Sunday, July 12, 2009

Metacognition.

From time to time, when I am walking around for example, I have this strange feeling. I had one last night, as I strolled on the dimly-lit street towards home.

What is this universe, anyway?

We know that there are natural laws, with molecules moving about within and outside our body, the universe (supposedly) beginning some 13.7 billions years ago, meanwhile life forms evolving, and presto, here we are, self-conscious beings, thinking about consciousness itself, killing time with this game and that website, breathing in the air, and when we feel like it, sometimes wondering, what this is all about.

Yeah. What is this all about?

In the cognitive sciences, the importance of metacognition is stressed. We need to step out of the system sometimes and observe it as if from outside. There are properties only recognizable by doing just that. What if we try to come to a metacognition of the universe that we are in?

In those rare moments, when I feel as if I have woken up from a long dream, I have this strange hunch that we have been oblivious of some important truths hidden from the beginning of time.

2 comments:

Utako said...

I sometimes have strange feeling when I have a pleasant chat with coworkers. The chat is, for example, why our boss changed a sedan for a big station wagon, what he wants to load, where to go, whether by any chance it is bulletproof. We hit on crazy answers and laugh heartily. Then in the middle of laughing, I feel the eyes fallen this merry scene from outside. What is the base that forms this room, each member and the free talking. What universe do I belong to?

I don't know well how the importance of metacognition is stressed in the cognitive sciences. But feeling somewhat out of place and having bird's eye view are so attractive for me. I can touch the clue to metacognition, for example, in the pictures of the park in Hakodate, which are uploaded on Japanese blog today.

(ma)gog said...

Is there any meaning for the existence of this world, universe?
I think or feel, that this universe is constructed in a way our human being can not perceive the whole structure of it with our given physical organs. Most of us feel or are so sure however, that our consciousness or soul somehow "exist" not only in the brain, but it can extend its field to the place or to the time we intend to be.
Even if we could find the answer to the question whether this universe is consisted of only physical matters or not, the ultimate question that the reason why it exists, if there is any reason, would remain unsolved forever.