Close your eyes and imagine a clock face with hands and numbers.

Imagine the clock face as a whole.  Try not to think of just parts of it.

In your minds eye can you see the individual numbers on the clock face all at once?

I can’t.

I have to “zoom” in to each part of the clock to see all the numbers. I can’t see them all at once.

If the brain can’t do this while we’re awake, then it’s no wonder we don’t have vivid details of items when we’re asleep and dreaming.

If our brains imagery has such low resolution, why do we seem to have such hi-resolution memories?

Maybe it’s different for you.  But that’s how it is when I try it.

This whole experience helps me understand how my brain visualizes things.  It’s not like the “Pictures” folder on my computer.  I don’t store high-resolution pictures in my head.  I think it’s more like a short-hand way of reconstructing a picture.  Without realizing it my brain says  “A clock is a circle.  And it’s got numbers around it from 1 to 12.  And it has hands.  And it ticks”.

Perhaps it’s like that for someone’s face as well?  Do you know every freckle, mole or scar on your partners face?  When you think about it, how much detail of someone’s face do you actually remember?  I think perhaps we actually store a low res “caricature” of a persons face in our brain, and when we see that person, we match what we see of their face with the low res memory of it, and somehow our brain can recognize that the two things represent the same person.

I think our physical perception of reality is a lot less detailed than we realize.  When we look at a page in a book, there’s only a small circle of our vision that can actually see fine detail – about the width of our thumb held at arms length.  If you hold your thumb in front of a book held at arms length, and focus on your thumb, you’ll find it almost impossible to read the book.  That’s because the Fovea (the bit that sees detail)  in your eye only occupies a small part of your Retina (the bit that actually sees things).  But our brain manipulates us to think that we can see everything in detail, because our eyes dart around, and our brain puts all the jigsaw pieces together.

So next time you’re certain you saw something, remember that what you saw, what you thought you saw, and what you remember seeing are all totally different!

Isn’t the brain an amazing thing?

If you’ve got any suggestions, corrections or improvements, please let me know.

Click on the images for a larger view.

Bell’s Scrub is the only remaing parcel of virgin lowland vine rainforest in the Pine Rivers district.
See http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/bells-scrub-lawnton/

Some of the stunning late afternoon views in my street.
see: http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/everyday-beauty/

Fleeting glimpses of childhood on the North Pine River.
See http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/fleeting-glimpses-of-childhood/

Christmas Beetle.
See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/magictyger/sets/72157603351606109/
Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoplognathus_pallidicollis

Lightning in the Gum Trees.
See: http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/lightning-in-the-gum-trees/

Ebert Family Vineyard.
See: http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/echoes-in-the-vineyard/

Stephen Lawn Park.
See: http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/nuts-about-history/

Lake Samsonvale.
See: http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/lake-samsonvale-2/
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Samsonvale

South Pine River near the site of the old Normanby Rum Distillery.
See http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/bikes-rivers-old-rum/

Yebri Creek.
See http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/exploring-on-sunday/

Sunset on the North Pine River.
See: http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/sunset-on-the-north-pine-river/

Lake Kurwongbah.
See http://blog.neilennis.com/index.php/cycling-by-the-lake/
Here’s a wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_kurwongbah

Lilly came in to my office the other day. “Dad I have to go out now. Can you get the TV to record my favourite show in an hour”.

“Hmmmm????”, I replied in typical pre-occuipied father mode.

But she had an intensity in her eye that made me realize I ignored this six year old at my peril, despite my displike of leaving my desk while in the middle of solving a problem.

Happily, I didn’t have to get up from my chair. I just logged in to IceTV, found the program she was interested in, and told my PVR to record it via the website.  My PVR is a High-Definition Beyonwiz DP-S1. It’s wireless, but I’ve wired it in to the house LAN so we can watch movies from our D-Link DNS323 1TB NAS

We also have an older Topfield 5000 PVRT.  It’s only standard definition, but the cool thing about it is that it has an open programming interfacem , so a lot of people have written their own software to get it to do cool things.  One application I added to it was ToppyPC by John De Angelis.  It has a program called “TWIN” which adds a web page to your Topfield PVR.  So you can set timers, and record shows, like IceTV lets you do with the Beyonwiz.   ToppyPC needs another utility to run – an FTP server (ftp4t by Aldarin) which runs on a PC which I connect to the Topfield via a USB cable.

All this technology is both good and bad. It’s convenient, but I don’t get the exercise I need going up and down stairs to program the PVR!

But at least I don’t have an angry six-year-old to contend with!

Neil's empty inbox - a rare event

 

Isn’t this beautiful?

I haven’t seen an empty inbox for years, and I love it! When it’s full I feel like I have the cares of the world on my shoulders. But when it’s empty, it’s like I’m making progress. Even if it might be illusory, I like that feeling.

So I’m going to persist in my strategy which can be described simply as:
If it’s junk, get rid of it.
If it’s someone elses problem, forward it.
If it’s worth reading, read it now, then delete it.
If it needs more info, request more info and delete it.
If it needs acting on, then act on it now, then delete it.

Basically you go to the money tracker web site, and enter the serial number of any bank notes (cash) you have. Then you just spend them like you normally do. Eventually, someone else will get the note, enter it into money tracker which then notifies you of the new location of your bank note.

This fascinating idea was inspired by the US website http://wheresgeorge.com/ which lets you track U.S. bank notes.

Now all we need is some sort of machine that can help us get our money back after we spend it

Scince fiction writer and visionary Arthur C Clarke turned 90 on Sunday.

Best known for his blockbuster “2001: A Space Odyssey”, he also wrote numerous other books and short stories.

I’ve devoured most of his works since I was 11 years old, amd marvelled at Clarke’s optimistic vision of the future, and what we could achieve as a species. He made the future exciting. I couldn’t wait for it to happen, and still can’t

I hope you stay around till you’re at least 100, Sir Arthur. We need more optimistic vision like yours.

Since then I’ve been lucky enough to discover the work of Richard Dawkins. His 1991 article “Viruses of the Mind” explains the concept of an idea being analogous to a virus that infects the mind.

He says:

It’s worth reading his description of those symptoms. Check out his article if you get a chance – especially if you think you might have been infected