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Science's "most beautiful theories"
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Atticus Fynch
#1 - 2012-01-16 17:50:05 UTC  |  Edited by: Atticus Fynch
Quote:
(Reuters) - From Darwinian evolution to the idea that personality is largely shaped by chance, the favorite theories of the world's most eminent thinkers are as eclectic as science itself.

Every January, John Brockman, the impresario and literary agent who presides over the online salon Edge.org, asks his circle of scientists, digerati and humanities scholars to tackle one question.

In previous years, they have included "how is the Internet changing the way you think?" and "what is the most important invention in the last 2,000 years?"

This year, he posed the open-ended question "what is your favorite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation?"

The responses, released at midnight on Sunday, provide a crash course in science both well known and far out-of-the-box, as admired by the likes of Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, physicist Freeman Dyson and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

Several of the nearly 200 scholars nominated what are arguably the two most powerful scientific theories ever developed. "Darwin's natural selection wins hands down," argues Dawkins, emeritus professor at Oxford University.

"Never in the field of human comprehension were so many facts explained by assuming so few," he says of the theory that encompasses everything about life, based on the idea of natural selection operating on random genetic mutations.

Einstein's theory of relativity, which explains gravity as the curvature of space, also gets a few nods.

As theoretical physicist Steve Giddings of the University of California, Santa Barbara, writes, "This central idea has shaped our ideas of modern cosmology (and) given us the image of the expanding universe."

General relativity explains black holes, the bending of light and "even offers a possible explanation of the origin of our Universe - as quantum tunneling from 'nothing,'" he writes.

Many of the nominated ideas, however, won't be found in science courses taught in high school or even college.

Terrence Sejnowski, a computational neuroscientist at the Salk Institute, extols the discovery that the conscious, deliberative mind is not the author of important decisions such as what work people do and who they marry. Instead, he writes, "an ancient brain system called the basal ganglia, brain circuits that consciousness cannot access," pull the strings.

Running on the neurochemical dopamine, they predict how rewarding a choice will be - if I pick this apartment, how happy will I be? - "evaluate the current state of the entire cortex and inform the brain about the best course of action," explains Sejnowski. Only later do people construct an explanation of their choices, he said in an interview, convincing themselves incorrectly that volition and logic were responsible.

To neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University, the most beautiful idea is emergence, in which complex phenomena almost magically come into being from extremely simple components.

For instance, a human being arises from a few thousand genes. The intelligence of an ant colony - labor specialization, intricate underground nests - emerges from the seemingly senseless behavior of thousands of individual ants.

"Critically, there's no blueprint or central source of command," says Sapolsky. Each individual ant has a simple algorithm for interacting with the environment, "and out of this emerges a highly efficient colony."

Among other tricks, the colony has solved the notorious Traveling Salesman problem, or the challenge of stopping at a long list of destinations by the shortest route possible.

THE OTHER PAVLOVIAN EFFECT

Stephen Kosslyn, director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, is most impressed by Pavlovian conditioning, in which a neutral stimulus such as a sound comes to be associated with a reward, such as food, producing a response, such as salivation.

That much is familiar. Less well known is that Pavlovian conditioning might account for placebo effects. After people have used analgesics such as ibuprofen or aspirin many times, the drugs begin to have effects before their active ingredients kick in.

From previous experience, the mere act of taking the pill has become like Pavlov's bell was for his dogs, causing them to salivate: the "conditioned stimulus" of merely seeing the pill "triggers the pain-relieving processes invoked by the medicine itself," explains Kosslyn.

Science theories that explain puzzling human behavior or the inner workings of the universe were also particular favorites of the Edge contributors:

* Psychologist Alison Gopnik of the University of California, Berkeley, is partial to one that accounts for why teenagers are so restless, reckless and emotional. Two brain systems, an emotional motivational system and a cognitive control system, have fallen out of sync, she explains.

The control system that inhibits impulses and allows you to delay gratification kicks in later than it did in past generations, but the motivational system is kicking in earlier and earlier.

