Even Odder PerceptionsRoutledge, 27. 3. 2017 - Počet stran: 282 Why did Newton struggle for thirty years to make gold by alchemy – and then become Master of the Mint? Why do we blush? Why do we have illusions? In this collection of essays, originally published in 1994, Richard Gregory once again delights and tantalizes with tales of his childhood, his family and friends, the famous and the infamous, and weaves them into a rich pattern to illuminate scientific principles and puzzles. If you can put the book down, each essay is complete on its own, but they are united by the magic of human perception. From seeing and hearing to feeling and believing, from the shape of traffic signs to knowledge of quantum mechanics, all our interactions with the outside world are mediated by perception. Our knowledge is further distilled by the machines which help our own biological mechanisms, like microscopes and telescopes, electric light, and even more powerfully by computer technology. But if the natural structures of perception can affect our interpretation of the world, how much more dramatically might science education and tools of information technology enhance – though sometimes mislead – our perception of reality? Even Odder Perceptions may not have all the answers, but it certainly poses more questions. |
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... surely, his interest for us – making him relevant now, long after the death of his creator, the bard, and the demise of the society in which Hamlet's actions (had he ever lived) would have had any direct effect. Is it important that ...
... Surely Hamlet is so interesting because it is rich with hinted possibilities . We see the prince ( though he never lived ) as a man , and we are privileged to share the dramatic tensions of his doubts and conflicts preceding the ...
... Surely we all create ourselves write our own parts , stage our own performances throughout life . We become very different at home or at work ; with intimate friends or formal colleagues ; playing with children ; playing host or guest ...
... surely this should apply to Shakespeare rather than to Hamlet); that if this were so, Hamlet wouldn't have hesitated to kill his uncle while at prayer, to save his enemy's soul from going to Heaven; that (though here again I would have ...
... surely science will look askance at such a misuse of its methods, and literature will suffer as its characters drown and are lost in a meaningless sea of rules. In the year Hamlet was written the telescope was invented, allowing a close ...
Obsah
1 | |
2 | |
IS SCIENCE GOOD FOR THE SOUL? | |
CRACKS OF DOOM AND KUHN | |
AT FIRST SIGHT | |
SENSES OF HUMOUR | |
ZAP | |
VIRTUALLY REAL | |
QUESTIONS OF QUANTA AND QUALIA | |
WHAT ARE PERCEPTIONS MADE | |
A NUMBER OF IDEAS | |
MIND IN A BLACK | |
WHAT IS THE CATCH IN NEURAL NETS? | |
AT FIRST BLUSH | |
SOUND SAGA | |
CONNING CORTEX | |