Divide and Conquer
147
movement. Perhaps the evolution of our octopus was headed in that direction,
because it has an autonomous brain in each arm, and each one can operate
on its own. If it had hundreds of autonomous arms and hands, a mythical
creature might be able to live a life where a Gestalt stimulus would be met with
a unified, Gestalt response. 2
Nature has not found it expedient to create such animals, so the problem of
exploiting the power of Gestalt knowledge was solved in a different manner.
In order to understand the world and generate the right kind of response to
every challenge of nature, the animal brain learned to decompose wide-ranging
Gestalts into smaller units that the brains and bodies of animals could deal
with. The smaller units are propositions—contemplated in mind or expressed
in words—as well as motor programs which specify sequences of movements
for carrying out tasks.
One of the most important things we do mentally is to divide Gestalt
thoughts and problems into smaller parts. Once divided into parts in this
fashion, one can work on the parts separately, and this limits the amount of
memory needed at one time, as well as the span of the Gestalts needed while
working on the problem. All effective thinking is carried out by segmenting
holistic impressions and images into separate parts, suitably sized so we can
hold each one in the scope of attention without losing it. At the same time,
if a whole problem has been divided into parts so each part can be tackled
separately, it is necessary also to keep track of the various parts and how they
connect with one another.
It is a remarkable thing that this can be done at all, because each separate component of a problem must be autonomous: That is, each component must be a unit in itself—it must be self-contained—so it can be tackled
independently of other components. It must be meaningful in itself. Moreover,
the various components involved in a problem must be related to one another
as a network in memory, so we don’t lose sight of how each one is linked to
every other—for if you lose sight of that, your search for a solution collapses.
The fact that our Gestalts can be decomposed in such an exacting way is an
amazing feat. No wonder thinking is hard, and demands effort.
We have already seen that when we wish to communicate a thought, our
Gestalt idea is unspooled and transformed into a structured sequence of words.
What is most uncanny about this is that our sentence, though stretched out
and spoken one word at a time, has the power to resurrect the Gestalt thought
in the mind of a listener. We are so accustomed to doing this day in and day
out, and find it so effortless, that we fail to recognize how astonishing it is.
Apparently, creative activity is based on a subtle balance of Gestalt and
analytic. Gestalt is indispensable because the world is plural and complex.
147
movement. Perhaps the evolution of our octopus was headed in that direction,
because it has an autonomous brain in each arm, and each one can operate
on its own. If it had hundreds of autonomous arms and hands, a mythical
creature might be able to live a life where a Gestalt stimulus would be met with
a unified, Gestalt response. 2
Nature has not found it expedient to create such animals, so the problem of
exploiting the power of Gestalt knowledge was solved in a different manner.
In order to understand the world and generate the right kind of response to
every challenge of nature, the animal brain learned to decompose wide-ranging
Gestalts into smaller units that the brains and bodies of animals could deal
with. The smaller units are propositions—contemplated in mind or expressed
in words—as well as motor programs which specify sequences of movements
for carrying out tasks.
One of the most important things we do mentally is to divide Gestalt
thoughts and problems into smaller parts. Once divided into parts in this
fashion, one can work on the parts separately, and this limits the amount of
memory needed at one time, as well as the span of the Gestalts needed while
working on the problem. All effective thinking is carried out by segmenting
holistic impressions and images into separate parts, suitably sized so we can
hold each one in the scope of attention without losing it. At the same time,
if a whole problem has been divided into parts so each part can be tackled
separately, it is necessary also to keep track of the various parts and how they
connect with one another.
It is a remarkable thing that this can be done at all, because each separate component of a problem must be autonomous: That is, each component must be a unit in itself—it must be self-contained—so it can be tackled
independently of other components. It must be meaningful in itself. Moreover,
the various components involved in a problem must be related to one another
as a network in memory, so we don’t lose sight of how each one is linked to
every other—for if you lose sight of that, your search for a solution collapses.
The fact that our Gestalts can be decomposed in such an exacting way is an
amazing feat. No wonder thinking is hard, and demands effort.
We have already seen that when we wish to communicate a thought, our
Gestalt idea is unspooled and transformed into a structured sequence of words.
What is most uncanny about this is that our sentence, though stretched out
and spoken one word at a time, has the power to resurrect the Gestalt thought
in the mind of a listener. We are so accustomed to doing this day in and day
out, and find it so effortless, that we fail to recognize how astonishing it is.
Apparently, creative activity is based on a subtle balance of Gestalt and
analytic. Gestalt is indispensable because the world is plural and complex.