Contemplating Simultaneous Thinking, God and Logos

Written at 2024-01-28
Discussions: (hackernews)

I usually enjoy listening to certain types of ambient music or sounds when doing repetitive tasks or even when meditating. In the comment section of these kinds of videos, there are often people spreading love and writing nice things to each other. After consuming so many videos of this kind, I’ve started to predict that these kinds of comments would be present in a video even before opening them. Sometimes, it felt like I was reading those comments without even opening them.

Even right now, it’s highly likely that a random individual somewhere in the world is contemplating spreading love and positive energy. I don’t know anything about them, yet this statement probably holds true. Now, if I were to feel a certain affection for this person and they also had the thought of “there’s probably another random person out there spreading love,” would this constitute a very basic form of interaction?

Imagine a simple game, such as XOX. The algorithm you need to follow is pretty straightforward. Even with the many possible game states, you can generally categorize most of the outcomes without loss of generality. Now, let’s suppose there are other people in different physical locations who know the algorithm for playing the game. Assume that these people are also thinking about the other people whom also contemplate this game in their heads. If these people were to play O and X in their minds, the algorithm they follow would dictate how they play which means that they could predict the other person’s moves even without physically interacting with them. Given this scenario, could we say that these individuals have actually played the game together although never seeing each other?

The points I’ve made above are basically results of our human ability for abstract thinking. We can think reflectively and about specific phenomena, as well as ponder those who thought about these phenomena before us, or thinking about right now. In essence, it seems to be possible to think about specific things simultaneously with other people and even predict their thoughts if the domain in which the thinking is occurring has clear rules.

If I were to become more rational, would I become more aware of others' feelings or thoughts of those people whom I’ve never seen or physically interacted with? Would I be able to have simple interactions with them?

This could also be related to how an omniscient God would understand each of us, as it would possess knowledge of all logical possibilities. This might even explain why people who believe in God often feel less alone. If God does exist, we would never be alone in our thoughts, as there would always be a presence accompanying us as long as we are aware.

Honestly, I don’t know if any of these thoughts even make sense. However, all of these concepts remind me of the Stoics’ understanding of Logos. Stoics believed that those who are capable of reasoning are part of the same community as they were all interconnected through Logos whether they are physically close to each other or not.