metaphors we live by

george lakoff and mark johnson
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

"Philosophy In The Flesh"
A Talk With George Lakoff
Introduction by
John Brockman

"We are neural beings," states Berkeley cognitive scientist George Lakoff. "Our brains take their input from the rest of our bodies. What our bodies are like and how they function in the world thus structures the very concepts we can use to think. We cannot think just anything - only what our embodied brains permit."

His new book Philosophy In The Flesh, coauthored by Mark Johnson, makes the following points: "The mind is inherently embodied. Thought is mostly unconscious. Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical."

Lakoff believes that new empirical evidence concerning these finding of cognitive science have taken us over the epistemological divide: we are in a new place and our philosophical assumptions are all up for grabs.

He and Johnson write: "When taken together and considered in detail, these three findings from the science of the mind are inconsistent with central parts of Western philosophy, and require a thorough rethinking of the most popular current approaches, namely, Anglo-American analytic philosophy and postmodernist philosophy."

According to Lakoff, metaphor appears to be a neural mechanism that allows us to adapt the neural systems used in sensory-motor activity to create forms of abstract reason. "If this is correct, as it seems to be," he says, "our sensory-motor systems thus limit the abstract reasoning that we can perform. Anything we can think or understand is shaped by, made possible by, and limited by our bodies, brains, and our embodied interactions in the world. This is what we have to theorize with."

He then raises the interesting question: "Is it adequate to understand the world scientifically?

-JB

there's a printable version of the entire interview at:
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lakoff/lakoff_p1.html

what is space-time

block_inspection_m
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

Space-time is a four dimensional description of the universe that includes the usual three dimensions of height, width and length and a fourth dimension of time. You might be wondering how time can be considered a dimension and why it can be lumped in with space. Consider the definition of time: time as we know it is really a man-made concept and is defined by physicists to be the measurement of a series of events. If one considers what time really is, one can see that it is simply the counting or measuring of things occurring, such as the vibrations of a quartz crystal in a watch, or the movement of the earth around the sun. Really, time does not exist as its own entity; the event is the true variable we must consider when thinking about time. Without events occurring, there would not be a way to measure time. Now, getting back to our space and time link, an event must occur in a space. That point in space is particular to the observer (or measurer) of the event. Therefore each point in space is associated uniquely with an event. Thus space and time are tied intimately together. One can also see how the perception of events are "relative" to the observer depending on his vantage point. Hence the name "relativity" for this branch of physics.

One way to think about space-time is as a large fishing net. Left unperturbed and stretched out flat, it is straight and regular. But the minute one puts a weight into the net, everything bends to support that weight. A weight that was spinning would wreak even more havoc with the net, twisting it as it spun. The mass-energy of the planet earth represents a "weight" in our net of space-time, and the daily revolutions of the earth, according to Einstein's theory, represent a twisting of local space-time. GP-B will search for this twisting effect, which has never before been measured. Note that sometimes people ask for a three dimensional analysis instead. This can be difficult to visualize, but imagining space-time as a cube of Jello instead of a net seems to provide a decent analogy.

For a more technical definition of space-time, see a definition from the National Center for Supercomputing Multimedia Online Expo, "Science for the Millennium."

i read this at:
http://einstein.stanford.edu/content/faqs/faqs.html#spacetime
and got the photo from:
http://www.gravityprobeb.com/

Testing Einstein

rotor_hands
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

Einstein believed that “the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one."

At the heart of the GP-B experiment are four gyroscopes, each holding a precisely fabricated spinning mass the size of a ping-pong ball. They are kept nearly free from disturbance, so that they provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. By measuring, very precisely, tiny changes in the direction of spin of those four gyroscopes, physicists will calculate how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth, and how the Earth's rotation drags space-time around with it. These effects, though small for the Earth, have far-reaching implications for everything from the nature of black holes to the structure and evolution of the universe.

"Our understanding of cosmology is based on the interpretation of astrophysical data and assumes that general relativity is correct. If general relativity were found to be substantially wrong, it would have a profound effect on our description of the cosmos and its history. Even a small discrepancy found in a local measurement, like the one to be made by GP-B, could strongly affect our understanding of the universe," says CfA Associate Director Robert Reasenberg, who serves on the GP-B Science Advisory Committee and has worked on tests of general relativity for three decades.

According to general relativity, we live in a four-dimensional universe. Space and time are interwoven and inseparable. The presence of any massive object like the Earth will bend the space-time fabric, essentially warping space.

this information was found at: http://einstein.stanford.edu/index.html.

twins paradox

twins paradox (blonde redhead)
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

In 1915, Einstein unveiled his Theory of General Relativity that dealt with gravitational forces in terms of an object's curvature. The background of this theory is four dimensional in what can be called space-time. The points on this sort of plane are referred to as events. A hypothesis of this theory was that time should move slower near a more massive body like a planet. This was tested in 1962 by taking two identical clocks and placing one at the base of a mountain and the other on the peak of the mountain. The first ran slower and confirmed the credibility of the theory. The reason for these results is due to the relationship between the frequency and energy of light. As something travels to the outer limits of a field (mountain's peak), the frequency and energy decrease that makes events at the base seem to occur slower.

link: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/einstein/time/revolution.php

telemetry

sonde1
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

The beauty of a helium balloon as a launch vehicle is that it is simple, has no moving parts, and is relatively inexpensive. They can also go places where humans might not want to. Typical weather balloons contain a small radio transmitter, which is used to send the data back to the researchers. This is called telemetry: The process or practice of obtaining measurements in one place and relaying them for recording or display to a point at a distance; the transmission of measurements by the apparatus making them (Oxford English Dictionary online http://www.oed.com).

parrot

parrot
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

i have many things to learn from a parrot.

charley 01

charley 01
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

these two pages are somewhere in the middle of maurizio cattelan's project "charley 01"

the image of the girl with headphones shows the cord leaving the top of the frame and the image on the right has a man held from flying away by another taking his picture

invites you to attend...

mini movie fest
Originally uploaded by chillrock.

A MINI MOVIE FEST

friday, october 15, 2004
9:00 pm, southfarms
(1st street south, west on gerty, north on griffith, 2nd building on the right)

mini movies include any and all low quality digital videos created using either a digital still camera or camera phone. viewing equipment will be provided. please bring some form of rain gear in case of inclement weather.

entries must be under one minute, unedited and submitted on a compact disc in quicktime format. limit three entries per person. place entries in the box labeled "hideous beast" in the art and design mail room.

submission deadline:
wednesday, october 13, 2004

contact:
hideousbeast@hotmail.com