We even have light receptors in our skin. The body has many input/outputs that aren't necessarily perceived/used by everybody.
I met a recently blind person who was having a really hard time adapting. He was a very active, extremely physical person, simply not used to perceiving subtleties. He had to ask me where the sun was because he couldn't even feel it on his skin. He actually believed that because he couldn't, that nobody could feel the sun. It was really a wierd experience and definitely opened my eyes to the extremes in perception that can occur, but that can also be mediated. I used to have extreme photosensitivity, having to wear prescription sunglasses even inside to deal with the excess stimulation. Today i can meditate staring straight into the sun with no adverse effects.
When the brain processes every possible source of information to its fullest, you have severe autism. The human brain is simply not capable of handling too much information at once, which is why it must be filtered and why it evolved as it has.
As a former autist i disagree with your statement. It's more like when the brain processes one single source of information to it's fullest. Which if you're lucky to have that source be sight or hearing it may lead to a savant ability. Ok, taste too, as most good chefs have higher sensibility than others, but probably not to the extreme where you get disgusted by the taste of iodine in salt
V1 isn't hardwired. It develops in response to its inputs. After a while, with more top down processing imposed it looks like it is hard wired, but change the inputs and so will V1.
Only problem with your argument is that cars only provide one of the functions of a horse, which we've actually imposed on the poor creature, and that's locomotion.
Ok, ok, some people also have deep meaningful relationships with their cars, but that seems more of a side-effect:)
All effects we know in nature are potentially usable by evolution.
It's probably closer to all effects have to be taken into account. If the EMF's aren't being used, they still have to be taken into account to filter them out.
Where have you been for the last century and have you not been reading slashdot? This is exactly what is being done. EEGs, FFR's, and whole slew of swimming cap based readers, and experiments for at least the past 40 years(that i know of) on effects of progressively smaller EMF's on different areas of the skull.
Quantum tunneling has already been shown as a factor in smell perception, the olfactory neurons being an extension of the brain
The matrix the brain resides in has already been proven as important as the neural connections for brains to function properly. They didn't know why at the time, but this leads to the hypothesis that it's importance is due not only by preventing interference, but also by allowing it in key places, such as those big holes in our brain surrounding key integrative structures. It also leads to a more logical explanation of the cortical folds than we presently have.
You very well may be right. However, one thing that has become abundantly clear is the history that US'ians are taught has a very different slant on the States actions then the history of the americas taught in Canada or Mexico (not sure about other countries).
It's all very well and good when everybody in your country has drunk the cool-aid, but when both your neighbours disagree with your self perception, something obviously isn't right.
Don't get me wrong i agree with the part that if they continue on the same path the US will go away, or the people will just become brains in bottles. I also think the pendulum has to swing back the other way a bit more from perceived individual independence to more interdependence. However, what worked in the past will not work today unless it's under the same conditions. Interdependence was in a way forced on us out of necessity and was blatantly apparent.
Todays global interdependence is hidden by the money. Anybody with sufficient money thinks they're independent because they can buy whatever they need with the money they have, not having to depend on anybody to help. Completely missing the fact that they usually belong to a company to receive that money, which rely on other states or countries for scarce resources or manufacturing or assembly, which also rely on consumers to buy their products. That same individual needs to eat, and it's either pre-packaged or grown by large scale agriculture or imported from other countries. It's almost cosmically funny how people think they're independent just because the have money when usually the only thing the person knows how to do is that one job that pays for everything else, in other words, they are totally dependent on the world around them.
Once this shift in perception occurs, that's when we're going to see big changes. The question is, what will lead us towards this.
