Periodic Table of Nonsense

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by DaveC426913, Aug 20, 2017.

  1. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    OMG, this is awesome.

    I'm not this cynical in real life; people are entitled to respect for their beliefs; and it's not mine to judge.

    But this serves as a fun reference for a lot of stuff online.
    Posts could be as simple as: Element 68! nuff said!

    I wonder if you can start making molecules? Like AaDo: Alien Abduction-Dowsing.

    And I guess Co and its relatives are the noble woo.

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  3. birch Valued Senior Member

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    People assume its easier to be irrational than rational when its the reverse.

    Being rational is when you stop at the edge of a cliff, irrational is when you jump off.
     
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  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Granted ... I think.
    But I'm not sure of its relevance here.
     
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  7. birch Valued Senior Member

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    What seems rational or irrational sometimes doesnt have to do with non-sense but not knowing the diverse ways nature can work. For instance, when my cat sees images of people on my laptop screen, he will go behind it and circle around trying to figure out where its coming from or how could this be? I know its a mindfuck for him.
     
  8. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    And you believe humans are exempt or subject to this?
     
  9. birch Valued Senior Member

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    subject, definitely
     
  10. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    Right, when we see something, our brain makes a best guess of what it can relate to in our mirror neural system.
    Humans have a highly developed sense because our brains are particularly adapted to recognizing patterns.
    Animals brains (with exceptions) have no need for such sophisticated analysis. Their brain is more geared to recognizing possible food supply, a more practical application.
    Thus a cat's brain will register a bird sitting on a ledge outside the window, but once it has tried to get to it through the glass, it will learn that glass is solid and will just end up observing the bird, or asking the owner to the door to the outside. How many cats like to sit at the window, observing the "outside"?

    As to observing self images in mirrors, many young children will also begin by looking behind the mirror, but will also soon recognize that when they move, the image also moves. And then the brain eventually will put it together and the child will actually touch the mirror image and realize it is looking at itself.
    Many of the great apes have this ability for discovering that what seems real is actually a reflection of self.

    Koko, the famous Gorilla was shown several pictures of eligible males for mating purposes. She even signed at one picture of a big male, that she did not like his looks because he was "dirty" (not well groomed) and instead choose a younger smaller male who was a handsome specimen.
    Koko also named her Manx kitten "All Ball" because the kitten had no tail and looked like a ball of fur.
    This is very sophisticated pattern recognition, which suggests that animals with simpler brains the difference lies in the mirror neural network which makes best guesses of what it observes.

    But the human brain can also be fooled very easily, but learns very quickly to recognize what it is seeing and how it should be viewed. Anil Seth calls it "controlled hallucination" and has a very interesting presentation.
    https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_how_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality
     

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