Monday, March 08, 2004
Science Myths Part One
Have you ever saw a shadow move out of the corner of your eye? How about the dark figure of a person standing in a room, only to disappear? I see these things often. Just yesterday I thought I saw a black cat dart across the street in front of my car. There was no cat to be found! (I stopped and checked). I often see these things late at night in my apartment... Usually I find myself startled. Last November I even dropped a glass of milk because I thought there was a man coming out of my bathroom as I walked the dark hall to bed (at 3 AM). Are these spirits? Sprites? Figments of our imagination?
The answer is most likely none of these. This is an occurrence that demonstrates one of those frustrating misconceptions about science. We humans are often too dependent on our perceptions. We often limit our knowledge and belief to what we can perceive and easily understand. The truth is, the universe works in many ways we cannot understand. In some cases our brain even works AGAINST our understanding.
One example of how the universe works against our current limits of understanding is in the ghost illustration above. The human brain works mostly on the premise of relationships. The brain, to process information faster, likes to "speedread." That is, it only skims images, and assigns meaning to those images based on past knowledge. This is demonstrated at how easily you recognize friends you see everyday, and may even mistake a stranger for them if you only glance at them.
My ghosts are most likely distortion patterns caused by weary eyes and random lights reflecting about the dark house. The mind tries to process these stimuli, and to cut corners, it goes through a list of things they most look like. So, a looming shadow caused by a moving door becomes a man.
Another example is subatomic particles. We try to understand protons by fixing them to orbital and shells, but they do not exist in either of these models. They move in ways the mind cannot easily grasp. Much of what we understand about the subatomic world is only made possible through mathematics, and not by physical models. This happens with religion as well. If we understand meteorology, we can predict weather and understand what causes storms. But if we limit our knowledge to a mythological system, we attribute storms to the gods being angry. When we limit our search for truth to a single frame of reference, we miss out altogether.
When we limit the universe to working within our own current cognitive abilities, we are not truly learning anything. We see this all the time when it comes to measurement. The USA uses inches, and Japan uses metric (or SI), but physics can be done using either. Physics is not tied to a measurement system man has developed, it is merely a model we use to understand how things work.
This is known as the anthromorphological principal. That is the debate between two theories: that the universe exists the way man understands it, or that man understands the universe based on his own mental ability. The difference between the two theories can cause a person to understand the universe in different ways.
If you trust too heavily on your perceptions as being the limit to reality, you have chose to be blind to a lot of possibilities. The reason that Einstein's theory of relativity was so breakthrough was because he overcame this hazard. His findings changed how we look at physics and light. Many were unable to understand or accept his work because they have a worldview based in human comprehension. On a personal note, I am always hurt by people who do not look into the validity of theories (like evolution) because such a notion does not fit their world view. Likewise, there are those who shun any form of spirituality for the same reason.
We need to be open minded, and realize that the way we see the world is only one particular frame of reference. The difference between our understanding of life and the truth may be a similar difference between how a bat sees the world and how a human does. Once we unfetter our mind (as best we can) from this frame of reference, we can begin to see the universe as it truly is.
Thanks! Talk to you all tomorrow!
The answer is most likely none of these. This is an occurrence that demonstrates one of those frustrating misconceptions about science. We humans are often too dependent on our perceptions. We often limit our knowledge and belief to what we can perceive and easily understand. The truth is, the universe works in many ways we cannot understand. In some cases our brain even works AGAINST our understanding.
One example of how the universe works against our current limits of understanding is in the ghost illustration above. The human brain works mostly on the premise of relationships. The brain, to process information faster, likes to "speedread." That is, it only skims images, and assigns meaning to those images based on past knowledge. This is demonstrated at how easily you recognize friends you see everyday, and may even mistake a stranger for them if you only glance at them.
My ghosts are most likely distortion patterns caused by weary eyes and random lights reflecting about the dark house. The mind tries to process these stimuli, and to cut corners, it goes through a list of things they most look like. So, a looming shadow caused by a moving door becomes a man.
Another example is subatomic particles. We try to understand protons by fixing them to orbital and shells, but they do not exist in either of these models. They move in ways the mind cannot easily grasp. Much of what we understand about the subatomic world is only made possible through mathematics, and not by physical models. This happens with religion as well. If we understand meteorology, we can predict weather and understand what causes storms. But if we limit our knowledge to a mythological system, we attribute storms to the gods being angry. When we limit our search for truth to a single frame of reference, we miss out altogether.
When we limit the universe to working within our own current cognitive abilities, we are not truly learning anything. We see this all the time when it comes to measurement. The USA uses inches, and Japan uses metric (or SI), but physics can be done using either. Physics is not tied to a measurement system man has developed, it is merely a model we use to understand how things work.
This is known as the anthromorphological principal. That is the debate between two theories: that the universe exists the way man understands it, or that man understands the universe based on his own mental ability. The difference between the two theories can cause a person to understand the universe in different ways.
If you trust too heavily on your perceptions as being the limit to reality, you have chose to be blind to a lot of possibilities. The reason that Einstein's theory of relativity was so breakthrough was because he overcame this hazard. His findings changed how we look at physics and light. Many were unable to understand or accept his work because they have a worldview based in human comprehension. On a personal note, I am always hurt by people who do not look into the validity of theories (like evolution) because such a notion does not fit their world view. Likewise, there are those who shun any form of spirituality for the same reason.
We need to be open minded, and realize that the way we see the world is only one particular frame of reference. The difference between our understanding of life and the truth may be a similar difference between how a bat sees the world and how a human does. Once we unfetter our mind (as best we can) from this frame of reference, we can begin to see the universe as it truly is.
Thanks! Talk to you all tomorrow!
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