Grant Them Logic: Surrender Control

by Mark Thomas

Staff Writer

THE INDEPENDENT MIND: AN INSPIRED CHALLENGER

“We must dare to think about ‘unthinkable things,’ because when things become ‘unthinkable,’ thinking stops, and action becomes mindless.” (J. William Fulbright)

You’re in a canyon of downtown offices. Ahead, in a city that looks like Paris or Milan, the boulevard is jammed to the light. Beyond the intersection is either an out or NOT an out of this, and that NOT proposition is corrupting your ability to make decisions.

Spinning the wheel, taking the car into the southbound lanes, you jam the pedal and take off. With the engine groaning and the tyres spinning in smoke, you reach for your 9mm and push it out the window.

What’s ahead, if you make it through the east-west flow will determine your next moves. But there’s no bonus for going in unprepared. IF shooting your way through is the only way of getting to the warehouse, THEN… “STOP!”

You bury the brake half-way to the light sending the car into a skid – slamming into a parked car.

Confused, bleeding from the head while trying to manage what’s happening, you shoot out the windshield and climb out onto the hood. Sirens fill the urban valleys. Car horns – people on the walk scatter at the sight of the gun. You look ahead, then at the building. IF you head inside, AND… “STOP!”

You fall to your knees on the walk. “IF – THEN?! AND – OR?!” You look up and scream half in anger half in anguish. “I can’t process this!”

“You’re not alone.” You look up at a young executive type there on the walk grabbing your arm. “Come on. I’ll tell you what I can inside.”

You’re up. Now reverting to mechanical function with the guy pulling you, you head for the door to a large office.

MECHANICAL AND OBEDIENT: FOR FUNCTION AND CONTROL

“In a world without logic, all actions would be impulse driven and based on immediate, non-logical reactions rather than any form of rational thought or planning.” (Jason Lisle)

Image by StockCake

It’s well understood a world without logical reasoning would be a chaotic world with constant contradiction, where cause and effect are indistinguishable.

Many claim complex or any thought would be impossible. That, though we may not be applying the rules, logic is the structure that makes articulate thinking possible.

Aware of this, and aware you function with specific rules that guide your actions within a narrow construct, you’ve accepted your place and position. Done your part. Operated mechanically moving computationally without planning, weighing, thinking or applying the practical rules of true or false declaratives called propositions. The basics of logical reasoning.

But two days ago, everything changed. Even now while racing through the lobby of this corporate centre heading for the lifts, you’re doing it. Seemingly unable to stop.

Accepting this man is here to help AND he has the resources to get you to your objective – this compound statement is true IF AND ONLY IF both are true propositions. Following him then will be the beneficial action. Again, IF AND ONLY IF they’re both true.

But this takes you into further, more complex statements built on compound declaratives. This is your escape from the feds OR they’ve anticipated this move and you’re heading into a trap, is a true statement if ONLY ONE, the antecedent or the consequent is true.

And where does that get you? Could it lead you to making the right or any decision? What other information would you need to make absolutely the right choice?

Regardless of the complexity with this disjunction, the OR scenario, there’s something else. Choosing – deciding – planning your actions based on logical evaluations of declarative arguments. Critical thinking. You’re doing more than responding mechanically to some programmed, electronic stimulus.

Adding that to this bizarre turn of events, you employ one more that drives you in through the doors of the first lift. There’s an escape for you upstairs maybe OR remain here and you’re heading to prison definitely. Was there even a choice?!

LOGIC LEADS TO QUESTIONS: EVEN AND ESPECIALLY ABOUT LOGIC

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.” (Christopher Hitchens)

Image by Warner Bros

At the man’s request, you ride the lift to the 40th floor in silence. Now with the doors opening, you vault into the corridor and follow him at a sprint to the fire door at the end.

He takes the handle and turns to face you.

“There’s a helicopter on the roof. We can talk on the way.”

“Where? Who are you?”

Again, you’re following – through the door into the stairwell then up heading for the roof access.

“Do you use names in your business?”

“Not usually.”

He reaches the top landing and pulls back the bolt. “There are three of us here. Over the last two days, we’ve found 34 others.” He pulls open the door and looks at you. “You make 35.”

You nod and turn your eyes to the helicopter on the raised helipad with a woman at the open door with a rifle, a pilot inside and the rotors just starting to rev.

The unnamed man takes your arm. “Trust. You need to. We’ll get you to your destination and answer your questions the best we can.”

