Re: memetics-digest V1 #1011

From: Kenneth Van Oost (Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be)
Date: Sun Apr 14 2002 - 16:40:05 BST

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    From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be>
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    Subject: Re: memetics-digest V1 #1011
    Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 17:40:05 +0200
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    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Wade T.Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
    > On 04/09/02 06:54, Vincent Campbell said this-
    > >generally intepretations of our perceptions are biased.
    >
    > Yup. _All_ interpretations are biased. The self is a bias.
    >
    > >how major league batters appear to have
    > >more time to spot the spin and direction of the ball than normal people
    >
    > This is an excellent example of trained perception, and yes, it is
    > perception, learned and improved through practice. It's not that the
    > experienced batter 'sees' the ball any better, granting equal acuity of
    > vision, but that he can read the early indications of speed and motion
    > from the pitcher. The ball is, after all, coming almost directly at him,
    > and foreshortening perspective gives him a pretty good look at it. The
    > alert batter will be in a late stage of preparation to hit the ball well
    > before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. This would be true in cricket,
    > as well, I'm sure, although, because the cricket ball will bounce off the
    > ground, there is less certainty about its trajectory.

    Hi Wade, Vincent,

    I don 't know ! This contradicts the findings of Benjamin Libet.
    It takes about 500 milliseconds before a person feels that someone puts a
    needle in his finger. Half a second is a very long time in the world of the
    brain, though, where in less than 2 milliseconds an action- potential can
    disappear.
    A topclass tennisplayer has a service which give the ball a velocity of
    about 200 km/ h, his opponent has only 400 milliseconds to hit the ball
    back. The decision how to hit the ball back has to be made unconsciously.
    How strange it may sound , the player isn 't aware of the fact any ball has
    been delivered to him at the same moment he already hit it back.

    " The decision to hit back is pure and simple instinct. You don 't decide
    where you are going at the moment you will strike the ball. It is just a
    question to decide where you gonna hit him. And you don 't have any
    clue when you gonna hit the ball unless he is very close to you.
    (Vaughan, a topclass player).

    Although, such a reaction is more than a simple reflex, strategic thinking
    is involved. To strike back a tennisball is a complex proces and is comple-
    tely due to unconsciously- processes.
    ( Susan Greenfield)

    What in a sense, brings me back to what Wade wrote in an earlier post,
    if what is observed is being stained by and with preconceptions is faulty
    in what way can we than describe, if that is than ever possible, a proper
    observation at all !? Even the fact that those theories have been tested
    over many generations by sort of conjecture/ refutation are in the end and
    in a sense all wrong anyway, no !?
    So, how can we be sure !?

    Regards,

    Kenneth

    > One study of Ted Williams (purportedly the finest batter to trod the
    > diamond) indicated that he could maintain perceptual observation of the
    > pitch well past the first quarter of its progress. But, practice makes
    > perfect, and he was a perfectionist.

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