Sept. 1, 2013

Dear President Obama,

Ref: My critical thinking innovation titled “Genetic Memory on Racial Behavior Differences,” can explain and solve the violence in the Middle East

I am a critical thinking type innovator. I like to solve problems. One problem I want to tackle is why so many countries have failed to adopt a true democratic society?  A true democratic society is wonderful because everyone is freer and conditions are fairer. Everyone enjoys a rich and progressive society. But reality has shown that only people from Western Europe have been able to maintain a true democratic society. Two years ago an “Arab Spring” movement had spread across the Arabic countries. People of many Arab countries have, indeed, attempted to adopt a democratic society, but today many have failed. Not only does it fail to improve the standard of living of those people, it creates turmoil in the region. Some tyrants who treat their country’s wealth as their own have been kicked away. But not a single true democratic society has been established. I want to find the answer for that.

In order to find the answer, I need to make a scientific innovation. All scientific discoveries can be called innovations. But some innovations (the creation of new products and/or methods which are patentable) can also be called inventions. So normally we refer innovations as the discovery of totally new concepts. History has demonstrated that many of our greatest inventors and innovators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers, Nikolaus Otto and Chester Carlson, despite their lack of academic background, were able to make revolutionary inventions. Given that they were frequently absent from school for long periods, either because of health issues or financial problems, one wonders how they were able to arrive at the kind of imaginative thinking power that ultimately led to their original inventions and innovations. In attempting to answer this question, I shall argue that the particular skill they shared in common, critical thinking skill, enabled them to overcome their lack of higher education. I shall also show that this same skill helped me to make two important critical thinking innovations and two critical thinking inventions.

There are two types of inventors/innovators. One is knowledge oriented, who we normally call scientists. They normally make incremental technological improvements; for example, changing from a Chinese firecracker to sending a rocket to the moon through millions of incremental improvement steps. The other type of inventor is the “able to figure out things,” type, who do not have much in the way of academic credentials or knowledge, but who can figure out solutions nonetheless.

Let me use the invention of the airplane to show the difference between these two types. The following is using “able to figure out things” angle to explain how the Wright brothers invented their airplane. The Wright brothers, two bicycle mechanics, made countless and detailed observations of the flight behavior of birds. They noticed that whenever a bird soared in the wind with its wings fully outstretched and in a horizontal position, it gained altitude. On the basis of this phenomenon, they developed the hypothesis that a bird’s wings produced lift not only because they flap, but also because of their characteristic shape, i.e., arched on the upper surface and flat on the lower surface. This was the ability to figure things out. The Wrights brothers subsequently built a wind tunnel to test their hypothesis and the experiment turned out to be possible. They proceeded to design and construct their airplane and proved their airplane could fly. This invention has created a new industry.

At the time the Wright brothers were creating their invention of the airplane, no book said a wing shape, arched on the upper surface and flat on the lower surface, could produce lift. The Wright brothers were ridiculed by the science community. A physics professor wrote an article saying flights heavier than air was impossible. At the same time, Alexandra Bell, the inventor of telephone, had the ability to figure out things. He immediately saw the particular wing shape could produce lift and that making an airplane was possible. He test flew his own airplane, but he was too late because the Wright brother had applied their patent first. This shows the Wright brothers and Alexandra Bell had the ability to figure out things while other people had not. I call this ability to figure out things as “critical thinking skill.” critical thinking skill has nothing to do with one’s science academic credential. It is a skill by itself just like chess game skill is a skill by itself.

critical thinking skill had been widely used in the past to make inventions and innovations. An early example involving critical thinking innovation concerns an event that occurred over two thousand years ago in Greece. In 530 B.C., Pythagoras witnessed a lunar eclipse. He noticed the Sun was always at the other side of the Earth when the lunar eclipse occured. On the basis of his observation, he conjectured that the dark portion of the eclipse was the shadow of the earth when lit by the sun. Noting that the shadow was round, he reasoned that the earth must also be a sphere. Unfortunately, the technology available to Pythagoras at that time did not allow him to confirm his hypothesis. Finally, it was only in 1522, the year in which Magellan sailed around the world, that Pythagoras' hypothesis that the earth was a sphere was proven to be correct. During the time in which Pythagoras lived, people were firm in their belief that the earth was a huge flat table. Pythagoras, however, ignored this belief and hypothesized that the earth was a sphere. Indeed, Pythagoras' ability to resist and circumvent prevailing beliefs and mind sets is characteristic of those who apply critical thinking.

