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 , , , , , , , , | 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 , | 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 , , | 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 , , , , | 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

Posted in ... wait, what?, Communication, Computers and Internet, illusion, Phlyarology, Reblogs | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments

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 , , , , | 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 , , , , , | 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

Posted in ... wait, what?, GCD: Global climate disruption, illusion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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 , , , , , | 13 Comments

Understanding the exponential function

Professor Albert Bartlett famously said: The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. One of the reasons that this is a ‘shortcoming’ is simply that the term ‘exponential function‘ is obscure to many. … Continue reading

Posted in ... wait, what?, Communication, Education, illusion, People, Phlyarology, Strategy | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments