LEARNING
Learning is life's way of transcending the horizons of perception on it's voyage into This Magic Sea. It is a
process of discovery for both individuals and populations of individuals.
New behavior
patterns, including all the concepts
of all the forms of life, appear on earth
through the process of learning. Evolution,
of individuals and species, is an adventure
of learning.
Learning
is the response of a being to the feedback
(training) process of larger networks of communication.
We learn from parents, siblings, teachers,
synchronicities, redundancy, from surprises
imposed upon us from beyond the horizons of
our perception.
Learning is a conduit for information flowing between
individuals and populations. It is an interactive process where stimulus and response move
back and forth between the students and teachers, between the individual and the
environment. Although learning is a personal offering by the larger networks surrounding
us, it is very much up to the individual to do it or not.
Every living organism that has ever
been tested has learned.
An infinity of things to learn, and endless ways
to apply what you have learned. The panorama
of life, in the process of learning, surrounds
us everywhere we look. Accumulating skills,
accumulating knowledge. Even, in the long
run, in some rare cases, accumulating wisdom.
Learning is a basic characteristic of life and scientists have been able to teach
whatever creature they have tested. Bacteria, amoebae, flatworms, crabs, and even plants
learn without much difficulty. Scientists have even taught individual nerve cells to
count. It turns out they can count reliably up to 9. We should not be too amazed at this,
since nerve cells have already learned how to make a brain,
spinal cord, eyes, sensory receptors of all kinds, and muscle triggers.
Our cells are much more flexible than we give them credit for. If we cut our skin,
cells below the cut, even muscle and connective tissue cells, release themselves from
their attachments to other cells and move up to help heal the wound, quickly learning how
to become the new tissue. Skin cells adjacent to the wound also let go of their hold on
neighboring cells and slide out over the wound to create a thin layer of new skin cells
needed to close the wound. They learn their new position and role with no trouble at all
and the cells learn to close wounds more efficiently should we be unfortunate (or dumb)
enough to cut ourselves often.
Learning's Toroid Structure
In the 4
phase process of becoming, learning is
the feedback process that emerges
when the observer compares the results of
its responses with what the observer expected.
Like all of becoming, the learning process
has a torus structure. Information flows into
the center of our being, becomes stashed away
in memory then branches out in trials and
tribulations onto the planet where in the
end, we hopefully learn from our experiences
when we look back and observe the results.
We say, "Oh yes, that’s the way to
do it. From now on I will reset
the calibration of my system and do it
that way – until I learn some new technique
that works even better." Or perhaps the
reverse, "Yipes, I'll never do that again."
After the observer
observes the change of its actions on the
environment, comes the residual, the phenomenal
increment of learning, the brilliant flash
of invention, the awed moment of discovery,
the inevitable directionality of change.
Learning is a digital
series of events - we progress in quantum
leaps of understanding. These increments of
accomplishments lock systems into new, self
promoting associations. A learned process
opens new vistas of understanding, and new
possibilities for learning new ways to do
things that were unimaginable before the first
step was learned. A skill or knowledge successfully
learned is a new perception
to guide us in directions we were unable to
go in before.
Learning is, when viewed over a longer interval
with many digital increments, an analog development pattern. We get better and better
each time we try a learned skill or review
a learned fact. This development pattern,
this learning curve, never quite reaches
completion. At first we make rapid progress
in our attempt to learn something new, then
it becomes more and more difficult to make
further progress as the curve levels off.
Learning is the residue of change
.
Learning is the residue of change, the crystallization of ideas into new patterns and
forms that, in turn, change the potential and possibilities for what tomorrow may bring.
Learning is the freeway to becoming, the pathway through time.
Learning is an ancient word, reflecting its time-spanning nature in its original
meaning - lore. Passing information from one being to another, stories, lessons,
information and skills. It is how mind propagates itself beyond the horizons of our
perceptions.
Learning is the process that weaves the future
from the threads
of the cosmos. What we learn becomes our
adaptations for survival, and the skills of
how and when we apply these.
Once the web
of intercommunications learns a new concept,
it changes, in fundamental, irreversible ways,
the flow of information throughout the entire
system, from atoms to the ecosystem. In a
broad sense, the existing position, function
and capability of every living creature is
what awareness has learned
to be over the 3.6 billion years of existence
on this planet.
Learning is the process of
concept formation on all levels, from getting
a good idea to becoming a new species. It
is life creating itself. One of the most profound
stories about learning new relationships is
The Love Bug.
