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William Blake once said: 'I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s’. Nowadays, to create your own system of vision of the world or even preserve it is very, very difficult.
A person’s perception of reality is shaped by the information transmitted to the brain. For centuries, people communicated through gestures, shouts, drums, smoke signals, and clay plates, which can be seen as forms of technology. The emergence of a primitive printing press was revolutionary for its time.
Even in today’s digital age, people continue to create their analogue worlds through paintings, symphonies, sculptures, songs, novels, and poems. These artistic expressions not only serve as art but also as materialised information about the world. Information that all this time, as they think, has created a reality for them and has kept them safe from themselves. Everything from Renaissance paintings to Andy Warhol, from myths of the ancient Greeks and classic novels to contemporary bestsellers, contributes to a system of artefacts, concepts and judgements, which has helped people to protect themselves from the surrounding chaos and is called culture.
The words 'culture’ and 'cult’, having the same roots, are completely opposite in their meaning and impact on individuals. People are always more inclined to create a cult rather than putting in the laborious effort to maintain a higher level of culture, and the lower the level of culture, the more likely a cult is to be created. A cult can be formed around anything, even something as mundane as a mobile phone, and attract a large following of fans. It is surprising to think that more people might know about iPhones than about the Mona Lisa.
People, as depicted in films like The Matrix or Inception, use their brains to create their own models of the universe and a map of the world. This virtual map is not specific to any particular area, and it is uncertain who created it – whether it was themselves or someone else. The information age has significantly enhanced the speed and quality of replicating such maps. The widespread availability of personal impact has multiplied the range of interpretations for any phenomena or events, some of which may stem from others’ perspectives.
People have stopped deeply analysing facts and evaluating them using logic and common sense. It is easier and more economical to simply believe in the presented interpretations, consequently making it even easier to convey these interpretations to them, provided you know how.
Two out of Six
How we can be convinced of anything. What you see depends on how you see.
There are no facts, only interpretations. ― Friedrich Nietzsche
The average person looks without seeing, listens without
hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves
without physical sensation – and speaks without thinking.
In the last half-century, a significant amount of research has been conducted and numerous discoveries have been made. These findings have allowed humans to reconsider their understanding of themselves and their current experiences, even while reading these lines. Some of these studies aim to offer insights into what defines a person and shapes their self-perception. The key objective is to comprehend the factors influencing human behaviour and how it can be done.
The following study explains how people perceive, store, and use information. Canadian psychologist Allan Paivio had long been studying memory psychology, particularly how humans remember what they see, hear, and feel, and how their memory and the above-mentioned associative library are formed. Based on his observations, Paivio proposed the idea of a dual-encoding system.
Humans have two main perception systems – visual and verbal. These systems work simultaneously to create independent ideas about what they see and hear, generating specific codes for each system. The visual code created by the system handles problem-solving in the space here and now, while the verbal code works with abstract symbols, aiding in representing something in perspective, space, and the current time. Additionally, each of these systems is hierarchically self-organised in the perception of information, interacting at four levels.
Firstly, at the initial level, the information is received and sensory processing takes place. This stage is known as perception.
Secondly, at the next level, the processed information connects with the existing long-term memory system to find associations related to the incoming information.
Thirdly, at another level, elements similar to the received information are activated in memory, and therefore this level is called the associative level.
Finally, at the fourth level, the verbal and visual systems interact with each other to represent the conclusive reference of the received information, storing it in long-term memory as an image that is assigned a designation, or vice versa, as the name that the image corresponds to.
To summarise what has been said, each word in any statement has its particular referent – a notion. When something is mentioned, the symbol of the designated object is correlated with the objects of extra-linguistic reality.
The reality created and stored in a person’s mind can equally likely belong to the real or imaginary world. For memory to function, a person needs to be able to imagine and name the reality. The entire process of perceiving, categorising, memorising, and presenting information depends on a person’s experiences, subjective assessments, images, and judgements about the environment. This is also known as a person’s world view.
The simplest confirmation of Paivio’s theory is that using both visual and verbal channels can improve the accuracy of recalling studied material. In other words, people learn better when information is not only told to them but also shown. The films should have both sound and subtitles. This concept has been recognised since school, as visual stories are often easier to remember than just reading the material. How people perceive the world is influenced by their life positions, beliefs, ideals, and rules. Their world view created by them shapes their actions and makes them meaningful and purposeful.
Historically, individuals adopt several types of world views. The world view, used in daily life, is the so-called everyday world view. The formation of this type of world view dates back to primitive society, when thinking was based on imaginative perceptions of the world. From this came the mythological world view, exemplified by the mythology of the ancient Greeks, familiar to everyone. Creating myths, people spiritualised and likened material objects and various phenomena to humans. Such a world view is sacred, secret, and magical. This world view has survived to the present day.
The next stage of forming a person’s world view is based on the belief in supernatural forces. One example is the religious world view. This is a much more rigid version of judgements and ideas combined with a system of moral commandments. Such a world view helps support a person’s models of ethical behaviour.
And finally, the next stage of forming a world view is the philosophical world view. This is a complex systemic way of viewing the world, where the human mind is assigned the highest role. If myth is based on emotions and feelings, philosophy is based on logic and evidence.
As time passes, the information that a person possesses undergoes changes. It becomes distorted, and as perspectives shift, it can evolve into something else. It is natural for us to understand that a person’s perspective is constantly being shaped and improved as life progresses. This may seem familiar and understandable at first. However, there is a subtle but significant detail in all of this, which becomes apparent when you provide precise definitions of the concepts and processes mentioned above.
The first concept is a person’s attitude to the surrounding reality. It is expressed in moods, feelings and actions, that is, it has an emotional and psychological basis.
The second is a set of views on the world, i.e. cognitive-intellectual concept, our doctrine of the surrounding world.
When people visualise their idea of the world, their attitude (emotional and psychological) goes up to the level where it becomes their set of views, their cognitive and intellectual doctrine.
This is a crucial point for understanding the mechanism that underlies the influence and creation of an objective or distorted picture of the external world in the mind.
Information about the world is received through the six sensory channels: vision (eyes), hearing (ears), taste (tongue), smell (nose), touch (skin), balance, position in space, weight, etc. (vestibular apparatus). Through these channels, we receive and conduct a preliminary analysis of information about the world around us.
Some things can be done from a distance, for example, through seeing and hearing. Other senses like touch, taste, and smell require direct contact or proximity. If one sense is impaired, other senses can compensate for it. For example, individuals with poor eyesight might have highly developed hearing and smell. This happens because the brain constantly seeks information and utilises all available sensory channels to do so. The information gathered creates a sense of security.
Until recently, all senses played relatively equal roles in shaping this sensory picture. People not only relied on sight and hearing but also on touch, smell, and taste. Not too long ago, they would literally taste gold coins and touch, smell, and try on objects when making purchases. The more sensory channels used, the more objective our perception of the world around us becomes.
How many of the six senses do people use to perceive the world in the last quarter of a century, compared to how many have been used over the past millennia? It turns out that with an increase in the amount of information received, the multichannel nature and, consequently, the objectivity of its perception decreased.
Now, a lottery which lures you to guess five numbers out of 36 is a game of chance and luck. The odds of winning are lower than the margin of error. People mostly rely on only two out of the six possible senses for their perception. The likelihood of accurately perceiving reality is probably still higher than winning the lottery. But to what extent?
Reflection, Imitation, Learning
Mirror areas, or how we learn.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be
stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
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