The Usual Shop

Posted by Steve on August 27th, 2008 in Uncategorized

I’ve written before about confirmation bias from a more negative, or cynical perspective.  This fascinating article about the practice of noticing touches on some of the same ideas but from a much different (and more useful) angle.

I’ve noticed in my own life that i don’t notice nearly as much external (potential) stimulus as i would like to.  With my studies in math and my over-the-top introvertedness, i’ve spent way more time in my own head than i should have and than i think is healthy.  And not nearly as much time on the outside world.  That’s why this blog of mine is so erratic and so rarely interesting, because i’m a terrible analyst of what’s going on out there.

But, occasionally against my better judgment, i’m working on it.

I’ve often wondered if time that is noticed is any different than time unnoticed.  In fact, i’ve been working (inconsistently) on a novel about someone that can consciously control how fast time seems to be going by just by controlling how much attention he’s placing on it.

A very limited example is the following idea:  When i’m aware that i’m driving in such a way as to conserve as much gas as possible, is my gas consumption any different than when i’m driving exactly the same but not aware of it?  On the surface, i’d argue that it is not any different.  However, on a quantum level, observing something can have relatively dramatic effects.  The obvious example is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (measuring the momentum of a particle makes its location uncertain and vice versa), which has been stretched (arguably too far) to philosophy.

A more obscure and more dramatic theory is that of observing dark energy with the potential of the quantum zeno effect.  Essentially, the idea is that by observing dark energy more closely and more frequently, we might be drastically shortening the lifespan of the universe.  C’est la vie.

So there are my escalating thoughts on observing and noticing and the destruction of the universe.  My hope is that just by documenting this some good will come from it.  In the article i mentioned earlier about noticing, they recommend a practice of describing somewhere (e.g., a blog) something that one has seen or experienced earlier in the day that he or she hasn’t shared with anyone yet.  The practice itself is supposed to open more eyes to experiences.  How dangerously apropos.