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Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#121

Post by b1daly »

lutusp wrote: post #65
randallsquared wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The mind is not -- cannot be -- a source of empirical evidence. Science requires empirical evidence. Since that's clearly not true of the brain's behavior, you seem to be making a claim that the mind is supernatural. Is that your position?

>> The mind is not -- cannot be -- a source of empirical evidence. Science requires empirical evidence. > Since that's clearly not true of the brain's behavior, you seem to be making a claim that the mind is supernatural. No, only that the mind is not a legitimate source of empirical evidence (a negative assertion). Consider the areas that science doesn't (cannot) cover, and notice what they have in common -- usually…

It's hard for me take this at face value given that I haven't heard that there is a scientific understanding of what the mind is. You seem to be asserting an unfalsifiable, almost axiomatic statement that the mind cannot produce empirical evidence. This flies in the face of common sense. To the extent that there is anything that can objectively be called the mind, as an agreed upon real thing there has to be empirical evidence produced by that thing. Otherwise the term has no descriptive power, and if I accept you assertion, I might as well reclassify things that I consider evidence of the mind (like utterances) to be evidence of something else. This something else is still there, in plain view by all (others behavior) and people present everyday at mental health clinics with very disturbing symptoms, every bit as real as a heart attack.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#122

Post by 300bps »

sown wrote: post #116
300bps wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just imagine how great at offending people I would be if I tried to offend them! I apologize in advance for the inevitable offense you will take from this comment.

It did turn into a contentious topic rather quickly, huh? :)

sillysaurus apparently realized he had a chip on his should because he deleted all 9 replies he had in this thread.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#123

Post by teddyh »

300bps wrote: post #49
spiritplumber wrote: post #16

semi-CSB that may be related: I often travel with electronic prototypes and/or custom parts, which can be really annoying if you have to cross an international border and go through customs. I found that the best way to get through it speedily is to also carry one of my Antbots, and go into sales pitch mode when asked to explain it. People will automatically want to get rid of a traveling salesman and the fastest way…

Yeah there's a number of techniques similar to that which get people to leave you alone. Here's my favorite: http://www.daily-comix.com/image/comic/small/1307/jesus-save...

As long as we're trading comic links - it can also be used as perimeter defense.

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff100/fv00014.htm

or as a method for private communication

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff800/fv00751.htm

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#124

Post by sown »

300bps wrote: post #122
sown wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did turn into a contentious topic rather quickly, huh? :)

sillysaurus apparently realized he had a chip on his should because he deleted all 9 replies he had in this thread.

Maybe. I have the habit of deleting all old content. Do you empathize with his position, though?

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#125

Post by devindotcom »

300bps wrote: post #84
amirmc wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I'm not sure if you read my comment before becoming offended by it." That post didn't read to me like he was in the slightest bit offended. It's simply making the point that if you view the world through a lens of "you can do anything if you just try" then there's a downside of becoming less compassionate as one might ascribe to laziness what may (more correctly) be ascribed to a genuine physical or mental inabili…

That post didn't read to me like he was in the slightest bit offended. He said that my post was belittling and he was resentful of it. That seems to be a textbook definition of offended. Please tell me how I misunderstood.

I am not offended. I wrote that the sentiment I described was belittling and people would resent it.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#126

Post by kybernetikos »

lutusp wrote: post #23
pradocchia wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

explain in neuroscientific terms Isn't that putting the cart before the horse? The article draws attention to a phenomenon that isn't predicted by current theory. Before a predictive theory has been developed, there is even some censorship or bias risk in using neuroscientific terms.

>> explain in neuroscientific terms > Isn't that putting the cart before the horse? Not in science. In science, the explanation is both the cart and the horse. No explanation, no science. Einstein didn't win a Nobel Prize for noting that electrons are emitted by a metal surface, he won for explaining why they are emitted. Had Einstein been a psychologist, publishing the fact that electrons are emitted (for simply des…

There are a number of people through the ages who have greatly advanced science by providing accurate observations. In fact, many scientists specialize in working out how to test the explanations of others.

