[Click to enlarge image]
The above illustration is of our 5 senses and how all these 5 travel to the brain for interpretation. This image is under creative commons so if you feel like you can use this in a lecture, book, video etc, than go right ahead! Just somewhere credit Luke guthmann, doesn't matter where.
We as humans have 5 main senses. Touch, smell, vision, taste and hearing. These senses are all interlinked in a network of nerves that send singnals to our brain for interpretation. The afferent and motor senses of the body send messages to the brain for interpretation. By using the 5 senses, we interact with our environment and the people we talk to. For example, if you give me a cup, I will use the 5 senses to understand the cup. How it feels in my hands, is there any smells, what can I see in it's form (why is it in this form?), What does the cup taste like if I was to lick it and is there any sound to it if it were tapped. Using these senses it helps me to understand and know that if it is an essential truth. This object does exist, can the person next to me see it? They most probably can, but how we understand the cup will be different. We know that it's for drinking, but drinking what? How do you hold the cup to drink the water? Is it just a piece of glass, or, a finely crafted piece of technology beautifully illustrated to hold my water. So the basic concept I am trying to get at is that all things are in fact understood and interpreted differently. To you the cup may be almost useless, but to another, it may be of such great importance that it will help to develop that individuals understanding of the subject. We are all on a journey to understand life and to learn to enjoy life, one way we can do this is by sharing and helping each other understanding the meaning of life.
We have our senses to learn with, we also have technology thats allows us to interact with our enviornment and people. For example;
- A car to travel around in the environment.
- A mobile phone to contact other people.
- A watch to tell us the time.
To add to the list which is now a necessity, is the internet. Virtual space is now where people interact and not only with each other, but also with businesses and information sources. Why do we use virtual space, is it because it seems so vastly different from life here? Is virtual space really different to our reality though. Aren't people still mean on the internet? Is there still not theft and slandering each other? How does it vary from reading a book? Arent the words still there but just on a screen? Does using the computer block out our sourroundings and get locked into a "weird" world? An interesting question to ask our selves is "what really is the internet and this virtual world?" Ss it a virtual world? Just because it's on the computer doesn't mean it's this weird and wonderful place. Or IS the internet a weird world? What is the internet to me? To me it is an information source, a way to be educated on selected subjects. Do I use the internet because I have become lazy? What's so wrong with going to the library and searching for the book? I think people here would say it's so time consuming, maybe it is, but is there anything wrong with searching? Doesn't searching persevere with patience? There is no doubt some things are just plain hard to find and if they are, we can easily search on the internet. Computers have there place and the internet also has it's place, but I think it's important not to let you be the internets place.
Here are three quotes to consider about our lives and whats make our lives interesting, invigorating and exciting.
Albert Einstein
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom his emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed
Paul Bowles
... we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
Martin Luther Kind Jr
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Quotes from http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_life.html
Does the internet help us achieve our lifes goals? Is virtual reality part of our life, is it worth being part of our life?
TUTE TASK 5
How do virtual worlds vary from programs such as MSN and other word chat programs? Using 3D worlds I find enhances the expierence of chatting with friends. Why? Because you have an avatar that can act on your behalf and is customisable and looks human which can also display human emotions. The avatar can be personalised, to how and what you want to be, people can see that and have a closer expierence with you.
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