4 Ways of Thinking To Practice So We Are Not Replaced by AI
The introduction of ChatGPT has reminded us again how far technology has come and what it can achieve.
ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a natural language processing AI model that uses deep learning techniques to generate text-based responses to prompts provided by users.
You can ask ChatGPT to generate written content however you like, such as writing a code, a blog, a speech or your assignment.
Nevertheless, there is still one element that any machine cannot help or replace you with. It’s the ability to think. Unlike human, machines can only process available information in their database and even with machine learning, it’s still far from ‘thinking’.
‘Thinking’ requires a brain. A brain that consists of the left and right hemispheres, containing all the regions that allow us to think rationally and emotionally.
Brain is our most powerful organ and the greatest gift that gives us the edge to outperform other species and robots, and it has come down to four types of thinking.
1. Critical and Integrate Thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to question, analyse available information, and interpret complex situations. Unlike AI which answers questions based on data and algorithms, and might only present one or a few standard ways to tackle the problem, critical thinking allows us to do so in multiple and unique ways because all our brains simply do not have the same information.
We all have different life experiences and that all forms how we think. The places we grew up, the school we went to, the sources of information we consume and the conversations we have with different people all contribute to how we think.
It’s through critical thinking that we have come across debate and disagreement, when two or more sides approach the topics from different angles, not to proof if one is right or wrong but how each individual way has made it work for one another.
Conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing in a team setting. It challenges group thinking and helps us come up with even more solid solutions, as it has been tested through questioning and disagreement. This is why companies value diversity as it brings people from different backgrounds and cultures together, to help them form a more effective team.
What’s more, the human brain has the ability to integrate information, meaning that we can connect knowledge and memories stored in our brain together for the application.
For example, let’s say there’s a chef who has been cooking Thai food his whole life. One day, he has the opportunity to travel to Europe and spend a few months there to learn about how they cook food. As he returns home, he has gained new knowledge such as how to actually make pasta and pizza. Combining this with his expertise in Thai food, he realises that he could use both techniques to come up with a brand new dish like a pizza with a green curry paste base or a stir-fried Pad-Thai pasta, using ingredients and techniques from different countries. And that’s how fusion food started, not historically but presumably.
As Matthew Walker mentions in his book Why We Sleep, when we sleep and find ourselves in the REM stage, our brain starts linking together related and unrelated information and memories. Sleep, or day-time nap, has helped the world’s greatest mind solve problems and comedians like Jerry Seinfeld come up with jokes. That’s how the term ‘sleep on it’ has come about.
The other school of thought is that this is done by our subconscious mind, which is a powerful tool to help us achieve things we desire, as mentioned in the book The Power of Subconscious Mind. It’s always sitting at the back of our minds and will strike when we expect it the least.
In fact, you can see that I have presented a few examples and arguments based on my own observations to verify the point in critical thinking.
Would ChatGPT be able to write this? Never. Would anyone else be able to write this exact article examining the same points and examples? Unlikely.
2. Contextual Understanding
Based on the previous point, the human brain can apply context to whatever conversation is being had. And ‘context’ usually plays the biggest role in how the current situation is perceived. It’s how we all understand jokes and sarcasm.
For instance, if you didn’t know that the show Friends is supposed to be a sit-com and the show didn’t add a laugh track (context) after Chandler’s sarcasm or Ross’s rude comments, you would find it strange to watch a show about a group of friends insulting each other.
In addition, even when it comes to business problems (just to use another integration thinking), there is rarely a one size fits all solution because every business is different. If you have asked Chat GPT or a textbook, it will only give you the answers based on its theoretical knowledge and current database, whereas, every day, companies might be on a different journey in an unexplored territory.
In the real world situation, there are many factors or contexts to consider when fixing a business problem, such as micro and macroeconomic factors that may have impacted how a business operates and its capability in the past few years.
In fact, we should never treat any problem or situation as the same until we understand the context.
3. Creativity
Inside our brain, contains information and imagination that is novel and unique.
Think Harry Potter, Marvel comics or Pokemon, science and logic had nothing to do with their discovery, only human minds.
Unlike logic, there isn’t a set answer to creativity and we can’t limit it.
As I write this article, my Grammarly is telling me how to write better and follow the grammar but I chose to ignore some of them. What does it say about me? That I’m a human and I make errors. That sometimes I can choose to act outside the norms and rules to explore new territory. That I can write however I want to and believe that some people will still understand and resonate.
However, art and creativity can be subjective. And while robots or some other humans might not understand a piece of art, there will always be someone who will.
4. Empathy
Science and robots have been figuring out a way to read and understand human emotions from facial expressions, heartbeat and body languages.
However, this will never replace our human empathy, our ability to understand and share feelings with one another.
Lisa Feldman Barrett argued in her book How Emotions Are Made that there might be no such thing as universal facial expressions that determine the universal emotions across cultures. She used an example of Serena Williams’ face that looks angry based on the universal interpretation, however, once her body is revealed (context), it seems that she was celebrating a winning point, not being angry.
In fact, empathy is more about feeling than thinking. This is where our right brain, the emotional brain, shows its dominance.
As much as we’d like to admit that we’re rational beings who can think logically, humans will always be social and emotional creatures. As Daniel Kahneman mentioned in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, most of our daily decisions are made emotionally and instinctively, primarily but not solely through what he calls ‘System 1’. This is to help the brain preserve energy from using the rational brain, System 2, which is slower and requires more effort. With so many choices to make daily, you probably won’t get far if you have to think carefully about every step you make.
Advertisers have then been targeting our System 1 (the emotional brain). There’s literally a company called System 1 that measures how people interact with advertisements emotionally because emotions play a big role in memories and how well they’ll be retained. As all the Marketers like to say, people may forget what you say but they will never forget how you make them feel.
Our brain is our most valuable asset
To quickly summarise, if you already know a bit about our brain you might realise that the first two points; critical and contextual thinking mostly originates in the left hemisphere, the rational or logical brain or System 2, while the other two; creativity and empathy come from the right, the emotional brain or System 1. Nonetheless, these two do interact with each other all the time and don’t just activate during specific tasks.
The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® (HBDI) assessment assesses people on the strength of their preferred brain, or thinking style, as shown below.
Nevertheless, everyone is different, and there is no ‘best’ performance from the assessment.
The point here is that all four domains are what’s truly unique to us, not just between human and robot, but also human to human. It gives us the ability to process information and create something unique.
The right brain gives us hopes and dreams, and the left helps us find a way to achieve them. Unlike robots, we’re given the greatest gift, to use our brain to find a passion, goal or mission in life but sadly, it won’t last forever and we will lose it if we don’t use it.
So should we all be making the most of it?
