When I read about how most of our thoughts are repetitive, I wondered if it would be possible for us to have a thought that is completely new or original by will. Is there some way we can have unique thoughts whenever we wish to?
Please note that this question does not focus on our brain’s mental capacity or free will to be able to think of something original. You could think of it something like asking you to paint something original; I am not asking if you are even able to paint in the first place, but instead how you would paint it if you could.
Also you should ideally be able to think of something new completely by your own in your consciously aware and normal self, without relying on external factors like taking inspiration from your surroundings or words from a recent/ongoing conversations, looking at the content open in your device, using any drugs or consumables, being affected by strong emotions etc.
Edit: Elaboration in last paragraph
I’d take two random words/topics, and try to think of something that involves both of them.
For example, I just thought of a bicycle and of curtains. I immediately imagined a person riding a bicycle with curtains stuck in their wheels, getting torn more and more as they tried to cycle away. That’s a thought I don’t think I ever had before.
I tend to do exactly this whenever I am bored, however I often keep coming up with the same combinations of words.
Maybe try different directions. I just tried and imagined a giraffe nudging a fried egg off the roof of a car on a hot day. The heat and how it sears fur on your face is a different thought from someone riding a bike with wheels caught in curtains because the bike idea is more visual and emotional (frustration, probably) and the giraffe one is more physical (heat).
To be fair, I’m quite sleep-deprived.
I think the best way to think of something new (to you, something new to all of humanity is harder of course) would be to pick some aspect of society, your daily life, a technology or social norm you are familiar with,… and analyse which underlying assumptions make it the way it is and then just figure out what would happen if that assumption didn’t hold. That is basically what a lot of classic science fiction writers (among others) did. Take e.g. Asimov’s Nightfall, a story about a world with (IIRC) 6 suns where it is only night once every 2000 years so people are not accustomed to darkness at all. Or Terry Bisson’s They’re Made Out of Meat where he questions our implicit assumption that aliens would be meat creatures like us.
The astrophysics nerd in me wonders if anyone has tried to model that six star system, is there actually a stable configuration for that?
Interesting answer. I admit I often imagine sci-fi scenarios myself without realizing how I am forming original thoughts.
Probably mushrooms
Treat words as coordinates in the space of all possible concepts, and add a few together. I think that fulfils your constraint of not “taking inspiration from…words from a recent ongoing conversation” since you can, if you wish, pick the words in your own head.
Or - drugs. Drugs are good too. I don’t know why you’re applying these artificial constraints to this problem as if there is some notion of “purity” or “cheating” to the practice of idea-generation. Is an idea any less worthy, insightful, or useful because you came up with it while using a chemical tool to do so?
An intriguing read! Thanks for sharing.
Mushrooms, you will have wild thoughts
psychedelic drugs
Does dreaming it count?
Considering most of our dreams are unique and not really thought of by ourselves at will, I wouldn’t count it
Also you should ideally be able to think of something new completely by your own, without relying on external factors like taking inspiration from your surroundings or words from a recent/ongoing conversations, looking at the content open in your device etc.
If it could be expressed in existing ways, would it still count as entirely new or unthought of?
What I meant was to not rely on objects or scenes near where you are positioned in order to think of something new.
This is like coming up with an original name for a D&D character: you just put together sounds until you get something that sounds cool. Here is one:
Bryo-Kernatz
Once you have the name it helps you imagine the character it might belong too.
