2. marisa hubanks
3. http://marisahubanks.blogspot.com/
4. B-
5.
QUANTUM THEORY
From the reading I learned that Albert Einstein believed the following about quantum theory. It was an intermediate theory, it was incomplete and it contained "spooky actions at a distance". Albert Einstein released groundbreaking papers on quantum theory back in 1905. The definition for quantum theory is "A theory of matter and energy based on the concept of quanta. Quanta is a mathematical equation involving a figure to represent individual units of energy.There was a site I found on Quantum Theory that was very informal and helpful which I will post http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/definition/quantum-theory and another site that was an actual definition that was very thorough was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics.
FAQIR CHAND
Chand was fighting in the war in Hamadan when he experienced a religious vision. A holy man appeared as a form infront of Faqir and gave him advice by telling him not to waste the ammunition that was grately needed. He in turn was worshiped himself by the people when he returned to Baghdad. I have never experienced seeing a vision or having known someone who experienced this but I find it to be very interesting. I wouldnt even fathom a vision of someone coming to give me advice and lead me in a certain direction, or if I would even use the advice given after recieving such a vision. I remember hearing in the video that at the very end he did not recal the event that happened and didnt understand why the people of Baghdad were worshiping him in any way. And honestly I dont know that if I were given advice to this extreme I would follow it because therr were alot of soldiers lives on the line and if the advice I was given or the vision I seen was just a mere halucination and ended up being tragic advice it would fall back on me. It is hard to believe that such a vision was seen by Chand until you realize how many lives he saved that very day. If the ammunition ran out they would have little chance to survive. And the holy mans advice was given for that very purpose, so Chand can save lives by being a messanger of some sort. It was a very interesting story.
THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE
The cranial limit was one thing that I was interested in, there is actualy no cranial limit but it makes me think if there was one would we be able to pass that limit. We have so many limits, like the limit of light that einstein explains about how we can only see so far with our telescopes. We have many limits in science but they say that the limits of our scull are the limits of our understanding, what if we had no limit to understanding? what if we had no limits to memory? I know forsure their are limits to these things because I myself can not remember what I did before a certain age and my understanding at younger ages was very limited too. I honestly believe that it is time that expands your understanding, time that expands our cranial limits. We have made so many new discoveries with time and we will make so many more new discoveries in time. I believe there is no cranial limit, or the case could be that we make our own cranial limits by our understanding. These limits will be incresed in time, just like many years ago when we had no information on planets and the moon, look at us now, we have landed on the moon itself. The limits of science are just what we know now, but people 100 years from now will know so much more and have a far greater limit.
EXISTENTIALISM
To me this means that basically we are alone to make moral decisions and judgements. That we accept full responsibility for your actions. And with those decisions and judgements we determine our course for our own life. I completely believe this is true, only we suffer for making bad decisions in life. We have prisons to prove that our bad decisions have serious concequences. It made me think about how when I was growing up I had a really good friend named Jesabel, our lives took us 2 completely different paths and thats because of all the decisions we made thus far. I would say at this time we are both doing rather good in life but we took two seperate paths to get there and bad decisions held us back at different times while good decisions progressed on our life paths.
Existance basically means how we as people interact with the world.Not only interact but we as individuals are completely responsible for the direction our life takes. Like the example I gave with a childhood friend, she bought her first home and has a degree with steady income and my bad dicision making led me to fall behind and achive my degree later down the road. The important thing for me is that I am making better decisions and am completely responsible for the direction my life is goin in.
MYTH OF ETERNAL RECURRENCE
Imagine living the same exact life that you are living now over and over and over, doing the same things over and over. Saying the same things over and over. And the worst part about it is making the same bad decisions and judgements over and over again! I couldnt imagine living the same life over and knowingly making the same bad decisions over again, thats like pressing the rewind button and not being able to change the past if you were allow to live it over. There are many things in my past that I would change to improve the life path which I am traveling.
Not only living the same life over once but numerous times would be dreading.Nothing new, just the same old stuff. Waking up at the same times, not learning behond what you know now, thats a cranial limit right there!! hehe. I myself would not be happy with living the life I have lived thus far over and over again, I want to improve my life and I think everyone else would want to do the same. Its like knowing your future but not being able to change the wrongs, just accepting them.
RE:FRIENDSHIP
I completely agree, arguing with my elders did not happen in my household when I was growing up. Elders are known to be wiser and to have lived on this earth longer which means that in turn we can learn something from our elders. Things we go through they might have already gone through and their advice can lead us in better dicision making. Even though growing upouts hard to understand this concept and most young teens or adults think they know everything but are far from knowing everything. Even if you don't agree like you said there should always be the respect to nod and listen.
True friendship is very hard to get rid of once you have a true friend in someone. To me a true friendship blossoms into a family member. It's someone that is always there to give you advice and help you make decisions in life even if some are not so good hehe. I'm lucky to have the friendships that I have and agree totally with you on them being very few.
ELECTRIC SURFING
Matter composes our entire universe together and it holds together in an electrical nature. Protons have a positive charge, I always somehow knew that protons were positive because they started with PRO. And electrons have a negative charge. Both charges are equal between the proton and electron, which in turn attracts because they are opposite. When electrons move we have a current.
This video showed a discription of a positive plus and negative minus, it reminded me of a battery. Then I started thinking about all the uses of a battery and how they have become a necessity in every home. And seeing the discription in the video I realized that negative and positive balance out, even in a battery we use. Protons and electrons are the same anywhere in the world, the only thing that differs in a battery is the electrochemical reaction that makes the current flow.
RE: ELECTRICITY
Electricity is a necessity and a must have! Imagine we had no electricity in this world? We would be literally lights out after the sun goes down. Not be able to watch TV or charge your cell phone, cant even be online right now because we cant charge our laptops. I cant imagine how life would be without electricity.
Well if I think of a power outage we recently had then I get a better understanding of life without electricity. Now they even have those electric vehicles, it seems like electricity is starting to become even bigger now. We are resorting to the use of electricity and its a positive thing for our environment.
GRAVITATION
To me I think gravity is nothing more than what gives weight to an object with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped. Gravity is responsible for keeping the earth moon and sun in place. Imagine how our earth would be without gravity?Gravity is even responsible for the formation of tides.Without gravity imagine what would happen to oceans and lakes.
Imagine how we would be without a gravitation pull? It reminds me of when I would watch people in space, like the movie Apollo 13. They have no gravitational pull and basically just float around. We would not be able to function or get anywhere if we had no gravitational pull
MANY-WORLDS
I got a perfect definition describing the many-world theory from wikipedia.com. Many-worlds means that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an actual universe or world itself. Just to think that life exists outside of earth is a huge thing. If there are others living the life that we are living, or others that know about us and we dont know that they even exist.
I truely believe that if there was life outside of our lives, meaning outside of earth we would know. It would be hard to say that there is a totally different universe that exists out there. Not impossible but without evidence of such a universe we have no idea if it could be true or just pondered upon.
ELIMINATIVE MATERIALISM: GOD DID IT?
Basically the video explains how if math, physics,chemistry,sociology,psychology and philosophy does not explain it, then god did it. Another words if all else fails to give the explanation then god did it. And saying "god did it" is a perfectly good explanation because we have nothing else to eplain it.
Watching the video made me realize that people say that very often, is it always only because we dont have the answer for why it occured? Or how something occured? Is it the right resource to turn too? After we have exhausted everything else we simply say god did it, but yet its perfectly ok with everyone and understandable by everyone.
FABRIC OF THE COSMOS
What if what we percieve is wrong? Things could be so different, as different as going in reverse. What if everything you did happened in reverse,its so crazy to think about but according to physics it is possible! This video had my imagination going crazy. thinking about all the new technology and where technology is going in years to come. We have went so far and to think that in as little as a few years from now we can really be so technologically advanced. Its amazing to me how far we have come and how absolutly anything seems possible.
STRING THEORY
String theory to me is that all objects in our universe are composed of strings and membranes of energy. Ive herd that string theory is the theory of everything, relatively young science.Scientist believe that sciences will eventually come together, or in one way or another link to eachother. Gravity and quantum physics link together. I dont believe its wishful thinking because there is a theory that gravity quantum physics work together.Feynman was a very interesting man and he was known as one of the best scientists in the world. He always thought if he cold come up with the theory of the very small he would have the answers for the very large.
ULTIMATLY KNOW
When I think of the word "limit", I think of a capacity. And in this case it is a capacity of information we already know. Weather it be in philosophy, physics,mathematics etc. its a limit because its only what we know for now. In time, just like our ancestors have done before we will know more and have more answers and questions that are greater then the ones we have now. Or even answers to the questions we have now, in time. We came this far over many years, and in many years from now we will be further with the limit of knowledge we have.
DARWINS DNA
Everyone knows about Darwins theory of evolution. By now we have a lot of evidence that evolution is correct. But there are some religious people that do not accept the theory.
With all the proof of evolution, it seems that some people still have a different theory, it involves god. They believe God created everything andn everyone. With all the years and how far we have come scientificaly, its wierd to me how people have and believed other theorys (god).
EVOLUTION TRILOGY
I believe that as we get older we feel lost in life because we are acting more and more not like ourselves. We change our character due to the environment we are in at the time. We adapt to others, if someone is acting a certain way then we adapt to the way they act.
Its our survival mode, it kicks in so much that we loose track of the person you really are and how your true character really is. Changes are going to take place no matter what, its inevitable. But with change we as people become different, our character changes, our deminor changes.
