

Timewarp: How your brain creates the fourth dimension  - cwan
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427311.300-timewarp-how-your-brain-creates-the-fourth-dimension.html

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human_v2
Based on intuition, I think of the universe as a giant cellular automaton.
Each state of the universe is a slice of time, which lasts a Planck length of
time. Each slice is static, but the loaf of time-bread is dynamic as a hole.
The brain is interesting in that it is capable of storing information from
previous slices.

The brain, seeing at 13 fps according to TFA, relies on itself to interpolate
the things that happen in between frames as well as combining the separate
streams into what you perceive as vision.

I think the most interesting point the article made was that your brain
operates a different frequencies. While this is not shocking, it does go to
show that we can explain the functionality of our brains as a complicated
computer system, and our bodies as a mechanical robot that happens to be
squishy.

Now that we view ourselves as machines, perhaps we can apply more engineering
practices for bodily upgrades. Anyone else want to be a cyborg as bad as I do?

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daeken
I too want to be a cyborg, but I wonder when it'll come. One of the things I'm
personally interested in (outside of the blue-sky stuff I read about in H+) is
better interfaces for the already ubiquitous computers we have. I've been
sketching up designs for Eyetap hardware that can be put into mass production
and the software to back it, but I don't have the skill or money to make it
happen, sadly. That such great technology exists but is solely in academia is
just disappointing.

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RevRal
I've had this question since a child: if you have a strobe light, which
flickers at the same frequency that your eyes capture information, will you
see the light as on or off?

As usual, it's good to see that my questions weren't crazy (slash, stupid)
like people thought.

@human_v2

Are you into transhumanism and AI research?

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sp332
Your retinas are sensitive to light because light causes certain molecules
(rhodopsin, I think) to change form and release energy. This chemical energy
builds up in your photoreceptive cells and is then released as a neural
signal. In other words, you would just see the light dimly, same as if the
strobe were going really fast. What's interesting is if it's going _a little
slower_ than the fastest your eye can make out - the light seems to turn on
and off slowly as the strobe and your eye go in and out of phase.

~~~
RevRal
Thank you.

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blogimus
If this research is right about the brain's time processing, it would help
explain déjà vu.