Critical thinking skill is not taught in school. One way to master critical thinking skill is to practice with practical problem solving. I liked to figure out things when I was young. I recall that as a child, I was attempting to solve the problem of how rainbows are formed, and it took me over a year to figure it out. Many times I almost gave up, but I insisted that I could accomplish my goal and persisted until I found the answer. My schoolwork suffered from using too much time in my problem-solving projects. Our modern education system does not allow such impractical exercises. We only tell our students to memorize books. As a result our students’ critical thinking skills are weak.

Now come back to our above puzzle of “why the Arab countries have failed to establish a true democratic society?” which we need to solve. I have spent considerable time pondering this question. Finally I have found some answer from genetics. All animals have instincts; for example, a young cat will learn how to effectively catch mice after just a few tries. A German shepherd dog always barks at a stranger while a Peking dog always wags its tail. We call these animal instincts. But humans are animals, too. Therefore, humans should also have instincts. Now people believe humans do not have instincts. A young cat can learn “mice catching” one thousand time faster than it learns circus tricks. This is the benefit of instincts. Then why do humans need to give up such a good benefit? This is illogical. The only logical answer is humans must also have instincts, but people are not able to see those instincts.

But what exactly is instinct? I have come to the conclusion that instinct is just memory passed down genetically from one generation to the next in the form of "old memory", old memory from repeatable events but not single events. Old memory can easily be recovered. The genetic memory controls how people behave in reaction to a particular situation. I call these genetic behaviors. This is the same as the behaviors from instincts we see in animals. Therefore humans have instincts, too. Its new name for people’s behavior from instinct is called genetic behavior. Then let me explain the relationship of people’s genetic behavior and their genetic background. By examining people’s genetic background, we can explain many racial behavioral differences, such as why Westerners can maintain a true democratic society and Arabs cannot. To find the answer one must look back to see how people's ancestors lived during ancient times. The Westerners lived in the cold weather environments of Western Europe while the Arabs lived in the desert environments of the Middle East.

The cold weather people lived in the frigid climate of Western Europe. I can easily imagine that life in this cold environment was difficult and that this dictated these people's behavior. They must form hunting groups to survive. The most important factor affecting people's behavior here was the cold, which can easily and quickly kill. Any unlucky person who was unable to return to shelter when a blizzard suddenly arrived could face death. Therefore, in order to maintain the population, people considered life to be very precious and they did all that they could to preserve it. People in this environment could select a leader, and if his or her performance was not up to the expectations of the group, a new leader could be chosen. Because life is scarce and group members were hard to recruit, each member was considered to be equal and each member's personal preferences were highly respected, as long as it would not affect the performance of group too greatly. This is where the concepts of democracy and human rights originated in Western culture. Considering life to be precious will affect many behaviors, such as social fairness and justice fairness to reduce dispute, food safety, building and work safety, peace loving, etc., and the list goes on. Therefore, their evolved behavior seemed to be more peaceful and fair. The above is just a logical deduction.

The desert people lived in very harsh environments in the desert. I can imagine the kind of hard life these people endured, and the environment dictated these people's behavior. They could only survive if they maintained a certain ‘desert people’ behavior. They needed to hunt and survive as a group because there was very little chance of surviving individually. They competed with other groups for the scarce resources, therefore group fighting was common. They needed very skillful leaders to guide the groups because incompetence results in death in the desert. Members respected their leaders very much and they were very obedient to their superior’s order. They operated like an army. The leader had absolute power over the group and he considered the interest of the whole was more important than the interest of an individual member. They needed to behave in this manner in order to survive in the desert. Again, the above thinking is just a logical deduction.

The memories from these ancient lives can be passed down genetically from generation to generation. We can use this genetic memory theory to explain our puzzle of why Westerners can maintain a true democratic society and Arabs cannot. To maintain a true democratic society each member needs to behave democratically. That is members treat each other fair and just. Members obey majority rule. Members are willing to sacrifice individual interest for societal interest. Members are law abiding. Members respect human rights. Members settle their differences through dialogue and compromise. Members love peace and safety. The list can go on. These behaviors are exactly the same as the Westerners’ ancestors behaved in their ancient cold environment. They are behaving with their genetic behaviors, which is exactly what is required in a democratic society. That is why they can maintain a true democratic society.

On the hand, Arabs are descendents of desert people. They have the virtue of obedience. But in a democratic society members need to behave on their own. But due to their genetic behaviors, Arabs will not behave democratically. Take a look at Egypt. Two years after overthrowing a dictatorial government, nonstop protests and riots continue. When people are set free to protest, they just do not know when to stop. Yet Egypt depends heavily on tourism. The chaotic Egypt just scares away tourists. This is taking individual interests above societal interests. They are complaining about a lack of economical improvement after the revolution. Think please! How can you achieve economical improvement in such a chaotic environment? Recently the democratic elected Muslim Brotherhood's party government is overthrown by the Army in a coup. This disrespects majority rule. Now it is the members of Muslim Brotherhood's party’s turn to protest. Why has this happened? The reason is they are behaving with their genetic behaviors passed down from their ancient desert environment. Those behaviors do not fit and cannot run a democratic society. This is the reason why Egypt has failed to establish a true democratic society.

