Do or die vs. reason why
We have two kinds of intelligence, which Daniel Kahneman1 refers to as System 1 and System 2.
More informally, I like to refer to them as do or die and reason why.
Do or die
“Do or die” responses are knee-jerk survival reflexes, epitomized by neural nets, or what Kahneman calls System 1.
Reason why
“Reason why” intelligence is the capacity for slow thinking, or what Kahneman calls System 2.
They’re always fast. They make decisions in real time, where speed is needed for survival.
Knee-jerk responses are not always correct. They’re easily fooled by tricks like delicious poison.
Trust: Trust is how we follow others in our tribe. Once we trust another member of the tribe, we follow them quickly, without hesitation or thinking.
Reasoning is slow and expensive. We don’t have the capacity to do much of it, because it’s exhausting.
Careful reasoning is not always perfect, but it can catch mistakes made by fast thinking.
Trust: Reason takes time and effort to produce conclusions. Those conclusions can then be trusted and followed quickly, just like trusted members of the tribe.
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Kahneman (2011). Thinking Fast And Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ↩
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image credit: Plato and Aristotle in School of Athens, by Raphael, c.1510. ↩