MAYA
Everything we think happens right now, occurs nano seconds before. Maya is Indian philosophy. It leads you to believe things that are not true. Illusions per say. The greatest Illusions or deceptions is within ourselves.
Watching the video I seen a couple demonstrations on how writing some parallel lines on a piece of paper and putting another piece of paper with parallel lines over it, the illusion moves in different ways. It seems that Illusions are so realistic we tend to believe they are truely real.
ELIMINATIVE MATERIALISM
Eliminative materialim is the way people understand their own minds and how they are incorrect about what they understand about their minds. There are categories of consciousness that people classify themselves in, which are desire, love,motivation,anger,free-will ect. They say these categories fail to exist becuase they are mythic and religious explanations of human conciousness. This is something called "folk-psychology". They say that these categories or feelings are un true, an example is "love". It is a self-generated thought and has no meaning. I honestly think that if we were going by this theory we as humans would be un human-like.
RE:AIDS IN AFRICA
Africa still greatly suffers from aids and HIV. It makes me rather upset to see how far we have gone with technology and yet we still dont have a cure for HIV. Can you believe that we have apps that do pretty much everything you can think of, even one where you bump your phone up against another phone and it exchanges your numbers automaticaly! But still no cure for HIV.
And to think a baby is born with HIV, its the worst thing to be born with a desease that can kill you without having a choice. Born unhealthy, it saddens me deeply. Atleast most of us have a choice to use protection and keep ourselves healthy, some dont dont have that choice.
RE:WHAT SCARES US MOST ABOUT DEATH?
I totally agree, we have no idea what will happen to us when we die. Will it be painful? Will it be peaceful? And alot of people wonder about after life, will we be re born again? I use to believe that after we pass away we are reborn and have a different life. I know different people have different views on death and we have no real evidence and proof about what happens to us. Its definitly fear of the unknown. And the wierd part is sometimes people think of exactly how they are going to die, in an accident? Peacefully in bed? heart attack? Most of these ways are scary. And plus, it seems like in movies and stories that death is a scary thing to face. Movies and stories get to us and we become scared, it makes people think of their death. Even watching the news, some scary strories (true stories) about how people have passed away.
DISNEYLAND OF CONSCIOUSNESS
All I have to say is that technology is on such a deep level that its evolving and changing soo fast. Watching this video reminds me of my trips to Disneyland. When I was a child, even until now I honestly thought the characters in the rides were so life like. I was horribly scared the first time I rode pirates of the carribean, I remember looking at the pirates and seeing real live human men starring right into your eyes. They are able to move and open their mouths and blink. One that was sitting on top of the bridge even drinks out of his beer bottle. Im 27 years old and know for a fact that these pirates are made from technology and I still doubt myself. On the haunted mansion there is a part on the ride when your looking at yourself in the mirror and a ghost appears right next to you, these holograms are so life like that it even scares you for a bit. Our minds are able to play tricks on us. But it has a lot to do with this technology and how far it has come. Then again when I think about my dreams and how people in my dreams are so realistic and when you wake up it feels like whatever it was that you dreamt about just happened to you in real life. And dreams have nothing to do with technology in any way. It makes you think about how easily our minds are fooled.
RAY KURZWEIL
TECHNOLOGY!!!! Can you believe that in 2020 we will have computers so powerful that they can simulate the human brain!! Technology is way too powerful and growing way too fast. A million times more powerful 20 years from now. Smart phones are moving soo fast, they have apps forjust about everything you could imagine. Computers in the future will be far more powerful then even the human brain. It kinda scares me to know how fast technology is moving, a computer that is far smarter then us dosent sound good to me. I look at technology in both ways, good and bad. Good becuase we have so much information and information leads to knowledge but what if this knowledge is used in bad ways by terrorists? Computers can teach us just about anything we want to know and learn, google can give me answers to anything I desire. But that also means it can give anyone those answers, the good people the bad people and the ones that do ugly things. I love technology so much, I love having a smart phone that can give me directions or answer my questions like where is the nearest gas station, I love seeign a vehicle that can practicaly park itself and has cameras in the rear for extra safety. But technology is moving far too fast and far too powerful for the likes of me. It can be a scary thing if people are using this technology for BAD.
RE:BOOKS ARE DEAD
A huge pro that I see about having a book in your IPAD or IPHONE is that they are portable, they are very convienient. You can read them in the comfort of your own home or take them on the go and read them at a local starbucks or at the park while the kids play. I love the convienience of having more than one book (which paper books can be very big) in such a small portable item. I even dowload several books at one time. The only con I see is that I have no idea if it is affecting my retinas, I have bad vision as it is and I feel a need to blink or even close my eyes for a few seconds after reading a few pages on my IPAD. Also if your battery dies then you have 0 books..
