Two to Five Dimensional Thinking (Vulcan Style)
I first heard the phrase “two-dimensional thinking” when I was a teenager watching the movie “Star Trek- The Wrath of Kahn.” I currently just finished watching the movie again……. yes, I am a HUGE fan. I can hear the muttering “Oh god, not another one.”
The line was said by Mr. Spock in the final battle with the villain Kahn “He’s intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking.” In the movie it is clear the phrase ” two-dimensional thinking” is a reference to the dimensions involved in space combat. Over the years, to me the phrase has come to have more substantial meaning.
An official definition does not exist and even for myself the definition can vary.
it may be that our thinking is evolving from two, three or four dimensional thinking to five dimensional thinking. what is meant by that is whenever you see a description or analysis of something divided into say three or four categories, then there may well be a more accurate or complete description if the subject is re-analysed under five categories. try this: any space is occupied by one of five states: solid, liquid, gas, nothing (vacuum), or life a good example of this is in sustainable business objectives (bottom lines). it is currently three dimensional - profit, social, environmental (the triple bottom line). tease out the social bottom line into three - contribution to quality of life, increasing the knowledge pool and contributing to employee development as a person - now you have five. try looking at any analysis that has been divided up into three subject areas. one might be the common dimensions - length, width, height - are there two more dimensions? (time is considered as the fourth dimension), or a better definition of this subject?
Look at how often five categories appear in analyses of subjects - is this coincidental? You might ask - Why not recategorize them into 7 or any other number? Is this important? A very interesting article on the number five can be found at the link The Figure Five. The article displays an amazing interconnectivity and rationality with the application of the number five.
a summary:
five is the quintessential number – it appears in all major religions and philosophies around the world in many forms. it permeates nature, math, art, literature and music. the pentagram is a widespread sacred symbols used in ancient and modern times throughout almost all cultures of the world. the sacred nature of five is attested to by one ancient philosopher who wrote, "all things happen in fives or are divisible by or are multiples of fives. i find the law of fives to be more and more manifest the harder i look."
Some examples: The world is made up of five main land masses: Antarctica, Americas, Eurasia, Africa, Australiaand five main water masses: The Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean The five senses - hear, see, feel, touch, taste The hand - look at how the four fingers and thumb are so different from each other yet can achieve so much working together!
The big five personality traits... The five subtheories of the overall evolutionary theory are as follows: 1. Evolution as such: The world is not constant or recently created but is steadily changing and organisms are changed over time. 2. Common descent: All organisms or species can be traced back to a single origin of life on Earth. 3. Multiplication of species: The great diversification of species can be explained by the geographical isolation of species that gradually evolve into new species. 4. Gradualism: Evolutionary change takes place through the gradual change of populations over extremely long periods of time, not by the sudden appearance of new individuals, species, or types. 5. Natural selection: Evolutionary change comes about by the appearance of an abundant variation of genetic material in each succeeding generation. Those individuals who inherit variations well suited for adapting to a particular environment survive.
