Talking About How We See Reality

Donal Hoffman's TED presentation

  We're inclined to think that perception is like a window on reality as it is. The theory of evolution is telling us that this is an incorrect interpretation of our perceptions. Instead, reality is more like a 3D desktop that's designed to hide the complexity of the real world and guide adaptive behavior. Space as you perceive it is your desktop. Physical objects are just the icons in that desktop.

See Also:

Nima Arkani-Hamed - Physics and Mathematics for the End of Spacetime

Quantum Mechanics and Spacetime - MESSENGER Lecture 1 - Nima Arkani-Hamed

See: The Future of Fundamental Physics

Step Inside the Perimeter

Just one breakthrough in theoretical physics can change the world. Perimeter Institute was created to accelerate breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe. The science is complex, but the basic Perimeter equation is simple: Bright Minds. Illuminating Ideas. Brilliant Future. Be part of the equation:

www.perimeterinstitute.ca
www.insidetheperimeter.ca
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Perimeter's charitable registration number: 88981 R323 RR0001

Third Quasicrystal Found

By Paul J. Steinhardt et al. - http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150313/srep09111/full/srep09111.html, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40522020

Quasicrystals^1,2, short for quasiperiodic crystals, are solids able to violate the conventional rules of crystallography because their structure is “quasiperiodic” rather than periodic; that is, their atomic density can be described by a finite sum of periodic functions with periods whose ratio is irrational. Their diffraction pattern consists of true Bragg peaks whose positions can be expressed as integer linear combinations of D integer linearly independent wavevectors where D is greater than the number of space dimensions. Among the quasicrystals made in the laboratory, many exhibit a crystallographically forbidden, three-dimensional icosahedral symmetry defined by D = 6 integer linearly independent wavevectors. See: Collisions in outer space produced an icosahedral phase in the Khatyrka meteorite never observed previously in the laboratory

Bindi, L. et al. Collisions in outer space produced an icosahedral phase in the Khatyrka meteorite never observed previously in the laboratory. Sci. Rep. 6, 38117; doi: 10.1038/srep38117 (2016).

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See Also:

• The journey for natural quasicyrstals

Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep?

Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep?: Consciousness is often said to disappear in deep, dreamless sleep. We argue that this assumption is oversimplified. Unless dreamless sleep is defined as unconscious from the outset there are good empirical and theoretical reasons for saying that a range of different types of sleep experience, some of which are distinct from dreaming, can occur in all stages of sleep. We introduce a novel taxonomy for describing different kinds of dreamless sleep experiences and suggest research methods for their investigation.

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See Also:

• Are We Conscious During Dreamless Sleep?

Dark Matter Not So Rough Around the Edges

Analysis of a giant new galaxy survey, made with ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope in Chile, suggests that dark matter may be less dense and more smoothly distributed throughout space than previously thought. An international team used data from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) to study how the light from about 15 million distant galaxies was affected by the gravitational influence of matter on the largest scales in the Universe. The results appear to be in disagreement with earlier results from the Planck satellite. Credit: Kilo-Degree Survey Collaboration/H. Hildebrandt & B. Giblin/ESO

Hendrik Hildebrandt from the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie in Bonn, Germany and Massimo Viola from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands led a team of astronomers [1] from institutions around the world who processed images from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS), which was made with ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) in Chile. For their analysis, they used images from the survey that covered five patches of the sky covering a total area of around 2200 times the size of the full Moon [2], and containing around 15 million galaxies. See:  Dark Matter May be Smoother than Expected

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Newton's Gravimeter of Emotive Discourse

You may be familiar with Isaac Newton from such inventions as calculus and the law of universal gravitation. What you may not know is that he was also an avid "chymist," or alchemist. In fact, Newton actually wrote roughly a million words about alchemy and his experiments with it — as Indiana University science historian William Newman has noted, Newton probably spent more time doing alchemy than he did on any of his other scientific pursuits. See: Incredible videos recreate Isaac Newton’s experiments with alchemy

I spent a while developing an internal recognition of what can be constituted as the outside being the inside, meaning that if we construct a model of apprehension of understanding as to what these auras mean from a psychological standpoint,  then,  one develops this sense of seeing what thoughts will develop according to that color construct. I used baser emotions to be represented at the base of the model pyramidal constructed, and from a earth standpoint I wanted to develop this gravity model according to how the gravimeter detect variances in the gravity model of earth.
 
All the while these are materialistic demonstrations of the geology in color correlation, I sought to develop the model toward how free we can become of these materialistic tendencies, according to those thought processes.

 What is color? It seems like a simple question at first, but when you think about it, the reality of what we're seeing is a pretty complex situation. Our human eyes sift through a small piece of the vast electromagnetic spectrum and translate it into every color of the rainbow. But there are other animals that see these same wavelengths in different ways, or even see colors beyond what we can perceive! And not all color is dependent on wavelengths of light: the brains of certain people, called synesthetes, work in ways that let them see colors tied to music, words, or other stimuli. Watch as host Alan Alda takes you on a surreal, scientific tour of the spectrum with the help of vision researcher Jay Neitz, along with neuroscientists David Eagleman, Kaitlyn Hova, and Bevil Conway. What is Color?

If you consider the experiencing states of the person, as to the physical, the mental, the intellectual and the spiritual, these then in the one sense help to align a developmental understanding of the person. As you see certain colors, these will exemplify these consciousness states?

