Seeing and Believing

If we automatically believe everything we see, we lack maturity. This fundamental issue plagues society today and is a key reason why artificial intelligence (A.I.) could contribute to our downfall. S.I. Hayakawa, in Language in Action, writes: “The more advanced civilization becomes, the more conscious we must be that our nervous system automatically leaves out characteristics of the events before us. If we are not aware of these omissions, if we are not conscious of the process of abstracting, we make seeing and believing a single process.” (Language in Action, 1939, pp. 137–147) Unfortunately, for too many people today, seeing and believing have become indistinguishable.