Occams Razor

[Telarus]

Imagine being able to answer the question "Is the universe infinite?"

The observable universe is finite, with a radius of (speed of information) * (age of universe).

How do you square this with Bucky's "Universe is non-simultaneously apprehended," which has ramifications for any single viewpoint, as well as the quality of the multiplicity-of-viewpoints the statement requires?

[Triple Zero]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NinetyPercentOfYourBrain

I find the source of your link questionable.

Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth

I wasn't assuming you were talking about this, btw.

The basic gist is that we only use (about) 10% of the brain at once, in the sense that it is active. But that 10% is not always the same 10%.

Maybe we're still not using our brains to our full capacity, though. I can't really say. But if it were the case, it would probably be more like how we also don't use our full running capacity all the time. If there are large gains in capacity to be made, I think they'd get you real tired, confused or burnt out, real quick.

[LMNO]

This was said above, but I just wanted to add my take on it.

"Genius" as I think it's being used here, is (to be very broad and general) a deliberate act of cognitive dissonance, to shove two opposite or conflicting ideas together until something new pops out. 

"Insanity" as I think it's being used here, is (to be very broad and general) an involuntary act of cognitive dissonance.

Another way to put it is that in genius, the end result of the dissonance is recognized as an idea or a new perspective, but in insanity, the dissonance is recognized as reality itself.


THIS SENTENCE IS A DISCLAIMER AND AN APOLOGY TO THOSE ON THIS BOARD WHO MAY BE SUFFERING FROM POSSIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSES THAT COULD BE CONSTRUED AS "ABNORMAL" AND ARE OFFENDED BY MY USE OF THE WORD "INSANITY".

[Golden Applesauce]

Imagine being able to answer the question "Is the universe infinite?"

The observable universe is finite, with a radius of (speed of information) * (age of universe).

How do you square this with Bucky's "Universe is non-simultaneously apprehended," which has ramifications for any single viewpoint, as well as the quality of the multiplicity-of-viewpoints the statement requires?

I'm not sure what Fuller meant with that statement, but I think I can answer the multiplicity-of-viewpoints part.  The observable universe has a radius of (speed of information) * (age of universe), centered on any point you choose.  So two observers in different locations and/or traveling at different velocities physically live in two different observable universes.  (Weirdly, if person A attempts to communicate this to person B, then when B receives the message the observable universe centered on B will encompass the universe that was around A when he sent the message.)

I'm being far to literal, aren't I?

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Imagine being able to answer the question "Is the universe infinite?"

The observable universe is finite, with a radius of (speed of information) * (age of universe).

How do you square this with Bucky's "Universe is non-simultaneously apprehended,"...

"Universe is non-simultaneously apprehended"²


Like that....

[LMNO]

Or, "Bucky was full of shit."



I mean, it's a possibility...

[Adios]

Ok, Any other ideas why the line between genius and insanity is so fine?

[Triple Zero]

"Insanity" as I think it's being used here, is (to be very broad and general) an involuntary act of cognitive dissonance.

except when you're P3NT4GR4M, I guess :-P

THIS SENTENCE IS A DISCLAIMER AND AN APOLOGY TO THOSE ON THIS BOARD WHO MAY BE SUFFERING FROM POSSIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSES THAT COULD BE CONSTRUED AS "ABNORMAL" AND ARE OFFENDED BY MY USE OF THE WORD "INSANITY".

FUCK YOU I AM SUFFERING FROM GENIUS

[LMNO]

Ok, Any other ideas why the line between genius and insanity is so fine?

Because the action is similar, but the intent is not?

[Adios]

Ok, Any other ideas why the line between genius and insanity is so fine?

Because the action is similar, but the intent is not?

It is previously known that highly creative abilities are somewhat more common in people who have familial history of mental illness and thus carry a greater risk of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.


So we add genes into the mix as well.

"A lower reading, common to both highly creative people and schizophrenics, may afford a greater richness of thought, less filtering of information and thus the ability to make more associations, in more ways. Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box."

This seems to back up what you are saying.

this sounds like.....conceptual thinking...letting the mind wander, instead of focusing it.

[LMNO]

Ok, Any other ideas why the line between genius and insanity is so fine?

Because the action is similar, but the intent is not?

I think the word "intent" isn't quite right.  More like, some people can control, or understand, or separate, or meta-think it, and some people can't, for whatever reason.

[Adios]

Ok, Any other ideas why the line between genius and insanity is so fine?

Because the action is similar, but the intent is not?

I think the word "intent" isn't quite right.  More like, some people can control, or understand, or separate, or meta-think it, and some people can't, for whatever reason.

I understood where you were going with it.

So schizophrenics are understood possibly to have uncontrolled conceptual thinking, in turn could autism be the result of uncontrolled linear thinking?

[LMNO]

I'd be wary of parallels like that; then again, I don't really know enough about autism.  I've had some experience with schizophrenia though (though not personally).

[Adios]

I'd be wary of parallels like that; then again, I don't really know enough about autism.  I've had some experience with schizophrenia though (though not personally).

Oh, I am not positing it as fact, merely a possibility. I am still trying to sort through a mountain of information on the subject.

[eighteen buddha strike]

There is a bit in the Illuminatus trilogy about this subject, as I recall, Carl Jung states that the difference between genius and insanity is comparable to the difference between swimming and drowning.