First of all, I dont like the new google UI being imposed in blogger! I hate it! its sooooooooooooo plain! :( Nice for a search page and all but not for my blog! Grrrrr
Ok with that and the stinking feedback to google, out of the way.
Now I can think about what is this universe and all that :P
If u think about it, universe is also, like everything else in our life, a model inside our head.
I mean, what is reality?Reality is What I am actually perceiving "just now". The present moment.
What do we mean by present moment?
The eye only sees the image for 1/10th of the second. There must be some similar minimum duration for the ear, and for our over all perception of time ( I mean 2 points of time which we perceive as 2 separate points of time! How long is this present moment? apparently 3 sec!!! Check it out! http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=864j03x6w6q01101&size=largest. ) This is THE MOMENT, the NOW.
Everything else that we have experienced so far is just memory. Memory isn't just data. I mean it has things like - I did this. I did that. this happened to me so on. It also has procedures or how to do this and how to that memory, how to cycle, swim, talk, walk, do Maths etc etc...but more interestingly, Along with all this, our brain also creates a model of the universe for us. I mean, it makes sense of the things it sees, it experiences and builds up a set of concepts( and more..). This is an universe model or a world view. This is very subtle and kinda elusive, We take it for granted that there is a world out there and we know it. But our brain has done a huge amount of work in translating what is out there - which is just data,a collection of present moments.. into a set of concepts - which is what we are feeling the world is like at this moment. ( What we are seeing is not code but UML diagram? :P) Most of this model was probably built as part of evolution and is hardcoded in us. even a fish or amoeba has a world view. May be a pigeon's world view has the magnetic lines marked proper roads? whatever. but as humans, huge part of this world is modeled in our life time by our experiences.
An example, When u are a baby u are like koopa mankuda, u probably think world is just as big as the room, then u are taken outside, u get the concept of space.. and that there can be more space than what is visible. This concept is added to its internal world model -"There is more space than what I can presently see."
One very important input for this model is knowledge or what we read and understand and what we believe. Once we believe something, that part of the universe will be constructed in our head.
Then when that kid reads about solar system and galaxies and multiverses... it probably get the concept of infinite space into its world view. It gets the concept that things can be really really really big. This kind of concept was probably not part of early humans at all?
( Its not just about concepts, is it? When we read something we understand the concept and ...change how we think the world is and....???change some constructs in our head... what is this constructs?? there is more to this but that eludes me?!!)
I am guessing this world view, like the rest of the brain has two part, subconscious and conscious part. Consider Gravity- when a baby learns to walk it learns 2 things about gravity - how to use muscles, how much pressure to counter gravity, this will all go into subconscious part of world view. "I will fall" information goes into the conscious part of the world view. When we go to moon, this part of our subconscious world view's gravity concept is screwed :)
Its is very scary to imagine that everything we have, our whole past-i.e our whole life, the whole world, are just constructs in our head, If something goes wrong in the brain, things can screw up like crazy.
And the social aspect of the world view...Society, parents, TV,everybody has cluttered our world view with so many rules which may or may not be relevant,real at all... they may nor may not be helping us.... dont talk to strangers, Be home before dark, drinking is bad, boys shouldnt cry, Only a couple is happy not a single person,Dark is not beautiful... It takes a while to sometimes realise that these are concepts in the head and not really reality.
Each experience of mine is creating my world for me, More different types of experiences- richer world? :-) what we read what we see on TV all that is building my world view. So I should experience more and read more and.. live more!! :P
May be some old people into whose life TV came in quite late, may refuse to see TV as a source for the rules for creating the world model?
but we.. we add up what we see on TV very easily into our world model. Thats why it was so easy for me to accept a gay couple in Tel aviv, I had seen Will and Grace and unconsciously that was ingrained in my world model it was not something strange.
Watching sex and the city I also think it has become part of my reality to think its ok to throw temper tantrums, flip my hair and walk off.. I seriously consider going and staying in a hotel after a fight at home then I realise too much soap watching anta :)
Oh! When u digress from Universe to Sex and the City its time to stop writing :P
Ok with that and the stinking feedback to google, out of the way.