While examining the relationship to a schematic underneath our everyday experiences, I saw the the inner most point of this circle in a sense applies to the outer most spiritual extension we might see in relation to the consciousness of the individual. By becoming in tune with that point, all extensions physically manifesting as a evolving individual one would see correlative expressions of the colors of that spiritual life. Still, emotive and intellectual manifestations of colors are still part of the overall picture. If heavily tune toward intellectual pursuits, then dominant associative colors would be exemplified in the person's aura demonstration.

The understanding is, that all spiritual manifestations regarding the evolving consciousness already exists as to the potential of expression and sits right next to the person. It is by finding that center and understanding you are becoming in tune with that center does one realize that the spiritual is manifesting in those aura colors, along with development regarding the physical, emotional and intellectual.

In regard to Ganzfield?

In complete dark, there seems to me to be an overt expression of the outward? Why they refer to hallucinations, light sensory activation of the perception. On another level does these help to direct focus on the internal?

To convey this experience, I sought to understand what takes over when faced with such blackness. Not like when you close your eyes or purposely cover your eyes, but to let another part of oneself, to help intuitively guide to get to another location. In this sense lost in the bush at night and arriving at another point of safety. Their are no visual cues, but this other part which seems to be able to see and work independently of our conscious intrusion of opinion and action to any situation.

  Quote

The Ganzfeld effect has been reported since ancient times. The adepts of Pythagoras retreated to pitch-black caves to receive wisdom through their visions,[7] known as the prisoner's cinema. Miners trapped by accidents in mines frequently reported hallucinations, visions and seeing ghosts when they were in the pitch dark for days. Arctic explorers seeing nothing but featureless landscape of white snow for a long time also reported hallucinations and an altered state of mindhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganzfeld_effect

I wanted to also help with information to understand Plato Cave analogy with regard too, the absence of light. Others, with regard to hallucinations. This in contrast to help also understand illusions. Not totally sure here but to understand this relationship as if a normal healthy individual who is experiencing...and how to understand both?

The data stream is not a "external focus," or "opened eyes" in the dark. But "open eyes" on the internal. Illusions to me, we are not effectively in control of the experience, as we are "inside" the experience. When using "internal" perception, an observer is watching the "internal" experience. No will is internal experiencing....without will, but that is not the same observer who watches the experience. In an "observer mode" you can bring back information regarding the experience....is a willful action.

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See Also: 

• History Displays Newton's Optics and Organic Chemistry?

The Flow In our Lives

In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Named by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields (and has an especially big recognition in occupational therapy), though the concept has existed for thousands of years under other guises, notably in some Eastern religions.^[1] Achieving flow is often colloquially referred to as being in the zone.

Flow shares many characteristics with hyperfocus. However, hyperfocus is not always described in a positive light. Some examples include spending "too much" time playing video games or getting side-tracked and pleasurably absorbed by one aspect of an assignment or task to the detriment of the overall assignment. In some cases, hyperfocus can "capture" a person, perhaps causing them to appear unfocused or to start several projects, but complete few.  Flow (psychology)

The standard definition seems to be lacking for me in terms of the experience as that flow had come to me with meaning. At its most deepest levels the experience had an alignment with all aspects of my experiences in life, as if lead to it. These pathways,  as if by laying all these lines over top one another according to an arrow of time.  It is where all these lines crossed.

While on the larger scale of experience, an objectification of actions, at the same time a subjective interpretation, becomes a pathway of expression of experiencing. This to me was like seeing qualitative equations underlying our expression of the words and experiences according too. An geometrical expression of the human experience. That, if one goes backward to a source, it would be like becoming in touch with this stream.....the flow that one touches, as if dipping a finger into the current described as the flow of life....the energy of our life expression. Once connected,  totally immersed.

I talked about this with regard to a fighting aspect in hand to hand, as a momentum felt in a circular motion, as if one used to propel this momentum through a continued force of expression. I saw this in light of Lagrangian understanding as using this to propel satellites further onward to other planets.

 In terms of Lagrangian, one is looking for the least resistance....to see that life expression always finds the fastest route and as fleeting as Deja Vu human perception is capable of perceiving that time frame.

 One has to find this subjective location in life as toward one understanding where these lines cross.  You would understand that it allows for such a pathway to have expressed itself as the life experience.

 In another form of expression I see this flow, as a connection to the arrow of time, as one would regard confirmation of life according to its enforcement as  in the deja Vu experience. One would think a predetermination as a loss in will, but this is contrary to not living our life plan as we had choose it. So one can see, how a choice was made to enter here into this life experience.....and that we choose other routes willingly

 Psychology(flow) had quite a list, and one of those stood out was the poetry.....as if to be consumed by the rise and fall of the rhythms inherent in the words of expression.  Again at the most deepest levels of these are as a subjective experience, that becomes a undifferentiated of any other.

 

Gravimeter Design Improvements

S. Abend and E. Rasel/Leibniz Univ. of Hannover

Gravity in hand. A compact gravimeter uses an atom chip to generate a dense cloud of ultracold atoms. The atoms are released and fall down through a series of laser pulses, which produce two interfering pathways. Imaging the interference provides a precise measurement of the gravitational acceleration. (The portable device imagined in this drawing would require an additional, shoebox-sized container of support equipment, such as a power supply and laser systems.) See:  Focus: Measuring Gravity with an Atom Chip