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Communication experts have estimated that a person receives ten thousand sensory impressions (exteroceptive and proprioceptive) per second. Obviously, then, a drastic selection process is necessary to prevent the higher brain centers from being swamped by irrelevant information. But the decision about what is essential and what is irrelevant apparently varies from individual to individual and seems to be determined by criteria which are largely outside individual awareness.

In all probability, reality is what we make it or, in Hamlet's words, "...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." We can only speculate that at the root of these punctuation conflicts there lies the firmly established and usually unquestioned conviction that there is only one reality, the world as I see it, and that any view that differs from mine must be due to the other's irrationality or ill will. - Paul Watzlawick, et. al.
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[nq:1]Communication experts have estimated that a person receives ten thousand sensory impressions (exteroceptive and proprioceptive) per second. Obviously, then, a ... what we make it or, in Hamlet's words, "...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."[/nq]
Up to here, very good. Those who are studying consciousness and the working of the brain focus on what is working, in contrast to those who studied mental illness to find a cure for it. They (by whom I mean Daniel Dennett, Roger Penrose, Stephen Pinker and others) report pretty much the same thing: the sense we have of the world is constructed in the mind, which does a great deal of subconscious processing, including erasing and even editing, of the raw sensory input so that it conforms with expectations based on experience.
Fascinating. Perhaps now we can all start to doubt the evidence of our senses, which would seem to be a good thing, since our senses are telling (most of) us that something is wrong with the world.

Perhaps we can start to suspect that perhaps something is wrong with our world view.
We can only
[nq:1]speculate that at the root of these punctuation conflicts there lies the firmly established and usually unquestioned conviction that there ... view that differs from mine must be due to the other's irrationality or ill will. - Paul Watzlawick, et. al.[/nq]
I can agree with this too but I would make a very important deletion and generalise the sentence to apply to any conflict. Delete "punctuation".

This being the case, the necessity becomes seeing my brother as myself: someone who merely wants everything to be for the best, but cannot see how to obtain that except through conflict, or perhaps sacrifice, both of which are completely unnecessary.
Internalised, the principal of love-your-brother-love-yourself comes down to a personal decision whether or not to engage in conflict, and generally conflict is engaged in until its futility is recognised and a decision is made in favour of peace. Peace is then found internally, where it is, if the seeking is determined and persistent.

I discovered I was the source of, and therefore had the solution to, all my problems. The same is true for everyone, and everyone has to discover that, if they do, for themselves. You already have the key: decide for peace, now and forever, above all else.
Peace be with you.

Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Communication experts have estimated that a person receives ten thousand ... the higher brain centers from being swamped by irrelevant information.[/nq]
This proposition is not logically necessary and seems not intuitively true. If it were true, it would imply the brain's data path (capacity to receive X thousand data bits per second) is known to be less than the receptive capacity of the senses (capacity to send to the brain Y thousand data bits per second.) But no evidence has been offered of either value, X or Y, let alone which is greater.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]This proposition is not logically necessary and seems not intuitively true. If it were true, it would imply the brain's ... bits per second.) But no evidence has been offered of either value, X or Y, let alone which is greater.[/nq]
Have you noticed that if you listen intently you can follow a single person's voice in a crowded room?
Have you ever experienced being unaware of a background noise, such as a refrigerator or washing machine, or lawnmower outside, until it stops?

Ever held a phone conversation amid a noisy background, such as television, street noises, restaurant crowd, and been quite capable of carrying on?
Is filtering going on? Is it conscious? Is it possible that filtering could be going on all the time?
Our awareness shifts from one thing to the other in our environment and at the same time our consciousness is giving us a running monologue about the successes and problems we are facing, our relationships and how to handle them, our financial and household affairs, and so on.

It seems highly likely to me that the total input of the senses is filtered, edited and reconstructed in the brain, as the evidence suggests, and that if we were totally aware of all the sense data at once it could be overwhelming at times, impinging on the brain's capacity to function in response to events.

Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia

Usenet · Answer

(snip)
[nq:1]Is filtering going on? Is it conscious? Is it possible that filtering could be going on all the time? Our ... data at once it could be overwhelming at times, impinging on the brain's capacity to function in response to events.[/nq]I'm a diabetic and have been for 34 years now. The times that I have had a hypoglycaemic episode in which I've lost consciousness and needed to be taken to a hospital for recovery are very few (I could count them on one hand) but each time there has been, during the recovery process, a time when my consciousness is kinda there, kinda not there. I'm aware but not completely aware, but the thing that I notice most about that 'waking' moment is that it is preceded by a couple of minutes (it feels like minutes but might only be seconds) of absolutely none of that filtering you mention.

I am bombarded with input from every sense; smells, sounds, feelings, tastes, all of them flashing into my awareness completely beyond my control, one after the other. And then, it's like a switch is flicked and I regain 'control' of what I can shift my awareness to.

It's a very frightening thing to experience at the time, but very fascinating to wonder about and contemplate when I'm back to normal.

johnF
"That creationism has, in some parts of the United States, achieved equal times in school biology is a travesty of education(.)" The Descent of Darwin , Brian Leith (1982)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]If it were true, it would imply the[/nq]
[nq:2]brain's data path (capacity to receive X thousand data bits ... either value, X or Y, let alone which is greater.[/nq]
[nq:1]Have you noticed that if you listen intently you can follow a single person's voice in a crowded room? Have ... data at once it could be overwhelming at times, impinging on the brain's capacity to function in response to events.[/nq]
Of course I agree but the OP concerned the values of X and Y. We agree something probably limits the flow of sense data to the mind: but we cannot say whether this filter is in the sensing apparatus (cf. we see only the "visible spectrum:" we cannot see anything at infrared or ultraviolet frequencies) or inside the brain processor. This is why neurological research continues (and perhaps philosophy too.)

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1](snip)[/nq]
[nq:2]Is filtering going on? Is it conscious? Is it possible ... on the brain's capacity to function in response to events.[/nq]
[nq:1]I'm a diabetic and have been for 34 years now. The times that I have had a hypoglycaemic episode in ... frightening thing to experience at the time, but very fascinating to wonder about and contemplate when I'm back to normal.[/nq]
Thanks for the input. Fascinating indeed.

Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Of course I agree but the OP concerned the values of X and Y. We agree something probably limits ... we see only the "visible spectrum:" we cannot see anything at infrared or ultraviolet frequencies) or inside the brain processor.[/nq]
.it's not impossible that filtering can occur in both places... and perhaps others
.one of the so-called "5 stupidities" of english is 2-valued logic .our language machines often impose either-orism on our analysis of situations
.we then act as though this analysis is a property of the situation rather than a property of our analysis
heron
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Nature, heron stone to be commanded, http://gendo.net must be obeyed. mailto:(Email Removed)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Of course I agree but the OP concerned the ... at infrared or ultraviolet frequencies) or inside the brain processor.[/nq]
Have you studied General Semantics?

Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2].it's not impossible that filtering can occur in both places... ... the situation rather than a property of our analysis heron[/nq]
[nq:1]Have you studied General Semantics?[/nq]
.you bet i have... ak s&s
.check my bibliography... http://gendo.net/gendo/bib.html

heron
unDO email address

Nature, heron stone to be commanded, http://gendo.net must be obeyed. mailto:(Email Removed)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Have you studied General Semantics?[/nq]
[nq:1].you bet i have... ak s&s[/nq]
S&S?
You would also be interested, I believe, in the works of Stanislav Grof, Michael Talbot and Rupert Sheldrake.

Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia

English 1.0 (EarthLing) skypecast

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