Words of wisdom from Douglas Adams
2008-06-19
According to "Dirk Gently`s Holistic Detective Agency" which I`m currently reading the human brain constantly performs calculation that you as the "owner" of this brain would never be capable to perform. For example he writes about calculating the trajectory of a flying ball:
A ball flying through the air is responding to the force and direction with which it was thrown, the action of gravity, the friction of the air which it must expend its energy on overcoming, the turbulence of the air around its surface, and the rate and direction of the ball’s spin. And yet, someone who might have difficulty consciously trying to work out what 3 x 4 x 5 comes to would have no trouble in doing differential calculus and a whole host of related calculations so astoundingly fast that they can actually catch a flying ball.
People who call this ‘instinct’ are merely giving the phenomenon a name, not explaining anything.
Don`t you think he has a point?