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Seeing is Believing??


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Black and blue or gold and white?  (OK, Troy, I assume this is something you aren't familiar with since you boycott pop culture trivia, but bear with me.)  

 

I found interesting the much ado about how people perceived the colors of a dress posted on social media, and how this pitted them against each other to the point of belligerancy. This controversy created such a stir that scientists chimed in and offered explanations, calling the phenomenon that went viral on the internet an optical illlusion, an example of how our brains are wired differently when it comes to processing what we see,  explaining  further that lighting can have an influence on an image and how the rods and cones in our eyes, which are as unique as our fingerprints, have an effect on the visual interpretation that varied among those looking at the dress. This was what caused some to see it as black and blue and others to see it as gold and white.  Anyhow, I saw it as black and blue.  The dress was actually black and blue - which proves nothing except the revelation that we all have our own reality.  

 

In addition to proving what a bunch of wackos the social media is turning us into, this latest  event emphasized how for quite a while now, I have been having to sort out what I'm seeing because the shape of my eyeballs have changed over the years, something that is not uncommon among older people. My nearsightedness has improved as I aged because my retina was filtering light differently. Yet,  I often have to blink my eyes to figure out what it is I'm seeing.  When I am waking up from being asleep, I frequently see an unfamiliar scene but after I close my eyes and re-open them I see my familiar surroundings.  Strange.  But, I guess it's all about  the mystery of the brain as it applies to hallucination.

 

Mystery defines my existence. I watched a lecture by Deepak Choprah on PBS  the other night.  Everything he said about the meta- and quantum-physics of "god" was like he had been reading my mind. But I think it's because I have been absorbing his thoughts over the years, picking up bits and pieces of his quotes and the gist of his philosophy.  Listening to Choprah was a very validating experience because the things he said about consciousness, the universe, infinity, and the divinity of Man were things I have long been mulling over in my search for life's meaning. I felt a kinship with the audience whose faces, like mine, were transfixed as he shared his insights with us, one of which was "we are a drop in the ocean but the entire ocean is contained in that drop." I now realize I belong to a spiritual community of pondering contemplaters. My moment of ZEN.

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Just an hour ago I finished watching the Deepak program on PBS you mentioned.  Yes it was interesting and I agree our iron-age concept of God needs a rebooting; God 2.0 as Deepak described it.

Pak plays a little fast and loose using Quantum mechanics to validate or assert his spiritualism, but it is a step above what the Europeans gave us.

I also believe in the power of meditation, though I don't practice it like I should.  But I could add it to a long list of things that I know should do more frequently, but don't.  

I think if more people meditated the world would be a much better place.  

Yes you are right I have not clue what you are talking about regarding the Black and blue or gold and white dress, but I'll look it up now...

...This is the original image below.  It looks gold and white to me, but apparently it is actually blue.  

The_Dress.png

 

Again our culture's fixation on stuff like this explains why so many of us share so little of America's riches.  If social media is ablaze with people sharing this then we all lose while the owners of social media win.

 

I think I'm going to go meditate now.

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Yes I'm having a major reboot. As well I am full getting immersed in the world of Magic. Initially the dress was white then it bcane black and blue. When I look at the picture Troyposted it started out white and gradually be am darker by the minute. What does it mean, not particularly concerned. Well I'm off the to the coolest library I have seen in my entire life.

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I'm not so quick to dismiss this "dress color" controversy as insignificant.  It does prove that people see things differently because how their brains are wired has an effect on their vision and this same predisposition probably affects areas of their psyches as well.  It certainly provides one explanation as to why there is so much conflict involved in the human experience. Agreement  and harmony within the group are not natural states.  They have to be striven for and it's a battle the human race is losing because it is fragmented by the individuality that the ego too often corrupts. Introspection is the source of serenity and we have to find this within ourselves via shutting out the dissonance of the external world.

 

Just days ago yet another example of how things strike people differently presented itself via a skit on SNL, wherein a doting father was ostensibly bidding a poignant farewell to his young army-bound daughter. But then the camera panned away and focused on a truck flanked with bearded, rifle-toting masked men who the daughter exited the car and ran to join before explaining to her father that "it's just ISIS, Daddy". After she hopped aboard and waved a smiling goodbye, the truck sped off in a blaze of gunfire.  Not surprising the Internet is abuzz, pitting those who thought this was offensive against those who found it harmless.  I thought it was funny and liked the idea that this had to piss ISIS off because it ridiculed and neutralized the great threat it considers itself to be.  But, that's just ME.

