Lost in Translation.......

All living beings need to communicate with one another, whether it be by signs or language. The power of the verbal communication is all powerful as behind this we have a voice. Yes, in scientific terms as we explore physics we find that talk has real torque. In fact we can question the saying , " the pen is mightier than the sword " and change it to ," verbal speech is mightier than the sword" . Who knows this better than our politicians?  Can anyone forget the power behind the deep lucid tones of Barack Obama as he sailed into the white house with his talk of change. The same can be said of many leaders from Julius Caesar to Martin Luther King, and even the notorious Adolf Hitler. All these leaders may have had different purposes but they all had one thing in common; they knew and used wisely the power behind their words to inspire a nation. However, sometimes language can be misinterpreted and in effect can get lost in translation....

We live in a world of multitude of creeds, colors, races, religions, cultures and of course languages. Thus the simple act of communication involves overcoming many barriers and when we fail to do so we are faced with the consequences. Connotations can often seriously affect our understanding of the truth. Many court trials of rape cases have stalled with the accused claiming innocence, " I misinterpreted her signals, I really thought no meant yes ". In fact a spade is not always a spade, it depends on your view points. In the war in Iraq the men trying to defend their country from US invasion were called the insurgents or terrorists by the US when technically speaking they could be described as freedom fighters. There are obviously powerful political connotations associated by our choice of words. Often, name calling can be hurtful and racist when used out of context. For example calling a person from New York a New Yorker is neither racist or insulting to the said person, however a person of Pakistani origin being sneer fully called a Paki is taken as a derogatory term which incites hate and racial prejudice. We need to be careful in our choice of words as sometimes between cultures the same word can hold two very different meanings. Again there are far too many examples to mention but one that comes to mind is the word rubber. In anglicized English this means an eraser while in American English it means a condom and of course wrongful usage can have unintended meanings. However, truth is often an arbitrary term and is often based on view point and interpretation. Language is like a genetic code, remove one letter or codon and the meaning changes. Imagine sending a text which reads "I am now leaving" and then mistyping to "I am not leaving."

But in the world of mass communication across the globe at lightening speed millions have been able to overcome these barriers and language has often become universal especially among the young and those young at heart. So our levels of understanding have increased leaving less scope for ambiguity. And we can take heart in this. Otherwise we would really be lost in translation.........

Knowledge Is Power Which Should Not Be Abused

The article written by a former college student, Jenny Samuel laments that she is taking a class this semester where the professor has a reputation for forcing his liberal political views down the throat of his students. She laments that this is unfortunate and damaging to the students as college is meant to be about  finding yourself and formulating your own opinions.

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/16786/professors-should-leave-bias-out-of-classroom

Knowledge Issues

Is bias on knowledge an issue of ethics or an issue of perception?

Should one man's perception on a subject matter effect another man's knowledge?

Is prejudice and discrimination propagated by listening to the biased one sided perceptions of an authority figure?

There are many sides to any story, and this is graphically illustrated when we look at cards of silhouettes  of the kind that psychiatrists hold up and ask us what is the first thing we see. On closer inspection we see there is another hidden image. This holds true of opinions, there is never a right or wrong in many cases simply a personal view point. This view point or perception of seeing something is often bathed in the experiences we have had in the past. 

We grow up with the authority figure firstly of our parents, grandparents and then teachers. And since these are our earliest influences we value and hold their words of wisdom as gospel. However, the article, "professors should leave bias out of classroom" complains that college level professors should not influence or force their opinions down the throat of impressionable college kids. College is the final stage of a students formal learning curve and is designed that students should think out of the box. We no longer need to color within the lines. Knowledge is now not about being handed out ideas but by doing research and putting a spin on events. We are encouraged to invent and create and not assimilate information and repeat it parrot fashion. But how damaging is if when strong opinions in college or prior to college come from an authority figure. After all, it goes against upbringing to defy or challenge. We are taught to respect authority. But does this influence cause us to become prejudiced, biased reaching the scales of discrimination and racist? Yes, if we don't have the time to formulate our own opinions then our influenced opinions can make us have a one sided way of looking at the world. For example, if your college professor rants and raves about nuclear disarmament then due to respect we believe these one sided  arguments and never see the other side of the coin. Racial, religious discriminations are borne of our environment and background and are more the more dangerous as they are passed down from generation. It fine to hear someone else's opinion but true knowledge comes from analysis and from making counter arguments rather than blind acceptance. 

Knowledge is power and those who hold this power should not abuse it.

Samuels, Jenny. "Professors should leave bias out of classroom - CollegiateTimes.com." Virginia Tech, Blacksburg & New River Valley News - CollegiateTimes.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2011. .

The Flip Side of Our Brain

“Thus every act of perception, even something as simple as viewing a drawing of a cube, involves an act of judgment by the brain.” 

