Eclectic Thoughts: Our perceptual limits from Evolution

Summary

The article discusses the limitations of human perception due to evolutionary constraints, particularly focusing on the inability to perceive the full electromagnetic spectrum and comprehend concepts like infinity, randomness, exponential growth, and probability.

Abstract

The article "Eclectic Thoughts: Our perceptual limits from Evolution" delves into the evolutionary limitations of human senses, specifically vision, which is tuned to only one of the seven electromagnetic wave spectrums—visible light. It emphasizes that to fully understand the universe, including its creation and history, humanity must rely on scientific instruments to detect the broader spectrum, which includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays. The text also reflects on the temporal aspect of vision, noting that we always see into the past due to the finite speed of light. It critiques human evolution for not equipping us with an intuitive grasp of infinity, randomness, exponential growth, or probability, which are crucial for modern life, from risk assessment in medicine and investing to understanding the vastness of the universe.

Opinions

The author suggests that human vision, a product of evolution, has limited us to perceive only a fraction of the universe's reality.
There is an opinion that our inability to see the full spectrum of light hinders our understanding of the cosmos.
The article posits that evolution has not prepared humans to intuitively understand complex concepts like infinity and randomness, which were irrelevant for survival in our formative years.
The author implies that our evolutionary focus on survival through pattern recognition and heuristics has left us ill-equipped to deal with probabilistic and exponential concepts.
The text criticizes the natural evolutionary process for not endowing humans with an innate understanding of compound interest or exponential growth, which are important in modern society.
The author endorses the use of AI services like ZAI.chat, suggesting it as a cost-effective alternative to ChatGPT Plus (GPT-4), highlighting its relevance and utility in today's world.

Eclectic Thoughts: Our perceptual limits from Evolution

Everything you see is not all there is…..

Evolutionary limitations of human vision and the curse of determinism

The eye and vision are amazing products of evolution. As with anything with evolution, the guiding principle is Survival Value

We see in one and only one of 7 electromagnetic wave spectrums i.e. visible light. However, we need to build and train our scientific apparatus to see in all seven spectrums to even begin to understand the universe, its creation, and its historic journey. Most of what scientists, physicists, and astronomers observe to understand, measure, and detect the length and breadth of our universe occur in seeing in other than visible light spectrum — from long wavelengths to short wavelengths, they are radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays ( also least to most energetic).

We are always seeing in the past and never instantaneously. This is true whether you are looking at somehow sitting across from you ( Perhaps a nanosecond in the past) or whether you are looking at the sun (8 minutes in the past) or the nearest star (4 years in the past). This is because as fast as the speed of light is, it is still finite. As you go farther in the distance, you invariably go farther back in time. So, tonight, sitting in your backyard, you might observe a star whose light left it when the dinosaurs were still roaming the earth 65 million years ago. With powerful telescopes, astronomers observe light from celestial bodies so far away that their light left them much before the earth was formed over 4 billion years ago. How fantastic is a vision in its complete spectrum?

“Eternity is awfully long time, especially towards the end” — Woody Allen

Evolution did not prepare us to understand infinity, randomness, exponential growth, or probability. In our formative evolutionary development, we did not have a need for understanding infinity (we lived for 30–40 years in the same geography and within a limited tribe or village of a handful of people). There was no survival value to contemplating how big our universe is or how far the farthest reaches of its boundaries are.

We did not understand randomness either — evolution prepared us to draw out patterns for survival, and social norms reinforced determinism or the hand of a designer or creator with a plan.

We certainly did not need probabilistic evaluation. If you stopped to contemplate whether the rustling of the grass a few feet away was a lion or just due to wind, you might be extinguished from the gene pool in a heartbeat. So, heuristics reigned supreme and timely action was necessary to survive.

Exponential growth and compound interest concepts were of no use through most of Homo sapiens’ history on earth, and natural evolution did not invoke any intuition for these concepts.

Yet not understanding probability, exponential growth, or for that matter, randomness is a great handicap in our modern life — whether it is in the context of investing or medicine, normal risk assessment requires an understanding of these concepts. Yet, nature did not prepare us for it, and we are notoriously bad at it.