Correlate, not cause

One of the factors human minds sometimes are misled by is correlates that are not causes.  Let’s say that we find that pickpockets are more often ambidextrous than the general population.  So: does favoring the use of both hands equally lead one into pickpocketry? 

That idea might be the focus of research for a while.  I am not trying to start a rumor about ambidextrians.  The internet says that genuine ambidextry occurs in about 1% of people.

One sentence

These days, I can open a book, read one sentence and wrestle with it, ponder it, oppose it, support it for quite a while.  The other day, something that Garrison Keillor wrote included these words:

“We live in interesting times, which sometimes are so absurdly interesting repeatedly day after day that a person gets tired of all fascination and takes a keener interest in the ordinary, such as I did last week …”

It may be the times but I think being older and having digital and electronic communication all have some effect, too

My first ride in a self-driving car

Friends picked us up for dinner last night.  They gave us our first ride in a Tesla self-driving car.  It was a little weird to see the steering wheel turn and twist with no hands on it.  The car had to take us through a busy intersection with a tricky traffic signal and then immediately turn left across a lane of traffic coming the other way.  It was smooth and impressive.  I am grateful for the experience.

"Incognito" by Eagleman

About ten years ago, I read “Incognito” by David Eagleman.  No other book has stayed in my mind as much since then.  There are many books with that title but this is non-fiction. It’s about our minds and our unconscious intelligences.  It made me see how my brain does many things “on its own” without me even noticing.  Breathing, using stairs, moving me out of the way of trucks, forming useful things to say - I use many skills without trying.

Big guy in the sky v. complex me

When I learned a little about Eastern thought, I didn’t see the properties of God explained or worshipful practice involving kneeling and supplication.  I am confident there is some of that, but I was impressed with the exploration of my use of my own mind and other aspects of my body and me.  I have written before about seeing in the campus schedule of classes, a class about relaxation.  I thought what do students do?  Relax for the whole period?  I have since learned that achieving genuine relaxation can be  difficult, given some circumstances and conditions.  Socrates is famous for his principle “Know thyself”, which is a big aspect of Eastern practice.

New types of mechanical devices

If you watch “The Closer” or “Major Crimes”, you see a team of LA police officers investigating.  One of the members of the group is “Buzz”.   He is not the usual officer but more of an equipment technician.  He takes various types of pictures and can modify, enlarge, slow down or speed up their showing. He is in steady demand, both at a crime scene and later back at the station.  In several fields of work, new and valuable equipment can assist in the analysis of events in ways that unaided police cannot.  In many fields, new types of technology accomplish things faster, more completely, more minutely with fewer errors than unaided humans can.

Look it up with Google

I probably look up some little thing in search.google.com four or five times a day.  I know this is the age of emerging artificial intelligence but so far, I find the power of the “search engine” much more applicable to my thinking.  What is Anthropic?  Do upper or lower teeth cause more trouble?  What is Mozart’s Queen of the Night so enraged at her daughter?  See ?  This is the type of deep, important question that comes to my mind and can be answered by Google Search.

Famous opera arias

Twice I have searched for the most popular opera arias and listened to them.  Nearly all the recordings are on YouTube.  The second time I did that I experienced an odd feeling, one of almost being drunk.  Elation, joy, happiness.  They are not all depictions of love or positive feelings.  Mozart’s The Magic Flute has a famous aria by the Queen of the Night.  It is beautiful and very memorable but it turns out the woman is enraged that her daughter refuses to murder a man the Queen deeply hates.  The Queen has commanded her own daughter to take this dagger and kill Sarastro. When the daughter, a grown woman, refuses to do so, the Queen flies into a deep rage, threatening to disown the daughter.

Who's tense?

One day, I was paging through the campus schedule of classes and I saw a class entitled “Relaxation”.  I had just finished a class that I had planned and lectured in.  I thought it must be much easier to teach students to lie down, be quiet and still and relax.  That was the beginning of my being aware that for some people in some circumstances, relaxation can be difficult to achieve.

I just looked up “are more men or women too tense” and found “Women experience anxiety disorders at nearly twice the rate of men. “ I also read that there comes a moment in a girl’s life when she realizes she is being looked at by a man.  The sort of looking could be judgemental, evaluative and the result could be negative!

Old news

I found out today that I am not in the popular wave.  I am not surprised nor uncomfortable.  I have been nerdy and out-of-fashion often.  Who else would buy an expensive watch and not wear it in favor of an older, cheaper watch?  Who else continues to email when texting is IN? Who else uses Google, Firefox, Duckduckgo and others several times a day to ask about tiny or weird issues? Who else prefers a low-cost laptop over a pocket-handy smartphone?