.

The spontaneous "Flow" of Communication

Like many other phenomena, 'communication' is often framed in terms of fixed parameters, assumed to follow a specific formula or strategy. The processes and results of communication are frequently described using factors like personality traits, behaviors, memories, and other elements that imply stability, determinability, and potential predictability.

However, "communication" is entirely a "present-moment" phenomena, as spontaneous as any other aspect of Universal Intelligence.

No matter how meticulously planned or aligned with a set strategy, each step of our communication unfolds through the shifts and influences of the present moment.

The reason much communication seems to follow certain patterns or formulas is that people often bring their own set approaches into interactions. This leaves little room for genuine awareness, attention, and responsiveness to the present moment’s energy, emotions, and dynamics shaping the flow of communication.

You are likely familiar with numerous interactions where an instant event dramatically altered the direction of the conversation, for better or worse.

You might enter a conversation feeling extremely angry, but then something you see or hear triggers a strong emotional reaction, leading you to become more open-hearted than ever before.

You might approach a conversation ready to be completely open, but then a small incident completely shuts you down, leading you to decide never to share anything with that person again.

How many times do you experience spending countless hours sulking and simmering against someone, cooking up scenarios and dialogs that you may use in a future conversation, and when the conversation begins, you come out feeling more intimate than ever.

Or, you get into a conversation to mend ties and come out resolving never to speak to that person again.

You might have spent years trying to please someone by doing everything they said, and then one day, feeling like a dispensable doormat, you confront that person, and they show tremendous respect and agree to everything you say.

We come across these experiences all the time.

All our conversation emerges from and evolves through present moment impulses and triggers.

You can totally soothe down a person by taking away all the steam from their heightened emotional state.

You can get an introvert share the finest details of his life by giving him a safe space.

You can get the most dominating and control-freak executives to open up to you as a child opens up to her parents.

Every step of our communication depends on the energies we bring to the communication.

We all bring certain established styles, agendas, plans, strategies, behaviors, and past experiences to our communications, just as others do. However, it is entirely possible to change the direction and outcome of a conversation spontaneously by being fully present and responsive to the flow of the exchange and adjusting the energies involved.

How is the Human Intelligence Different from Universal Intelligence?

A key difference between the Universal Intelligence observable in nature and what we define as Human Intelligence is that Universal Intelligence is characterized as a completely spontaneous process, featuring a smooth flow and seamless transitions.

The Universal Intelligence is a process of constant flow and unfolding.

In contrast, the experience of human intelligence is often marked by struggle. Whether it's searching for answers to questions, generating ideas, deciding how to respond to someone, or figuring out "what do I do with this man?", these situations can be quite stressful.

What makes human intelligence a struggle is the lack of a sense of flow.

The way we approach and apply Human Intelligence always ends up involving a lot of sense of push and pull at the world around us.

Understanding this is the master key to unlocking all mysteries of communication, and this is where we would begin our exploration.

The best way to master our world is to explore with an understanding and awareness that allows us to come in face with the invisible strings that manoeuvre our world.

Just as the Principle of Least Action determines the paths that moving objects take by selecting the path that requires the least expenditure of energy, everything in life that is graceful and elegant is determined by creation of maximum impact with minimal energy expenditure.

It holds unambiguously and undeniably true for the art of communication as well. A struggle of any form indicates that we are trying too hard to control that cannot be controlled and that should not be controlled. It signifies that we are pushing too hard, pulling too tight and holding on to things with a tremendous sense of insecurity.

It's a sign that we need to take a step back and allow space for the spontaneous communication to unfold.

Using words as "content" is the most wasteful way of using words

As we start to understand the flow of the communication, we realize how communication is entirely a blend of emotions and imagery we create.

Typically, we use words either as tools for processing information or in the same way we would issue requests/commands to a computer.

We often experience that we are able to convince somebody of all our challenges, but we completely fail to solicit any help, because we may inadvertently create an internal cognitive state in the other which prevents him from lending us a helping hand.

An ad or a poster for a product, service, or event may provide astounding content and explain the credentials of all involved in a very impressive way, but it may trigger absolutely no action from people, just because it failed to create the right cognitive state in the audience that was required for them to elicit an engagement.

We have countless experience to testify that the effectiveness of words do not come from their usage as "content".

Words are powerful as "trigger mechanisms".

Words become extremely potent when we use them as the tools to trigger emotions and generate imagery.

What prompts us into action?

We are aware that all our actions arise from a trigger and a stimulus from within our consciousness.

The only role that an external trigger and stimulus could ever play is to generate a certain internal trigger and stimulus within us.

However, we NEVER ever act on an external trigger or stimulus. We act ONLY on our internal trigger and stimulus. Our internal triggers and stimuli may have been generated by external factors, but the external factors are never the direct agency for any action.

A monstrous brute may scare everyone into acting in a certain way but may have zero impact on somebody who is okay to die for a cause without blinking his eye. Each person acting under the compulsion of the brute is acting on their internal state of fear. The one who doesn't react to the situation with fear may not feel any compulsion to act in any certain way, even if faced with terrible consequences.

It is our internal emotions and imagery that get us into action.

The effectiveness of any communication is limited to what internal emotions and imageries we are able to generate in the recipient of our conversation.

It's all about the internal cognitive state.

It is the internal cognitive state of an individual that translates into desired actions.

Communication is a means to create that favourable cognitive state in the internal consciousness of others.

Of course, it's a very daunting task, as the internal states of others (and to a great degree, our own) are a total black-box to us.

How could we learn to know what stimulus creates what kind of internal mental states in them, and how could we learn to know how they react to their internal mental states?

Learning that is what constitutes the whole landscape of mastering the art of communication.

Though a rough, bumpy, terrain - gently to the sea

The terrain of our communication constitutes of very random, haphazard, chaotic bumps. Not only do we tread all over the place mindlessly, the path we engineer for others constitutes of equally random, haphazard, chaotic bumps, making it equally difficult for them to traverse down a meaningful path to us.

We are rarely in tune with the spontaneous flow of a communication.

Often, we are too attached to a certain outcome, and we try to conjure up that outcome right from the word go. Any deviation from it makes us feel even more insecure and out of control, and we try harder to force the communication towards the exact outcome we want.

How can we become more attuned to a flow of communication, that would allow our communication experience to unfold spontaneously and effortlessly, just as the gentle flow of a river as it gushes to meet the seas?

(c) ReInvent Software Solutions. All Rights Reserved. 2024.

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