It seems somewhat odd to say that Tycho Brahe was not doing science when he compiled unprecedentedly accurate astronomical tables that were the foundation for revolutions in the way we understand the universe, or to say that Arthur Eddington was not doing science when he measured the deflection of light during a solar eclipse.

The first (and many subsequent) Nobel prize in physics was given for a discovery, not an explanation.

Rutherford famously said "All science is either physics or stamp collecting", and I'm sure he meant to denigrate the stamp collecting aspect, but the fact is that it's absolutely key to science.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#127

Post by [deleted] »

clicks wrote: post #112
devindotcom wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy you have this ability, but suggesting that everyone else just isn't living up to their potential because of some mental block that you have supposedly (and accidentally) overcome is, perhaps, limiting your compassion. You are very lucky to have an exceptional memory; others are not so lucky, and must work hard to do what costs you no effort. Supposing they just aren't trying hard enough or are succumbing to…

I underwent a formal psychological evaluation a few years ago, my shrink informed me that I have incredibly bad memory (I was ranking in at 1-2 percentile for two or three different memory tests). But yet, I've also been able to memorize pi to about 50 digits, I've memorized the entire periodic table, and I've memorized whole poems in Latin (despite knowing very little Latin). The thing I've found to be true in my ca…

[deleted]

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#128

Post by smtddr »

smokeyj wrote: post #92
[deleted] wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

I'm sorry about your memory problem, but I think you're being a little sensitive. OP's point was simple: if you believe in yourself, you'll be in a better position to succeed. No, this doesn't guarantee success. But it's better than not believing you can. You're correct, your crippled grandma won't be able to walk because she believes she can. Unfortunately that wasn't OP's point.

I know I'm going to sound crazy, but sometimes I really wonder if "mind over matter" can make things that we've been made to believe impossible, is actually possible. Like, what if we could willpower ourselves out of a disability that even medical-science claims is impossible. Maybe we all just have to believe "there is no spoon". I'll admit that from time to time I try to move small objects by focusing on them. Maybe I watch too much anime...

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#129

Post by nerfhammer »

sown wrote: post #71
300bps wrote: post #45

In many cases, thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. I've noticed this is true in ever facet of my life. When I was 14, I memorized pi to 50 digits with almost no effort. Later, I memorized it to 100, then 200. I realized at that point that I could memorize anything that I wanted to. I memorize phone numbers, credit card numbers, everything with almost no effort and not using any mnemonic device.…

Others here are skeptical that just anyone can memorize pi to an arbitrary length. One way you can test if this has to do with you being 14 when this happened, is to memorize phi or e to 100, 200 or so digits with no mnemonic device. Or, maybe a string of random words or the contents of an entire magazine, each 100s of items long. It all depends on you being honest, but I'm curious. Maybe your brain has changed since…

People who have preternaturally good memories invariably turn out to have intuitively rediscovered classic mnemonic techniques at a young age and have used them semi-consciously without realizing it most of their lives.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#130

Post by vehementi »

xauronx wrote: post #102
300bps wrote: post #45

In many cases, thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. I've noticed this is true in ever facet of my life. When I was 14, I memorized pi to 50 digits with almost no effort. Later, I memorized it to 100, then 200. I realized at that point that I could memorize anything that I wanted to. I memorize phone numbers, credit card numbers, everything with almost no effort and not using any mnemonic device.…

Man, this is so disappointing that everyone shits on you for this post. Just like most negative internet forums, you end up with one person putting themselves out there and telling about their experience and then 100 people criticizing everything about it (and plenty of stuff they made up about it). Anyhow, I think your root sentiment is valid (that most people are only limited by what they believe they can accomplis…

I see this a lot on HN, people embarrassing themselves by totally missing the point of some post / article / blog / whatever and raging about the tone or taking issue with some particular usage.

Oh no, this guy maybe over reached in his assumption about how well general people can memorize numbers! Better make ourselves look like idiots and go wildly off point about it!

Check out the thread about that guy's blog "Kids these days can't use computers" as a prime example :(

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