A certain visual company in China once included the black hole image in its copyright library, openly misappropriating the intellectual property of the European Southern Observatory. On the other hand, Disney's black and white Mickey Mouse also entered the public domain this New Year's Day. In a society governed by the rule of law, various international conventions and domestic laws protect intellectual property. Even the WeChat messages, Telegrams, and articles we casually write automatically gain protection under intellectual property laws upon completion, as they are human creations that embody human intellectual achievements. Epic works are born from the hands of writers, such as "A Song of Ice and Fire" and "Journey to the West." In the hands of painters, sculptors, and musicians, various forms of works emerge in society, becoming sacred objects that influence generations. Of course, there are also patents from scientists, and so on. Thus, we use the term "creation" to celebrate the masterpieces of great masters. Creativity thus ascends to the altar, becoming a criterion for evaluating works.
But is this really creation? What exactly is creation? Everything about creation is so fascinating, yet we also want to unveil the veil of creation and see its true form.
Ontology of Creation#
The Subject of Creation#
Only Intelligence Can Create#
Creation is primarily a verb. A creates B; A must be a person, not an object, such as Van Gogh creating "Starry Night." Furthermore, A must be an entity with some form of intelligence, such as God creating humanity or aliens creating civilizations. Or, in the future, a higher form of life may be born. This is an inductive method to define creation, meaning that only intelligence can create.
However, this induction seems to evade the question. Can non-intelligent beings not create? Can monkeys not create? Ice is formed by water, but it is not created by water. Lava erupts from the Earth's surface, but we cannot say that the Earth created lava. The sun emits light, but the light is not created by the sun. Attributing these phenomena to their regularity and stability, people may observe limited behavioral patterns of natural phenomena even if they do not understand the underlying principles. But whether monkeys can create involves the question of intelligence. After all, gorillas and humans differ by only about 1.6% in their genes and belong to the same primate order.
Intelligence Means Extreme Complexity Under Rules#
When you gaze at the word "intelligence," it seems to be wrapped in a veil, subtly hinting at two worlds. We humans assume that intelligence exists within individuals, within the human brain, in the system composed of interconnected neurons. The human brain must be a complex system. This complexity is not merely a quantitative accumulation but a more intricate system. Moreover, humans are not just individuals; they exist within social relationships, which is a complementary relationship. Society is not just composed of present individuals, but also includes past and future individuals.
However, this stance believes in individualism, not denying the group, but asserting that everything from the group must act upon the individual. Therefore, although the accumulation of knowledge in groups leads to vast differences between primitive and modern humans, this knowledge ultimately resides with and is operated by individuals.
Thus, from the perspectives of both the group and the individual, intelligence signifies extreme complexity under rules. The former is the complexity of the accumulation of knowledge systems, while the latter is the complexity of the human brain's structure.
Whether it is the generation of large models like ChatGPT, the creation of technical drawings, or the understanding of a particular humanities subject, all require the absorption of vast amounts of information. The more real and rich the information, the more it can form a system in our minds that aligns with the rules. This is the foundation of creation.
The Object of Creation#
Previously, we briefly analyzed the creator, pointing out that only intelligence can create, and the foundation of intelligence is complexity that adheres to rules. A creates B; what exactly is the created object B?
Before this, let us narrow down the definition of creation: creation is the phenomenon of the subject producing a new object. The core is whether creation has produced something new and how high the standard for this newness is. In other words, what does the latest creation look like?
The Object of Creation Is Not Material#
A farmer grows wheat, but it cannot be said that he creates wheat; a miner extracts ore, but it cannot be said that he creates ore; a woman gives birth to a baby, but it is not said that she creates a baby; a scientist discovers natural laws, but does not create laws; an engineer manufactures a rocket, but does not create a rocket... Anything material cannot be created. The only exception is the creator god. As for the term "new era," which brick of the "new era" is created? Even if there is one, it is not material.
According to the law of conservation of energy, matter, as a form of energy, cannot be created from nothing within a defined system. Thus, as entities of the same category, matter cannot generate matter.
The Object of Creation Transcends Matter#
Objectivism holds that everything is material, and conscious activity is also a material phenomenon. Separating matter and consciousness is not a matter of the material level but something beneath it. Since everything is material and matter cannot generate matter, if something new is to be created, it must not be material but something that transcends matter.
