Perspective - For any Situation, we all have our own Frames of Reference, and these Change
I have been thinking a great deal lately about the notion of perspective. We speak of taking another’s perspective — an admirable moral aspiration but, in a strict sense, a physical impossibility. Even the most well-intentioned and empathetic among us are creatures invariably bound by our frames of reference, with our vantage point confined to our own corner of reality. And yet we aim, as we must, to transcend our perspectival blindnesses and see the world from different points of view — that, it seems to me, is one of the fundamental requirements of human decency and one of the great paradoxes of morality.
In such considerations, we use the word perspective in its figurative sense, but that sense — far more so than for most word — is deeply entwined with the word’s literal meaning and its history. Even the word "figurative" is part of the history of perspective.
A really thought-provoking article below, and watching the 1977 video on "Powers on Ten" made me think again about how my world literally wobbled one day when I understood the perspectives around dimensions ie. a being that perceives only 2 dimensions (viz. length and breadth) experiences their whole world in those dimensions but if I as a three dimensional being can see height and suddenly introduce an object into that 2 dimensional world, it will appear as by magic suddenly without explanation. The same could be true if a four-dimensional being (fourth being time) were to suddenly introduce an object in front of me from the fourth dimension, this three-dimensional object would suddenly appear in front of me as by magic too. It's all a matter of perspective and changing the way you look at the same object or situation. This wobble set me off on a multi-month investigation into all aspects surrounding perspectives, dimensions, physics, time travel, etc. Up to that point, I had not even thought about it. It was so consuming I did not even want to go to school because school just seemed so insignificant by comparison!
I suppose it was also around the late 1970's or early 1980's where I also wondered if an atom saw us on the scale of a "universe". The Powers of Ten video shows this very eloquently. It's all relative and all perspective. What works one way can just as likely work the other way too. But unless you know about atoms and protons you'd probably just believe we are "solid" beings and objects. Just on a side note - it was this thought that helped me solve computer algorithm problems - unless you could zoom in and out and around the box, you'd be stuck in the box and never solve the algorithm.
The last video in the article is also quite interesting (no matter what your religious beliefs are, or not). Fact is our physical bodies are made out of earthly matter and energy, and we know that the body and objects are formed/created/grow physically but on death or destruction that matter just changes form and whether it evaporates, decomposes, etc it just stays in the cycle of life much like water rains, runs to the sea, evaporates, rains/snows again, etc. So, in theory, some of your physical particles could have belonged to Isaac Newton or Horatio Nelson, your Great-Grandfather's dog, a tree, etc especially if you wind the clock back and forth by thousands of years...
It's all a matter of perspective and yours and mine are not necessarily the same as our frames of reference can be different. And what I think now may be totally irrelevant and insignificant in 5,000 years time. Chances are I will also think differently in 10 or 20 years time as my frame of reference expands and changes.
There is so much more to the world than we see - it is our choice whether we want to explore it or whether we are just content with seeing the inside of the box. The journey is all in our own mind. Which is why when I watched "The Matrix" movie I had another one of those worldly wobbles.
Enjoy https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/01/02/perspective/ if you dare
#perspective #thoughts
from Danie van der Merwe - Google+ Posts http://bit.ly/2SClmDG
via IFTTT
I have been thinking a great deal lately about the notion of perspective. We speak of taking another’s perspective — an admirable moral aspiration but, in a strict sense, a physical impossibility. Even the most well-intentioned and empathetic among us are creatures invariably bound by our frames of reference, with our vantage point confined to our own corner of reality. And yet we aim, as we must, to transcend our perspectival blindnesses and see the world from different points of view — that, it seems to me, is one of the fundamental requirements of human decency and one of the great paradoxes of morality.
In such considerations, we use the word perspective in its figurative sense, but that sense — far more so than for most word — is deeply entwined with the word’s literal meaning and its history. Even the word "figurative" is part of the history of perspective.
A really thought-provoking article below, and watching the 1977 video on "Powers on Ten" made me think again about how my world literally wobbled one day when I understood the perspectives around dimensions ie. a being that perceives only 2 dimensions (viz. length and breadth) experiences their whole world in those dimensions but if I as a three dimensional being can see height and suddenly introduce an object into that 2 dimensional world, it will appear as by magic suddenly without explanation. The same could be true if a four-dimensional being (fourth being time) were to suddenly introduce an object in front of me from the fourth dimension, this three-dimensional object would suddenly appear in front of me as by magic too. It's all a matter of perspective and changing the way you look at the same object or situation. This wobble set me off on a multi-month investigation into all aspects surrounding perspectives, dimensions, physics, time travel, etc. Up to that point, I had not even thought about it. It was so consuming I did not even want to go to school because school just seemed so insignificant by comparison!
I suppose it was also around the late 1970's or early 1980's where I also wondered if an atom saw us on the scale of a "universe". The Powers of Ten video shows this very eloquently. It's all relative and all perspective. What works one way can just as likely work the other way too. But unless you know about atoms and protons you'd probably just believe we are "solid" beings and objects. Just on a side note - it was this thought that helped me solve computer algorithm problems - unless you could zoom in and out and around the box, you'd be stuck in the box and never solve the algorithm.
The last video in the article is also quite interesting (no matter what your religious beliefs are, or not). Fact is our physical bodies are made out of earthly matter and energy, and we know that the body and objects are formed/created/grow physically but on death or destruction that matter just changes form and whether it evaporates, decomposes, etc it just stays in the cycle of life much like water rains, runs to the sea, evaporates, rains/snows again, etc. So, in theory, some of your physical particles could have belonged to Isaac Newton or Horatio Nelson, your Great-Grandfather's dog, a tree, etc especially if you wind the clock back and forth by thousands of years...
It's all a matter of perspective and yours and mine are not necessarily the same as our frames of reference can be different. And what I think now may be totally irrelevant and insignificant in 5,000 years time. Chances are I will also think differently in 10 or 20 years time as my frame of reference expands and changes.
There is so much more to the world than we see - it is our choice whether we want to explore it or whether we are just content with seeing the inside of the box. The journey is all in our own mind. Which is why when I watched "The Matrix" movie I had another one of those worldly wobbles.
Enjoy https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/01/02/perspective/ if you dare
#perspective #thoughts
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Perspective A journey from the farthest cosmic horizons of reality to the depths of our poetic truth. |
from Danie van der Merwe - Google+ Posts http://bit.ly/2SClmDG
via IFTTT
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