35 scientific concepts that will help you better understand the world and themselves Bashny.Net

For a better understanding of how the Universe around and the Universe inside us, it is useful to get acquainted with interesting scientific concepts. Among influential modern scientists a survey was conducted to ascertain what ideas and knowledge they consider most important for understanding human structure of the world and himself.



Wallpapersonthe.netthe Website offers the reader be familiar with the curious list.

Cognitive humility Decade, cognitive research has shown that our minds have a limit, and far from perfect, but knowing this limit, we can learn to argue effectively. The worst consequence of this phenomenon can be considered that people tend to remember those things that are consistent with their beliefs regardless of the evidence.

Cognitive load Our brains can hold a limited amount of information at a time: when information is too much, comes the "information overload", and then we are easily distracted and don't remember what was studied. Working memory is what scientists call short-term memory, it is stored the contents of our consciousness at any given moment and it is this area handles all the impressions and thoughts we receive during the day.

Constraint satisfaction When we have too many options to choose from, no matter how attractive and useful they are, it can act upon us overwhelming: we cannot find the best solution and to choose one or the other. Therefore, the restrictions best — with a finite number of options we choose from the offered much faster. In fact, many creative solutions come from limitations of satisfaction: for example, Einstein managed to make a breakthrough in physics, when he realized that time doesn't have to flow at a constant speed.

Related superorganisms Joint efforts of biologists and sociologists led to the formation of the "society unmasked altruism", in other words, any altruistic act is done in self-interest. However, the new concept is "tightly linked superorganisms," says that we live life in several different hierarchies: when you reach a higher level of development, you are able to put the success of the group above their own personal goals — be guided by this principle, for example, military and firefighters.

The Copernican principle At the basis of the "Copernican principle" is the idea of our aunicornist: the universe is much bigger than we realize, and we play a pretty minor role. The paradox of the Copernican principle is that only properly evaluate our place in it, even if it is slightly, we can understand the true motives of the particular circumstances, and when we do some actions, they will be not quite so minor.

Cultural attractor We attract those ideas or concepts that we can easily understand and learn: for example, a cultural attractor are round numbers because they are easy to remember and used as symbols to represent variables. However, if we gravitate to one or the other concept, it does not mean that it is best for any situation.

Cumulative error When information is transmitted over several channels, some of its elements may be distorted as a result of biases, or simple human errors — the effect of the spread of misinformation is called the cumulative error. Given that we live in an age where information can fly around the world in a nanosecond, this principle has become important to us and even to some extent dangerous.

Cycles Cycles explain everything, especially at the basic level of evolution and biology, but you should pay attention to what the cycles are at the moment. The whole "magic" cognitive perception depends, like life itself, the cycles within cycles of recurrent reflexive information-transformation processes from the biochemical processes inside neurons to the circadian cycle of sleep-wakefulness, brain waves and the fade that we can observe with the help of EEG.

Deep time There is a belief that ahead of we have more time than we already spend — it creates a more expansive view of the world and the potential of the Universe. For example, our Sun has not lasted half the time that he was released: it was formed 4.5 billion years ago, but will be shining for another 6 billion years before it runs out of fuel.

Double-blind method This concept, namely that subjects are not ordained to the important details of ongoing research. Researchers use it as a tool to prevent the influence of the subconscious on the result of the experiment. Understanding of the reasons for double-blind experiments can help people to understand the inherent subjective biases of everyday, to protect themselves from the habit to generalize and understand the need for critical thinking.

Theory efficiency Theory efficiency is one of the most important concepts in science, the idea is that you can actually measure something and decide, taking into account the accuracy of available measuring tools, how your theory is consistent with the results obtained.

Group extension the more technology develops, the more bound we become, and there are increasingly strong intersection between the various groups and strata of the population — for example, is more marriages. These effects are potentially useful for improving cognitive skills from two different points of view: scientists call them "extension of groups with common interests" and "effect hybrid energy."

External effects All of us, one way or another, affect each other, especially in the world of relationships. External effects are unintended positive and negative side-effects of these interactions. In the modern world externalities are becoming increasingly important, because the action that occurred in any location can potentially affect other actions on the opposite side of the world.

Lesions contribute to the success of Failure is not something that should be avoided, but rather something that must be cultivated. We tend to perceive failure as a sign of weakness and the inability to try again, and, nevertheless, the rise of the West is associated with the tolerance for failure: many immigrants brought up in the traditions of culture, where mistakes are not tolerated, achieve success, getting into an environment where defeat is acceptable, therefore, lesions contribute to the success.

Fear of the unknown, Our attachment to friends and acquaintances often prevents us to take risks and to take steps leading to the present breakthrough: often we are not able to estimate the real risk-benefit ratio, and our irrational fears hinder progress. If the society learns to understand how to assess the risks associated with the technology, and to take short-term risks for greater benefits in the long term, we can expect progress in all areas of science — particularly biomedical technology.

Fixed action patterns of Their behavior, we often tend to explain instincts, but what we think of as instinct may be a behavior learned over time — a pattern of fixed actions. This effect has many applications, including our ability as intelligent beings change that behavior, which we consider to be instinctive: to realize our own fixed patterns of action and patterns of those people with whom we interact, we as human beings with the abilities to cognitive processes, can rethink our patterns of behaviour.