Here's a little conspiracy theory. The government of the US isn't dumb. They are widely perceived as being the most arrogant, obnoxious, country that keeps making bumbling mistakes. All the US'ians whine and bitch because they think their country is going into the shitter with all the manufacturing leaving the country and becoming more of a service based economy. Not realizing that what their country is doing is stock piling their natural resources, getting other countries to deplete their non-renewable resources to make products for the States, and at the same time borrowing from those countries to purchase the same items. Lets face it, there doesn't seem any way in hell that the States can pay off their debt, credit loaners know when they see this type of behaviour that the person has no intention of ever paying it back. What the US does have is a large army and have already commissioned studies to see what to do when the shit hits the fan, part of which is annexing parts of Canada and Mexico for natural resources that the States doesn't have or has in smaller supplies. What country can stand up to the States militarily? Nukes aren't any good, especially since the states gets everybody to sign that non-proliferation treaty, gets other countries to destroy their stockpiles and holds on to their own.
The problem with conspiracy theories is they're collections of facts after the fact. It may very well be that the states has gotten here by stupidity and greed, but regardless they've restricted their possibilities of exodus to same as if they were planning it.
That's why we have culture. To replace nature with nurture.
I've finally come to realize that one must take proper care of oneself if one is to be able to help others. Fighting to the death isn't really included in that. Is it worth prolonging the life of your body at the cost of your humanity? Especially when scarcity is a myth born out of ignorance. (well, actually not sure if the myth was manufactured but i'm sure there's enough conspiracy nuts out there to have those bases covered).:)
Well, it's your type of thinking that has gotten us into the mess we're in right now.
Eventually humans have to take a chance and actually trust other humans.
The interesting thing is that once you actually realize that other humans are the same as you, with the same scarcity fears, and you actual view them as a person, it's really hard to fuck them over unless you're a psychopath or a corporation. The way you interact with the world determines how the world treats you.
I've walked into areas in countries where the natives were scared of going in there because of extremely high rates of violence, muggings, theft, etc.... Don't act like a victim and it just confuses the fuck out of them, then actually talk to them and you become a person, and then suprise suprise they drop their aggression and fear and become people as well.
I believe the bible said it best, 'treat others how you would like to be treated'. Ok, loosely paraphrasing, i'm no christian.
Quite right, quite right,... however, there just might be enough resources to give the people the care they actually NEED.
What most people need is a kick in the arse to start taking better care of themselves... which is probably really hard in the states where the economy depends on consumerism and the products available to consumer are usually of very poor nutritional quality or encourage sedentary behaviour.
Why would the news do stories on that? Especially the news in the States? That's not going to net you viewers and profit.
Travel to other countries and you might be very pleasantly suprised that there is not such a me first attitude in lots of the poor countries. This is because they understand interdependence. It's been decades since the west has really been interdependent of their neighbours, not so many barn raisings or communal harvests going on. Hell, the States has progressed largely to a point where most people are even independent of their families. Kind of easy to see why it gives them a me first attitude.
No country can grow like the States did. They did it by fucking over every country in the world. Us poor countries don't have anybody left to fuck over and exploit mercilessly(sp?).
As for local consumerism, good for them, anybody who see's what unchecked consumerism has done to the States would be wise to stay away.
Don't worry, you're still fucking over us Canadians and Mexicans way more than anything you're doing to yourself.
guess it depends if you're a glass half full or half empty type of guy (always thought that was a stupid saying, if you fill it up halfway, it's half full, if you empty it, then it's half empty). It could either be that the US has evolved to the point where they're starting to think of equal treatment, or that they've degraded to the point that they'll fuck over anything.
No, what you are describing is a short-term myopic economic viewpoint probably exacerbated by the current transitional turmoil we are going through, which is mostly predominant in the old imperial countries.
This is kind of funny, because i see people mentioning this all the time.
Only speaking out of personal experience, i'm having the worst time in the world trying to resolve an issue with Nokia and the workers in the US. Sure, i can understand their writing very well, and their speech as well (sometimes, i remember doing surveys in the states where i could hardly understand a word the 'white natives' were saying). However, they don't seem to be able to read nor respond to questions either (going on 44 days of back and forth).
I'm guessing the real problem is not the accent of the person reading the scripted responses, but that there are cheap labourers reading scripts that they don't understand. If you outsourced you could hire more intelligent people for less money to provide better service, but that of course would get in the way of the short-term profits.
Careful there, of course there's such a thing as personal ethics. It's a subset of the axioms of ethics restricted by the individuals limited view and understanding of the world.
