Nature is wonderful at creating things. I'm continually
mesmerized by its beauty and complexity. Some say it was not created really ; It
just kind of happened. Billions of years
of random motion and existing probabilities, self-organization and evolution
left us with a great work of art governed by rules of logic. But made without self-reflection and without plan. Others cannot fathom a that all this
magnificent beauty happened by pure chance. It is even harder for them to
fathom that mankind with our vast potential to outdo the universe, to rise above
circumstance and truly feel what it means to be here could have possibly arisen
by some unfeeling accident.
I will say that I
belong to the second group, but I won't say more. That will only lead away from
my main point. The point is that, regardless of your views, creativity is what
separates man from the universe. Cars did not evolve. They we're created.
Shakespeare's Lear and Van Gogh's "Starry Night" are not the end
products of evolution. They are the products of mankind's creative potential.
Somehow we are able to take what we know, reflect on it, play around with it
and come up with something which never existed before. We don't just obey the laws of the universe.
At the moment of the first creative spark, the universe began to obey us as
well.
There are several things that separate mankind from the
inanimate universe. Some of the most important are thinking, feeling,
experiencing (or consciousness, self-awareness) and creativity. In the Age of
Reason, thinking was often considered the defining trait of mankind - and God.
However, creativity is implied in all thinking, at least in any thinking that
leads to something new. However, men and women of the Age of Reason often preferred
to think of creativity more associated with feeling, something that could be
unbridled and lead almost anywhere - including far away from logical thinking.
Then mankind created a "thinking machine!" These
machines were so efficient in some types of logic that many who considered
thinking the most treasured trait of mankind, feared we might soon be outdone by our
creation. This idea is still popular
today, and open-ended. We really don't understand the mind well enough to know
if computers, as we know them, will ever be able to function anything like
brains. As they are today, they certainly seem amazing. Some of our most
intelligent minds created them, after all. Despite that, they cannot check
grammar with complete accuracy, and they certainly cannot write an essay worth
even a "D", even for a third grade kid. For now, they are masters of
processing information, but can do nothing with that information that mankind did
not enable them to. They are complex
creations in process, but their existence says more about mankind's ability to
create than it does about a computer's "intelligence."
Another intensely human trait is feeling. However, this not
very unique. My dog certainly feels. And I love her for it! I also think she's
pretty smart. (There's even some logic
and creativity going on there when it comes to getting what she wants.) In
fact, people in the Age of Reason tended to think peoples impulses, instincts
and so on were not that different from higher animals. This is somewhat true,
but actually just a compliment to animals, rather a detriment to us. But feeling,
in its naked form, is not uniquely human. In its complex form, thinking and creative
processes interact with feeling, and, thus, human feeling often takes on vastly
complex forms - as in the arts. Human feeling can, in fact, take on almost infinite variety when it is
combined with logic and creativity.
The least understood of all human traits is self-awareness.
Somehow we know we experience the universe in a way no computer can. We are
truly alive! I also believe animals have this trait, which says a lot for
animals. No one seems to understand this trait, at least in as far as in how it
came to be, or how it works. It is most definitely
an outstanding trait! Most of us know that self-reflection is utterly necessary
in art. It is also necessary science.( In science it is necessary so that the
scientist may do his best to separate his experience from what is. For example,
Einstein had to separate time and gravity from his experience of them and try to come to a conclusion that would be
true even if he did not experience them. Very complex issue. Many would say impossible.)
Okay, so now for creativity. It seems that some animals show
a little, but the constantly changing world around is testament to the fact
that mankind is brimming with it. In the last ten thousand years, the world has
exploded with new creations, new ideas, new forms of society and it just keeps
happening! Though logicians would like to think it is logic that brought us
here. Logic in itself can bring you to a satisfying conclusion, but there should be no need for invention. Invention
comes from some need and ability of mankind that can simply not be objectified. Einstein
was a very logical thinker, but his intuition often came first, and his need to
make people understand the universe was not unlike the need of an artist to
express himself. His theories were his masterpieces that he wanted the world to
see! No animal or anything else known in the universe has this need and ability
in such great proportion as we do. Not even my dog!
Therefore creativity is
the most human of all traits. It is connected with everything else it means to
be human. If beings from another planet visited here they very well might be
amazed by nothing else than our fantastic creativity.
The purpose of going through all is to show that creativity
is not just a personality trait. It is inherent part of what it means to be
human. This will be my only plea to elevate the status of creative
acts. The rest of my blog will concern creativity in all its forms and will be
more opinions than attempts at rational
arguments. I just felt it necessary to define the importance of creativity from
the outset, so that the bias that creativity is nothing but the whimsical side
of a few personalities is shown to be completely unjustified. Just as unjustified as the idea that artists
have a monopoly on creativity. Mankind, though, does nearly have a complete
monopoly over it here on earth.
