Overanalysis – Harmonia Philosophica

Citizens’ science… Nothing to do with science…

Photo by **Ludvig Hedenborg** from **Pexels**

Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have helped to overturn almost a century of galaxy classification, in a new study using data from the longstanding Galaxy Zoo project. The new investigation uses classifications of over 6000 galaxies to reveal that ‘well known’ correlations between different features are not found in this large and complete sample. (1)

By encoding their specialized knowledge into a computer game, researchers enabled citizen scientists to successfully design synthetic proteins for the first time. (2)

Science was once upon a time something for the elite few. Now it is a matter of everyone. Science was once upon a time related to wisdom. Now it is related to date analysis. Science was once upon a time part of our belief in God. Now we just believe in us. We used to be part of God. Knowing everything by bring part of it. Now we observe the million pieces we have created. At the end we will know everything. But not everything that there is. But everything that we want them to be. For we are not actually observing anything. But we have set up mirrors. To observe our selves… Through the looking glass…

Small tiny people…

Classifying galaxies…

Measuring the cosmos… Ghosts and numbers…

A groundbreaking experiment in physics has for the first time provided a precise measurement of a force between electrons and protons called the weak nuclear force. The value 0.0719 (give or take 0.0045) won’t mean much to most of us, but the way they did it makes way for some exciting possibilities for pushing physics beyond the scope of the Standard Model. (1)

We want to measure things in order to believe them. But it is only the truly blessed who believe things without measuring them.

The cosmos is not in numbers.

The essence of the cosmos lies in the irrationality of the numbers’ existence itself. Nothing in the universe is measurable, besides the things which do not belong in it. Only ghosts need tangible “data” for them to exist. Everything else just Is…

Look at π. It does not exist.

And yet, it governs everything…

A man draws circles on the ground.

He will never be able to measure its circumference.

And yet… Here it is…

(the circle, not the man)

Too many questions…

How do our personalities develop? What do we come with and what is built from our experiences? Once developed, how does personality work? These questions have been steeped in controversy for almost as long as psychology has existed.

In an article in Psychological Review, Carol Dweck tackles these issues. She proposes that our personalities develop around basic needs, and she begins by documenting the three basic psychological needs we all come with: the need to predict our world, the need to build competence to act on our world, and, because we are social beings, the need for acceptance from others. (She also shows how new needs emerge later from combinations of these basic needs.)

Infants arrive highly prepared to meet these needs – they are brilliant, voracious learners on the lookout for need-relevant information. Then, as infants try to meet their needs, something important happens. They start building beliefs about their world and their role in it: Is the world good or bad, safe or dangerous? Can I act on my world to meet my needs? These beliefs, plus the emotions and action tendencies that are stored with them, are termed “BEATs”. They represent the accumulated experiences people have had trying to meet their needs, and they play a key role in personality – both the invisible and the visible parts of personality. (1)

A seemingly elegant theory.

But imagine you are being thrown into an unknown forest.

Waking up among big tall trees. Listening to the silence.

Afraid of the darkness.

What would be your first thought?

How to predict? How to act? How to become… accepted?

Or the simple and raw questions… Where am I? Who am I?

It is easy to get lost in the forest.

If you only look at the millions of trees.

We have lost our ability to ask the right questions.

Because we ask too many…

Mapping the genome. The illusion of “dimensions”…

Cells face a daunting task. They have to neatly pack a several meter-long thread of genetic material into a nucleus that measures only five micrometers across. This origami creates spatial interactions between genes and their switches, which can affect human health and disease. Now, an international team of scientists has devised a powerful new technique that ‘maps’ this three-dimensional geography of the entire genome. Their paper is published in Nature. (1)

We like analyzing things.

So we have “discovered” dimensions.

And the more we analyze, the more dimensions seem to be there.

From the extra dimension of time to the extra dimensions of new physics’ theories to adding dimensions of analysis of human behavior or to adding dimensions in the ways genome is mapped or in the ways it expresses itself, we are all doing the same thing over and over again: Adding complexity to a simple world. We may name it “Discovering complexity” but in reality, all this ‘discovery’ is just in our mind.

Humans were on Earth for millions of years.

The genome was there all the time.

With no maps. No dimensions.

Expressing itself.

Part of a human.

Part of a cosmos.

So in essence, it was never there.

Because there was no human.

There was no self in the first place.

There was no genome.

Just the cosmos.

Expressing itself.

The map is empty.

See?

Diseases. Symptoms. Analysis. Over-analysis…

Ten finalists have been chosen in a $10m (£6m) competition to develop a real-life “tricorder” – the medical scanner used in the Star Trek series.

The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, launched last year, challenges anyone to develop a wireless device capable of detecting a range of diseases.

The technology employs sensors and imaging to measure vital signs and diagnose conditions non-invasively. (1)

We like to analyze things. But we are whole. And when balance is lost, one cannot blame just one thing.

Choose to give 10$ million to over analyze symptoms.
Or choose to see what is in front of your eyes for free…

It is your choice.

Make it count.