TED Talk Thursdays – Daniel Tammet: Different ways of knowing

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com:

“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize”

This week’s talk is a fascinating (and I my opinion, too brief) look at the way Daniel Tammet who has linguistic, numerical and visual synesthesia, perceives the world.

According to www.ted.com:

“Daniel Tammet has linguistic, numerical and visual synesthesia — meaning that his perception of words, numbers and colors are woven together into a new way of perceiving and understanding the world. The author of “Born on a Blue Day,” Tammet shares his art and his passion for languages in this glimpse into his beautiful mind.”

“Daniel Tammet is a writer, linguist and educator. He is the creator of Optimnem, a website that has provided language learning instruction to thousands around the globe. His 2006 memoir “Born on a Blue Day” describes his life with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome; his new book, “Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind,” is a personal and scientific exploration of how the brain works and the differences and similarities between savant and non-savant minds.”

“Tammet set a European record on March 14, 2004, when he recited the mathematical constant pi (3.141…) to 22,514 decimal places from memory in a time of 5 hours, 9 minutes.”

Enjoy!

——————————————————————————————————–

I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

Be sure to Subscribe to this blog either by RSS or Email via the forms on the top right column of the page.

TED Talk Thursdays – Al Seckel says our brains are mis-wired

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com:

“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize”

Last week we saw TED Talk Thursdays – Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see. If that didn’t make you wonder just what you were really seeing, this will. Can we trust that anything we see is truly what it seems? I’ll leave the answer to you.

According to www.ted.com:

“Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it.”

I still can’t see the dolphins, but clearly we can’t trust that what we think we are seeing is really what’s there.

——————————————————————————————————–

I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

Be sure to Subscribe to this blog either by RSS or Email via the forms on the top right column of the page.

TED Talk Thursdays – Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com:

“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize”

Today’s video shows us optical illusions and how they effect what we see. What we see is much more about the brain than it is about the eyes. In watching this video I can’t help but ask the question, “Do we really ever know if what we are seeing is ‘real’?” And what makes something real? Is there anything that is “real” or is it all the perceptions of our brains? Thoughts to ponder as you watch.

In describing this video ted.com says:

“Beau Lotto’s color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can’t normally see: how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how evolution tints your perception of what’s really out there.”

“Beau Lotto is founder of Lottolab, a hybrid art studio and science lab. With glowing, interactive sculpture — and good, old-fashioned peer-reviewed research — he’s illuminating the mysteries of the brain’s visual system.”

Enjoy!

——————————————————————————————————–

I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

Be sure to Subscribe to this blog either by RSS or Email via the forms on the top right column of the page.