This situation is very like what happened in China. After the collapsed of the corrupted Qing Dynasty in 1912, people of China indeed tried to establish a democratic China. But reality was military and warlords controlled China. Internal fighting was non-stop. After a lengthy fighting, Republic of China was finally established. But government officials were notoriously corrupt. This leaded to the up rise of the communist party. The weak China was invaded by Japan. It was until 1949 the People's Republic of China was established with a controlling governance and social system. After that there was no more internal fighting. Now we have an open China. Comparing with a Western democratic society China is definitely not up to expectation. But comparing with the early 1912 when people of China tried to establish a democratic society, the situation is much better. To establish a true democratic society, Chinese people need to learn how to behave democratically.

Westerners try to export their democratic value to non-Westerners. Their intention is good. But for non-Westerners to be successful in establishing a true society, they need to learn how to behave democratically. My suggestion is to set up a foundation to guide people on how to behave democratically. Let people know which behaviors are democratic and which are not. Then people of non-Western societies may have a chance to establish a true democratic society.

The desert people can run a moderate wealthy society with a controlling type governance and social system. This happens in China and Russia. Even Japan, Korea and Singapore also run a controlling type governance and social system, although they do have democratic election. But when people want more democratic freedom, their social efficiency deteriorates. This has happened in Taiwan and Hong Kong. That is why we need to set up a foundation to guide people on how to behave democratically.

This theory of “Genetic Memory on Racial Behavior Differences” is my innovation. Unfortunately I do not have a well-known name. People will not believe what I say. I have another critical thinking innovation, which can bring a revolutionary new concept in physics. I call it the “Theory of Energy Entities.” There is a relative simple experiment that can verify if my idea is true. If my idea is true, I shall have a name and people will believe what I say. I have included my theory as an attachment 1. I also have two critical thinking inventions, which can create jobs in North America. One invention is patented and the other is still undisclosed. I believe my undisclosed invention can create a new industry. But I cannot disclose it because our researchers do not have the critical thinking skill to see it will work. I have attached my patented invention as an attachment 2. I can show you that the reason why companies rejected my invention is because researchers do not have the critical thinking skills to figure out how my invention will work.

The problem with our research system is we believe people with academic credentials will able to come up with great inventions and innovations. The reality is if the required knowledge can be found in the book, they are capable to handle it. However, if the required knowledge is not found in the book or the book is wrong, they will not able to handle it. My old cell phone has buttons. My new cell phone has a touch screen. The required knowledge to switch from buttons to touch screen is in the book. Therefore our researchers can quickly and successfully create that invention.

However, take a case that the required knowledge cannot be found in the book. At the time when the Wright brothers were inventing their airplane, a physics professor said flights heavier than air was impossible. If someone asked him to figure out whether a wing in the shape of arched on the upper surface and flat on the lower surface, could it produce lift? He would not able to do so. No matter how many academic credentials he might have, it requires critical thinking skills to come up with the correct answer. That is why my invention and innovations are rejected by our researchers, because they do not have the critical thinking skills to evaluate them. This can clearly be seen with the animal instincts question mentioned above. People believe animals have instincts, but humans do not. If someone has critical thinking skill, he should able to see this statement is illogical because humans are animals too. Yet I have never heard anyone try to correct this statement. Our education system forces students to memorize books instead of practicing critical thinking thinking. Therefore, people with critical thinking skills, like the Wright brothers, Bell and Edison, have vanished or pushed aside.

Yet critical thinking inventions and innovations are extremely important to our life. Our research system has fallen into a trap today. We neglect the practice of critical thinking thinking in our education system. We hire researchers mainly based on their academic credentials, with no regard to their critical thinking skills. That is why nowadays we only have inventions or innovations of small incremental technological improvements and lack major breakthroughs. critical thinking inventions and innovations submitted from outside are quickly rejected, because researchers do not have the critical thinking skills to evaluate them. This situation has now reached critical proportions. If we do not do something to correct it, our future may in jeopardy. According to environmentalists, in 50 years, Earth will be depleted of resources and pollution will be so severe that our planet will no longer be able to support life. We urgently need to come up with revolutionary inventions and innovations to save our Earth. We cannot ignore our researchers’ critical thinking skills any longer.

