Don’t ask a science-head

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When a scientist says that had a bad night’s sleep this is what they are really thinking (from Tony Dickinson): 

Further to dream state imagery, I would like to share a personal
encounter eperienced at the week-end + my primo-cognate explanation:

"Dream-world image involved........ a chase, with myself as the pedestrian
escapee. I discovered myself to flying into the air shortly after this
commenced, using my own body as vehicle (having taken off somewhat Jumbo-like)"

Later in the day upon remembering this experience, it occured to me that
if the efferent motor-coordination commands for "walking" were being used
to produce (in some way) the experience of motion in the first place,
perhaps the subsequent "running and continuing to fly" image analysis
was derived from the usual "best guess" process: i.e., of continuous motion
perception in the absence of afferent proprioceptive feedback from my
bed-postured non-motile skeleton.

If the limb afferents are firing "we are not changing our recepter
states in any recognisable coherent way" and the efferent motor commands
are giving rise to "we are going to moving now" the cognitive output I would
content comes up with either: "I am situated in/upon some vehicle" or "I
am moving via some means other than voluntary perambulation".

Either or both of these scenarios would also explain the interpretation
of events as indicative of some external locus of control (being
pursued, [external agent motivated locomotion]; "I am flying", but do
not hold memories of piloting skills, but do have experience of
passenger flight and would therefor miss "I'm in an aeroplane" proprioceptive
feedback too. How else might I be moving through space
without specific limb-kinetic feedback during motion perception.

Next time someone says “You can’t do that” think of this….

Posted on by 
> > "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
> >
> >      -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of
> >         science, 1949
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
> >
> >      -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked
> > with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is
> > a fad that won't last out the year."
> >
> >      -- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall,
> >         1957
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "But what ... is it good for?"
> >
> >      -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,
> >         1968, commenting on the microchip.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
> >
> >      -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital
> >         Equipment Corp., 1977
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously
> > considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently
> > of no value to us."
> >
> >      -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who
> > would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
> >
> >      -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for
> >         investment in the radio in the 1920s.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn
> > better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."
> >
> >      -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred
> >         Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.
> >         (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
> >
> >      -- H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> >  "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and
> > not Gary Cooper."
> >
> >      -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in
> >         "Gone With The Wind."
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports
> > say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like
> > you make."
> >
> >      -- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields'
> >         Cookies.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
> >
> >      -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
> >
> >      -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment.
> > The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
> >
> >      -- Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives
> >         for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing,
> > even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about
> > funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay
> > our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So
> > then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't
> > need you. You haven't got through college yet.'"
> >
> >      -- Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get
> >         Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's
> >         personal computer.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and
> > reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum
> > against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge
> > ladled out daily in high schools."
> >
> >      -- 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's
> >         revolutionary rocket work.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across
> > all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life.
> > You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an
> > unalterable condition of weight training."
> >
> >      -- Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable"
> >         problem by inventing Nautilus.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?
> > You're crazy."
> >
> >      -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project
> >         to drill for oil in 1859.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
> >
> >      -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University,
> >         1929.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
> >
> >      -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole
> >         Superieure de Guerre.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Everything that can be invented has been invented."
> >
> >      -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents,
> >         1899.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
> >
> >       -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from
> > the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon".
> >
> >      -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-
> >         Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "640K ought to be enough for anybody."
> >
> >      -- Bill Gates, 1981