025 // How our brains understand the world around us

Kathryn Exon Smith -

How has the way humans process information changed over time, and how will it change in the future?

The flows of time and information have taken on odd new shapes in the time of Covid, expanding, compressing and deforming, as though processed through Jimi Hendrix’ Octavia distortion device. Some of these altered states can be understood with the help of a 4th dynasty Egyptian papyrus. Others are revealed by counting the number of bits of data in a single copy of the London Times of 1820.

We’ve increasingly invented technologies that have put unreasonable pressures on our poor brains, whose information processing limitations evolved in much slower times than ours.

Emmy-winning composer Matthew McCauley will discuss his archaeological adventures and our perception of time, sound and space. His journey across 4500 years from the Lost City of the pyramids to the digital cities of the future will serve as the backdrop. Matthew is also interested to learn from you about the effects that you’re experiencing.

The Case Against Reality
A professor of cognitive science argues that the world is nothing like the one we experience through our senses.
The AtlanticAmanda Gefter, Quanta Magazine
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size: Norretranders, Tor: 9780140230123: Amazon.com: Books
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size [Norretranders, Tor] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size
Tor Nørretranders
Chronostasis - Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Contributors to Wikimedia projects
Visual Illusion: Chronostasis and Saccadic Masking
by Gooly (Li Yang Ku) I was always intrigued by visual illusions and am often surprised by how often we are fooled by our eyes. Some visual illusion is just as good as a good joke. One of my favori…
the Serious Computer Vision Blog
The World’s Oldest Papyrus and What It Can Tell Us About the Great Pyramids
Ancient Egyptians leveraged a massive shipping, mining and farming economy to propel their civilization forward
Smithsonian MagazineAlexander Stille; Photographs by David Degner
An Experiment with Time - Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Contributors to Wikimedia projects
It’s Spring Already? Physics Explains Why Time Flies as We Age
A slowdown in image processing speeds up our perception of time passing as we age
Duke Pratt School of Engineering
Fluidics of a Flow Cytometer | Thermo Fisher Scientific - NL
This section covers the fluidics of a flow cytometer, from sample loading and transport through the instrument.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Logo
The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering
In his philosophical reflections on the art of lingering, acclaimed cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han argues that the value we attach today to thevita activais producing a crisis in our sense of time. Our attachment to thevita activacreates an imperative to work which degrades the human being into a …
Wiley.comung-Chul Han
Home | Sherry Turkle
MIT
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Television has conditioned us to tolerate visually entertaining material measured out in spoonfuls of time, to the detriment of rational ...
Goodreads Summer Reading 2021Neil Postman
The Act of Creation
While the study of psychology has offered little in the way of explaining the creative process, Koestler examines the idea that we are at...
Goodreads Summer Reading 2021Arthur Koestler
S3, Episode 9: The Illusionist (Jun. 8, 2019)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky composed and conducted his final symphony in 1893. He died 9 days later, after having knowingly drunk an unboiled glass of water during a cholera epidemic. Deep into the symphony,…
Hi-Phi Nation

This salon took place May 2, 2020.