Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #08501
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Timothy Flytcher flytch@hotmail.com
Date: Monday, December 20, 1999 3:13 PM
Subject: Re: Lets Hypothesise...
>>
>>i certainly hope you are wrong about this.
>>
>>otherwise there will be a whole lot of bats that won't find any food
>>tonight. and i don't want to step on dead, starved bat bodies tomorrow.
>>
>
>Hold on now... Bats use a different system... It's echo location... there
>ears tell them which direction ... their brains tell them how far... They
>screech then listen... screech then listen... the time it take for the
sound
>to go out then bounce bake tells them the distance... active system... not
>passive...
>Timothy...
>
>
>
>>
>> >I don't think having two ears helps me estimate distance to a noise
>> >source. I estimate distance based on the volume of the noise and my
>> >expectation of how loud that noise should be at a given distance. I
>>can
>> >do this fairly well even with one ear covered (or congested with an ear
>> >infection).
>> >
>> >Having two ears does help, however, in figuring out the DIRECTION of a
>> >noise source.
>> >
>> >
>> >At 11:37 PM 12/19/99 -0500, you wrote:
>> >>In a message dated 12/19/99 11:30:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>> >>richard@cqc.com writes:
>> >>
>> >><< When you hear a noise, you can't make
>> >> an accurate assessment of it's distance from you. You're lucky if
you
>>can
>> >> even tell the direction it's really coming from. We make no distance
>> >> measurements when we hear things. I don't really think that we make
>>any
>> >> visual measurements unless we're specifically trying to do so.
>> >>
>> >> The way we navigate through our world is what I call the "Second star
>>to
>>the
>> >> right, and straight on 'till morning" system. We pay little
attention
>>to
>> >> distances and such things. We see something interesting, we go that
>>way
>> >> until we see it better. There's no real measurement involved.
That's
>>why
>> >> we need maps and such things.
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> >>If any of this was true, then we would all have one eye and one ear.
>>The
>> >>truth is that distance is quite an important factor in navigating our
>>world.
>> >>We have two eyes and two ears so we can triangulate distances.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Gary
>
>______________________________________________________
>
8502 Mon, 20 Dec 1999 17:37:45 -0500 Re: Lets Hypothesise... Senior > Another example: If we are not constantly measuring distance in whatever
> units our mind uses, then how does my mind subconciously know I can walk
> down a never before seen hallway without bumping into the wall at the
> end?!! If I didn't know the end was much farther than where I am, I
> would think I couldn't go any further!
Distance has nothing to do with it. You see obsticles and choose not to run
into them. You know from experiences as a child that running into walls is
bad. Actually we assess the distance, rather than measure it. If we were
measuring, you could ask 10 people to tell you how far away an object is
from the group and you would get the same answer. In the real world, you'd
get 10 different answers and 90+% of them would be wrong!
Truth is that we suck at distance assessment and we've invented quite a few
nifty thingys to help us with uniformity. Rulers, Levels, Protractors, etc.
are how we measure distance. We cannot rely on our "triangulation" to get
things plumb and level.
Second star to the right and straight on 'till morning!
Richard the Immovable Object
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