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Discussion 7 to Meditation 537
The mind may never be complex enough to understand itself.

by: JT

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There's a quotation attributed[1] to Edith Sitwell:

If the human mind was simple enough to understand, we'd be too simple to understand it

Science has made many discoveries about the brain, the mind, and consciousness since Edith Sitwell's time, (1887 - 1964) and yet the statement remains essentially true.

Perhaps, if our descendents evolve enough, they will be unable to understand how our minds function, but their minds will still not be complex enough to understand their own.

Footnote:

  1. A nearly identical quotation is also attributed to former IBM scientist Emerson Pugh - but I've never heard of him before.