« Do see a theme emerging here? | Main | Angels and pinheads »
July 21, 2005
More strangeness
Synesthesia. Have you ever heard of that? I once read an article about a musician whose perfect-pitch hearing was tied to her sense of taste.
Posted by Thomas A. on July 21, 2005 at 09:50 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341d0c4b53ef00d83454d3c653ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference More strangeness:
Comments
Interestingly enough, some scientists theorize that synthesia is what allows some people to "see" auras in others. They are somehow seeing color associate with people for some reason. Another mathmatician talked about how he was able to do math so easily because each number had a "sound" and the combination of sounds allowed him to work out problems very quickly. They also interviewed a doctor who said words and letters each had a particular color which allowed him to memorize the medical jargon very easily by using color pattern recognition. Must be interesting...
Posted by: Duffy | Jul 22, 2005 9:23:34 AM
In computer science there is a data storage technique called "hashing" which provides a very fast means of finding information... I like to explain it as the "teenager's room" method: "But Mom, if I straighten it out, I won't be able to find anything!"
I want to be clear that I certainly do NOT pretend that the brain is doing "hashing" - but merely hint that there are well-known techniques even in mechanical storage which do this kind of thing. Based on my experience with other works from the System Designer in question I would certainly tend to expect more from the human brain...
Fr. Jaki has made some interesting points about the brain, notably in his "Brain, Mind and Computers" and elsewhere. I think it may be there that he quoted a neurologist as saying something to the effect that "the skull might as well be stuff with cotton batting for all that we know about what is going on in there" ... (I quote from memory; no pun intended)
There is also a hilarious story in the paperback "Addams Family" book (the one based on the TV show, not the movies) in which Gomez builds something he calls a "pentatronic synesthizer" which maps senses between each other... very funny. I do not know whether it was an actual episode on the TV series.
Posted by: DoctorThursday | Jul 22, 2005 9:40:02 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.