To reach absolute ethics, we'll one would really have to know the meaning of life, and somehow 42 doesn't make it any clearer.
The less culturally developed you are, the more constrictive your definition. Family is so 10,000 BC, most of us are starting to turn the corner from countries --> continents/world.
Slashdot Mirror
I met a recently blind person who was having a really hard time adapting. He was a very active, extremely physical person, simply not used to perceiving subtleties. He had to ask me where the sun was because he couldn't even feel it on his skin. He actually believed that because he couldn't, that nobody could feel the sun. It was really a wierd experience and definitely opened my eyes to the extremes in perception that can occur, but that can also be mediated. I used to have extreme photosensitivity, having to wear prescription sunglasses even inside to deal with the excess stimulation. Today i can meditate staring straight into the sun with no adverse effects.
When the brain processes every possible source of information to its fullest, you have severe autism. The human brain is simply not capable of handling too much information at once, which is why it must be filtered and why it evolved as it has.
As a former autist i disagree with your statement. It's more like when the brain processes one single source of information to it's fullest. Which if you're lucky to have that source be sight or hearing it may lead to a savant ability. Ok, taste too, as most good chefs have higher sensibility than others, but probably not to the extreme where you get disgusted by the taste of iodine in salt
V1 isn't hardwired. It develops in response to its inputs. After a while, with more top down processing imposed it looks like it is hard wired, but change the inputs and so will V1.
Ok, ok, some people also have deep meaningful relationships with their cars, but that seems more of a side-effect :)
All effects we know in nature are potentially usable by evolution.
It's probably closer to all effects have to be taken into account. If the EMF's aren't being used, they still have to be taken into account to filter them out.
Where have you been for the last century and have you not been reading slashdot? This is exactly what is being done. EEGs, FFR's, and whole slew of swimming cap based readers, and experiments for at least the past 40 years(that i know of) on effects of progressively smaller EMF's on different areas of the skull.
The matrix the brain resides in has already been proven as important as the neural connections for brains to function properly. They didn't know why at the time, but this leads to the hypothesis that it's importance is due not only by preventing interference, but also by allowing it in key places, such as those big holes in our brain surrounding key integrative structures. It also leads to a more logical explanation of the cortical folds than we presently have.
It's all very well and good when everybody in your country has drunk the cool-aid, but when both your neighbours disagree with your self perception, something obviously isn't right.
Don't get me wrong i agree with the part that if they continue on the same path the US will go away, or the people will just become brains in bottles. I also think the pendulum has to swing back the other way a bit more from perceived individual independence to more interdependence. However, what worked in the past will not work today unless it's under the same conditions. Interdependence was in a way forced on us out of necessity and was blatantly apparent.
Todays global interdependence is hidden by the money. Anybody with sufficient money thinks they're independent because they can buy whatever they need with the money they have, not having to depend on anybody to help. Completely missing the fact that they usually belong to a company to receive that money, which rely on other states or countries for scarce resources or manufacturing or assembly, which also rely on consumers to buy their products. That same individual needs to eat, and it's either pre-packaged or grown by large scale agriculture or imported from other countries. It's almost cosmically funny how people think they're independent just because the have money when usually the only thing the person knows how to do is that one job that pays for everything else, in other words, they are totally dependent on the world around them.
Once this shift in perception occurs, that's when we're going to see big changes. The question is, what will lead us towards this.
Here's a little conspiracy theory. The government of the US isn't dumb. They are widely perceived as being the most arrogant, obnoxious, country that keeps making bumbling mistakes. All the US'ians whine and bitch because they think their country is going into the shitter with all the manufacturing leaving the country and becoming more of a service based economy. Not realizing that what their country is doing is stock piling their natural resources, getting other countries to deplete their non-renewable resources to make products for the States, and at the same time borrowing from those countries to purchase the same items. Lets face it, there doesn't seem any way in hell that the States can pay off their debt, credit loaners know when they see this type of behaviour that the person has no intention of ever paying it back. What the US does have is a large army and have already commissioned studies to see what to do when the shit hits the fan, part of which is annexing parts of Canada and Mexico for natural resources that the States doesn't have or has in smaller supplies. What country can stand up to the States militarily? Nukes aren't any good, especially since the states gets everybody to sign that non-proliferation treaty, gets other countries to destroy their stockpiles and holds on to their own.