Mr. President, you are the only person in the world who can do something to bring our research system out of the trap. Our situation requires someone with higher authority than our scientists. As a president, I do believe you have good critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills have nothing to do with one’s scientific or academic credentials. It has everything to do with one’s logical way of thinking. Mr. President, do you see the situation in the Middle East is caused by people’s behavioral problems? Can you see humans are animals and therefore humans must have genetic behaviors, too? If your answers to both are yes, then the problem in Middle East can easily be solved.

The way how people behave is first they react to a situation according to their genetic memory. This quick reaction is necessary for animal survival. For example, when the position of the leader is unstable, the desert people (Arabs, etc.) will fight for the position of the leader while the cold-weather people (Westerners) will try to win that position through elections. That is why we have seen so much fighting in the Middle East. Recently the Egyptian Army has killed a few hundred people in order to gain control of leadership position. The way to stop this kind of behavior is to let people know that they are behaving according to their genetic behaviors. But the situation has changed. Those genetic behaviors do not fit our present environment. We are trying to establish a democratic society. The leader can only be selected by public election. There is a proper channel to replace the government, if it is not up to people’s expectation. Those rules need to be strictly followed.

People are intelligent animals. People usually are not aware they are behaving because of their genetically inherited behaviors. But when people are told that their genetic behaviors do not fit to our present environment, they will realize that what they are doing is wrong and can quickly make the adjustment. This is the difference between animals and humans. Humans can alter their genetic behaviors quickly, and animals cannot. Therefore, people’s behavioral problems in the Middle East can be solved by telling them that their genetic behaviors do not fit our present environment of a democratic society. After that, we can set up a foundation to guide them on how to behave democratically.

I have noticed these genetic racial behavior differences mostly happen in group behavior. That is when people of the same race behaving alike in a group. Individually I do not see much personal racial behavioral differences when people of different race living together. This shows humans can alter their genetic behaviors quickly to fit to a new environment. In this multi-culture society, Westerners act like tutors for non-Westerners.

I would like to use my invention and innovations to train our young scientists and students with critical thinking skills. They can play the part of a critical thinking invention/innovation evaluator. There are some skill differences between an evaluator and an inventor/innovator. The main difference is the inventor/innovator additionally needs to constantly looking for opportunities. They watch for anything that is illogical or come up with a critical thinking solution to solve a problem. They grasp those opportunities as they come. But this part can only be learned by oneself. Critical thinking skills, just likes chess game skills, require practicing to excel.

Now the first evaluation for our young people to do is related to people’s beliefs that humans do not have instincts. My innovation says: “Humans are animals; therefore human must also have instincts like all animals. But humans are intelligent animals. Humans can alter their behaviors from their instinct quickly to fit to the new environment. That is why people have not noticed humans also have instincts.” Is this statement true? Look around the world, are there people behaving with their behaviors from their instinct, which matches their ancient ancestors’ environment? Then make a logical deduction. (Note: I have given human behaviors from instinct a new name. It is called genetic behaviors.) Mr. President, you are a critical thinking skillful person. If you can see that this statement is true, it helps to promote critical thinking skill learning when you say you believe this statement is true.

The second evaluation they are going to do is to make a logical deduction for the existence of the “Energy Entity” as described in my theory “Theory of Energy Entities” in attachment 1. There is a relative simple experiment that can verify the existence of this energy entity. Let them study the theory for three months. At the end of three months, carry out the experiment in a U.S. Government research laboratory to verify if my theory is true. (You do not need to get some scientists to evaluate my theory because people with critical thinking skills have all vanished. You have to trust me.) Some young scientists and students will get it right and some will get it wrong. But it is important that our young people have a chance to learn.

The third evaluation they are going to do is to make a logical deduction of the high printing resolution my new electrophotographic imaging system can achieve. The invention is patented and described in attachment 2. After our young people have mastered the critical thinking skill, they will be able to make revolutionary inventions and innovations like the Wright brothers’ airplane or Edison’s talking machine when the opportunity arrives.

If you are willing to invest in my inventions and innovations, they will able to offer you the following benefits:

1. Solve people’s behavioral problem in the Middle East and help non-Westerners to establish a true democratic society.

2. My inventions can create jobs in North America and my innovations can bring revolutionary new concepts to science.

3. Bring our research system out of the trap and with the reappearance of critical thinking skillful people, revolutionary inventions and innovations will be made.

Mr. President, I sincerely hope you are willing to invest in my inventions and innovations. If your science advisors want more details from me, I am retired and I can travel freely to talk to your advisors face to face.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Cheng

Reader, if you have any question or comment, write to Stephen Cheng

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