Sense-perceptions

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries - Neil deGrasse Tyson– (Chapter 1: Coming to Our Senses)         Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science. — Edwin P. Hubble (1889 - 1953), The Nature of Science       What, if anything, lies beyond our senses? Does there exist a way of knowing that transcends our biological interfaces with the environment?       The persistent failures of controlled, double-blind experiments to support the claims of parapsychology suggest that what's going on is nonsense rather than sixth sense.       The honing of our senses from birth through childhood allows us, as adults, to pass judgment on events and phenomena in our lives, declaring whether they "make sense."         Problem is: hardly any scientific discoveries of the past century flowed from the direct application of our five senses. They flowed from the direct application of sense-transcendent mathematics and hardware.         As a consequence: the average person, relativity, particle physics, and 10-dimensional string theory make no sense. Include in the list, black holes, worm holes, and the big bang.         A newer and higher level of "common sense" enables a scientist to think creatively and to pass judgment in the unfamiliar underworld of the atom or in the mind-bending domain of higher-dimensional space.         ... there are realities existing apart from our sense-perceptions... these realities are of greater value for us than the richest treasures of the world of experience. —Max Planck (1931)         Q: If you can't smell the carbon monoxide, then how do you know it's there? A: You drop dead.           If the sole measure of what's out there flows from your five senses then a precarious life awaits you.       Discovering new ways of knowing has always heralded new windows on the universe that tap into our growing list of nonbiological senses.       As we technologically evolve into supersentient beings, a new level of majesty and complexity in the universe reveals itself to us.

Glimpsing the Mind of God

The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? - Paul Davies – (Chapter 1: The Big Questions)         The great questions of existence: Why are we here? How did the universe begin? How will it end? How is the world put together? Why is it the way it is?       Observations made using satellites, the Hubble Space Telescope, and sophisticated ground-based instruments have combined to transform our view of the universe and the place of human beings within it.       One of the most significant facts — arguably the most significant fact — about the universe is that we are part of it.       Carbon is the key life-giving element, but oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus are crucial too. Liquid water is another essential ingredient.                If almost any of the basic features of the universe, from the properties of atoms to the distribution of the galaxies, were different, life would very probably be impossible.         Like the porridge in the tale of Goldilocks and the three bears, the universe seems to be "just right" for life, in many intriguing ways.         ...the everyday world observed through our senses represents only the surface manifestation of a deeper hidden reality, where the answers to the great questions of existence should be sought.           ...about 350 years ago, the greatest magician who ever lived finally stumbled on the key to the universe — a cosmic code that would open the floodgates of knowledge. This was Isaac Newton —               The particular brand of "magic" employed by the early scientists involved hitherto unfamiliar and specialized procedures, such as manipulating mathematical symbols on pieces of paper and coaxing matter to behave in strange ways.          Newton, Galileo, and other early scientists treated their investigations as a religious quest. They thought that by exposing the patterns woven into the processes of nature they truly were glimpsing the mind of God.         ...beneath the surface hubbub of natural phenomena lies an abstract order, an order that can't be seen or heard or felt, but deduced.         Somehow the universe has engineered, not just its own awareness, but also its own comprehension. Mindless, blundering atoms have conspired to make not just life, not just mind, but understanding.