I watched the movie “Divergent” while thinking that today’s societies have a Pareto-chart distribution that matches quite well the distribution of the five factions as Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent). The one category that was not chosen by anyone in the movie was “poor and sick” and yet there were many of them living on the streets.
The real world has almost the same categories including the large category that has many young people without jobs, old people without incomes or proper support, sick and desperate who cannot find proper places for living or who have no secured future. Worldwide, we know precisely how many people are in each category while the success of their lives has been pre-determined in many cases by convergent thinkers who are represented in our reality by decision makers. The realization that we use statistical data to control the pre-determined outcome that will benefit a certain class of citizens versus another becomes quite dangerous when measurements are taken to keep a certain layer to control the ranges. Yesterday, we had the chance to make changes that would have included everybody while today changes were already made based on convergent thinking. It might benefit a certain social category at this time, but in the long term we are all moving against the natural development that is represented by divergent thinkers. If we consider that Universe is alive and has a “divergent thinking” because we can look around and see a wide variety of forms, shapes, etc. within our contained space, we can fit all kinds of small and large systems that can coexist peacefully.
A divergent thinker is looking for options as opposed to choosing a predetermined solution. While convergent thinkers focus on solving one problem by gathering information from many areas, the divergent thinkers will come with different solutions by using an artistic behavior. When creation happens, the divergence can drive the societies to higher levels of quality because it uses emotions in the decision making process leading to multiple and varied solutions rather than the one that will benefit mainly the “decision makers”.
A systematic top-down approach has a limited time to exist since there is only so much control that can be imposed before the natural way takes its path. In the movie, the main character was Divergent therefore able to control and manipulate her dreams by realizing that everything was not real. If we can solve the problems in our dreams then why can’t we solve the problems when we live in reality? What is real about controlling poverty and wealth? What is real about controlling life vs. death? Where is the visible vs. invisible boundary that separates the different states of being?
If statistics is a representation of the multitude of options available that are represented in percentages, then sentience obviously will have divergent thinking and the only difference will be how at the system level, the control can belong to certain categories that can have an unnatural behavior towards life.
The end of the movie left me with a certain impression that world will not become a better place in the near future since the technology is used to control people. If in education people are taught that there is only one way to solve a problem, the Universe teaches us that there are many ways to solve problems and come to solutions that are good and positive for everybody.