why we battle to learn New ways with a closed mind
Bob Berman's Strange Universe: Can you imagine?
November 2009: In Galileo's time and in ours, some science concepts are inconceivable.
Bob Berman
Astronomy offers a wonderful blend of observing and imagining. We gaze at Saturn's rings. They're real, not abstract at all. Later we hear that its moon Titan has methane pools. Few of us have ever seen liquid methane, but supposedly it looks just like water, so we simply visualize a landscape of lakes and ice boulders. Titan is easy to imagine.
Then we read about string theory's 11 dimensions. What do we picture now? Nothing. Perhaps we feel we're not smart enough to visualize them. In reality, our school teachers neglected to reveal a vital fact about science: Some things cannot be imagined. Maybe we should know what they are.
Picture this: You're an astronaut on a planet with red polka-dot clouds. The surface is a vast rubber sheet. As you bounce along, you suddenly see a flock of flying bulldogs. The pack leader hovers in front of you like a hummingbird and speaks perfect English: "Welcome. Can you help settle a debate we're having?"
"Um, sure," you say.
The alpha bulldog whispers: "Who was the greatest baseball player of all time?"
You guess, "Ruth?" And that's what they all wanted to hear. The dogs excitedly bark, "Ruth! Ruth!" as they lick your face until you're covered with slobber.
The point isn't that I'll never make a living writing fiction. It's this: There's no such thing as polka-dot clouds, rubber planets, or flying dogs. Yet you had no trouble picturing the whole thing. That's because our minds can easily weave familiar elements into a new context. Titan's surface or flying dogs present no challenge for our imaginations.
But now consider Galileo's observations of Saturn's rings. Even after decades of studies, he never figured out what he was seeing. He thought the rings were like teacup handles. It took nearly half a century before Christiaan Huygens finally got it right. That's because Saturn's shape lay outside human experience. On Earth, there is no example of a ball surrounded by unattached rings. Spiral galaxies resemble nautilus shells, nebulae look like clouds, star clusters like spilt sugar. Alone among nature's marvels, Saturn had no analog.
A bear wanders past my window once or twice each year. At first glance, I always think: huge black dog. Then the truth hits. One's initial impulse is to perceive the familiar.
Conceptual struggles arise when there are no associations, no past experience.
We are all prisoners of our backgrounds and experiences. Conceptual struggles arise when, as with Galileo, there are no associations, no past experience. You cannot explain the color blue to a person born blind.
Equally inconceivable are any extra dimensions beyond the width, depth, and height of everyday 3-D objects. If additional "string" dimensions exist, they cannot be pictured — by anyone. We've all been "born blind" to them.
Then there's quantum theory, which has a virtual patent on the inconceivable. Quantum theory reveals objects' behaviors as neither logical nor illogical, but "non-logical." Say an electron has two possible routes from its source to a detector. The equipment shows it arrived, but it didn't follow path A or path B. It also didn't take neither path — if they're both blocked, the electron goes nowhere. Nor did it somehow occupy both. Because these are the only choices we can entertain, we're stumped. Not A, not B, not neither, and not both. It did something else. Physicists just shrug and say this particle was in a state of "superposition." But they can't imagine what that actually means.
Or consider the common question, "What is the universe expanding into?" People usually think of an inflating balloon. However, the correct way to visualize an expanding universe is to picture all galaxy clusters rushing directly away from you, no matter where you're located. This simply means that the space between galaxy clusters is growing larger everywhere.
If you instead picture the universe as if you were outside of it, you're making a mistake. Nothing exists beyond the universe, by definition. Because you cannot view it from the outside, that particular visual dilemma goes away.
Does this still leave unanswered questions? Sure. But any study of the universe as a whole must arrive at barriers where no further visualizations are available. That's just how it's set up. Infinity, the Big Bang zero moment, singularities, curved space, superposition: Many science ideas can be stated but not imagined. This is especially true of cosmology.
So don't ever feel insecure. Experts cannot do much better than you can. Cosmologists use more math and carry cause-and-effect relationships a few extra steps. But their endpoints are just as inconceivable as your own.
Once you accept this, you no longer feel stupid. Or else you feel more stupid.
Not sure which.
Read more of Bob Berman's Strange Universe
October 2009: A dozen cool facts
See an archive of Bob Berman's Strange Universe
ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Appeared in: November, 2009 issue of Astronomy Magazine
View the Table of Contents of the November 2009 Issue
This is very relevant to us in WA, where many times we find the public, politicians and law makers battling to understand how to do things differently, when they stuck in their closed minds.
