Leonardo: Da Vinci, It is clear that as with evolution, learning also happens by indirection. Each stage of learning uses the information processing methods of the previous stage to go to the next stage. In the context of neural networks, this means that each self-organisation of a given neural configuration uses the already self-organised configuration of the previous neural network to arrive at the next neural configuration. Now, what I want to understand is how this shift from a given stage of learning to the next happens. We have a given self-organised configuration. Now, relative to the next self-organised configuration, the former has a certain implicate or enfolded order. From this, the new order emerges by spontaneous self-organisation. How does this emergence take place? What stimulates the emergence? 

Da Vinci: You put it quite nicely, Leonardo. We have a given self-organised configuration as an implicate or enfolded order. Now, something disturbs or stimulates the emergence of the new order by spontaneous self-organisation. And that something is something that stirs up the old order to prepare itself for a change of order. Ah, I see in this something profound. Because, that is the very meaning of evolution.

Leonardo: And if the change happens in a drastic rather than a slow manner, it gives rise to a revolution instead of evolution, isn’t it?

Da Vinci: Exactly! Now, let’s look at the old and the new orders a little more closely and see what factors could stir up the old configuration to impel it for change.

Leonardo: And since we are taking the context of neural networks, perhaps we could focus on human cognition itself and take a given self-organized configuration to be a certain neural network.

Da Vinci: I think that is a very fruitful approach, Leonardo. Because, the neural network represents a very high level of complexity and order. 

Leonardo: So, we have a given neural network. Something stirs it up and impels it to reconfigure.

Da Vinci: And that something is obviously a stimulus. And the change depends on the response to the stimulus.

Leonardo: So, the key here is, response. 

Da Vinci: And it is very apt that we recall here, Aldous Huxley’s words, “experience is not what happens to us. It is what we do with what happens to us.”

Leonardo; That means, greater the care we can take in our response, greater the quality of the change we envisage.

Da Vinci: Exactly! And this is why, choosing the response is so significant and important.

Leonardo: And, how do we choose a response out of a number of possible responses?

Da Vinci: Ah, here’s where knowledge is insufficient. One needs wisdom. Or, in other words, a right measure of instinct, reason, emotion and intuition.

Leonardo: Why instinct? Isn’t that a primitive faculty? I mean, an infra-rational faculty?

Da Vinci: I am not sure it is right to call it that, Leonardo. For, often, the so-called primitive faculty contains a truth that we cannot ignore. Like the language instinct, for instance. And when we are considering learning, the learning instinct cannot at all be ignored.

Leonardo: That means, the response ought to be creative! 

Da Vinci: Yes, and here, Henri Poincare’s words are very apt, “invention is choice.” Out of a number of possible configurations, the right one often suggests itself as a stable configuration. And this is invention by choice.

Leonardo: Once again, self-organisation is the key then, even for the development of the right neural networks.

Da Vinci: Yes, and that’s why I mentioned instinct, in the sense that it plays a role even in the formation of neural networks. You see, Leonardo, instinct seems to be another name for the tendency towards spontaneous self-organisation in the brain-mind.

Leonardo: By what you say, instinct seems to play a predominant role then, not just a preliminary one. What then are the roles of reason, emotion and intuition?

Da Vinci: Ah, precisely in stimulating self-organisation, Leonardo.

Leonardo: Oh, instinct provides the necessary and reason, emotion and intuition, the sufficient factors in the development of the neural networks.

Da Vinci: That’s nicely stated, Leonardo. 

Leonardo: That’s why ignoring instinct or the natural tendency towards spontaneous self-organisation works against nature’s nurture!

Da Vinci: Precisely, Leonardo. This is what is ignored by most educational systems. Ignored in two senses, first in not being aware of it and second by choosing not to know.

Leonardo: That means, learning to learn with instinct, reason, emotion and intuition is the way to form effective neural networks!

Da Vinci: Yes, Leonardo. Because, learning to learn, in turn, incorporates all these, - instinct, reason, emotion and intuition.

Leonardo: I think I am understanding something…something that is missing in conventional education, without which learning cannot take off in its natural exponential manner.

Da Vinci: I can guess what that is you are getting at. Nevertheless, it is best you tell me.

Leonardo: Instinct, of course. Without instinct, learning cannot take off from the linear to the exponential phase. Without allowing for spontaneous self-organisation, no amount of reason, emotion and intuition can leverage learning. For, to do so is to work against nature’s nurture.

Da Vinci: That’s perfectly right, Leonardo.

Leonardo: I understand that instinct is an outcome of spontaneous self-organisation. But what about reason and intuition? Are they or are they not related to spontaneous self-organisation?

Da Vinci: Ah, no doubt they are. For, how could they not be? You see, Leonardo, in a sense, all natural processes that lead to an increase in ordered complexity cannot but be outcomes of spontaneous self-organisation. And reason and intuition are most certainly so. And among these, reason, more than instinct and intuition are amenable to conscious stimulation. 

