头脑迷思之四

Several interesting finding from today's reading:

1. 逝者如斯夫之惑

Source: Time flies faster as we age

Do you have the same feeling that as a youngster a year seems "endless," yet pass in the blink of an eye to adults? Does time speed up in some magical, bizarre way as we age?

It's related to time perception. It's because that time and memory are "tightly linked". It's vivid and detailed memory make us think time has slowed when it hasn't in reality.

Although less certain, scientist are strongly suspect that the same brain process as in traumatic situation is what makes time seem to speed up as we age.

Children are frequently having first-time experiences, encountering novel things. Their brains store that information in all its detail and richness since it is the first time. And in remembering these, just like inserting extra images in a movie reel, it makes the event appear to last longer and slows motion down. On the other hand, as we experience more in life, familiar patterns recur and the memories our brains store get ever more compressed. Our brain can skip or compress a lot of things and add only new details to the general template from the first time. As a result it is much less vivid and detailed, which seemingly speeds time up.

My question: how to explain time speed up when we are happy? Aren't these happy memory more vivid and detailed?

2. 孤夜难好眠

Source: Lonely people have less efficient sleep

Are you lonesome in night? Do you have problem with falling asleep? Are you sleeping well just like an innocent baby? Have you ever think about how loneliness affects your sleep?

A group of researchers conducted a large study of Ohio State University students' sleeping habits in 2002, it has found that lonely people do not sleep as well as non-lonely people. Whether loneliness causes poor sleep is not answered by this study, which can only show a correlation between loneliness and inefficient sleep.

3. 人以群分之弊

Source: The Situation of Homogeneity

We are getting used to the recommendations from our friends, people we admire, people who have the same taste as ours, we are also getting used to the Web2.0 guesses based on our favorite book/movie/music list, which definitely help us to filter the infinite information/choices we face today, help us to save time to find what is useful for us. However, have you ever think about the other side of the same coin?

Here it is the problem with “collaborative filtering”:

What does it mean for society when individuals who read the same articles are, as a result, encouraged to go to the same movies, wear the same clothes, drive the same cars, vacation in the same resorts and eat in the same restaurants?

Creating and reinforcing insular communities is likely to hurt us in the long run. Humans may gravitate toward those most like them, but we should resist the impulse to help the process along. No part can possibly have a monopoly on wisdom. Sometimes it’s good to learn what people unlike us like—and to see whether we might even like that.