TED Community » Erik Schwarz

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• A reply on Talk: Matt Killingsworth: Want to be happier? Stay in the moment

  Apr 20 2013: I was also thinking (mind-wandering) about creativity during the talk. And how innovation is usually (always?) triggered by trying to solve a problem, read "unhappy state". Which brought to mind the quote by Bernard Shaw:
  The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
  
  Is the reasonable man happier than the unreasonable man?

• A reply on Talk: Diane Benscoter on how cults rewire the brain

  Oct 22 2012: Undoubtedly the activity can be different, but the attitude and/or motivation can be very similar. That is why you can "religiously follow" a scientific theory, and even reject observable facts based on unproven paradigms, e.g. Galileo vs Rome.

• A comment on Conversation: Why are man-made creations so symmetrical?

  Oct 21 2012: I can think of several reasons, depending on what the object is. For example, I would expand symmetry to include parallel. If you see parallel lines in perspective you can easily see the symmetry axis (think railroad tracks).
  
  From there we can expand to rhyme. Rhyme is the repetition of key elements (e.g. ending) of sequential lines (of poems), but given some rhythm and the rhyme, they become parallel and symmetrical. Look at how this has been ritualized in typesetting for poetry.
  
  We are symmetrical to a greater degree, and we enjoy symmetrical faces, so there is some cognitive bias on that.
  
  Finally, suppose you are designing a thing, say a chest. Balance has been repeated often in previous commentaries, symmetry guarantees balance above any other construct. But let's assume you are the designer. You have designed the left part and proven it is useful and safe. Then you copy-paste + flip-horizontally + match corresponding edges, and erase the shared wall. Your finished work is beautiful, fast, proven, and balanced. How else could you attain those attributes for the finished product without symmetry?
  
  As for assymmetry, that can be beautiful too. We humans love surprises, especially humorous ones !
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  A reply on Talk: Diane Benscoter on how cults rewire the brain

  Feb 25 2011: I totally agree, and this is as viewed from her reasoning.
  [I must add that I feel her pain, and approve her talk, not because of its ideas, but of its emotions. And congratulate the speaker on her braveness to sort her life out (although in public) to help others]
  
  Around 4:40, she mentions circular logic as this:
  Moon is one with God
  God is going to fix the world
  All i have to do is humbly follow,
  Because god is going to do all the things i wanted to do.
  
  Her final exhortation is this:
  Good is one with science (of the brain)
  (neuro-)Science is going to find the cure for non-logical vulnerable thinking
  all i have to do is humbly research
  because neuroscience is going to prevent us from doing the things we shouldn't want to do.
  
  It is exactly the same reasoning pattern. Yet, it has transcended substantially the first in that she does not divide US vs THEM, because she exhorts all towards eradicating the "evil brains".