FIRST TIME MACHINE
Imagine a time machine that starts from the day you turn the machine on, not to go back in time from now to the past but rather to start today and years from now you can go to this day. However this time machine would work I think its fascinating to know that there is a time machine that is capable of taking you to a different year day and time then the one you are presently in. I would think something like this is impossible, uncapable of accomplishing. Its strikes me as amazing just to know the things we are capable of doing and how far technology has come. Now if you would ask me if I would use this time machine my answer would definitly be NO but I would be very interested in watching someone else use this, recording exactly what I observe.
RE:TIME MACHINE
If I was able to see the future in the time machine I dont know if I would be able to do that. I would be rather scared to see the future played out for me right in front of my eyes. What if something bad happens and there is nothing I can do to change it from happeneing. And just knowing the exact time its going to happen is like a ticking time bomb in our minds. But to travel back into the past would be pointless unless we are able to travel back to change the outcome of something, like a bad mistake we made or to warn other about a horrific tragedy. Only go back or forth in time to change things, but if we are ineligable of chenging the outcome then it would be kind of pointless.
THE PERFECT COKE
Honestly, I watched this video and perceived it totally different then others. For one, I myself can not enjoy a meal without a coke. And Im being completely honest. If I had a wonderfull hot feast infront of me and did not have a soda, I could not enjoy the food that I am eating and in most cases wont even eat the meal. Im not sure if this is because im addicted to the taste of a cold coke (carbination), or its all in my mind that I wouldnt be able to taste the food the same. It could very well be in my head that my mind is made up, I think about a meal and the coke completes it. When I seen the video I related to the enjoyment of having the taste of a cold coke, so I was side tracked and asked myself if it was in our minds that we NEED something we dont really need. And then the packaging and abiance (whos serving the soda, how others enjoy soda) that makes us WANT it and feel there is a NEED for it. My WANTS become NEEDS and it gives you a feeling of addiction.
RE:THE PERFECT COKE
That is a great thing to point out in this video, the fact that his mother was a horrible cook could of had alot to do with him feening for his taste buds to be fullfiled by a cold coke. I think the ambiance of the lady serving him his coke really made it a special feeling as well. I was just talking about how important the ambiance is, like if you have appealing things then your eye will stop in that direction. I also spoke about the differences between WANT and NEED, do you think that he turned his WANT for a Coke into a NEED? To me when you dont really NEED it and say you do, its an addiction like your feening and when you finally get it your going to say its the best (perfect coke).
VOODOO
I have never believed in Voodoo personally, but then again I have experienced times where I would chant it and the desired affect would happen. Once when I was a young girl I sat at the bottom of my great aunts stairs and chanted with my cousins 'If Voodoo is real, something with come rolling down these stairs" and I promise you that 2 out of the 10 times we said that chant it happened! The first time was an old coca-cola can, my aunt collected coca-cold products that were antiques. The second time it was more like a thump and a sign fell, rolling down to the bottom of the stairs. It made us run and scream, we were young but it was rather scary knowing that voodoo could be true. After many years of thinking about Voodoo and how real it seemed, I came to realize that it is all in our minds.Voodoo is in our minds, we want to believe it is real so we allow it to be real in our minds. Anything could have fallen from my aunties stairs at any moment and it would happen quite frequently. There were times when thing came rolling down those old stairs and no one chanted or even thought about voodoo. Things can happen at anytime but we hype our minds to believe that it is real so we tend to believe it. To me voodoo gives people hope, like they can have control over something at that very moment and even if it happens just once then they believe it in their minds to the fullest. Because even those other 8 times that nothing happened after we all chanted voodoo we still believed it was real.
MUMMY VS WOLFMAN
Egyption immortality! To keep intact the physical body. Death was very known to human beings, even way back in the past. They wanted a way to keep the body intact. Imagine, advancing science to a point where we can prolong the deration of life in our human bodies. That is so crazy, but even if we can maintain the human body we cant live forever. I think we are rather scared of transitioning into death, so we come up with ways to try and perserve our lives for as long as possible.
I dont think the body can be perserved forever, nor do I think its right to do so. No one would be left to enjoy or experience anything in that body so why perserve it? Death is something that is going to come no matter if we want it or not. Its the inevitable so why fight it? Why come up with a way around it or a way to stop it? I know we are scared of the unknown but just like birth we all have to go through death at one point or another.
RE:VOODOO
Voodoo does seem rather magical. Like when it is chanted or used the desired outcome happens but I believe it is all in our minds. We wish for something and if it comes to us even just that once we believe it is true. Like the quote that you reffered too, it seems if it worked 2 out of 10 we believe it is true. And when we believe it is true in our minds, then our mindset is set to believe in voodoo. Even magic, when I go to a famous magic show with a magician thats known for his magic I tend to believe in magic. I watched one on TV one year and I believed magic was real for many years to follow. Until one day I seen an episode that revieled how the magician accomplished his magic. It was all fake, they showed how every trick was in reality a trick. It was heartbreaking but atleast I knew the truth. Just to think I believed in magic until I seen how it was all false with my own eyes.
