Monday, July 23, 2007

Intro

First impressions after initial lecture - after seeing how small we humans on earth are compared to the expansive size of the universe and beyond, we seem so insignificant, yet to us, we are so complex. Interesting.

4 comments:

James Neill said...

Hi Karen,

Nice work on setting up this blog up - it is very readable and accessible to a visitor, esp. with the profile/photo, etc. well done.

I also find "size" fascinating - and it is just as fascinating I think to drill down into the microscopic world and its complexity/patterning/interconnection.

Related to social psych? Some may question that but I'd suggest zooming in/out can help to illustrate the kinds of patterns we might also find in our social networks and individual behaviour.

Sincerely,
James

PS We have cats and kids in common!

NickS said...

Hi Karen,
I agree that doing that places our own understanding of ourselves in an interesting context. However, I would disagree with your comment:

"we seem so insignificant, yet to us, we are so complex"

I think the very fact that we can observe the universe like we do, marvel at its size and consider the context it puts us in does a lot to prove our complexity and importance. For example of all the other things in that expansive tour through the universe we are (to our knowledge) the only things that can partake on such a tour.

Again I agree interesting stuff :)

-*-WP-*-

P.S. above is all good unless I misinterpreted and you were referring to our ability to understand our complexity as in, "we are difficult to understand" in the place of " we are so complex" in which case I agree with you!! :):):) And apologise for the confusion :P

beth said...

Hi Karen,
Its great that you got the ball rolling with your comments! I'm interested to see what we will learn during this unit about how such small (in comparison to the entire universe!) beings such as ourselves are able to so strongly influence the social behaviour of each other... until you sit down and hear it in a lecture you don't realise the unspoken (and sometimes spoken) rules that define our day to day decisions.
I would agree that we are seemingly insignificant (after the zoom exercise) yet so complex, and there is alot going on within us and around us that we're often not even aware of!

beth

Karen Woods said...
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