Human perceptions are arbitrary, even accidental outgrowths of the story of our species. They're the invisible variable that shapes everything in our history. Can we change them?
Wow. Fluency under pressure in the clip, which I assume was “live”!
Congratulations on the launch (I will receive mine Thursday in the UK). Nice one on the mantis shrimp which I first discovered through The Oatmeal comics.
My preorder (Canada) arrived today and it feels like Christmas! I started reading today and it’s fantastic. Congratulations!
Your essay today reminded me of Ed Yong’s ´An Immense World.’ It’s both humbling to recognize the limits of our human umwelt but also expansive. Acknowledging one’s ignorance is key to intellectual growth. Why pursue knowledge if you know it all?
Designing experiments to understand another animal’s perceptions is difficult because you have to design them from that animal’s perspective and not a human’s. This suggests that imagination is essential to scientific data studies. Thought provoking essay; thanks.
Book has landed. Next in line after two from the library with time limits.
Anecdotal and possibly irrelevant comment. I know that dogs have far fewer taste receptors than humans. But I swear that my dachshund, for what he CAN taste, can taste it down the the last molecule. I drop food on my self, clean it off, even with soap and water. Dog spends huge amount of time licking that very spot. Till I kick him off the sofa.
Is there research on the variations of sensitivity among what receptors we have?
FYI: in case there are significant number of people with this issue : I received a notice from Amazon saying that because of supply chain issues they don’t know when I will get my book! Gah. I ordered it 10/5/23....
It seems that Amazon may have had a mess up - the fastest way to resolve it may be to cancel your order and re-order the book. You should be given a full refund. Only a small number of people were affected...but that’s the advice I received. I’m very sorry about this!
Perception becomes reality no matter what the underlying facts and data may be. In your examples we cannot see UV or IR or we cannot see bacteria or microbes with the naked eye, but they are there. The issue is we know they are there now because we can observe them with other instruments and tools.
But let’s expand this to misinformation and hyper-Balkanized media sources. Perception is reality, but in this case the perception is not considering what we could visibly see and verify. Instead of being “color blind” many people are “cognitively blind” leading to being “information and data blind” because that part of their brain has been shut off. Why it is shut off? Fear, anger, resentment, insecurity, and brainwashing via misinformation among other things. This new “cognitive blindness” has taken the idea that we can agree on what is, but differ in what it means or shows to not even agreeing on basic facts despite the evidence in front of us.
Love this! I really am attracted to the same topics you are (and excited to get shipped Fluked this week) i’m also writing a piece on “Sense and Perspective” with a bit more focus on how sensory differences roll up into cognitive differences and how cognitive differences and patterns inform ideology and political preference.
Researching, I was fascinated to read a scientific perspective that dichromat colorblind individuals likely have a visual experience practically as rich as those with “full color” vision due to brain plasticity. Just a different one. With less inputs to work with and similar processing power, the colorblind brain becomes more adept at processing the more narrow bandwidth visual signal, allowing for finer resolution and gradation. Consequently, color blind individuals tend to have stronger night vision. It is believed that approx 10% of males have colorblindness not due to random disability or chance but rather as a polymorphism. Groups with diversity in color perception are advantaged with broader overall visual ability due to these differences, an evolutionary advantage for the group, though perhaps a slight disadvantage for the individual.
But until we can climb into another person’s head, maybe around the corner with mind-machine interface, we can only speculate what others conscious experience feels like. But due to plasticity, the richness of the overall experience is likely rather similar given similar brain computing power. Just processed differently.
And if its true that sensory impulses are the basis of all thought, which seems compelling to me, individual sensory differences literally shape the way we think. I’m finding fascinating corollaries between left-right politics and stress responses.
Brian, I assume you've heard this from your publisher, but I just received an email from Amazon that warned me that delivery of your book is delayed. Furthermore, I had to reaffirm delivery. If folks who have pre-ordered Fluke from Amazon, fail to reaffirm the order will be cancelled!
It seems that Amazon may have had a mess up - the fastest way to resolve it may be to cancel your order and re-order the book. You should be given a full refund. Only a small number of people were affected...but that’s the advice I received. I’m very sorry about this!
Just an update. Cancellation and reordering was fairly painless. Apparently they don't change your account until they ship, so no harm, no foul. Good luck with the rollout. My copy should be here by Saturday.
Wow. Fluency under pressure in the clip, which I assume was “live”!
Congratulations on the launch (I will receive mine Thursday in the UK). Nice one on the mantis shrimp which I first discovered through The Oatmeal comics.
My preorder (Canada) arrived today and it feels like Christmas! I started reading today and it’s fantastic. Congratulations!