 

Well, Delano. I'm sure you know that black and white magic, as opposed to illusion and sleight of hand, is meta-physical.  It involves mind over matter. All the Mystics down through the ages practiced it.  Be careful not to succumb to the dark side...

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Cynique do you see the image I posted and Blue and Black?

 

I think ISIS, would be OK with making SNL, they have truly entered the zeitgeist.  This type of humor does have the effect of minimizing the seriousness of ISIS.  

 

It is sort of like watching Hogans Heroes, without and understanding of history (like most folks).  You'd never really appreciating the fact that at least 50 million were killed during that war, as they gloss over the whole conflict depicting a prison camp as a cool hangout spot and the Nazi's as a group of bubbling, but good nurtured idiots.  

 

Why not a have humorous sitcom on the Rwandan genocide, or American slavery, who see my point?

 

As you may know I teach a class to prepare adults to obtain their High School Equivalency.  I mention the fact the the U.S. nuked Japan (twice).  There were people in the class that was not aware of this!?  

 

People can find humor in pedophilia, rape, even ISIS, but does that mean we should do it?  I dunno where you draw a line, but I think there should be a line somewhere, don't you?

 

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I saw and see the dress as black and blue which is what it was designated to actually be, Troy. 

 

I can find aspects of humor in everything, and have no quarrel with pushing the envelope because ignoring the foibles of life won't make them go away.  Life is crude, and reality is cruel.  Tragedy is a joke played on us by Fate  Life is also ironic and multi-facted, both of which go hand and hand with "gallows humor". I leave drawing the line to others and cast my lot with those who utilize the impact of shock and don't take this world too seriously because existence on it is a farce. Ridicule is a powerful weapon. Lament is victimization.

 

Moral standards are subjective and relative.  Interracial marriage was considered immoral by racists.  Homosexulaity is still considered an immoral abomination by religous people.  Abortion is considered immoral by those who think they have the right to neutralize the personal set of morals a woman invokes when she demands the right to control her own body.  Rape is a very slippery slope when labeling poor judgment as immoral. Polegamy is not considered immoral by those who practice it.  Incest came to be immoral because the odds of a bad gene manifesting itself in the offspring of such unions are 1 in 5. Pedophilia is not considered immoral by willing participants in it and this does occur; there is a whole underground community of boys and men who couple.  A lot of folk humor emerged from slavery.  People make fun of the sanctimonious missionaries who went to save Africa and the bleeding heart celebrities who want to adopt Rwandan orphans. There are those who pooh-pooh the holocaust claiming it never happened, and Hitler was always a favorite candidate for paraody. 911 has been revered to the point of maudlin bathos.

 

And speaking of dropping the atomic bomb on the atolls of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, are you familiar with the history of Japanese atrocities that occurred in the Rape of Nanking?  War is Hell, and Might makes Right! LOL.  Me,  I shake my head and chuckle at the hypocrisy that mocks morality.

 

And my alter-ego is CYNIQUE :P  :D  :lol: 

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Cynique, the fact you see the dress as Black and Blue sounds so bizarre, I can see why this thing went viral.  My guess is it has to do with the display I'm going to look at this post of different displays and as the family what colors they see.

 

Cynique moral relativism does not explain this away.  The has to be some standard of what is right or wrong.  The example of pedophilia does not work for me because at some point a kid is too young to make the decision to engage in sex.  Now I think we can agree a 4 year old is too young to make that decision, although there are plenty of people lined up to engage in intercourse with someone still in diapers.

 

Even SNL draws lines in what they do.  They will never be outrageous enough to perform a skit which ridicules the Prophet Muhammad--SNL knows better.  

 

They are always lines, whether we chose to acknowledge and enforce them is a different story.

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I likewise find it bizarre that you see the dress as gold and white, Troy. Scientists attribute how people perceive the colors to a variation that occurs in the rods and cones in individual's eyes and how the brain interprets this. One person's truth is another one's falseness. So, - what else is new?? BTW,  did you have your famiy members take the test and, if so, what did they see?

 

A counter culture does exist whether you want to legitimize it or not and it is comprised of iconoclasts who believe in free speech and don't observe "the lines" drawn by the dictates of society. There's a whole element of nonconformists who think outside the box, and inject the phrase "compared to what" when judging what's "right " or "wrong". "Gallows humor" that spares no subject or situation has been around since Shakespeare's times. That's what the shooting incident in Paris was all about. The French magazine ridiculed the prophet Muhammad as did the Denmark publication that was recently in the news. SNL won't attack Muhammad, not because they are ethical, but because they fear violent retaliation and repercussions from the network and sponsors. They have ridiculed Jesus from time to time.

