Better information. Worst decisions.

Making everyday decisions seems easy enough. But new research from Stevens Institute of Technology suggests that too much knowledge can lead people to make worse decisions, pointing to a critical gap in our understanding of how new information interacts with prior knowledge and beliefs.

Kleinberg and her team, found that when the problem was about something they were already familiar with (like finances and retirement, for example) people became less confident in their choices and made worse decisions, suggesting that their prior knowledge got in the way of choosing the best outcome. (1)

Arrogant man.

Let your instinct guide you.

Feel your feelings.

There is God inside everything you don’t know.

You have been wandering in this forest forever.

And within the mist of ignorance.

Beyond rivers you cannot see.

Beyond places you wished they’d never be.

You keep walking.

Knowing a clearing will soon come to thee.

Not because of what you know.

But especially because you have never seen one…

Not seeing the tree… 

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

Researchers have shown how it is possible that objects stand out less when they are surrounded by similar objects. This surroundings-suppressing effect is caused by feedback from higher visual brain areas. The results of this research are important for a better understanding of the way in which the brain transforms incoming light into a cohesive image. (1

Wasn’t it obvious? 

That what we do not see is obvious? 

Being part of a vast ocean. 

Isn’t it logical that you cannot see individual drops? 

Living in a universe being. 

Isn’t is reasonable that we cannot see consciousness? 

In the forest of obvious. 

Isn’t it obvious… 

That anything obvious is not? 

Watch out for what you do not see. 

It is the only thing you do! 

New force…

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

Everything in our Universe is held together or pushed apart by four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, and two nuclear interactions. Physicists now think they’ve spotted the actions of a fifth physical force emerging from a helium atom.

It’s not the first time researchers claim to have caught a glimpse of it, either. A few years ago, they saw it in the decay of an isotope of beryllium. Now the same team has seen a second example of the mysterious force at play – and the particle they think is carrying it, which they’re calling X17.

The team seems to discover a new particle the characteristics of which suggested it had to be a completely new kind of fundamental boson. We currently know of four fundamental forces, and we know that three of them have bosons carrying their messages of attraction and repulsion.

This new boson couldn’t possibly be one of the particles carrying the four known forces, thanks to its distinctive mass of (17 megaelectronvolts, or about 33 times that of an electron), and tiny life span (of about 10 to the minus 14 seconds).

But physics isn’t keen on celebrating prematurely. Finding a new particle is always big news in physics, and warrants a lot of scrutiny. Not to mention repeated experiment. (1)

Humans lost in their quest for more knowledge.

New particles.

New forces.

New… whatever we know already.

Modern physics looks the cosmos through its own lenses. And interprets everything accordingly. When something is not in place, it seeks to fill in the puzzle with a new piece. And it searches for that new piece in – where else? – this things it already knows. So like a stupid uroborus ofis (Gr. Ουροβόρος όφις) it keeps on verifying itself by looking for answers back to… itself.

Don’t you see?

There is nothing which you see that you have not seen already…

And in the beginning you were blind.

It is just that we need a new Einstein to tell us so.

Blurry images…

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

The ghost imaging technique forms an image by correlating a beam that interacts with the object and a reference beam that does not. Individually, the beams don’t carry any meaningful information about the object. The imaging technique works with visible light, x-rays and other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and, when the structured light beams are generated computationally with spatial light modulators, can be performed with a low-cost single-pixel detector instead of a complex, expensive camera.

To apply ghost imaging to moving objects, the new method uses a small number of light patterns to capture the position and trajectory of the object. The researchers developed an algorithm to cross correlate this positional information with blurred images captured at different positions, allowing a clear image to be gradually formed. (1)

Looking at a blurry image.

Making it clearer with time.

The more you know, the more clear it gets.

But no matter how much we clear the initially blurry picture.

The fact will remain that when you first looked at it…

The picture WAS blurry…

And what is important is not that you saw it at the end.

But that you wanted to anyway see through it even though you saw nothing…

Do you get it now?

It is you who painted the picture.

Learning new words…

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

Children may learn new words better when they learn them in the context of other words they are just learning – according to research from the University of East Anglia.

Eighty two children took part in the study. In two experiments the team taught them some new words for things they couldn’t name – such as honey-dippers and strainers. Dr Samuelson said: “We practiced these new words until they knew the honey-dipper was called a ‘zeb’ and the strainer was a ‘yok’. We then showed them a new thing – a bird toy – in the context of either the objects they knew well (a ball and a car) or things they had only just learned to name (the ‘zeb’ honey-dipper and ‘yok’ strainer).

“When we asked them to get the ‘blick’, they were good at linking this new word to the bird-toy when it was presented with the familiar things, and with the just learned things.”

But, after a five minute colouring break, the children were not so good at remembering what a ‘blick’ was when they had learned it in the context of objects they already knew. (and did better when they had initially leaned the word in the context of the less well-known things — the ‘zeb’ honey dipper and the ‘yok’ strainer). “We had expected that a stronger knowledge of familiar words would be better for learning new words, but we found the opposite was true” claim the researchers.

“It seems counterintuitive, but it is perhaps because the less well-known items don’t compete with the new words as much. If they learn new words in the context of playing with well-known items such as a ball, book or car, they don’t process the new word as much.” (1)

Remembering things. Learning new things. Forgetting others.

The best way to learn is to unlearn.

The best way to remember new things is to forget the old ones.

New things will then become old.

And soon, they will too be forgotten in the quest for knowledge.

Babies we will be once more.

To view the cosmos as it is.

At the moment we are old and die…

And for the first time we will see.

That this is not the first time we see…

Exit mobile version
%%footer%%