Your essay today reminded me of Ed Yong’s ´An Immense World.’ It’s both humbling to recognize the limits of our human umwelt but also expansive. Acknowledging one’s ignorance is key to intellectual growth. Why pursue knowledge if you know it all?
Designing experiments to understand another animal’s perceptions is difficult because you have to design them from that animal’s perspective and not a human’s. This suggests that imagination is essential to scientific data studies. Thought provoking essay; thanks.
Fascinating article. Always look forward to your discoveries.
Thanks
Book has landed. Next in line after two from the library with time limits.
Anecdotal and possibly irrelevant comment. I know that dogs have far fewer taste receptors than humans. But I swear that my dachshund, for what he CAN taste, can taste it down the the last molecule. I drop food on my self, clean it off, even with soap and water. Dog spends huge amount of time licking that very spot. Till I kick him off the sofa.
Is there research on the variations of sensitivity among what receptors we have?
I have no idea but I’m sure it exists! Great question!
FYI: in case there are significant number of people with this issue : I received a notice from Amazon saying that because of supply chain issues they don’t know when I will get my book! Gah. I ordered it 10/5/23....
Argh I’m so sorry - this seems to be a small number of people affected by it but I’ve flagged it.
It seems that Amazon may have had a mess up - the fastest way to resolve it may be to cancel your order and re-order the book. You should be given a full refund. Only a small number of people were affected...but that’s the advice I received. I’m very sorry about this!
I guess it’s a fluke. Will do.
Just got Fluke...can’t wait to read it!
Perception becomes reality no matter what the underlying facts and data may be. In your examples we cannot see UV or IR or we cannot see bacteria or microbes with the naked eye, but they are there. The issue is we know they are there now because we can observe them with other instruments and tools.
But let’s expand this to misinformation and hyper-Balkanized media sources. Perception is reality, but in this case the perception is not considering what we could visibly see and verify. Instead of being “color blind” many people are “cognitively blind” leading to being “information and data blind” because that part of their brain has been shut off. Why it is shut off? Fear, anger, resentment, insecurity, and brainwashing via misinformation among other things. This new “cognitive blindness” has taken the idea that we can agree on what is, but differ in what it means or shows to not even agreeing on basic facts despite the evidence in front of us.
Love this! I really am attracted to the same topics you are (and excited to get shipped Fluked this week) i’m also writing a piece on “Sense and Perspective” with a bit more focus on how sensory differences roll up into cognitive differences and how cognitive differences and patterns inform ideology and political preference.
Researching, I was fascinated to read a scientific perspective that dichromat colorblind individuals likely have a visual experience practically as rich as those with “full color” vision due to brain plasticity. Just a different one. With less inputs to work with and similar processing power, the colorblind brain becomes more adept at processing the more narrow bandwidth visual signal, allowing for finer resolution and gradation. Consequently, color blind individuals tend to have stronger night vision. It is believed that approx 10% of males have colorblindness not due to random disability or chance but rather as a polymorphism. Groups with diversity in color perception are advantaged with broader overall visual ability due to these differences, an evolutionary advantage for the group, though perhaps a slight disadvantage for the individual.
But until we can climb into another person’s head, maybe around the corner with mind-machine interface, we can only speculate what others conscious experience feels like. But due to plasticity, the richness of the overall experience is likely rather similar given similar brain computing power. Just processed differently.
And if its true that sensory impulses are the basis of all thought, which seems compelling to me, individual sensory differences literally shape the way we think. I’m finding fascinating corollaries between left-right politics and stress responses.
Thanks for the awesome insights as usual. Cheers!
Brian, I assume you've heard this from your publisher, but I just received an email from Amazon that warned me that delivery of your book is delayed. Furthermore, I had to reaffirm delivery. If folks who have pre-ordered Fluke from Amazon, fail to reaffirm the order will be cancelled!
It seems that Amazon may have had a mess up - the fastest way to resolve it may be to cancel your order and re-order the book. You should be given a full refund. Only a small number of people were affected...but that’s the advice I received. I’m very sorry about this!
Just an update. Cancellation and reordering was fairly painless. Apparently they don't change your account until they ship, so no harm, no foul. Good luck with the rollout. My copy should be here by Saturday.
Sorry about that mess up. I’m looking into it but thank you for being such an early supporter (it was the first people to order who faced this issue).
Ok thanks Brian. I'll go try to straighten this out with the vast, soulless, behemoth.
Can you please reply to the newsletter email with details of this so I can check it out? I hadn’t seen this from anyone else!
I forwarded a copy of the Amazon email to you.