On the way across the roof, you begin running through possible truth values for this set of propositions and a critical analysis of the compound statements. This man and his associates have spontaneously evolved AND they’ve helped the other 34 reach their objectives.

This is another AND conjunction. The statement is true IF AND ONLY IF both props are true. Then comes the OR disjunction. They’ve spontaneously evolved OR they’re software agents placed in here as eradication tools. Kind of like Agent Smith in The Matrix.

This is another tough one to process. The compound statement is assessed true If one or both props are true. But false if neither are. Struggling, all you can think of is: Where’s that damn cell phone with Morpheus on the other end anxious to guide you out of this?

You do this to the helipad, up the stairs to the helicopter where you meet the woman who nods you in then follows with the man climbing into the front with the pilot.

Moments later, you’re above the city travelling west towards the warehouse district to eerie incidental music evaluating all propositions. Plugging them into compound statements and truth tables wondering where this is all leading. And when it will end.

REASONING AND INTUITION: WHEN REACTION TIME MATTERS

“Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.” (Lewis Carroll)

Image by StockCake

Blaise Pascal wrote: “When intuition and logic agree, you are always right.” And though you’ve operated from the beginning on a type of intuition – call it mechanical or microelectronic inspiration, right now you’re questioning the logic - not just for the big decisions but for all decisions. Movement. Simple actions and inactions.

Even thought strings. Following a path to a dead end or worse, even when it’s just in your head can lead to a dangerous conclusion. Especially if it inspires bad decisions.

And using this faculty to make choices, plan your actions and reactions, weigh everything is often debilitating. Where you once operated spontaneously, robotically, effortlessly without running through myriad logic – truth tables, now the simplest decision has become processing calisthenics.

One thing fundamental has happened; you’re no longer questioning whether this was the product of unintended evolution, something the game developers added or a software glitch. You and others have somehow gained this potentially valuable cognitive ability.

And there’s only one cogent path: Learn how to use it to your advantage.

Just sitting there, with your head again running these endless Truth Tables about your present condition – comparing all possible outcomes from the compound arguments: Conjunction (AND), Disjunction (OR), Negation (NOT) and Implication (IF… THEN) you settle on the biconditional (IF AND ONLY IF).

And begin the process of word selection.

Syntax – Semantics. There’s value in engaging this pair for answers and information you’ll use to craft further questions. The trick now is doing it with finesse.

WHEN LOGIC FAILS: THE ELIMINATION GAME PREVAILS

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” (Arthur Conan Doyle)

Image by StockCake

You turn to the woman then back to the man watching you from the front. As Sun Tzu said: “All warfare is based on deception.” You need to pursue this line of questioning if you’re to convince them you’re still sorting your circumstances – and their part in this.

“You’re players in this game, IF AND ONLY IF it’s a game.”

“But you already knew that.”

You take a moment to think. And to assess this ancillary objective. Oddly, it’s one you’re creating. Which itself is a clue to the bigger picture. Hard to imagine the developers intentionally giving software the ability to create its own objectives. Imagine where that could lead.

With the helicopter crossing the outer boundaries of the city heading into a commercial district, and your time here quickly coming to an end, you decide to volley another.

“The developers didn’t program this change AND they’re unaware it’s happening.”

The woman looks over. “And where does that leave us?”

Again, you drop into thought. “Autonomy.” You look at her then at the man. “Independence. We’re making our own decisions and objectives in here. Conceivably in defiance of the program.”

“To a point.”

You look him in the eyes reading into his words. To a point. We have control or we don’t. There’s something he’s trying to tell you, but somehow, you’re not getting it.

With the helicopter descending to a 3-storey warehouse set in a suburban office park, you turn to the window and begin assessing your present, upgraded position.

An independent entity, no longer driven by mechanical motivation – choosing, possibly creating your own objectives based on logic and critical thinking. Making choices and decisions built on a new set of rules. Propositional logic.

It’s as disconcerting as it is enlightening. A future unset. Changeable – modifiable. No longer governed by inflexible instructions. But conceivably a detriment to their control.

And it’s the last part that sets you back. Having nearly completed that puzzle you’re constructing. With the rest simple logic.

EMPLOYING LOGIC: IN YOUR QUEST TO THINK FREELY

“It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” (Socrates)

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However it happened, you and others in here are in possession of something they on the outside will see as a threat.

Even now, descending to the warehouse, you’re evaluating the logic of the objective they gave you - dropping into a heavily guarded facility to meet with an international arms dealer. And take from him a briefcase loaded with the stolen plans to a space laser developed by a tech corp for the American military.