In away many in WA are like the blind person who can not fathom how important colour is to the sighted person. So be it the same for the deaf to realize how sound & music is important to our daily lives.
We battle to change forward many things, be it daily stuff, to shopping hours, to how we police from fishing to thugs in night clubs. Yet in hind-sight we look back and say " how the hell did our parents do it with out mobile phones and laptop computers etc..." yet we just as blind to the advances of the future.
Kind of like catching fish without bait to my grandfather.... he would never believe I go fishing now without any bait, but a funny little rubbery thing with a hook hidden in it... Jigging to him would be what he did in his wood-work room...
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
.thumbnail.jpg "A nice feed")
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
wow.
thats a large post.
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Almost completely avoid of
Almost completely avoid of content.
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
mmm open your minds
mmm open your minds boys...
point I'm making is how to you tell a blind man, that colour coding is the best way to mark things, when all he understands is touch and hearing.
We battle to get people to accept and understand new ways to look after our state, cause they have no reference knowledge to base it on....
but then again, you probably clever and taking the p!ss out of me...lol
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17890
Date Joined: 11/03/08
what drugs are you on ? i
what drugs are you on ? i want some
. interesting thought tho, but instead of flying bulldogs , should have been rottwielers 
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
7739ian
Posts: 948
Date Joined: 25/06/08
Don't let Wrassinator see this
he gets a trifle unsettled by non piscatorial subjects - it IS a fishing site i suppose but if i was stuck in a jammed lift with people who only talked fishing i would be dribbling after a few hours.
I think as you get older you become aware of the changes that have occurred in your lifetime, even though unless momentous such as man walking on the moon, we merely note and accept them. To expect a politician to think outside the square and really try to make a difference is a fairly vain hope. In my life i have seen very few i admire - Sir David Brand, Bert Hawke, Tim Fisher and perhaps a couple of others spring to mind - not many in 58 years of slowly growing more cynical as hack politicians retire on the public tit and they are feted by their colleagues. Gareth Evans is acclaimed as one of Labor's great minds - i remember him as as a person who advocated dealing with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge rather than deal with Vietnam which was the only country with the guts to put a halt to the Killing Fields - Malcolm Fraser - now an "Eminent Person" - i still think about him as the fool wandering around a Memphis Motel in his underwear because "someone" stole his pants. With our adversarial politics and the crop of lightweights currently in power you could flag a good or original idea with flashing lights , bells and whistles and they still would not see it.
wrassinator
Posts: 554
Date Joined: 26/11/08
I will use an acronym this
I will use an acronym this time...just 4 u 7739ian
WTF ???
Shuddup an fish !! ;0-)
scottnofish
Posts: 1617
Date Joined: 28/08/07
you on the port again tony
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
WELL HOW ABOUT FREE
WELL HOW ABOUT FREE TRADE...??
Are you free to run a business in WA? Do we know the concept of free trade, with the restrictions on our way of business...
ps, Port comes from Portugal, what you legally may make in WA is fortified wine only... calling it port is actually not true.... but I have been hitting the Singha beer here..lol
Anyways as we banned from real fishing for a month & half still, I thought I would get some to think, instead of sit and wait for a tug on the line...lol
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
mako magic
Posts: 5785
Date Joined: 03/08/05
i hope not
i hope the comment about being banned from real fishing for a month and half, doesnt mean we will get another month and a half of this dribble LOL
catchalittle
Posts: 1875
Date Joined: 04/09/08
very true Tony in other
very true Tony in other words look outside the square box
Nathan
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
who said the box was
who said the box was square...you just presume so..
LOL
Mako,how the hell do I catch whitting on my Tiagra 30 or my Saltiga 4500???
I'm sure this ban was a plot by the BCF boys to sell more light tackle and small reels they had in stock, till the new stock of heavy tackle arrives...lol
Anyways, dribble is just a small stream, the true flow of the river knowledge is yours to find "Grasshopper on small hook"
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
hlokk
Posts: 4290
Date Joined: 04/04/08
You can still catch sambos
You can still catch sambos on the saltiga. As for the tiagra, thats a marlin reel, and they aint banned
(okay, okay, perhaps not overly easy to target in Perth).
Out of interest Tony, what do you use the Tiagra 30 for in Perth (genuine question, not all people use them for trolling for marlin)
NOHA
Posts: 914
Date Joined: 24/06/07
tiagra 30lwrs
Bass groper and other ooglies in 500 meters of water. its the only reel I have that holds enough line..lol
Twin turbo..V8 diesel..Ohh what a feeling!!
