Sunday, May 6, 2018

Thinking, Seeing with new eyes.



-  2091  -  You may think thinking is hard, but seeing is harder.  Visualization uses more than ½ your brain.    Your eyes take the pictures but you brain does the seeing. A lot of what we see is recognized because the image is already in memory.   Objectivity is as important in communication as clarity is.  There is always more information than truth.  Only a broader perspective can lead to a greater intelligence.
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-----------------------------  2091  -  Seeing more and Thinking more.
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-  You may think thinking is hard, but seeing is harder.  Visualization uses more than ½ your brain.  While you are sitting down reading this review your brain is using 33% of the oxygen that you breath.  When you are sitting and reading you are burning 33% of the calories your body has consumed.  A total of 17% of what you eat gets used by your brain.  And, if you worry a lot the percentage  goes up.
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-  Speech uses a tiny area on one side of your brain.  In other words, it does not take much of your brain to be talking.  Somehow, I knew that already.  Hearing uses 10% of the size of the brain that seeing uses. “ Listening” has got to require a lot more brain than that 10%.
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-  The conclusion is certain that seeing areas in the brain are bigger than thinking areas of the brain.  Which goes on to say that you cannot learn a lot more with your eyes closed.
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-  Even moving arms and legs uses a surprisingly small part of the brain.  Interviewing most boxers and football players will allow you to draw this conclusion as well.
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-  Computers work differently than the brain works.  Computers can do a lot of things better than the brain can.  One thing computers have not yet learned to do better is to see.  A computer has a central processing unit to control all its programming.  The brain has trillions of central processing units.  Each can be working on whatever you are doing.  So, you can walk, talk, listen, smell, and think all at the same time.  Computers are trying to do the same think using many CPU’s and parallel processing.  When it comes to seeing, computers have a long way to go to catch up.
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-  Your eyes take the pictures but you brain does the seeing.  The brain first picks out patterns of light.  It looks at edges and sudden changes in patterns.  Your brain can act on this information before it has an image.   Later the image reaches the visual part of the brain.  The positions and angles of edges are picked out first.  Color and things moving are picked out next.  The brain sees the same way you create a cartoon.  Once the carton is created in the brain it starts working on recognizing and understanding the different features it sees.
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-  Facial expressions are recognized in a special area of the brain called the inferior temporal cortex.  It is just above the bony lump behind your ear.  Women are especially developed in this area. Ha! Ha!
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-  Scientists think that recognition and memory are coded as patterns in a large group of brain cells.  Each brain cell is effectively a CPU.  It is only when a bunch of brain cells work together that recognition happens.
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-  You brain gets a 2 dimensional pictures from the back of your retina but it works out a           3-dimensional image from the clues it gets in the light patterns.  You see in 2-D but you think in 3-D.    It helps that each eye gets a little different picture of the same image.  The brain creates a single 3-D image from the two 2-D images it receives.  It is called “stereopsis“.
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-   Your brain can judge depth with one eye closed by moving your head from side to side.  This is why pigeons nod their heads when they walk or want depth perception.  Pigeons have eyes on the sides of their heads and get no stereopsis.  They need to do the head moving to see in 3-D.
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-  Astronomers us stereopsis to measure distances to the stars.  They usually have to wait 6 months for the Earth to move to the other side of the Sun.  In this way their eyes, (telescopes), are getting images 186,000,000 miles apart.  By doing this they can use stereopsis to measure distance to stars out to 300 million lightyears.
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-  A lot of what we see is recognized because the image is already in memory.  Reading is taking patterns of light and dark and transferring them into ideas, thoughts, and memories.  No wonder the brain is using so many calories.
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-  Sperm whales have brains 5 times bigger than ours.  But, they are not smarter.  Maybe a better indicator would be brain size as a percentage of weight.  In that case, the mouse would be 50% smarter.  In conclusion, it is not the size of the brain it is how we use it that makes us smart.  My hope is that you just learned something.  But, don't stop there:
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-  If you want your brain to learn more, exercise it.    Specific body building exercises are designed for specific muscles.  Brain building works exactly the same way on your intelligence.  The key to any exercise is habit.  Habit is the constant repetition that makes learning second nature.  (See footnote on Brain Building)
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-  Everything we do is time consuming.  Brain building is one of the few things that is time repaying.  Self awareness is the first step in brain building.  Become aware of how you are thinking.
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-   Learning is what allows us to make sense of the confusing array of stimuli that reaches us from every part of our environments.  As a human we are developed not just by heredity but by circumstances in our environments and how we deal with them.
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-  The human is endowed with the ability to overcome and alter the circumstances around him.  What we do and how we act is the single most important factor in dealing with our environment.  We are the operator of the brain that we own. 
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-  Intelligence is what makes us question, Why?  Ours is the only species that asks questions.   If you let others direct your thinking eventually you stop thinking for yourself.   Attempts to impress someone arises out of a lack in confidence. 
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-  Thinking mathematically helps you separate emotion from intellect.  Mathematical reasoning is merely logical reasoning that is quantifiable. A logical approach to thinking mathematically is to first become aware of the problem, recognizing you have a problem.  Secondly, define the problem, analyze it, and establish its parameters.  Thirdly, approach the problem rationally, from different angles, considering different options, hypothesize different solutions.  Then, select a solution and verify its effectiveness. 
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-  A problem is an unsettled question.  A symptom is something that indicates the existence of something else.  If there is sufficient data in your premise, your conclusion will be valid.  But, beware, you can always lie with statistics.
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-  Making assumptions is one of the most likely places for getting into trouble.  Insight is genius, it is a cognitive leap.  Genius is also a combination of motivation, hard work, and perseverance.  The harder you work the smarter you will get. 
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-  Sometimes negatives may be as useful as positives in forming insight.  Intuition is common sense and sensitivity rolled into luck.  Accept the result of any mistake as part of the learning process.  The smartest learning process is sometimes only making mistakes fast enough, faster than your competitor. 
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-  Objectivity is as important in communication as clarity is.  There is always more information than truth.  Only a broader perspective can lead to a greater intelligence.  Read more to learn and to consider more. Words express thoughts and connotative words express opinions. 
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-  A common error is making a judgment based on a certain set of circumstances then clinging to that judgment after the circumstances have changed.
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- Perspective itself is actually a subset of objectivity.  To regard anyone else except yourself as responsible for your own judgment is to become a slave to circumstances. 
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-  Brain Building is a book written by Marilyn vos Savant.  Her book has many exercises and word problems to exercise your brain.
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 -------------------------   Sunday, May 6, 2018   --------------------------------
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