About Ourselves..

First read this interview.


Below are a few quotes from the above interview.

But science is not about knowing for sure. It's about knowing beyond reasonable doubt - so there's more in common with the law here than people realise. You can only be beyond reasonable doubt that something is true.

Next time you get into an argument with someone on something scientific (like I did recently) and they argue that '.. oh but you can't know for sure' just tell them what science is really about. ;)

The only thing I will say is there have been all these revolutions in science. If you think about it, each of them has had a dehumanising impact.

First, for example, there was the Copernican revolution saying there is nothing special about this little speck of dust, which is what the earth is. That's already humiliating - that you don't have a privileged place in the cosmos.

Then comes the Darwinian revolution saying you're just a hairless ape. That, again, is humiliating - that you are not the climax of creation, but are, in fact, the product of random processes of natural selection.

Then this Freudian revolution, saying you are not in charge, that your behaviour is largely governed by unconscious motives and drives.

And then the most recent thing, the DNA - that there is no vital spirit, it's a molecule. As Watson said, there are only molecules, everything else is sociology. He was, of course, saying this tongue in cheek. And now the neuroscientist's version - Crick's astonishing hypothesis - that you are just a pack of neurons; that's all a human being is. Now the question is: is that true? We don't know yet. We have to remain agnostic. But we have to take that as far as we can. That's the way science works.

Thus we are another cog in the great cosmic machinery of the universe. Or is it that simple? Us humans have this unique gift of 'self-discovery'. The fact that we know we are not the big bosses of the universe is in itself unique.
The more we know the greater mastery we have over our surroundings and at the same time our importance in the scheme of things reduces. From center stage to side show.
How much longer can we humans keep on discovering things about our universe without starting the journey back from side show towards center stage?
Have we passed the mean or are we moving towards it? What do we need to discover so that the human race can actually call itself unique? Secret of everlasting life? Travelling millions and billions of kilometers by merely thinking about it? What is it that we need to discover that will make us stand out?

It turns out that if I tell somebody to wiggle his fingers whenever he wants to in the next five minutes, the amazing thing is, when he wiggles his finger, you can measure when he wants to on the second hand of a clock and you can check where was the second hand at the time he sent the command to wiggle the finger - and usually he sends the command just before the clock was at the twelve. But you have picked up the brain signal a full second before!

So you can tell the guy, ahead of time, that you are going to will it now, in principle - we haven't actually succeeded in doing that yet because of technical problems. Now, if it's his will, how can you tell him ahead of time when he's going to will it?

This is totally amazing! That means there is a gap of around 1 second between our thoughts and actions. This is easy to figure out since the speed of the electrical impulses in our nerves is not infinite. No signal can travel faster than light (which has speed of around 3x10^8 m/s in vaccume) and the signals in our nervous system travel at a lower speed than that!
So basically what you are doing now you decided one second ago (approximately).
It is a strange concept if you think about it.