FLAME ON
Homosexuality seems like an on going problem in society. I myself see nothing wrong with homosexuality. The problem is that people use the word "GAY" or "FAG" as a bad word, people say this to others in a derogatory way. When you say words like that to others in a bad way then they are seen as bad people. As an example the word "bitch" is used in such a bad way that if you call someone this word its an insult, but in reality the definition is just mierly a female dog or a small animal like a fox. The word itself was made into a derogatory term and used in a bad fashion. If I am calling for my female dog and use that word everyone will look my way and think I am cussing at someone and the same goes for the words gay and fag. I have no idea why or how these terms in society became so volgure but they have and its makes the situation of a homosexual even harder to cope with in society.
RE:ERROL FLYNN
So he would adjust to certain groups, he would conform to the ways of others he would be around. I totally understand that, I think we all do that at some point in our lives if not all the time. We all have to adjust and conform to the people around us, we are all social at one point or another. You act appropriately when you go in for an interview just as you act way different when you are out at a bar with friends. If someone lives in this time we have to adjust appropriately. Imagine someone not being able to adjust, they would be seen as an outcast and not be able to get jobs or socialize with people. We act entirely different when we are at work in responsible mode, then at home hanging on our couch or in a classroom with a teacher present. We all know the difference in the ambiance and environment. And with those differences we act accordingly.
CROP CIRCLES
I am sorry but I have never and will never believe in crop circles. Believe that it is aliens or other creatures that are doing these crop circles. I will never believe that Aliens or extraterrestrials have anything to do with crop circles because it is not a proven fact. I have yet to see an alien or creature from another planet on our earth, let alone in the middle of a field designing a crop circle. I infact believe that it is performed becuase they are real, crop circles exist and thats the only proven fact that we have. But it is surely done by human beings. A crop circle is forsure in my mind performed by human beings, maybe trying to fool others in believeing their are extraterestrials out there or maybe for a deeper reason. We dont even know why crop circles are done, what is the true meaning behind a crop cirlce? Are the intrecit designs something we dont understand? Do they stand for something we are not piecing together? It could be humans messing around or it could be humans trying to tell us something we dont know. We have no idea in this world what is behind a crop circle and I tell you it is very interesting.
5.A
FLIP VIDEO #1
Matter has many definitions, especially now that time has and is always progressing. With that being said the first definition has been changing and is evolving due to the many discoveries. And even to this day the new discoveries are changing the definition of "matter". People are understanding more and more due to discoveries being made and that in turn makes the definition more complicated. The people out there that still associate religion and science as two seperate entities are grasping the old, simple definition of the word "matter". If you look at how complicated the definition of "matter" is then imagine how complicated the conflict of religion and science are to be resloved. If people allow their minds to open to the complex definition of "matter" itself and not hold on to the simplistic definitionthen they can understand the complexity behind religion and science. If you understand that religion and science are very complex then you will come to see that they have alot in common.
FLIP VIDEO #2
The Chandian Effect is when "the more certain or real the mystical encounter seems, the less likely one is to believe that such is the product of subjective projection or transference." For example the more realistic the experience feels the more unrealistic it becomes. If something is so positive and its a feeling like its too good to be true then they tend to disregaurd what was actually true in the beginning. Chad was fighting in the war in Hamadan when he realized the secret behind religious visions. A holy man appeared as a form infront of Faqir and gave him advice by telling him not to waste the ammunition that was grately needed. He in turn was worshiped by the people when he returned to Baghdad.
FLIP VIDEO #3
Since we dont know what our cranial limits are then how is it possible to exceed it? Maybe if we knew what our cranial limits were we could try to exceed these limits but it would be a very difficult thing to accomplish seeing that not only has it never been done but we dont even know the first step to find out our cranial limit. Ofcourse our people have made many discoveries and developments that were before impossible and unherd of, and our future holds many more developments and discoveries but it all takes time. Just like we had no idea about the moon and planets but now have so many discoveries and developments regaurding them. Our people have come a long way and in time will exceed what we know now.
FLIP VIDEO#4
Soley relying on our current knowledge and resources such as maps we know where we stand, but like I say its based on our current knowledge of our surroundings. Its all about peoples perspectives on their "where abouts". I believe every one goes off their own perspectives and "where abouts". And every street and city is based on names we as people have created. We in so many words created our surroundings and go off of that perspective.
FLIP VIDEO#7
Maya is an Indian word. It is from Indian philosophy, in so many words it means an illusion. Maya gives us a defininition on understanding real deception. So Maya basically describes deception in neuroscience. We can see things that are not truely there and thats an illusion. An example is when we see disturbing images and they burry there way into our memories and become illusions of other things in the disturbing illusions..
