FOURTH DECLARATION

We do not simply crave any old intelligence – we want our own intelligence, you dig? None of us really want to be Einstein. He already Einsteined. It’s over now, it’s been done. We want to be smarter, sure, but not just generally. There’s not good to be had from complicated insights of other people into topics you have no interest in. Better poker-playing takes precedence, for many, over cosmology. A doubling of wisdom relative to sparkplug maintenance is only for the Few. There is no objective standard as to what we would like to be more intelligent about. This is because deep down, under our worries and pathologies, we like ourselves. We are the “we” what we would like to have be smarter, no? It would be nice to have our minds amplified, our wisdom enhanced, our understandings enriched.

More technically: we want our connections-on-the-inside more connected.

Many theories have been advanced by well-meaning men who flatter themselves with the idea that they are the cusp of the ‘genius revolution.’ Take vitamins and smart drugs. Breathe more. Use brain-wave sculpting soundtracks while sniffing essential oils and reading the encyclopaedia at random. It can’t hurt.

It probably won’t hurt.
Be careful though.

While listening to wave-music, stand on one foot and speak aloud all sensory data presented by your imagination whether it makes any sense or not. This will lay novel pathways in the brain that will slowly make it easier for information to travel everywhere and merge into new insights.
Takes a while & Buff Striding doesn’t have a while.

My technique for neural enhancement consists in the regular practice of “forcing” connections between large zones of pre-connected data. Example: You have some data about foxes. You have some data about cruise ships. These appear to be unrelated sections of the brain. Now – make a bridge. Imagine a cruise ship staffed entirely with red foxes. Or, even worse, imagine all the passengers are foxes of various kinds and humans have been subjugated into being their simpering servants. How would you feel as a denigrated waitperson scampering to fetch goose-liver "pate" for a bloated, lascivious vulpine? (It helps to flood the new pathway with some emotional electricity. )

The key to a connective thought is the "How/Why?" It has to make some sense to you, even if it is an outrageous kind of sense. The scenario above shows how foxes and cruise ships might connect -- but not why. Perhaps it the outrageous marketing compaign of a futuristic company who genetically and neurological "boosts" animals. Perhaps it is the dream of a patient in psychoanalysis. You see? Some scenario and some quasi-plausible reasoning. It doesn't have to be an airtight case -- just so's it produces that "hmmm..." feeling of "maybe makes sense."

How does the caw of a crow fuse with golf? What does the tast of bubble gum have to do with the dinosaurs?

Easy and quick. Make a half-dozen of these arbitrary thought connections in a row and you’ll start to feel the flow of New Meaningfulness through your cortex.

You can thank me by imagining how it would feel if your soul “just happened” to look and sound exactly like me…