The result: "A striking number of young adults who are enormously smart and knowledgeable but directionless, who are enthusiastic and exuberant but unable to commit to a particular work or a particular love until well into their twenties or thirties."

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Atticus Fynch
#2 - 2012-01-16 17:51:22 UTC  |  Edited by: Atticus Fynch
Quote:
BEAUTIFUL IDEAS

* Neurobiologist Sam Barondes of the University of California, San Francisco, nominates the idea that personality is largely shaped by chance. One serendipitous force is which parental genes happen to be in the egg and sperm that produced the child.

"But there is also chance in how neurodevelopmental processes unfold - a little virus here, an intrauterine event there, and you have chance all over the place," he said in an interview. Another toss of the dice: how a parent will respond to a child's genetic disposition to be outgoing, neurotic, open to new experience and the like, either reinforcing the innate tendencies or countering them.

The role of chance in creating differences between people has moral consequences, says Barondes, "promoting understanding and compassion for the wide range of people with whom we share our lives."

* Timothy Wilson nominates the idea that "people become what they do." While people's behavior arises from their character - someone returns a lost wallet because she is honest - "the reverse also holds," says the University of Virginia psychologist. If we return a lost wallet, our assessment of how honest we are rises through what he calls "self-inference." One implication of this phenomenon: "We should all heed Kurt Vonnegut's advice," Wilson says: "'We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.'"

* Psychologist David Myers of Hope College finds "group polarization" a beautiful idea, since it explains how interacting with others tends to amplify people's initial views. In particular, discussing issues with like-minded peers -increasingly the norm in the United States, where red states attract conservatives and blue states attract liberals - push people toward extremes. "The surprising thing is that the group as a whole becomes more extreme than its pre-discussion average," he said in an interview.

* Martin Rees, professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, nominates the "astonishing concept" that what we consider the universe "could be hugely more extensive" than what astronomers observe.

If true, the known cosmos may instead "be a tiny part of the aftermath of 'our' big bang, which is itself just one bang among a perhaps-infinite ensemble," Rees writes. Even more intriguing is that different physics might prevail in these different universes, so that "some of what we call 'laws of nature' may ... be local bylaws."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE80E04Y20120116

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Atticus Fynch
#3 - 2012-01-16 18:01:33 UTC  |  Edited by: Atticus Fynch
"We should all heed Kurt Vonnegut's advice," Wilson says: "'We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.'"

Reminds me of a story: A sinner wanted to gain the favor of a certain young lady, so he put on the mask of a saint and would act accordingly in order to gain her favor. He did this for some period of time. When he finally took the mask off, he found his face had become the very image of the mask. Moral of the story: you are/become what you do.

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Karl Planck
Perkone
Caldari State
#4 - 2012-01-16 18:15:20 UTC  |  Edited by: Karl Planck
wtf did i just read and why the hell is it all bolded. My eyes are BLEEDING!

I has all the eve inactivity
Alpheias
Tactical Farmers.
Pandemic Horde
#5 - 2012-01-16 18:24:59 UTC
Karl Planck wrote:
wtf did i just read and why the hell is it all bolded. My eyes are BLEEDING!


I am guessing that you haven't read the user manual for your monitor and you have been sitting two inches from it the entire time until now?

Agent of Chaos, Sower of Discord.

Don't talk to me unless you are IQ verified and certified with three references from non-family members. Please have your certificate of authenticity on hand.
Surfin's PlunderBunny
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#6 - 2012-01-16 18:32:03 UTC
Alpheias wrote:
Karl Planck wrote:
wtf did i just read and why the hell is it all bolded. My eyes are BLEEDING!


I am guessing that you haven't read the user manual for your monitor and you have been sitting two inches from it the entire time until now?


