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I can think of two ways a thought could be unthinkable: 1. It could be uncomputable, since it seems likely to me that we can't think uncomputable thoughts. (No

I can think of two ways a thought could be unthinkable: 1. It could be uncomputable, since it seems likely to me that we can't think uncomputable thoughts. (Not a rigorous scientific hypothesis, but it seems more likely than not to me.) 2. It could be uncomputable in a human lifetime. I think these already exist today: can anyone really be said to thoroughly understand a proof generated by an exhaustive computational search? One can play around with the semantics of what we mean by "unthinkable" and "thought," but I think "computable" at least provides one interesting start to an exploration of this concept.

ben_w 6y ago
Another possibility is thoughts which just don’t fit into the shape of structure within a human mind. Can an octopus mind, for a body with eight limbs but no bones, ever be accurately emulated by a human mind? Are there truths we can only reach with an exocortex (pen and paper included)? Are there thoughts whose time or space requirements grow exponentially with respect to some measure in a human brain anatomy, but which could be linear in some other anatomy (existing or hypothetical)?