To understand this transcendent thing, we must first clarify the status of consciousness. Any consciousness must be carried by certain material; this is the rule for the existence of consciousness in the objective world. If consciousness is treated as a super-material existence, it has no meaning in this objective world. Because we cannot observe a transcendent existence.
The Object of Creation Must Obtain a Material Carrier#
Since the product of creation is a transcendent thing, and the product of creation must be observable in the material world, the object of creation must obtain a material carrier. Within intelligence, this carrier is the conscious body; outside of intelligence, this carrier is paintings, sculptures, books, blueprints, electronic data...
Formally, the object of creation is intangible and transcendent. The material carrier is essential for the object of creation, but just like whether it is a physical book or an e-book, whether it is in Chinese or English, the most important thing is the transcendent information being conveyed.
In simple terms, the object of creation is intangible, meaningless, and transcendent. As for how important or unimportant creation is to humanity or other intelligent beings, that is a matter of the theory of the value of creation.
The Essence of Creation#
Intelligence is the subject of creation, and nothingness is the object of creation. What exactly is creation?
The Source of Creation#
We can determine that at some point in history, the first person began to open their eyes to the world. He saw mountains and drew a character for mountain; he saw water and drew a character for water. He noticed that the grains by the river could be eaten and stored, and that they would continue to grow there the following year, thus giving rise to the idea of obtaining more grains. Over a long time, he gradually recognized the laws of agriculture and understood the great power of the changing seasons...
The Infinity and Limit of Creation#
Undoubtedly, all creation comes from the objective world. The grandeur of nature becomes the source of creation. However, the brain structure that carries creation is equally intricate. Understanding the world is a form of creation, but there are infinitely many variations of this understanding itself. Nature presents infinite possibilities for understanding, and humans have infinite possibilities to reconstruct any given possibility.
Although creation brings civilization to time, all created civilizations are merely a free play on objective laws. Even if objective laws can be changed, there should still be laws governing those laws. Analyzing from the perspective of energy, human existence itself cannot increase or decrease the energy of the universe. Humans can only accelerate the process of increasing disorder from high energy to low energy. Regardless of what laws humans recognize or what laws they can apply, they are all under the laws and the limitations of matter.
Intelligence Equals Creation#
I once thought that creation is a form of control, that creation is an instinctive impulse, much like a child playing with mud, who loves to construct the world from a young age. This control and impulse should be the essence of intelligence. Any intelligence has the initiative to replicate the external world; this is the source of intelligence's understanding and the driving force behind intelligence becoming intelligence.
Understanding Equals Creation#
Since humans are individual entities, any reading, any understanding, any scenery... is reconstructed by each individual perceiver. It is just that the understanding is mostly similar. Furthermore, each individual's existence has experienced many events, resulting in many understandings; it is just that some people struggle with the technology to transfer and sustain their understanding. An intelligence can be called intelligence only if it possesses a certain understanding and the ability to understand. For this intelligence, understanding equals creation. However, this creation's carrier is the intelligence itself.
In other words, accepting new things does not merely involve a single understanding but requires using the existing understanding of intelligence to comprehend and construct. Just like the reforms in the late Qing Dynasty, accepting the constitutional democracy of Western civilization is itself a reconstruction of traditional Chinese political thought.
Creation Without Creation#
Thus, when we realize what creation can and cannot do, the source of creation, and the process of creation, we find that there is no real creation. The consistent attitude of objectivism is to be selfless; creation is objective. As Lu You said, "The article is naturally formed; the skilled hand merely obtains it."
Just as labor creates value, the raw materials of labor are not yours, and the process of labor is merely following certain rules to produce, so there is nothing new. We can say that understanding equals creation, but we can also deny the existence of creation. The key lies in whether our definition of creation includes value.
Creation is elevated to the altar, and originality is valued because it is a matter of the theory of the value of creation.
Theory of the Value of Creation#
Through the exploration of the ontology of creation, the limitations and nothingness of creation can feel cold. Meanwhile, understanding equals creation may seem somewhat arbitrary, seemingly devaluing the worth of creation. Some may exclaim, "Is this really called creation?"
Value is the degree to which an object can satisfy a subject. Whether a certain creation has value determines our recognition of the standards of creation. When value is applied to creation, all meaninglessness is endowed with meaning.
Relative Value of Creation#
The value of creation can be divided into two types based on how people utilize the created objects: the output value of creation and the input value of creation.