The problem with conspiracy theories is they're collections of facts after the fact. It may very well be that the states has gotten here by stupidity and greed, but regardless they've restricted their possibilities of exodus to same as if they were planning it.
I've finally come to realize that one must take proper care of oneself if one is to be able to help others. Fighting to the death isn't really included in that. Is it worth prolonging the life of your body at the cost of your humanity? Especially when scarcity is a myth born out of ignorance. (well, actually not sure if the myth was manufactured but i'm sure there's enough conspiracy nuts out there to have those bases covered). :)
Eventually humans have to take a chance and actually trust other humans.
The interesting thing is that once you actually realize that other humans are the same as you, with the same scarcity fears, and you actual view them as a person, it's really hard to fuck them over unless you're a psychopath or a corporation. The way you interact with the world determines how the world treats you.
I've walked into areas in countries where the natives were scared of going in there because of extremely high rates of violence, muggings, theft, etc.... Don't act like a victim and it just confuses the fuck out of them, then actually talk to them and you become a person, and then suprise suprise they drop their aggression and fear and become people as well.
I believe the bible said it best, 'treat others how you would like to be treated'. Ok, loosely paraphrasing, i'm no christian.
What most people need is a kick in the arse to start taking better care of themselves... which is probably really hard in the states where the economy depends on consumerism and the products available to consumer are usually of very poor nutritional quality or encourage sedentary behaviour.
Travel to other countries and you might be very pleasantly suprised that there is not such a me first attitude in lots of the poor countries. This is because they understand interdependence. It's been decades since the west has really been interdependent of their neighbours, not so many barn raisings or communal harvests going on. Hell, the States has progressed largely to a point where most people are even independent of their families. Kind of easy to see why it gives them a me first attitude.
As for local consumerism, good for them, anybody who see's what unchecked consumerism has done to the States would be wise to stay away.
Interesting how many 'ethical' cowards there are. Why is it that slashdotters are so afraid of saying what they think about controversial subjects?
That's because the US makes money off of all that foreign 'aid'. You really didn't think they give it away for free do you?
You may need to read up on Economics, unchecked consumerism, and actual US history.
guess it depends if you're a glass half full or half empty type of guy (always thought that was a stupid saying, if you fill it up halfway, it's half full, if you empty it, then it's half empty). It could either be that the US has evolved to the point where they're starting to think of equal treatment, or that they've degraded to the point that they'll fuck over anything.
Do you have examples of what you're saying?
No, what you are describing is a short-term myopic economic viewpoint probably exacerbated by the current transitional turmoil we are going through, which is mostly predominant in the old imperial countries.
Only speaking out of personal experience, i'm having the worst time in the world trying to resolve an issue with Nokia and the workers in the US. Sure, i can understand their writing very well, and their speech as well (sometimes, i remember doing surveys in the states where i could hardly understand a word the 'white natives' were saying). However, they don't seem to be able to read nor respond to questions either (going on 44 days of back and forth).
I'm guessing the real problem is not the accent of the person reading the scripted responses, but that there are cheap labourers reading scripts that they don't understand. If you outsourced you could hire more intelligent people for less money to provide better service, but that of course would get in the way of the short-term profits.
To reach absolute ethics, we'll one would really have to know the meaning of life, and somehow 42 doesn't make it any clearer.
The less culturally developed you are, the more constrictive your definition. Family is so 10,000 BC, most of us are starting to turn the corner from countries --> continents/world.
No. Apparently YOU don't know what the difference is. Nor do you seem to know what science is. Please go away layperson.
Learn how to read. That is NOT the SCIENTIFIC definition. See, i'm helping you learn how to read by emphasizing the important parts of the sentence.
Please don't reply again, i can't stand ignorance.