I’ve been thinking about the environment and culture around us affects the way we think.  Our brains get wired based on the way that we use them.  So the expectations of the culture around us, the fact that things fall due to gravity, all these things affect how we think.  Since time flows one way, there is cause and then effect, and I’m sure we would think much different if there were not true.  Another example is how people from different cultures may think differently.  China’s government is actively trying to get their scientists and engineers to have more creativity in their work like Americans.  And now with people growing up with computers, which follow a very ordered logical methodology, were whenever you press this button or click this you will see the same response, our brains are probably getting more tuned to this.  I wonder what the effects are going to be of the new generations growing up with computers and the internet for their entire lives?

It reminds me of a short story I read called “Mimsy were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett from 1943.  In it, a boy finds a box of toys from the future.  The toys are meant to train children’s brains to think a certain way.  The analogy Padgett gives is that we have Euclidean geometry and the children playing with the toys are learning “x” geometry.  And they are such different ways of thinking that someone who knows Euclidean can’t understand “x” and vice versa.  Anyway, I dont want ruin the rest of the story, but its an interesting idea that the toys and puzzles and things that we play with as kids can profoundly affect the way we think.