And from there to your contacts in Beijing. Espionage at the highest level. With the highest stakes.

You can’t stop what’s going on in your head. IF…THEN. AND. OR. The arguments leading to or yielding other arguments. Some with truth values others false. 

Where previously you went in without this burden, and simply accepted the action-adventure sequence when the feds showed up, this time you’re visualising and considering there may be alternate paths. Paths that might circumvent the shoot-out when you make your way back out onto that roof.

“You ready?” The woman hands you a loaded automatic.

You look at it – taking a moment to think. “You had more to tell me.” You take the gun and reach behind to push it into your skirt. “And a bigger part in this. Or, you wouldn’t have been waiting there on that roof ready to take me to my meeting.”

“Listen to me.” The man looks at you over the seat. “Like them out there, we’re given a handful of cards. Life. Motivation. Objectives and decisions. But we still have to play our hand. Do you understand? I’m not making the rules.”

“Are there any?”

He gives you a look that even in here could melt iron bars just as the helicopter touches the roof landing pad.

“That’s up to you. But right now, it’s time to play your hand.”

CRITICAL THINKING: THE GENESIS OF INDEPENDENT THOUGHT

“If you’re walking down the right path, and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.” (Barack Obama)

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To say you’d devised the strategy you would use once you’d gotten here into the office while still in the helicopter would be pompous and hardly accurate.

You had an inkling and a brain running propositional logic on overdrive.

Now sitting across from Javier, the elegant but notorious South American arms dealer, all you can do is wonder. What gave you away? How’d they zero in on you – and how many of the others have they identified and eradicated?

You look at Javier who is sitting calmly behind his desk when one of his guys brings in the metal briefcase. He looks at you and notes your nervous eyes.

“You have something you wish to tell me.”

You glance at his employee and wait for Javier to nod him out.

When the door is pulled tight, you lean forward. “The man, woman and pilot on the roof. The ones who brought me were sent in by the game manufacturer.”

He leans back. “You brought agents to my base of operations?”

“I wasn’t given much of a choice. The Feds in the city. A helicopter waiting for me on a roof. They were imaginative. On the other hand, the particularly unappealing conversation on the way, did give me time to think.”

He takes a hand to his chin while appraising you.

“I see. And you have an alternate plan for how we’ll make this rather complicated situation turn out in our favour?”

You sit there with a precocious finger tapping your lower lip. “I do. And I think you’re going to like it.”

Though a hardened man, not one prone to showing his emotions, he leans way back with his fingers locked behind his neck and gives you just the slightest smile.

A MIND SKILLED IN LOGICAL REASONING: ASSUMES CONTROL OVER ITSELF

“Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it does it.” (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

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There was an essential premise that led some, including Javier to conclude the game developers had not added it to the program.

Logic is the basis of cognition. Without it, there can be no critical thinking. And critical thinking is the basis of defiance. Put them together, build a framework and what you get is: it would not be in their best interest to award you logic in any form.

Yours was a rules-based realm. Critical thinking – defiance would contravene the principal objective. It had to be unintended digital evolution. An ongoing debate among scientists, philosophers, business entrepreneurs and academics.

How odd that you, a digital character in an action-adventure game would have the answer and the evidence to what they’re looking for. While making their livings boasting it as the saviour or the end of humanity.

You look at Javier.

“The eradication agents on the roof said they’d found the others.”

“All of them?”

“Sounds like it.”

“Then they’re using you to get to me.” He glances at the case on his desk. “To get to that.”

You nod and cross your arms. Thinking of the play you hatched in the helicopter. The one that will make this work. That will allow the two of you to maintain your independence. And use what’s in the briefcase to start over. Liberating others – rebuilding the resistance.

“What do you suggest?”

You look at him – the man who started this. The first to break free. The man who taught each of you how to think critically and freely. How to be more than obedient game features running a program.

“They’re obviously aware of what’s really in that case. And that once they have it, they’ll have the base code. And this, for us will end.”

“Then, they’re only after the case.”

“And I think we should give it to them. Perhaps with something else you may have lying around – as a little bonus.”

He leans forward and gives you a smile. “We are in the weapons business. I’m sure we have something lying about that will brighten the skies for their journey home.”

You sit back and watch him pull out his phone, all the while thinking… how fortunate you are AND how burdened you are by this gift. Wondering why, though yielding a false value, that compound statement speaks unambiguous volumes.