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Category Archives: illusion
Is it actually true that seeing is believing?
What colour are the dots? The dots inside these hearts are distinctly blue or green, right? Wrong. The dots inside the hearts are all exactly the same colour. Here’s a section of the top left of the same image, where … Continue reading
Posted in ... wait, what?, Core thought, illusion, perception, Phlyarology
Tagged 'common' sense, astronomy, cognitive bias, colours, Cool Worlds, perception, sceptic, stars, VSauce
11 Comments
Everything has its place
The late Duke of Edinburgh, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, has now been laid to rest, and I trust that I’ve left it long enough that I won’t offend anyone by this post. A recent entry in ‘The Weekly Learn’ … Continue reading
Posted in ... wait, what?, Communication, History, illusion, memetics, News and politics, People, Phlyarology
Tagged pendantry, phlyarology
27 Comments
“Believe only half of what you see and none of what you hear”
The Internet tells me that the idiom “question everything, especially rumors [sic]” can be traced back to ‘The Proverbs of Alfred‘ (mid-twelfth century), which are ascribed to King Alfred the Great (c.848-899). Clearly, the concept has been around for a … Continue reading
Posted in ... wait, what?, balance, Communication, Core thought, illusion, memetics, Music, Phlyarology
Tagged ouroboros, phlyarologism, question everything
10 Comments
Even the pessimists got it wrong, revisited
The perception, the ‘ideal’ and… the reality. If democracy had teeth, the 1% would be quaking in their boots instead of laughing all the way to the bank. Eight years ago, almost to the day, I reblogged a post by … Continue reading
Posted in ... wait, what?, balance, Business, Capitalism, Communication, Core thought, Education, illusion, Phlyarology, Reblogs
Tagged 'common' sense, cognition, cognitive dissonance, inequality, perception
29 Comments
Scribble: Rant – No Variations on the Theme, revisited
The preamble to the preamble I spent three hours (!) this morning talking with ‘a’ WordPress Happiness Engineer, (to whom I shall refer as ‘HE’ and ‘they’, for reasons that will become apparent, should you actually make it that far; … Continue reading
The illusion of free will
First, watch this: Having watched it, you may now have an idea what the ‘many worlds’ hypothesis is about. Focusing on the Schrödinger’s Cat example: when the box is opened, the universe splits into two; one in which the cat … Continue reading
Posted in ... wait, what?, consciousness, Core thought, illusion, Phlyarology, Science
Tagged consciousness, fate, free will, illusion, quantum physics
8 Comments
The paradox of expertise
I’ve long maintained that the deal that’s been struck by computer makers with computer users about security is very one-sided. It assumes that the user always has the nouse to deal with their end of the bargain, and that’s simply … Continue reading
Posted in ... wait, what?, Communication, Education, Games, illusion, Phlyarology
Tagged cognitive bias, Expertise, Hand of Fate, learning, Paradox, Paradox of Expertise
6 Comments
Seeing the real world, revisited
With a hat tip to Fandango’s Friday Flashback, here we are, albeit a day late, with a post of mine from eight years ago today. There’s nothing special about ‘eight years’; it’s simply that, of all the fourth of April … Continue reading
What you believe can affect your appetite
I learnt a new word today: ‘ghrelin‘. It’s a hormone produced by the stomach that regulates hunger. If you have more ghrelin in your system, you’ll tend to feel hungry; if you have less of it, then you’ll tend to … Continue reading
Posted in ... wait, what?, Education, Health, illusion, Phlyarology, Science
Tagged belief, choice, ghrelin, hunger, perception, weight gain
13 Comments
Wibble 