Leonardo: What do you mean, conscious-stimulation, Da Vinci?

Da Vinci: Conscious stimulation consists in being able to be in charge. It is possible for the human mind to take charge and be in charge of the rational faculty much more than of the faculties of instinct and intuition. That is why the human being is appropriately classified as Homo sapiens, primarily the thinking being.

Leonardo: How do instinct and intuition figure in then? And are these not amenable to conscious stimulation?

Da Vinci: Ah, no, not really, Leonardo. Both these are in a sense, unconscious processes, in which Nature is in charge more than the human being. That is why, though one can train instinct to a certain extent, it is not easy to transform it by normal human means. Instinct, in the human being is more like the animal in the human. More appropriately, instinct is governed by the reptilian brain sector of the triune brain. It needs a much greater discipline to give it a certain direction if not take charge of it. Nevertheless, it is possible to give it a direction and subordinate it to the needs of the higher reason as in the martial arts and yogic discipline. 

Leonardo: It is very intriguing how instinct, reason and intuition are all processes of spontaneous self-organisation. And that only reason can be taken direct charge of. This suggests an analogy to my mind. That reason is like the visible spectrum and in that sense, instinct is like the infrared and intuition like the ultraviolet bands.

Da Vinci: That’s in fact a very good analogy, Leonardo. Instinct is infra-rational and intuition ultra-rational.

Leonardo: And so, intuition and the higher cognitive faculties as yogic discipline opens up are actually supra-rational?

Da Vinci: Yes, that is so, Leonardo. 

Leonardo: So, what this means is, if we take reason as the basic order, instinct acts as an implicate  or enfolded order and reason the explicate or unfolded order. The rational faculty developss by spontaneous self-organisation of the instinctive faculty. This explains the statement, “evolution works by indirection: each stage uses the information processing methods of the previous epoch as a starting point for the next stage.” 

Da Vinci: Yes, Leonardo. The rational faculty uses the information processing methods of the instinctive faculty to emerge spontaneously self-organised.

Leonardo: And how does that happen? The emergence of the rational faculty from the instinctive?

Da Vinci: Ah, here’s where even the “how” on which the scientific method is so thoroughly based on fails. For, it is not at all straightforward to predict how the emergence takes place. And as to the why, that is even less possible to state. That is, even philosophically one cannot predict the emergence.

Leonardo: Da Vinci, if the “how” itself fails, isn’t the fact of emergence to be taken purely phenomenologically? That is, that it takes place, just as a statement of fact? Not as an explanation or prediction but rather in the weaker sense of scientific methodology, namely, description.

Da Vinci: Yes, Leonardo. This is one of those situations when the scientific method cannot be brought to bear on the phenomenon so that all it can do is to describe, not explain or predict.

Leonardo: So, emergence is only descriptive in scope? That is, it is in the primitive state of the scientific method. 

Da Vinci: So, coming back to instinct, reason and intuition, all we can say is that somehow, reason emerges from intuition.

Leonard: And neurologically, it parallels the development of the neocortex from the reptilian and mammalian brain sectors?

Da Vinci: Yes, and the neocortex itself has emerged from the reptilian and mammalian brain sectors.

Leonardo: From this digression, I guess, we can say that intuition emerges from reason? 

Da Vinci: Yes, that’s right.

Leonardo: And there is no corresponding parallelism neurologically. That is, some other neurological structure emerging from the neocortex?

Da Vinci: At least there seem to be no such structure neurologically. 

Leonardo: Is it that the neocortex is the limit of development at the physical level?

Da Vinci: Who knows, all we can say is that as far as we know, that seems to be the case.

Leonardo: Da Vinci, from the yogic discipline point of view, there are cognitive faculties higher than intuition that go by the names of revelation and inspiration.

Da Vinci: Yes, but I think the scientific method stops short of intuition itself and so if we need to discuss beyond that, we need to go into the yogic methods proper.

Leonardo: Perhaps we can do that in some other context then? 

Da Vinci: Yes, Leonardo. 

Leonardo: Coming back to learning, the best way to approach it is then to let intuition illuminate reason which, in turn, can guide instinct or spontaneous self-organisation in the process of meta-learning.

Da Vinci: Yes, Leonardo. And here it is helpful to keep in mind what Henri Poincare says about reason and intuition: reason merely sections the conquests of intuition. So, it is highly significant to not to go by reason alone in facilitating learning. And intuition itself, cognitively is best approached by taking Herbert Simon’s definition: “The situation has provided a cue; this cue has given the expert access to information stored in memory, and the information provides the answer. Intuition is nothing more and nothing less than recognition.”

Leonardo: You mean to say, intuition itself depends on great expertise, an unconscious competence on the part of the mentor?

Da Vinci: yes, and here’s where ordinary teachers utterly fail in facilitating learning, not to speak of meta-learning because most often, they don’t get to reach unconscious competence.