Output Value of Creation#
The output value of creation, simply put, is the value of any creation to the creator. What value does creation have for God? What value does speaking have for the speaker? What value does a work have for the author? What value does a technical blueprint have for a scientist? What value does a theoretical book have for a theorist?
Regardless of whether creation has value for others or society, it is inevitably valuable for the creator; otherwise, they would not create. Cherishing one's broom is just that. It is also because the output is endowed with meaning by the outputter that the forms of output are diverse. Even simply thinking in one's mind can often bring the pleasure of creation, though this output is only known to oneself. As for speaking that only has an effect on a few people, it is also a form of creation, but this form of creation is like building sandcastles on the beach, easily dissipated, and thus not recognized by most people. However, new storage methods have made speaking a widely recognized work, such as podcasts like stand-up comedy.
Therefore, based on the output value of creation, the definition of creation is very broad, without imposing additional thresholds on creation, simply endowed with meaning by individuals.
Input Value of Creation#
The input value of creation is the value of the work as utilized by others and society. The meaning of creation in daily life is defined by this.
The premise of the input value of creation is that creation must be presented in some material carrier form. It is precisely because of this premise of material carriers that creation can manifest its value. Thus, the carrier is very important. This is the premise for value formation, just like the aforementioned podcast. Although I do not read many physical books, the experience that physical books bring is unique. Another aspect is the language carrier; for example, the German language has long sentences and clauses, promoting long-term thinking. Chinese has many short sentences, focusing on practicality. Therefore, the differences in carriers have a significant impact on creation. What people can create is not works, because works contain carriers; what people can create is only meaningless nothingness, transcending material meaning.
No matter how good you feel about your work, in the eyes of many, it is just garbage. Van Gogh's paintings are now sought after, but he was nameless before his death.
When a work is severed from its origin, it does not mean that this work is no longer created by you. Rather, others have rewritten a work 2.0. The work in others' minds is not your work.
As society has developed to this day, many inevitably feel the dilemma of creation, as predecessors have described. Many people pay more attention to the originality of works. Whether watching anime or looking at illustrations, tastes have become more discerning. Often, one might sigh that they have seen this idea somewhere before. However, this does not necessarily mean that they are stealing others' viewpoints; it is merely that "heroes see alike."
Absolute Value of Creation#
Whether for the outputter or the inputter, the generation of the value of creation is not a figment of imagination.
Whether in the humanities or sciences, arts or philosophy, they all express something. Creation encompasses the exploration of rules and the approach to usefulness. This usefulness refers to being useful to intelligence. Thus, we tirelessly explore the truth; the words of ancient sages still resonate deeply today.
Methodology of Creation#
How to create is the final layer of the veil of creation.
In fact, there is no real creation in this world. This stance has already been explained in the ontology section; what is created is merely meaningless things. These meanings merely reflect certain existing rules of the objective world, which happen to be usable by humans, and thus we deem them valuable and label them as creation.
You Reap What You Sow#
If you want to create in a certain area, explore knowledge in that area. As the saying goes, "You reap what you sow." If you only watch the "News Broadcast" every day, you will definitely speak in various official tones; if you listen to people discussing the Analects, you will surely discuss benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust; if you immerse yourself in physics formulas every day, you will surely gain new insights into physics.
Learning Without Thinking Leads to Confusion, Thinking Without Learning Leads to Danger#
Next, learning without thinking leads to confusion, and thinking without learning leads to danger.
When learning new things, it is not just about learning the new things but also about completing the new with the old, thus generating new connections. This new connection, once learned to a certain extent, will possess original value for others. Just like the synthesis of different products in a Dyson sphere requires a foundation. If you learn what others already know, you will naturally know what others do not. To truly solidify your understanding, you must continuously reconstruct the connections between the new and the old; this is learning and thinking.
Creation Is a Completion of Perspectives#
People often say that a certain viewpoint has greatly benefited them. In reality, if a person can understand a certain viewpoint, it indicates that their brain has already established a considerable number of connections, allowing them to have an epiphany after just one reading or a few segments.
Just as I understood the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment period in [[Piercing the Fantasy of the Social Contract]]. Initially, I was perplexed by Hobbes' admiration for sovereign states. Shouldn't the Enlightenment acknowledge natural rights? Why can Hobbes, who praises royal authority, be remembered? Later, after reading an introduction to the natural law school, I realized that breaking free from the shackles of the Middle Ages cannot be accomplished overnight; it requires a process from divine authority to royal authority and then to human rights.