FLIP VIDEO#8
The fact that we dont know where we are going when we die. We dont know if it is painful or peaceful. What if we are re-born into another life, there are so many mysteries about death and no proof on what happens when we die. And another huge obstacle we are faced with is when and HOW we are going to die. Im sure we all have our imaginations flowing on how we are going to pass, but when you think of passing because of a heart attack or car accident it seems very painful, And to top it off the movies they make on death these days are really making our imaginations flow, the most grusome deaths are in most scary movies.
FLIP VIDEO#9
Amobius strip is an endless surface that transforms into something that it is not when someone tries to reorient the strip itself. They are similar becuase when one reduces consiousness into parts anything that follows will be lost.
A first person narrative is totally different from a third person narrative because first person narratives are in the perspective of the person speaking or narrating. Third person narratives are in the perspective of a person that is not the characters in the story. Third person is someone that wasent even around when whats in question even occured. The story easily changes and the context is different becaue it is a different person's experience. Its like the "telephone game" I used to play in 2nd grade, you sit in a circle with your entire class and when the first person tells the second person in their ear the word it changes, by the time it gets around the circle then that word is an entirely different word.
FLIP VIDEO#10
It definitly says that we are very easily intriged and allow illusions to become realistic. It understandable that humans make mistakes, but we should recieve some sort of credit because of the fact that these computers are performing with human intelligence. Computers can be created to look like a human and talk and move (a robot), they can also sit on our desks and do just about anything you want them to do. We cant help but to be tricked in our minds that there is some sense of being in these computers. And the worst part is everyone uses computers and we rely heavily on them, they do so much for us that we carry them with us (ipad) (smart phone) daily. We as people are easily fooled but only because of the technology behind these computers. Technology is somewhere it has never been, above and behond!
FLIP VIDEO#11
Personally this video is my favorite so far, it describes me. It explains my love for coke and how I cant enjoy a meal without it. But in reality it is all in our minds. We can see what we want to see as "perfect". We can choose what we want to choose as "the perfect taste". My love for coke is the same love that this man has, I cant eat a good meal without having a cold refreshing coke. But when I take a step back and listen to how silly that sounds I begin to realize that it is I that have made it that way. We inquire a ceratin taste, like the taste and then cant live without it. In reality ofcourse we can, but in our minds we cant. It can be the abiance, it can be the wait, it can be different things in life that give you the "want" or "need" to find the perfect in something, and when you find it in your mind its amazing.
FLIP VIDEO#12
At the end of the Gumby show they showed Gumby being spred with ash and he became the incarnation of spiritual love, a shrine was even created for Gumby. When Wolfgang makes that comment, about being not even wrong, its because basically he is saying that not only is it not right but its not even on the wrong side, its nothing to contemplate about. Its not right or wrong because its not on a level to even contemplate about!
FLIP VIDEO#13
What does Errol Flynn mean by the quote, "I am an octagon of contradiction which in itself may be no contradiction."
So he would adjust to certain groups, he would conform to the ways of others he would be around. I totally understand that, I think we all do that at some point in our lives if not all the time. We all have to adjust and conform to the people around us, we are all social at one point or another. You act appropriately when you go in for an interview just as you act way different when you are out at a bar with friends. If someone lives in this time we have to adjust appropriately. Imagine someone not being able to adjust, they would be seen as an outcast and not be able to get jobs or socialize with people. We act entirely different when we are at work in responsible mode, then at home hanging on our couch or in a classroom with a teacher present. We all know the difference in the ambiance and environment. And with those differences we act accordingly.
FLIP VIDEO#14
Why do we mistakenly believe that chants or prayers or petitions work? How does science explain such coincidences?
We believe in "chants" or voodoo because we allow our minds to think that it is true. We set our minds into believeing in something then to us it is infact believeable. For example if you try 10 times to chant something to happen and only 2 times it actually happens then the numbers dont matter because your a believer due to the 2 times it did happen. Its like magic, you see a magic trick and its believeable. Watching a magic show infact tricks you into believing it is real, in our minds it is real. But if you go behind the scenes to see the reality of it then you will realize they are nothing more than tricks themselves.
6. What is Gumby Land thinking?
When you think of Gumby, you can mierly see a character from your childhood. A character that made you feel rather happy as a child because he is a familiar green clay figure. But Gumby was deeper than just a character. The creator of Gumby, Art Clokey once said that when he went to India on a spiritual journey, the famous Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba magically produced some sacred ash and spread it over Gumby, declaring that “Gumby was the incarnation of spiritual love.”And after this happened the sales of Gumby toys went up incredibly fast. Art Clokey was so into Sathya Sai Baba’s declaration, and he believed that Gumby was a divine icon and able to provide blissful feelings. And we all see these feelings as real because they have not been proven otherwise. Gumby Land Thinking in other words is basically like having a high hope for something and there is nothing to ever make whatever is in question wrong or false so we still hold it with high hopes, as true.