Can we ever believe our own eyes? The answer is no, seeing is not always believing, and our eyes see what our mind tells us to see. Our perception of what we see is also based on own experiences, feelings and judgements. People often say " are you blind" when a person disagrees with their opinion whether positively or negatively on a particular object. For example if a painting is perceived as aesthetically pleasing depends on your opinion and is definitely a judgement call. Similarly, we can use the commonly used expression of "is the glass perceived as half full or half empty". Again there is no right or wrong answer to this, it as again a judgement call. A man in a desert who is desperately thirsty will conjure up the mirage of an Oasis in the desert. His brain desperately wants to believe that the illusion is reality and therefore the mind plays tricks and convinces the eyes. Similarly when a psychiatrist asks a patient to see an image he sees in a card he may see in the blackened sillouette a vase or human face dependent on his psychological state of mind that the doctor is then able to assess. 

Therefore, the statement "thus every act of perception, even something as simple as viewing a drawing of a cube, involves an act of judgement by the brain" holds true by all accounts. When we watch the drawing of a cube the brain has to make certain judgements. Even when the retinal image is kept constant, the cube may seem to flip in front of our eyes.

I Can't Believe My Eyes!

The question we need to answer is, can we really believe our eyes?

For those of us who are lucky not to be visually impaired, we take a lot for granted. We see the world around us in three dimensional technicolor and do not for even for one microseconds stop to appreciate or wonder how this is remotely possible. It is only when the words in that novel or newspaper seem blurred to us do we begin to wonder and reach for medical help. The brain that controls our senses is in fact the least understood organ in our body. 

The brain is a complex maze which holds more secrets than Pandora,s box. But though the brain gives us vision it can also deceive us and seeing is not always believing. A dehydrated man lost in the desert can see a vision of an oasis looming at him when none exists. The brain can play tricks. This was further shown in Dr. Ramachandron documentary, where the patient is able to still perceive his amputated limb. In fact patients have been able to feel pain in limbs that no longer exist which leads to the phantom brain syndrome. Perhaps put simply in layman terms we feel or see what we want to. The dying man desperately wants to believe there is an oasis in the same way the amputated man wants to believe his leg still exists, so they perceive their existence and the brain surely registers this request and complies with it's visual or sensory response.

 But sometimes we don't need our eyesight to see as shown by the case history examples. This further brings to mind why blind people develop greater sensitivity in their other senses, which medically we are born with five. But as many greater thinkers and medical practitioners have observed or claimed there is a sixth sense. This reminds me of the karate guru who would train his disciple to train blindfolded. As only in this state was he able to truly sense the enemy and predict the moves of his combatant. Similarly he was able to develop the pArt of the brain that controls physical reaction of fight and flight. His eyesight instead of helping him had hindered him as the large visual picture sent to me signals at once that confused and slowed his brain making him lose focus. It is this sixth sense that makes us turn around to face a person that is staring at us even when we cannot see the person in question even in our peripheral vision. 

So do blind people see more than those visually unimpaired is a question for debate, but it is an interesting thought. But the truth is that we do not always see the truth before our eyes, hence the phrase, "Love is blind," and "Are you blind," have cropped up when others look at the same thing a person or object but their sensory perception and interpretation of what they see can differ in opinion from someone elses. The mysteries of the brain are complex and yes, "There is a great deal more to perception than meets the eye." and this has been explained in medical detailed terms in the literature, " phantoms in the brain".One of the main points in this piece is the notion that we need to stop thinking of images in the brain and instead think about symbolic descriptions, in order to understand perception. Descriptions on paper symbolise the visual at hand. Translated our brain receives a multitude of signals through neurones which are processed and the bits of pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are assembled to give a complete picture of events. When we damage some part of our brain some of the pieces get jumbled up. Yes, a very simplistic explanation to the most complicated and least understood part of the human body.

 Psychiatrists often use pictures shaded in black to understand our mental state of mind. By staring at the picture card one patient can clearly see a vase while another sees the object as a woman,s face. Both patients are correct in their observations it is just that they differ in their perception. It is like the age old adage, " is the glass half full or half empty". Of course there is no right or wrong answer. The optimistic, fulfilled person will perceive the glass as half full which parallels his view of his personal life. On the other hand the person who has a grudge to bear with the world and had many unfulfilled ambitions will perceive the glass as half empty. So there is an aspect of vision of what is in front of us such as, let us say a pair of shoes and there is an aspect of vision of what we perceive. But sometimes we don,t want to see something so we pretend or convince ourselves that if we close our eyes the thing will go away but of course it will not. For example an ostrich digs it's head in the sand at the sight of danger and in the same way a child covers his eyes during a scary scene. If we cannot see it surely it does not exist is the signal we want to send to our brain. In the reverse way, we sometimes see bad things that do not exist borne of an innate sense of fear. This is why lying alone in bed in the dark we perceive shadows to be monsters when none exist, and the next morning the sunshine filled room dispels our fears as foolish. In fact as this writing by Ramachandran clearly states the only phantoms are in our brain.