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Post by Zheng Zhao on May 28, 2015 1:05:34 GMT
The so-called cerebral mirage refers to the fact that the universe that we are beholding might just be an illusion that our brain constructs for us to see and the truth of the universe lies deep underneath the surface. For example, the various languages or system that we use on our computer is in fact just the combinations of a series of binary codes. Just as Nietzsche once said, “the world suffers from paroxysms of madness, and it only because of this that life becomes somewhat understandable.” However, when we talk about such surface level consciousness that brain leads us towards, we need to put it in a biological and historical contextual framework. That is to say, such self-awareness does not rise from vacuum, but as a virtual simulator that shows us what we need to see for us to survive as long as possible, or as stated in “Cerebral Mirage,” “to better map out future competitive strategies and thereby increase its survival rate.” For instance, the near-death experiences might just be the magic of our brains to let us see our “ultimate concern” so that we could have a larger chance of survival, but the simple fact is just that we didn’t die. Therefore, our brain is so structured that it makes us believe in meanings and images that would allow us to live one extra day.
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Post by Hector Aguinaga on Jun 1, 2015 6:32:10 GMT
Hello Zheng, I agree with your example about the various computer languages and systems to our perception of the universe. I used to think different about the computer languages until I first was expose to the first computer language, I thought that they were in a sense more complicated, but in fact there are just different levels of translations, like writing a book or story about something in plain English, then translated (compile) to symbols and numbers 0 and 1, then to electrical currents that have been manipulated to make sense to our perception of letters, numbers, lines of graphics that our eyes to our brain make sense of to understand it, so in a sense a total illusion, as we see the universe on the way that our brain perceive it, and possibly to avoid overloading the neurons in our brain? Possibly. In the way that you pointed out, the mirage of perception could be a defensive stimuli to survive and live our lives in a pleasant way for evolution to continue.
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