There are a few examples I would like to talk about, one being the String Theory.The theory says that the subatomic particles found in nature may not be particles at all but instead tiny vibrating strings And as much as we believed the string theory it lacked experiments to tell us if it was true. Another example would be the one regarding Bertrand Russell. He said that there was a small china teapot revolving about the sun in an orbit of some sort. But, the teapot was too small to be revealed by any telescopes. So there was no evidence that it was true or false so it is considered Gumby Landing.
7. Explain Littlewoods Law of miracles and how it can explain extraordinary phenomena.
John Littlewood was a great mathematician.He believed miracles happened once per a million, and his carrer path as a mathematician led him to believe this. He based this calculation on assuming that the typical person is awake and alert about eight hours a day and that events occur at the rate of about one per second. He calculated his own law of miracles due to the fact that he was a mathematician. And since he was a mathematician it was seemed to be a believeable law. Even though most people usually think that miracles are works of God because they happen so rarely that god has something to do with performing the miracles.Like how there were 911 days between September 11th attacks and the Madrid bombing in Spain. Ofcourse people connected these two events and considered this significant enough to believe the Littlewoods law of miracles.
8.What does the Mummy and the Wolfman archetypes represent in terms of Eastern and Western religions?
Mummy was originally to avoid death by preserving the physical body, to mummify your body is to allow your body to still be here on this earth as if you never left it. And the Wolfman suffer from their identities of half-human and hald-beast and lusts for blood in every full moon. To them, living is suffering, and death is what they ultimately want. So if you have a mummy on one hand that is trying to stay alive and the Wolfman on the other hand that perfers death, then you can see that they are coming from two different directions. The preferences of Death over Life describes the difference between the mummy and wolfman.
In Eastern religions, reincarnation is the central belief. It seems to follow the Mummy. In Western religions, death is a continuing life in the Heaven or in the Hell which seems to follow the beliefs of the Wolfman. The wolfman will allow and accept death like the Western religions and the Eastern religions believe in reincarnation as to perserve your body and reminds me of the mummy.
9. What is cellular automata and why does Stephen Wolfram think that it represents a "new kind of science"?
The British scientist Stephen Wolfram is one of the scientists who are deep into the cellular automata. A cellular automata is an innovative modeling studied in mathematics, physics, complexity science, theoretical biology. Basically, in a grid which can be in any finite number of dimensions, cells’ states are affected by neighbor cells’ states according to some fixed rules. For example, the rule might be that the cell is "On" in the next generation if exactly two of the cells in the neighborhood are "On" in the current generation; otherwise the cell is "Off" in the next generation. Typically, the rule for updating the state of cells is the same for each cell and does not change over time, and is applied to the whole grid simultaneously, though exceptions are known (Wikipedia).
Wolfram considers the cellular automata a new kind of science as he states.Wolfram has been studying cellular automata for more than ten years and trying to incorporate rules of cellular automata into the nature. He believes it is a new kind of science because it is challenging the foundations of all modern science.
10. Who was Alan Turing and how did he contribute to our potential understanding of artificial intelligence?
Alan Turing, an English mathematician, he was a leader in Artificial Intelligence.Alan was said to be good at code-breaking and computer science, so he was often considered as the father of computer science. When he became famous for something called the turning test he became involved with artificial intelligence.This test was introduced by Turing in the 1950s.It was based on a question that asked if machine could think as human does and if machine could imitate human intelligence. He used a human judge needed to distinguish the works done by human and machine separately. If the judge couldn’t tell which one was done by the machine, then the machine passed the test and was said to be intelligent because it meant the work done by the machine had closely resembled the one done by the human. Since then it has been used for the past 50 years.
11. Why does Patricia Churchland champion neurophilosophy?
Neurophilosophy stands between philosophy and neuroscience. Neurophilosophy has philosophy and neuroscience intertwined into it. Patricia Churchland is a Canadian-American philosopher. The term “Neurophilosophy”was first introduced by the publication of Patricia Churchland’s Neurophilosohy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain. She wanted to make progress of philosophy of the mind. Her husband was really involved with her work also. After her continued education on neuroscience, she convinced herself more about that the neuroscientific techniques and empirical research were important to philosophy. Churchland was an eliminated materialist who believed a physical state of the brain was more necessary than some subjective biasing concepts of mental states. After all, the reason why Churchland championed neurophilosophy was that she believed that there should be a scientific base for philosophy.
