Better than Gmail
There is one worrying thing about spam-filters:
“The things that we miss by mistake.”
They say Gmail got the best spam-filter.
But ours is much better, can handle a wider range of data (audio, video, etc) and, do it all, in real time !
Think back
Have you ever walked down the street, only to figure out that you have no idea what you have passed by ?
What shops there were, who were the people or almost anything about the recent minute or so ?
Now consider, just our optical nerves receive an enormous amount of data.
Add to that the processing our brain does
-> thats red
-> thats a square
-> thats a store
-> thats a shoe store
-> thats a shoe store like the one I bought stuff in 5 years ago in a different town
Hard to image now much data we get every single instant.
Its all around us, every moment, but most of it gets filtered out.
Sure, some bits get stashed away to be recalled by a rigrous head scratching process.
But most of it is lost.
Is it all spam ?
They say that in the days back when we were hunters, our brains were conditioned to filter in another way.
Constant danger of enemies and seeking of pray, made us more aware of the basics. Colors, movement.. hunches.
Is there a way to re-train ? Change some settings on our filter ?
Its just that I am worried.
Worried that I am missing too much.
In a crowded restaurant we filter the conversations that flaw around us, and turn uninteresting signals to noise. Our ability to amplify interesting signals, and reduce uninteresting ones into noise is truly amazing.
Mike
24 May 10 at 13:56
What I wonder is: Can we change this filter.
Like newly blinded people who lean more on hearing with time.
After studying drums for a year, I noticed that in each song I hear, the drums are very prominent. I wish this was the same for all other instruments.
BorisDinkevich
25 May 10 at 14:29