When one thinks of survival, one can't help but think of the proverbial "survival kit." In fact, survival and survival kit seem, oftentimes at least, to be akin to synonyms. There seems to be a certain aura, a mystique if you will, surrounding the very notion of the survival kit.

Why such is the case is not, in fact, very hard to discern. One can appreciate this fascination when he comes to see the survival kit as it is in the noumenal, i.e., as it is in and of itself. The survival kit is but a collection of tools. It is no more and it is no less. Mankind, a tool-wielding species, is genetically hardwired with a fixation for such tools.

But there is one survival tool that is often overlooked in discussions of the so-called "tools of survival." In fact, this survival tool doesn't come in any survival kit at all. The ancients were utilizing this particular tool of survival even long before the advent of flint knives and axes. What might this particular tool be? And can it in fact be useful at all if it doesn't come in a handy pocket-sized survival kit or in a Rambo-styled knife?

The tool that I speak of is the chief tool of survival. Indeed, this particular tool is the necessary precondition for all other tools (in relation to both their existence and utilization). Without it, the other tools would be rendered useless--tools themselves are useless without a user and users are useless without minds--minds capable of cognizant and purposive acts. Yes, I am speaking of the tool of the human mind. But, hey...you knew that, right?

Before one can utilize a tool there are several cognitive processes that must first take place in the mind: 1) A sentient entity realizes that there is a lack in his organic capacity and that an appeal to external means (tools) may provide for a solution and increase functionality. 2) Via rationalization, a problem is constructed and subsequently its solution developed (first as hypothetical construct and later as theory). 3) The solution suggests the parameters of the "tool" that will extend innate and organic capacity (tool as conceptual construct here at this point). 4) The appropriate tool is constructed from above conceptual paradigm and concept becomes more concrete temporally. 5) Adaptation occurs via modeling schemes based upon tool utilization and effectiveness. 6) This in turn lends itself to the eventual manifestation of standardization.

Again, non-organic tool usage presupposes an organic tool, that tool we call the brain (or mind). Where there is tool usage there is thinking. Where there is thinking there is plasticity. Where there is plasticity there is adaptability. Where there is adaptability there is an increased capacity for survival. The mind is the chief tool of survival and this is so because it provides for the algorithms of adaptation.

We have briefly surveyed some of the more conceptual issues in the above. In the follow- up to this article (this is part one of a two-part series), we will look more closely at the pragmatic issues as well.

Copyright © 2007 by M. Shane Huey. All rights reserved.