 

Designating what's right and wrong are surival tools because if humans were left to follow their natural, primitive instincts they would destroy the species. Who is to say that this isn't happening anyway but because it is gradual, it doesn't command attention. There is a standard of life as it arguably should exist, and then there is a pattern of life as it chaotically does exist. Reality is a bitch - but "bitch" and "reality" are just words... :wacko: As a remedy for all of this, religion has failed because it became toxic, itself.

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Cynique I don't know whether you are right, but I feel that you are. I am dropping the box. I have been echoing the thought. And saying it frequently, "there is no good or bad, just a perception reaction and/or and emotion."

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People ridicule Jesus because Christians tolerate that sort of thing, but Muslims don't play that.  There are different lines and people behave accordingly.

 

I don't doubt for second that there are comedians that would love to have a field day cracking jokes about Islam, but again who would be so reckless with their health.

 

But this is the point of my argument we have to draw lines, otherwise people would do anything.  

 

We have laws against raping children and murdering each other.  For the vast majority of us, these laws are unnecessary. Most of us will go our entire lifetimes without sodomizing and infant and killing it to dispose of the body.  

 

Needless to say there are many who would do it if they knew they could get away with it legally and that no one would frown upon the behavior.

 

In a civilized society, we have to draw lines otherwise we have mayhem.  Perhaps that is the problem with America all the lines we had in place are being moved to the point of nonexistence.

 

------

 

I always enjoyed optical illusions.  But this one is the most amazing one I've ever seen!  All of the optical illusions I've ever encountered I could see the image both ways.  I see the old lady and the young woman, I see the two people facing each other and the vase, etc.

 

Or they were optical illusions I could explain on my own.  I could explain why the two lines are not the same length, 

 

But this one is astonishing to me.  None of us are color blind, but we see these images so completely differently!  While all of my family see white and gold (perhaps there is a genetic component), my wife saw the image at her school and people saw different colors looking ta the same image

 

Cynique what colors do the rest of you family see looking at the image I posted?

 

This begs the question, what else do we see differently, and how does this inform and effect of perception of the world?

 

I also wanna know how come I never heard of this illusion before?  Is this something that has been recently discovered?  I'm going to an look into it.

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I used a color picker to identify the various colors, what I see as white are shades of Blue.

 

This site http://brainden.com/color-illusions.htm has some really remarkable color illusions.  But still these would work on everyone, not just some people, unlike the dress.  

 

The colors a and b are the same!  Just your finger over the white boarder any you will see!

 

identical-colors.jpg

 

 

The squares labled A and B below are the same color!  Print it out if you don't believe it.

 

same-color-illusion.jpg

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Very interesting. Troy. As for the dress, there was no consensus in my family in regard to the colors of the it. Some saw black and blue and others saw gold and white. Have you ever tried those exercises where you are directed to stare at what seems like a random display of colors and if you gaze at it long enough allowing your eyes to shift out of focus,  a 3-D image of a scene will sudden spring out at you from the page? I became quite good at this but after a while doing so would give me a headache. 

 

Along these lines, I have noticed something about you and Delano,  when it comes to your posts.  It's like you guys type words instead of letters.  Your brain grasps patterns so, for instance,  if you hit "a" and "n", the letter "d" will automatically follow making the word "and", when you might mean to type another word that starts with a-n. The same pattern occurs with your other "typos". Also, you sometimes use a word that sounds similar to the word you mean to type, as if you are hearing  words as you type them. I realize that if you are typing on an iPhone or a tablet and you are in a hurry, this can contribute to this. Your omission of words is a common occurrence because people think faster than they can write.  Delano, you are very spontaneous in your responses and don't always put your comments in context. Ideas come to you and you often express them in a series of separate posts. Me, I type a word twice and don't realize it until I read a post over later. I guess these are things that can be attributed to the computer age and how it is affecting our brains.  I express my thoughts as they come into my stream of consciousness.  What I type in the process of doing this are not necesssarily convictions that I believe but possibilities that I wonder about.  You reinforced my remarks about standards for right and wrong being tools of survival, Troy, - boundaries are necesssary to keep humans from destroying themselves.  And, of course, how we see things differently does contribute to the ongoing conflict among groups within the group.

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