However, someone who is not interested in this aspect of history and does not understand it will not have this feeling. In other words, those things that give us a sense of enlightenment are not entirely new existences. It is precisely because these concepts have undergone personal accumulation that they become outdated and unbreakable. Thus, when encountering a crucial segment, we can "complete" our understanding and form a new idea.
In other words, recognizing that something has value means that the height of this understanding relative to that thing is not low. Perhaps it merely requires a final push to achieve enlightenment.
[[2023-09-07]]
First Use Luck, Then Use Logic#
When humans think while accepting new things, they automatically establish connections between the new content and the old content. For example, after realizing the backwardness of the late Qing Dynasty, upon hearing that the late Qing adhered to Confucianism, one might naturally establish a connection between Confucianism and the backwardness of the late Qing, possibly believing that Confucian thought is the root of disaster... But this is not necessarily correct; it is merely a connection that the brain has automatically established. Over time, if we understand Mencius' statements about "exiling" tyrants, we may re-examine Confucian thought. However, this connection still may not be correct; it is merely that we have gotten closer to the truth.
Therefore, arriving at the correct viewpoint requires establishing numerous connections and repeated trial and error. The so-called originality of viewpoints requires connecting different similarities as much as possible, which is what is referred to as harmony in diversity. A more mechanical way of saying this is to maximize the forced connection between two different things. This is akin to inbreeding, which often produces species with genetic defects, while breeding with distant relatives offers more possibilities. However, such original connections are false and must undergo continuous testing to become genuine original connections. As for the nuances within, only oneself can grasp them. This is also a necessary trial and error that this stance must accept to bridge the two subjective and objective chasms.
Thus, this stance emphasizes establishing connections, first using luck, then using logic. The downside of this method is that it is prone to errors, while the upside is that it aligns with the process of establishing connections. It requires self-denial.
Therefore, this time is about assisting in the birthing of feelings. Extracting the original subtle feelings with logic. — Inspiration Midwifery
The Method of Creation Is Simple, Value Is Difficult#
Valuable ideas can be created in bulk.
That is, based on the different understandings each day, thinking can graft two seemingly unrelated things together. The deeper the understanding of the two things, the more discoveries of new things will occur. — Thinking Equals Happiness # Methods of Thinking
Creation is easy, new viewpoints are also easy, but value is difficult. Creation needs to reflect rules, but reflecting rules does not necessarily mean it is considered creation; it also needs to be useful.
For many, a little yellow book is creation, while those fanciful theories are nonsense. Thus, to make creation become creation, it must be useful, that is, closer to human rules.
Creation Is a Practice#
Creation is a practice. Practice is the process by which a certain theory, course, or skill is materialized or realized. The understanding of intelligence and the creation of intelligence will manifest in some way, influencing the objective world; this is the characteristic of intelligence and the destination of understanding.
For example, if I accept the idea that houses will appreciate in value, my perspective on buying houses will change, and perhaps I will buy a house in the future. Another example is the belief that "family planning is good, and the government helps with elder care." My behavior will be subtly influenced. Additionally, in "Inception," the concept is implanted in the heir.
Creation requires material to carry it. The former idea's influence on individuals may be passive and unconscious. However, active creation requires expressing understanding through words, stones, bricks, waves... any material. This process is a materialization of thought. Regardless of the price of the material used, the time required for creation is essential. Just as a person can type a maximum of a few tens of thousands of words in a day. Beyond that, it is beyond human capability.
Because of the characteristics of creative practice, logical thinking is often clearer than when fantasizing. Moreover, because creation is easily influenced, new connections can be artificially constructed through creative practice, leading to new knowledge discovery.
Summary on Creation#
Creation has always been a question I ponder. Phrases like "reviewing the old to understand the new," "reading a hundred times, its meaning will naturally emerge," "reading thousands of books, writing as if inspired," and "reciting three hundred Tang poems will allow one to chant even if they cannot compose" are actually methods of creation.
The greatest gain from this discussion on creation is separating what creation is from the value of creation, making many things less mysterious, although this question shifts to how to realize value. Moreover, creation is actually a very abstract thing; humans are limited, and so is creation. Creation can change the world, but it also cannot. Additionally, there are commonalities between intelligence and creation.
This illusion and meaninglessness remind one of a line from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": "Who awakens first from the great dream? I know myself in this life." "The dream of Huang Liang has passed; what world shall I be reborn into?"