Cognition in some sense exists as a function of the abstract decomposability of the world but finds itself forever problematised and fractured by an unresolvable epistemological enigma. Mind (and brain) has to be divided against itself to persist as this provides the foundational symmetry as gradient of difference through which it can adapt, learn and grow.
This means that our native intellect is fractured in every gesture and thought or aspiration towards understanding, that an intelligence that solves puzzles is simultaneously (and irreducibly) alienated from and problematised by them, and that the identity and individuation with which we are driven to connect with others and the world in seeking wholeness, resolution and closure is simultaneously that which guarantees that self is forever isolated and alienated by the methods through which it functions. (This is a subtle requiring detailed, thoughtful reflection.)
An elemental alienation being the grounding essence of identity and experience in this way, we find here a general mechanism for social, cultural, and technological change. The facts which bind us also blind us. Our goals and purposes are in general those that, by providing directionality and cohesion to this human experience, ensure that a core orientation towards closure and control remains unresolvable.
Daedelus Kite 