After the excitement and activity of automaton construction, today I find myself laid up in bed, resting while the pain goes down. Times like this are not a total waste, as I find, like Descartes before me, I do some of my best philosophical thinking whilst lying in bed.
The thought occurred to me that you might be interested in why I chose to call this blog, “Zero Tolerance Zone”. The simple answer is, that it is another example of a running joke within my community. For a few years now, when I attend a big party, or am somehow involved in a public event, we make the joke that it is a ‘zero tolerance event’, in other words if (I) Zero, tolerates it, you can do it. The joke, of course, comes from the well known fact that I am very tolerant of a wide range of behaviour and beliefs, many of which are not officially sanctioned by the powers that be. In fact, my idea of zero tolerance is the antithesis of what the government and police mean when they use the phrase.
Now that you are in on the joke, I ask for your forbearance while I explain why I believe I have such a large zone of tolerance, and why I think that more tolerance in general would make the world a better place (before I start preaching, please remember, although a friend or two may call me guru as a term of endearment, I don’t believe anyone should follow my philosophy of life blindly; after all, I am as flawed and imperfect as anyone else. All I ask is that you listen to what I say with a critical mind, and then think and act in the way you find appropriate; or, as the Big Monkey Cult saying goes, “Think for yourself, stupid!”)
After reflecting on where my strong inclination to tolerance comes from, at its core I believe is my study of the philosophy of the mind. I have been studying philosophy for over thirty years, both mainstream and fringe thought, from the ancient Greeks, to (thanks to that wonderful institution, the Open University) the most up to date thinking on the nature of human consciousness. My study of consciousness has also had a profound impact on my view of the nature of reality itself. The scope of my tolerance, I believe, is a natural result of my philosophical thinking.
It is a common belief, that the modern human is a rational being, whose actions are in their own self interest, based upon knowledge learned from past experience. The (mythical) average person, if they reflect on it at all, believe that they are in charge of their own actions, that their memories are facts, and that they share an objective world with everybody else. Philosophy, neuroscience, and physics tell us that this view is simply not true.
Philosophical thinking about consciousness, informed by facts gleaned from science, have taught me that processes in my brain can make me take physical action (to stand up and walk, for example) long before I am conscious of the decision to act. More precisely, my brain may decide to act in a certain way, and then make up a reason for that action, creating the illusion that I am always consciously in charge of what I do.
Memories are also infamously inaccurate. Not only do they change over time, it has recently been proved that it is so easy to implant false memories in the mind, that no one can be sure, based on their own recollection alone, that even major events in their lives ever happened. A freaky thought, is it not?
Finally I learned that the idea that there is an objective reality, experienced directly and by everyone, is false. As you may have heard me say repeatedly in person, when we refer to the world at large, all we can describe is the model of the world we hold in our mind. Everyone’s model is different, and no one’s model reflects the whole of reality.
The human condition is one where, against our own intuition, we act before rational thought, our memories are unreliable, and the world we think we know is not outside, but within our own minds. All of us think some things are true that are actually false, and believe some things impossible, when in fact they are real.
As I learned that I, just like everybody around me, was fallible at such a basic level, I became more forgiving, more tolerant. I realised that many things people argue and even fight about, from who is the best pop star, to who has the biggest god, are meaningless. When you refer to the best or worst anything, you are only referring to your model of the world; there is no objective way to judge such things. The only possible things you can say for certain, are those things that occur in your own mind, and even then your mind might be playing tricks on you.
The more I learned and thought about these subjects, the bigger my tolerance zone became, however, I am not so tolerant that I think everything should be permitted (there is an in joke in that sentence, for those who can see it). With no external guide as to what should and should not be tolerated, I realised that I had to decide these things for myself, and only for myself, as I can’t impose my own morality on anybody else.
There have been many great philosophers before us who have tackled these questions of morality. Although I’m not a christian I have no problem with the injunction to, “love thy neighbour”, or “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Kant said something similar, which I try always to keep in mind, “treat people as an end in themselves, not a means to an end”. I’m sure you can see how following these tips for living could lead to a better world for all of us.
I truly believe that, if you want to make the world a better place, you must act like it is already. The only behaviour and point of view you can change directly is your own. If you think people should help each other, you need to make the unilateral decision to do so. If I see someone in distress in the street, I believe as a fellow creature, it is my duty to to try to help them. This makes me sound like a saint, but let me assure you that I am not, I fail by my own standards regularly, but that doesn’t stop me trying.
That is an important point, if we are all fallible, we have to be as tolerant of our own failings as we are of others. We are never going to get everything right all the time, but if we are going to survive and prosper as a species, very time we fail, we should start again trying to be good.
All the above is a simple outline of my thoughts on a complex subject, and I don’t expect you to blindly agree with me (in fact I would be disappointed if you do). I would be very interested to hear what you think, and you know that I will be open minded, and tolerant, of your point of view.