Monitors have user manuals? Shocked

"Little ginger moron" ~David Hasselhoff 

Want to see what Surf is training or how little isk Surf has?  http://eveboard.com/pilot/Surfin%27s_PlunderBunny
VKhaun Vex
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#7 - 2012-01-16 19:18:59 UTC
There was an issue with parsing this post's BBCode

Charges Twilight fans with Ka-bar -Surfin's PlunderBunny LIIIIIIIIIIINNEEEEE PIIIEEEECCCCEEE!!!!!!! -Taedrin Using relativity to irrational numbers is smart -rodyas I no longer believe we landed on the moon. -Atticus Fynch
VKhaun Vex
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#8 - 2012-01-16 19:19:28 UTC  |  Edited by: VKhaun Vex
Surfin's PlunderBunny wrote:
Monitors have user manuals? Shocked


That, or manual users.





It's also polite to link an article that you post.
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/15/science%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98most-beautiful-theories%E2%80%99.html



Quote:
Psychologist Alison Gopnik of the University of California, Berkeley, is partial to one that accounts for why teenagers are so restless, reckless and emotional. Two brain systems, an emotional motivational system and a cognitive control system, have fallen out of sync, she explains.
The control system that inhibits impulses and allows you to delay gratification kicks in later than it did in past generations, but the motivational system is kicking in earlier and earlier.

The result: “A striking number of young adults who are enormously smart and knowledgeable but directionless, who are enthusiastic and exuberant but unable to commit to a particular work or a particular love until well into their twenties or thirties.”


That is downright scary, and I feel it applies to me very well. The mental change. The total apathy about doing nothing just goes away and you become restless. As you read fiction going back in time, sources attribute this to people earlier and earlier in life. I had no wanderlust when I was 15 and 16. I had no ambition to leave home when I was 18. College was out of the question when I was 20.

I hit 24 barely moving, and then I hit 25 going 100mph.
I wanted everything, and I was bored.

Charges Twilight fans with Ka-bar -Surfin's PlunderBunny LIIIIIIIIIIINNEEEEE PIIIEEEECCCCEEE!!!!!!! -Taedrin Using relativity to irrational numbers is smart -rodyas I no longer believe we landed on the moon. -Atticus Fynch
Slade Trillgon
Brutor Force Federated
#9 - 2012-01-16 20:51:31 UTC
VKhaun Vex wrote:




Quote:
Psychologist Alison Gopnik of the University of California, Berkeley, is partial to one that accounts for why teenagers are so restless, reckless and emotional. Two brain systems, an emotional motivational system and a cognitive control system, have fallen out of sync, she explains.
The control system that inhibits impulses and allows you to delay gratification kicks in later than it did in past generations, but the motivational system is kicking in earlier and earlier.

The result: “A striking number of young adults who are enormously smart and knowledgeable but directionless, who are enthusiastic and exuberant but unable to commit to a particular work or a particular love until well into their twenties or thirties.”


That is downright scary, and I feel it applies to me very well. The mental change. The total apathy about doing nothing just goes away and you become restless. As you read fiction going back in time, sources attribute this to people earlier and earlier in life. I had no wanderlust when I was 15 and 16. I had no ambition to leave home when I was 18. College was out of the question when I was 20.

I hit 24 barely moving, and then I hit 25 going 100mph.
I wanted everything, and I was bored.


That is very interesting and I would not be surprised if it has much to do with the ease at which, even in the harshest places on the plaent today, we live. The drive to fight for ones life is not as necessary today as it was over 100 years ago or even further back if you would like to take it. The apathy, this state of life creates, often takes its form as general laziness.


Slade
Karl Planck
Perkone
Caldari State
#10 - 2012-01-16 20:53:31 UTC
the only thing i took away from that list was how scary what is considered scientific conclusions in some fields.

I has all the eve inactivity
Alpheias
Tactical Farmers.
Pandemic Horde
#11 - 2012-01-16 21:20:34 UTC
Karl Planck wrote:
the only thing i took away from that list was how scary what is considered scientific conclusions in some fields.


Such as? And may I be the first one to encourage you to debunk their conclusions, as long as you can do it through scientific observation.

Agent of Chaos, Sower of Discord.

Don't talk to me unless you are IQ verified and certified with three references from non-family members. Please have your certificate of authenticity on hand.