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Unfortunately so-called "common sense" lags a few hundred years behind scientific understanding and most people for most of their lifes still think of themselve

by stiff 14y ago

Unfortunately so-called "common sense" lags a few hundred years behind scientific understanding and most people for most of their lifes still think of themselves as a Cartesian spirit "trapped" in a body, at least until serious disease occurs for the first time. The moment you really internalize that all your memories, dreams and reflections are collected in a small region in the front part of your brain, which basically is a ball of meat suspended in some fluid in your skull, is the moment you might start to actually care for your brain not getting thrown around too much. The same thing goes for car accidents and having a basic intuitive feel of high-school level physics .

leoh 14y ago
Interesting, but I don't see how common sense lags hundreds of years behind scientific understanding. I think it would be obvious to many people that head injuries are dangerous both today and hundreds of years ago.
- stiff 14y ago
  I will give you an example: ask a religious person you know in a completely neutral context where are memories stored and what would happen to a person after suffering severe head trauma. He or she will I guess not have any problems responding that memories are stored in the brain and that people with severe head trauma die, because everyone "learns" it at school. Yet the same person at a different time would fiercely convince you that there is an afterlife where your soul goes after death and where you are more or less the same person. It is not specific to religion, we seem to "know" a lot of things, but choose to not think of them too much for example because they evoke unpleasant emotions. In general I think we do not as a rule change our deeply rooted beliefs or behaviours simply when new facts appear. It takes changes in social policies, education and to some extent also for new generations of people to replace old ones to have those new facts affect our way of living. That's what I meant by a lag between common sense and science.

by stiff 14y ago

leoh 14y ago

Interesting, but I don't see how common sense lags hundreds of years behind scientific understanding. I think it would be obvious to many people that head injuries are dangerous both today and hundreds of years ago.

stiff 14y ago
I will give you an example: ask a religious person you know in a completely neutral context where are memories stored and what would happen to a person after suffering severe head trauma. He or she will I guess not have any problems responding that memories are stored in the brain and that people with severe head trauma die, because everyone "learns" it at school. Yet the same person at a different time would fiercely convince you that there is an afterlife where your soul goes after death and where you are more or less the same person. It is not specific to religion, we seem to "know" a lot of things, but choose to not think of them too much for example because they evoke unpleasant emotions. In general I think we do not as a rule change our deeply rooted beliefs or behaviours simply when new facts appear. It takes changes in social policies, education and to some extent also for new generations of people to replace old ones to have those new facts affect our way of living. That's what I meant by a lag between common sense and science.