No Orange Hats Allowed
thebear
Posts: 246
Date Joined: 09/06/07
My brain hurts when there
My brain hurts when there are no pictures.
______________________________________________
I JUST LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING
MEMBER FFC BLOCK 212
CPBA MEMBER
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
does this help the
does this help the brain-pain...
*edited*
"optical illusion removed due to comments posted"
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
Jody
Posts: 1578
Date Joined: 19/04/07
tl :dr
WTF
*vomit smiley*
TWiZTED
Jody
Posts: 1578
Date Joined: 19/04/07
Serious
Sorry Tony, perhaps that was a tough harsh.
With all due respect tho, you have me baffled. You have nominated yourself for, in my opinion, a very important and complex role on the board for Recfishwest.
With post and comments like these, I fail to understand how you think we can and will take you seriously ....... :(
TWiZTED
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
Jody, another time and
Jody,
another time and another place we can discuss.
but I'll remove it.
Pity I can't get such a strong reaction out of people as they watch their fishing rights go up in smoke.
If you have read my CV for RFW you will see it will not be the first committee I have served on and some times I wonder why I bother going back for a second beating.
Maybe this state needs to lose all their rights to basic things we take for granted and when they all wake up sober one day and ask "where did it all go" come ask me to be serious.
Yes I banter a bit and yes you may see that post above as "not in good taste", but hey when I put up real factual stuff like the " Red Book- don't buy campaign" that has been very successfully used to get restaurants to stop over exploiting critical fish in many parts of the world, then I get not one comment....
So what does that tell you... go think about it sunshine and come back and tell me please.
oh just my opinion by the way.
go here and make a real comment Jody on why fishing ways and how we exploit our fishing resources before coming on at me!
http://fishwrecked.com/forum/i-am-looking-you-vote-rfw#comment-178986
I at least stood up to make a difference! And have given real world, tried and proven solutions...
not something for some bloody science major to go work on to get his doctorate like so many in so called fishing research. Big difference between research and protection application and that's what I stand for.
Ok, said my thing.
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
Jody
Posts: 1578
Date Joined: 19/04/07
what wank
Don't try and belittle me Tony .... I am an Australian woman, and WE do not bide tools lightly.
Your linked image was in total bad taste for a public fishing forum with many younger forum members, both male and female.
and yes, I've read your 'CV'
"Sunshine" my arse. Get an act!
TWiZTED
iana
Posts: 652
Date Joined: 21/09/09
Well I thought the picture was funny!
Stick with it Tony, don't let women beat you about. Quess you have learnt that to put up anything, that even smells of intelligence, on these forums is a dead end.
The spelling and grammer is zero, grade 1 stuff. Thinking is zero.
I agree you need to re think your stategy, your reasons and purpose. It would not be good to be doing this just because you are angry. Your debate may not turn out to be rational.
PS have you seen the girl surfacing and sounding like a whale?
Cheer up and forge ahead.
big john
Posts: 8728
Date Joined: 20/07/06
Barking up the wrong tree
Quote"Stick with it Tony, don't let women beat you about. Quess ??? you have learnt that to put up anything, that even smells of intelligence, on these forums is a dead end."End Quote
Iana, you've been a member of this forum for just over one month and already you've judged its members as being more interested in fluff than substance.
Definitely barking up the wrong tree there Iana. What I'm not interested in is pretentious banter and sexual innuendo, but hey, I'm only speaking for myself.
I didn't see Tony's deleted link, but if someone as level headed as Jody who fishes with the boys and takes part in a lot of good natured ribbing took offence to it, then I imagine it probably didn't belong here in the first place.
John
WA based manufacturer and supplier of premium leadhead jigs, fligs, bucktail jigs, 'bulletproof' soft plastic jig heads and XOS bullet jig heads.
Jigs available online in my web store!
Wally
Posts: 116
Date Joined: 13/09/06
hahahaha
I at least stood up to make a difference! And have given real world, tried and proven solutions...
not something for some bloody science major to go work on to get his doctorate like so many in so called fishing research. Big difference between research and protection application and that's what I stand for.
MMMMMMM where do i start, nah not worth it Tony after all data talks and bullsh&t walks remember that, oh the dog ate my proposal for 228, one of the most important fisheries papers that recs have ever had the chance to comment on AND YOU DIDNT DELIVER AFTER ALL YOUR RANTING
I reckon you and Frank will get on fine, you have my vote
Wal