Before you watch this video, you should get into the correct mindset.
Check out these links first:
Same or Different Exercise for your eyes! – Click me
Check out some Optical Illusions – Click me
Ok, now watch the video…
I was interested in showing this video, because everyone seems to enjoy a good optical illusion. However, we do not often sit back and ask ourselves why these illusions work and what this means for the human species. How could our senses fail us? How could the one sense (sight) we rely on so heavily in life, observe false information?
Beau starts off with a simple illusion to show us how context is everything. Our perception is easily altered. The sad part of that is we only have our senses to navigate ourselves around this world. Without them, we are in deep trouble. So, to know that we can be easily fooled, makes me a little nervous.
These colors we perceive everyday change based on many external factors including the illumination on the object, the space between us and the object, and the angle at which we are viewing the object. Therefore, what looks a certain color to you, could be different to me.
He shows us how our brain is trained to identify colors, just as we are trained to identify words. In fact, our brains are trained so well that you can complete sentences with letters missing throughout.
Ca y u rea t is?
See! Our brains fill in the gaps.
It is also very easy to retrain our brains. He shows us how we can train our brains to see certain colors in such a way that when we look away at other objects, those new objects are illuminated in those new colors. Stare at a red object long enough, then look away. Suddenly, everything looks red.
He says, “The brain did not evolve to see the world the way it is; it has evolved to see the world the way it is useful to us.” Our brains use our senses in ways that help us navigate our space, co-exist, eat, sleep, etc. We adapt to be able to live. He demonstrates that our brains can be wired to find objects based on sound instead of sight, and how music can be composed with colors (our sight).
The point Beau tries to get across is bigger than simple color illusions. He is trying to tell us that our perception changes based upon our experiences. We look at things in a different way, because we have learned to view the world in a way that make things easier to live. This translates into the way we view the world around us.
How we view race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, and intelligence depends upon our life experiences.
The good news is that our brains can be retrained and we can begin to understand how perception can change from person to person. If we understand the brain and how we have tendencies to see things incorrectly, we can use that understanding to change the way we see – everything and everyone.
Video Vocabulary
Context, Spectrum, Illumination, Retinal, Evolve, Significance, Fragility, Prosthetic, Empirical, Cognitive, Attribute, Normality, Illusion, Perception, Sophisticated, Ecology
Questions
- Explain how human perception is determined by human ecology, experience, and our personal biosphere?
- Knowing that our sense of sight sometimes fails us, give examples how our other senses can fail us as well. (Smell, Touch, Hearing, Taste)
- Explain how we our brains are able to “fill in the gaps” in sentences where letters are missing from words: I l ve to re d a d wr t How are we able to decode this?
- Explain the process of retraining our brains to see things differently when it comes to color identification.
- Think of other species that have higher elevated senses and consider how our human experience on Earth would change if our senses evolved to match that species senses. How would our lives change? Would our lives be better or worse? Give examples and explain for each of the five senses.
- Explain how our knowledge should be empirical and not theoretical.
- In what ways can we help the human species retrain their brains in order to change their perceptions of gender, race, religion, age, and the idea of intelligence?
How interesting the world would be if we all thought of everyone and everything as completely equal in worth? Everyone would treat everyone else, including animals, as beings that attempt to exist on our Earth for a brief period of time and, thus, emphasize with them. Jeremy Rifkin narrates over illustrations of our need to build a global Emphatic Civilization. He demonstrates how science has found that human (and animal) neurons “fire” as we sense others experience things. When we see a spider crawl on another person’s arm, we emphasize with them. The “victim” and the “spectator” experience the same sensations and “fire” identical neurons in their brains. This is empathy – the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another. He also explains the evolution of empathy as human beings progressed from the days of the caveman through the Industrial Revolution. His explanation suggests that the next evolutionary step may be a global Empathic Civilization, due to the improvements in technology and communication. I must admit that after years of watching the news, reading the newspaper, and watching “The Soup” on E, I have become a tad cynical about the direction the human race in taking. However, Mr.Rifkin explains how the human species in not a lost cause. In fact, our response to the earthquake in Haiti only proves that we are willing to come together to help our fellow man when he needs us. We can put aside our differences in race, religion, and economic status, because we feel empathy for those who died, who survived, and who lost their homes. This reaction, in my humble opinion, is a rarity and it needs to occur everywhere and it needs to occur all the time – in school, at work, at the baseball game, in the mall, between spouses, and between parents and their children. If a person would only stop and look through the eyes of another before they speak or act, things would drastically change for the better. What can you do in your own personal life to bring us together as an Emphatic Civilization instead of a materialistic, narcissistic one?
Vocabulary from video
Empathy, Theology, Detribalize, Narcissism, Annihilate, Biosphere, Visceral, Sojourner, Repressed, Shibboleth, Assumption, Neuron, Serendipity, Psychology, Biology, Utilitarianism, Phenomenon, Solidarity, Utopia, Serf
Crossword Puzzle: Ted Talk 1 Empathy
Questions to answer
1 – Explain how increasing selfhood assists in increasing empathic development?
2 – Why does the speaker say there cannot be empathy in heaven?
3 – Explain the evolution of empathy? (Blood ties – Theological Consciousness – Nation State)
4 – How does the human response to the earthquake in Haiti discredit the notion that human beings are all materialistic, narcissistic beings?
5 – How does (should) the idea of Adam and Eve reinforce the idea of a worldwide emphatic solution?
6 – How does bad parenting, poor educational systems, bad business practices, and unreliable and corrupt government entities repress and cause narcissism, materialism, violence, and aggression?
7 – What we can we do in our own lives (in our own town) to create an Emphatic Civilization?
