Definetely right there Rick, we can't control every aspect of what others perceive of us.

Having lived in many different locals across Canada, I've come to realize that every community emphasizes different values across the board.

Although you are perceived as such in one place, you are perceived differently in another. It's quite fascinating actually.

How about simultaneous thinking between you and your doppelgangers in other parallel universes?

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa...EA5809EC5880000

Well, they're not just a staple of science fiction! Other universes are a direct implication of cosmological observations.

The most pop. cosmological model today predicts that you have a twin in a galaxy about 10^10^28 meters from here.

The hubble volume is now about 4x10^26 meters away.

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The universes of your doppelgangers are speres of the same size centered on their planets.

Each universe is merely a small part of a larger multiverse.

Fronteirs of physics have gradually expanded to incorporate ever more abstract (and once metaphysical) concepts such as a round Earth, invisible electromagnetic feilds, curved space, and black holes, and over the last several years the concept of a multiverse has joined this list.

It is grounded in well-tested theories such as relativity and quantum mechanics, and fulfills both of the basic criteria of an empirical science: it makes predictions, and it can be falsified.

scientists have discussed as many as four distinct types of parallel universes. The question is not whether the multiverse exists but rather how many levels it has.

If procreation and life are good, then wouldn't they be better without deception?

Maybe, but according to this article, we as a collective society engage in it regularly and enjoy it.

They say that all's fair in love and war.

But, do you lie to your mates? Is there such thing as small lies? "

No honey, you don't look fat in that dress."

Your punishment for being truthful is not getting laid.

lol

no doubt!

....and is there punisment for lying, i.e cognitive functioning (psychological) or when you meet your maker and have to attone for your discretions?

In those situations is there not a way of being truthful without being hurtful and avoid any future repercussions?

unfortunately can't meet my maker(s) as they have both passed away. did their job and then nature moved them on. won't it be terrible when the human lifespan is extended to hundreds or thousands of years (and maybe more) - especially if there is no expanded consciousness or simultaneous thinking. evolution didn't make plans for that. I suppose when we crack the light speed problem there will a way to get around the overcrowding. in the meantime I imagine there will a longevity class system. bill gates's relatives should be OK though.

The reason talking on a cell phone makes drivers less safe may be that the brain can't simultaneously give full attention to both the visual task of driving and the auditory task of listening, a study by a Johns Hopkins University psychologist suggests. The study, published in a recent issue of "The Journal of Neuroscience," reinforces earlier behavioral research on the danger of mixing mobile phones and motoring.

"Our research helps explain why talking on a cell phone can impair driving performance, even when the driver is using a hands-free device," said Steven Yantis, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the university's Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

"The reason?" he said. "Directing attention to listening effectively 'turns down the volume' on input to the visual parts of the brain. The evidence we have right now strongly suggests that attention is strictly limited -- a zero-sum game. When attention is deployed to one modality -- say, in this case, talking on a cell phone -- it necessarily extracts a cost on another modality -- in this case, the visual task of driving."

Yantis's chief collaborator on this research project was Sarah Shomstein, who was a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins. Shomstein is now a post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Though the results of Yantis' research can be applied to the real world problem of drivers and their cell phones, that was not directly what the professor and his team studied. Instead, healthy young adults ages 19 to 35 were brought into a neuroimaging lab and asked to view a computer display while listening to voices over headphones. They watched a rapidly changing display of multiple letters and digits, while listening to three voices speaking letters and digits at the same time. The purpose was to simulate the cluttered visual and auditory input people deal with every day.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Yantis and his team recorded brain activity during each of these tasks. They found that when the subjects directed their attention to visual tasks, the auditory parts of their brain recorded decreased activity, and vice versa.

Yantis' team also examined the parts of the brain that control shifts of attention. They discovered that when a person was instructed to move his attention from vision to hearing, for instance, the brain's parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex produced a burst of activity that the researchers interpreted as a signal to initiate the shift of attention. This surprised them, because it has previously been thought that those parts of the brain were involved only in visual functions.

"Ultimately, we want to understand the connection between voluntary acts of the will (for instance, a choice to shift attention from vision to hearing), changes in brain activity (reflecting both the initiation of cognitive control and the effects of that control), and resultant changes in the performance of a task, such as driving," Yantis said. "By advancing our understanding of the connection between mind, brain and behavior, this research may help in the design of complex devices – such as airliner cockpits – and may help in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders such as ADHD or schizophrenia."

This type of work also informs debates about the safety of mobile phone use while driving. It suggests that when attention is focused on listening, vision is affected even at very early stages of visual perception. A paper describing the research appeared in the Nov. 24, 2004, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience (10702-10706).

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Contact: Lisa De Nike
Lde@jhu.edu
443-287-9960
Johns Hopkins University

I'm still practicing, but no luck yet.