12. Is Consciousness physical?
Consciousness is commonly referred to a mental one which doesn’t have scientific or physical explanations. Most people think of their consciousness as haveing or not having self- awareness. It can be an example of going to sleep, when you are in the state of sleep your unconscious. It seems like people are more interested in the state of consciousness these days, yet it cant be explained scientificaly or phisicaly so we are limited to knowledge regaurding consciousness. Neurology has been a great helper for understanding consciousness physically. Neurology is a scientific field dealing with the central nervous system in human body. Neurophylosophers firmly believe that the structure and function of brain are the keys of consciousness.Neurology has given people a different way to view consciousness from folk psychology. It’s like how physics, biology and chemistry change the way people view the world.
13. Why does your professor argue in THE CODEX FUNERAL that books are dead?
Even though an argument was stated about books being dead, there was never an argument discusing how books were de-valued or talked down apon. I believe that the statement "books are dead" means that books are no longer used because of the new technology, but not because we dont read books or want them. I completely agree with the statement that books are dead, but only due to the newest technology. We have IPADs where all you do is download a book and your able to read the book right on the screen. Instead of lugging around a huge book, or even a small book with tiny writing. Now you can have 100s of books right on a good sized IPAD, and you can zoom in to the words if necessary. It is so convienient and can be taken anywhere, starbucks to enjoy a cup of coffe while reading, you can even read a chapter from one book and then open another tab to the next book and read a chapter from that one. I know it sounds rediculous, but having books on your IPAD is more hands on. Your able to pinch zoom and change pages by flicking your finger quickly across the screen. The only down side is that your IPAD must be charged, if your battery dies then so do all you 100 books. But with the book physically in your hand you never have that problem.
14. What is apophenia?
Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data (Wikipedia). It seems as Apophenia is like a group of objects that create a design or some kind of significance to people. Even if its a person significance. It could be a mountain that has deteriorated revieling the shape of a face. Also, it could be the evening that I lay in the grass and look up at the clouds to see shapes of people or animals.Some people might think that apophenia is tips from God. Some people might think they are just coincidences. No one can really explain such phenomena. However, it’s sure that consciousness leads people to match some meaningful information relating to what is on their mind around them.
15. How does the Himalayan connection explain UFOs?
UFOs have been a continuous ongoing challenge for us because we only contemplate if they are fact or fiction. There have been so many UFO reporting in the past few years, but we don't have enough evidence to support these reports. The Himalayan Connection places UFO experiences into three categories: translation, transformation and transfusion. I honestly believe that UFOs are reported due to the fact that the flying object can not be identified. People that believe in UFOs tend to feel that everything they see that cant be explained are automatically UFOs. UFOs will always be controversial, due to the fact that we have no hard evidence. But believers are believers and non-believers are non-believers and until we have hard evidence then that will not change.
16. What is Sam Harris' dilemma? Do you think he is right or wrong?
Sam Harris' delema derives from consciousness. The feeling of actaully feeling awaereness. When we feel concious we are the ones inside feeling the concious state so we cant see from the outside perspective. No matter how you try to describe such a feeling you can not describe it. An example would be if I were to describe the view from on top of the highest mountain, explain how I felt. But I can only describe this to a different party, they will never see what I experienced or feel what I experienced. I agree with Sam Harris in his argument, you can not completely describe something to a third party, not the way you experienced it. This reminds me of a game I played as a young child called "telephone", we sat in a circle and one word would derive from the first student and she/he would whisper it in the next childs ear and so on until it went around the class, all 30 students, by the time the word got to the end it was totally different.
17. What was the most interesting film you watched?
The time machine was definitely the most interesting film I have watched. I have so many questions about the time machine. I personally don't believe that someone can create a time machine to take you back in time or forward in time. And if we created such a machine, what would be the purpose of us using it? Could we go back in time to fix prior mistakes we've made? Can we go forward in time to view whats coming? If we were able to go back in time would our bodies change physically? Would we be the same age, just in a different time? I can go on and on with questions regarding the time machine and that is what makes it so interesting to me.
18. What was the most interesting reading?
Gumby Land was the most interesting reading to me, ofcourse thats if you argue to dis-believe or believe what you are reading. Its a contemplative reading, and it can have many arguments. I love reading articles that has different points of view. I myself dont believe in any guru, I think its all a sense of magic. Magicians have an affect on people, they make you use your brain and if you chose to believe the trick they have done then they have you in the palm of their hand. And to me thats what a guru does in a way.
19 What was the most unusual thing you learned this term?
The state of consciousness is the most unusual, only because of the way I think of the term consciousness. If consciousness is a sort of self-awareness then many things can be considered conscious even when they are not even human. With this new technology we have there are many devices we are introduced to that have consciousness. So does that mean our devices can be conscious too? For example my iphone has something called SIRI, I can talk to my iphone and siri can answer my questions. Anything I ask or say she will respond. And her responses are informal and very helpful. Does that mean my phone has a state of conciousness?
