Physics vs. Human Perception: Which Represents Reality? | Janna Levin

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Physics vs. Human Perception: Which Represents Reality? Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What does a theoretical physicist do all day? Janna Levin shares some insight on perception vs. reality, and provides a glimpse of how she spends her time (hint: doing math).One of humanity’s gifts is the ability to simplify. Instead of acknowledging millions of molecules creating structures strong enough to sit on, people just see a chair. People can look past underlying patterns of electricity and silicon, to see a computer. When looking at a crowd, most people aren’t hit with immediate wonder at the hundreds of individuals with unique lives and perspectives. Instead, it’s just a crowd, filled with bustling bodies and blurry faces. Humanity simplifies things in order to understand them. We also are very accomplished at assigning things meaning, according to Janna Levin, a theoretical astrophysicist, and professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College at Columbia University. Looking at a chair and seeing a chair is a distinctly human trait. Robots struggle with this – they see particles, lines, and shapes but not a direct meaning. This human habit is useful but often lands us into trouble. A chair is a chair to us, but we can’t assume that to be the truth of the object, it’s just the meaning we have ass

Published 2016-08-15 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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