Focus on the illusion We often think that certain set of circumstances would dramatically change our lives, but really factors such as income and health, does not indicate the overall happiness of the individual. Such a discrepancy in the distribution of attention between fictional life and real life is the reason for the concentration on the illusion.

Hidden layers the Hidden layers are the layers of understanding that exist between the external reality and our own perception of the world. Systems of layers become more interconnected with the development of our habits: for example, it is difficult to learn to ride a bike, but with practice this skill becomes our integral part. The General concept of hidden layers covers in-depth aspects of how consciousness works — man, animal or alien body, past, present or future.

Holism is colloquially the concept of holism means that the whole is greater than its individual parts. The most impressive example is something like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, iron and some other elements mixed in the right proportions, form life. There is a kind of a surprising interaction between the parts: just look at DNA and other complex systems like cities, functioning only when each individual element does its job.

Conclusion the best explanation If there is an event, there are many things that could cause it, but the truth is often the most rational explanation. Many of our most intense scientific discussions, for example about string theory and foundations of quantum mechanics — are competing which criteria should prevail.

Machine kaleidoscopic discoveries the Most significant insight or invention are, as a rule, the result of the work of several people. Most often no one does anything alone: each is based on someone's shoulders. Looking back, we often find that if one scientist did not do the specific open, although worked on it, the other individual made this discovery over the next few months or years. There is reason to believe that great discoveries are part of a kaleidoscope of discoveries and made many people at once.

The name game We give names to everything that surrounds us to better understand the world, but we sometimes distort or oversimplify the true nature of the organism or process: this name keeps us from further, more profound questions about the nature of something. It is also important not to invent too many words associated with different concepts, as this may lead to misunderstandings: for example, the word "theory" in science means a strong viable idea, but in spoken language — a General assumption.

Metainduction pessimism Many scientific theories of past eras were wrong, so we have to assume that most modern theories is also ultimately proves to be incorrect. Assuming that many of our theories "are actually temporary and probably incorrect", we can hear and accept other people's ideas.

The positive sum game In zero-sum games there is a clear winner and loser, but in games with a positive sum win-win. Rational, acting in their own interests the player in these games can benefit another player, taking the same decisions that benefit him.

Powers of ten, Most of the world operates by the power of ten — understanding of the principles of the ranking, for example, in the case of the Richter scale for measuring earthquakes, allows us to more fully realize the scale of the event. Our spatio-temporal trajectory is a tiny part of the Universe, but we at least can give her the strength of ten and in perspective.

Predictive coding Our expectations and they were justified or not, strongly affect our perception of the world and, ultimately, our quality of life. Predictive coding takes into account how the brain uses the mechanisms of prediction and expectation for understanding incoming signals and applying them to perceptions, thoughts and actions.

Randomness Randomness is a fundamental limit to our intuition, saying that there are processes that we are not able to fully predict. This concept we take seriously, despite the fact that it is an integral part of our world. However, some random events, like a chaotic cluster of atoms, so absolute that we can predict the result of such "accident" with complete certainty.

The rational unconscious, Freud created the idea of the irrational subconscious, but many modern scholars dispute this concept: instead, they argue that conscious and unconscious are closely related, and insist that our brain works on both levels. Our conscious understanding of probability, for example, is far from perfect, but our unconscious is constantly making subtle estimates of various probabilities.

Selfish bias, the Idea that we perceive ourselves better than we really are. We tend to take the credit, and the failure to blame others: for example, nine out of ten drivers believe that their driving is above average, and the student surveys, more than 90% of respondents rate themselves above their colleagues.

The shifting base syndrome This syndrome is the belief that all we perceive is the norm, but does not take into account past or potential future events. The syndrome is named after the scientist Daniel Pauly Daniel Pauly), who expressed the view that "each generation takes the basis for the size of reserves and the composition of the society, took place at the beginning of their life's journey, and uses them to estimate changes throughout life." When the next generation starts its journey, the stocks have declined, but that the new state becomes their new base.

Skeptical empiricism is the Best example for the skeptical empiricism is carefully designed and tested scientific research on the effectiveness differs from conventional empiricism, which is the result of a simple observation of the world around us. Simply put, it is important for us to be skeptical of the world around them, not just accept what we think is "truth."

Structured vision We too overestimate the value of good luck to make a breakthrough, but successful people regularly put themselves in those positions — ongoing training, tireless work, the search for the truth where luck finds them herself. Each of us should spend a few hours a week to search for and study of materials that have nothing to do with our daily work, in the field, also with our work nothing.

Under-I and the modular mind the Belief that we have only one "I", false: actually we have multiple personalities, or "-I". Each of us has a set of functional "sub-I" is one used when communicating with friends, other is for self-protection, becoming the third, fourth, search for a partner, and so on.

Umwelt Umwelt is the idea that we blindly accept the reality around us. It would be useful to include the concept of "Umwelt" into the public lexicon — it well describes the idea of limited knowledge, inaccessibility of information and unforeseen circumstances.

Uncalculated risk We humans evaluate probability poorly: our irrational fears and inclinations always have a negative impact on our estimates. We attach too much importance to the possibility of rare large events sometimes happen to us (such as winning the lottery or crash), but not pay attention to small events. Making the right decisions requires mental effort, but if we pereuserdstvovat, we risk to go in counter-productive ways: to increase the stress and wasted time. So it is better to maintain balance and to play, taking a healthy risk.

via factroom.ru