Jason Lubyk: You state in Sex, Drugs, Einstein and Elves that ‘if certain computer languages are more suited for modularity, size, speed or ease of use, could certain human languages be optimized for human growth potential, creativity, memorability, or for communicating one thoughts and emotions.’ Have you ever speculated what forms these languages would take, what would differentiate them from our existing languages?
Clifford Pickover: If language and words do shape our thoughts and tickle our neuronal circuits in interesting ways, I sometimes wonder how a child would develop if reared using an ‘invented’ language that was somehow optimized for mind-expansion, emotion, logic, or some other attribute. Perhaps our current language, which evolved chaotically through the millennia, may not be the most ‘optimal’ language for thinking big thoughts or reasoning beyond the limits of our own intuition.
I am not certain what form these special languages would take. However, such languages would probably be most effective if introduced when a child is young – at a time when language acquisition seems to take place more efficiently and effectively. This is a fascinating area of contemplation, given that debates still take place as to whether the biological contribution to our language abilities includes language-specific capacities, such as a universal grammar, which may constrain us. I also wonder if we would need different languages for the differing purposes of memorabilty, creativity, empathy and so forth. Incidentally, we already know that mathematical ‘languages’ can help us reason more clearly – at least for some kinds of mathematical contemplations – than traditional languages.
Because adults will not be fluent in this new language, they might not be good teachers of the language to children. Perhaps artificial entities will be required for the teaching task.
Tagparanormal
his is their latest USB, with a ghost detector attached. If it detects a shift in the magnetic waves within a room an alarm sounds and lights on the unit flash.
There are six different Ghost Radars and they cost between $60 for 128MB and $220 for 4GB.
(Thanks Tasha!)
More strange USB devices: Solid Alliance.
a French architect says that after studying the pyramids for eight years, he has solved the mystery with the help of 3-D computer animation.
Jean Pierre Houdin believes the pyramids were built from the inside out, through an internal spiral ramp.
“This is completely new. Everyone [before] me thought that the pyramid was built from the outside, only the outside,” Houdin said.
France became the first country to open its files on UFOs on Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1600 sightings spanning five decades.
The online archives, which will be updated as new cases are reported, catalogues in minute detail cases ranging from the easily dismissed to a handful that continue to perplex even hard-nosed scientists.
“It is a world first,” says Jacques Patenet, the aeronautical engineer who heads the office for the study of “non-identified aerospatial phenomena.”
(Thanks Fell!)
The Ministry of Defence funded a secret study to ascertain whether people with psychic powers could help protect the nation, it emerged last night.
The MoD arranged the tests to discover whether volunteers were able to use psychic powers to “remotely view” hidden objects. The studyinvolved blindfolding test subjects and asking them to “see” the contents of sealed brown envelopes containing pictures of random objects and public figures. […]
Surprisingly 28 per cent of those tested managed a close guess at the contents of the envelopes, which included pictures of a knife, Mother Teresa and an “Asian individual”.
But most subjects, who were holed up in a secret location for the study, were hopelessly off the mark in their guesses. One even fell asleep while he tried to focus on the envelope’s content.
Full Story: Scotsman (via Hit and Run).
In response to the 10 most puzzling ancient artifacts post, Bill Whitcomb says:
OOPARTS (out of place artifacts) happens to be one of my favorite areas of pointless speculation. Some of them, like the Greek calculator and the stone sphere are what they seem to be. That is, the Antikythera device was the product of someone brilliant, but was totally within the abilities of period craftsmen, providing someone could design it.
Others, such as the Dropa stones are more cryptic.
The problem with many of these reports, such as various things found in coal, is that they were found in the 19th century and were not documented in any verifiable way. Someone CLAIMS they saw the thing fall out of a lump of coal and, often as not, the artifact itself has been misplaced.
There’s tons of this stuff in the book, Forbidden Archeology:
Here are also a few related OOPART sites:
http://www.earth-house.com/Green_Homes/Mystery_Travel/Ooparts/ooparts.html
Do people meet alien entities on DMT because they expect to meet alien entities? It’s not an idle question, it’s grounds for a fun experiment, too. From the Rodruigez paper:
To validate or falsify this hypothesis, the experimenter should perform a single blind study in which human subjects are used who have never heard of DMT and its extraordinary effects on the human psyche. These subjects are told that DMT inebriation will provide them solely a visual and auditory hallucination. By simply defining the experience as that experienced in front of the veil, the ill-informed subject will have no preconception as to what is possible given the right conditions for entering into the DMT-induced alternate reality. If subjects continually return only to describe the world in font of the veil, then it can be concluded that the DMT experience can be influenced by biasing the subject. In this sense, the hallucination is driven by preconceptions and therefore may be understood solely as an inconsistent subjective hallucination. On the other hand, if the inexperienced human subjects return with testimonies of encounters with alien beings, then DMT is responsible for alien entity experiences. It is noted that this experiment has already been implemented with positive results. Dr. Strassman’s work used unassuming human subjects that did, in fact, return from DMT inebriation with entity experiences (Strassman 2001).
The Grooved Spheres
The Dropa Stones
The Ica Stones
The Antikythera Mechanism
The Baghdad Battery
The Coso Artifact
Ancient Model Aircraft
Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
Impossible Fossils
Out-of-Place Metal Objects
My favorites are the the Antikythera Mechanism and the Baghdad Battery.
What the HELL was going on in Omaha in 1989?
Why was all of Wilhelm Reich’s research burned by the FDA?
Why did Rev. Moon get to crown himself ‘King of the World’ in a ceremony that was attended by members of congress and the Bush administration and held in a congressional building in Washington, DC?
From one of my new favorite sites, Brainsturbation.
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