Now I can think about what is this universe and all that :P
If u think about it, universe is also, like everything else in our life, a model inside our head.
I mean, what is reality?Reality is What I am actually perceiving "just now". The present moment.
What do we mean by present moment?
The eye only sees the image for 1/10th of the second. There must be some similar minimum duration for the ear, and for our over all perception of time ( I mean 2 points of time which we perceive as 2 separate points of time! How long is this present moment? apparently 3 sec!!! Check it out! http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=864j03x6w6q01101&size=largest. ) This is THE MOMENT, the NOW.
Everything else that we have experienced so far is just memory. Memory isn't just data. I mean it has things like - I did this. I did that. this happened to me so on. It also has procedures or how to do this and how to that memory, how to cycle, swim, talk, walk, do Maths etc etc...but more interestingly, Along with all this, our brain also creates a model of the universe for us. I mean, it makes sense of the things it sees, it experiences and builds up a set of concepts( and more..). This is an universe model or a world view. This is very subtle and kinda elusive, We take it for granted that there is a world out there and we know it. But our brain has done a huge amount of work in translating what is out there - which is just data,a collection of present moments.. into a set of concepts - which is what we are feeling the world is like at this moment. ( What we are seeing is not code but UML diagram? :P) Most of this model was probably built as part of evolution and is hardcoded in us. even a fish or amoeba has a world view. May be a pigeon's world view has the magnetic lines marked proper roads? whatever. but as humans, huge part of this world is modeled in our life time by our experiences.
An example, When u are a baby u are like koopa mankuda, u probably think world is just as big as the room, then u are taken outside, u get the concept of space.. and that there can be more space than what is visible. This concept is added to its internal world model -"There is more space than what I can presently see."
One very important input for this model is knowledge or what we read and understand and what we believe. Once we believe something, that part of the universe will be constructed in our head.
Then when that kid reads about solar system and galaxies and multiverses... it probably get the concept of infinite space into its world view. It gets the concept that things can be really really really big. This kind of concept was probably not part of early humans at all?
( Its not just about concepts, is it? When we read something we understand the concept and ...change how we think the world is and....???change some constructs in our head... what is this constructs?? there is more to this but that eludes me?!!)
I am guessing this world view, like the rest of the brain has two part, subconscious and conscious part. Consider Gravity- when a baby learns to walk it learns 2 things about gravity - how to use muscles, how much pressure to counter gravity, this will all go into subconscious part of world view. "I will fall" information goes into the conscious part of the world view. When we go to moon, this part of our subconscious world view's gravity concept is screwed :)
Its is very scary to imagine that everything we have, our whole past-i.e our whole life, the whole world, are just constructs in our head, If something goes wrong in the brain, things can screw up like crazy.
And the social aspect of the world view...Society, parents, TV,everybody has cluttered our world view with so many rules which may or may not be relevant,real at all... they may nor may not be helping us.... dont talk to strangers, Be home before dark, drinking is bad, boys shouldnt cry, Only a couple is happy not a single person,Dark is not beautiful... It takes a while to sometimes realise that these are concepts in the head and not really reality.
Each experience of mine is creating my world for me, More different types of experiences- richer world? :-) what we read what we see on TV all that is building my world view. So I should experience more and read more and.. live more!! :P
May be some old people into whose life TV came in quite late, may refuse to see TV as a source for the rules for creating the world model?
but we.. we add up what we see on TV very easily into our world model. Thats why it was so easy for me to accept a gay couple in Tel aviv, I had seen Will and Grace and unconsciously that was ingrained in my world model it was not something strange.
Watching sex and the city I also think it has become part of my reality to think its ok to throw temper tantrums, flip my hair and walk off.. I seriously consider going and staying in a hotel after a fight at home then I realise too much soap watching anta :)
Oh! When u digress from Universe to Sex and the City its time to stop writing :P
