thinkism en · NOUN
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *teng-der. Proto-Germanic *þankijaną Proto-West Germanic *þankijan Old English þenċan Middle English thinken English think Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English thinkism From think + -ism.
Meanings
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(in artificial intelligence commentary, uncountable) The principle that any problem or technological obstacle can be solved by spending large amounts of effort in thinking about a solution.
Thinkism also works well in other limited domains beyond school. It works well in bureaucratic settings where all the rules are known and you're expected to apply them without question.
2025 December 4, Daniel Lemire, “We see something that works, and then we understand it”, in Daniel Lemire's blog, archived from the original on 11 May 2026:Kevin Kelly, the Wired editor at large, says he admires Kurzweil but makes a well-argued rebuttal to what he calls "thinkism". This is, Kelly says, where we believe the main thing we lack in solving problems is not being able to think enough. So, if we put enough cycles in we can find the answer to anything: a sufficiently advanced AI would have more think cycles than all of humanity combined, therefore any problem you can imagine would be solved in a jiffy.
2008 October 1, Bobbie Johnson, “Kelly to Kurzweil: You're a total Thinkist”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 May 2023: