ParaNet BBS/chrono

ParaNet BBS/chrono

File Name:	chrono.txt
Author:	Unknown
Date:	Unknown
Posting BBS:	Unknown
BBS Main Page:	ParaNet Main Page
Key Words:	ParaNet, UFO, Ufology

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ParaNet File Number: 00105



(1460)  Wed 11 Apr 90  2:04a
ParaNet Information Service

By: Ncar!maximillion.cp.mcc.com!gary@sc
To: All
Re: Chronocentricity
St: Sent                                           Reply in  1536
-----------------------------------------------------------------
@UFGATE newsin 1.27
From: ncar!maximillion.cp.mcc.com!GARY@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM
Date: 10 Apr 90 22:54:11 GMT
Message-ID: <3733@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM>
Newsgroups: info.paranet

From: Gary Knight <GARY@maximillion.cp.mcc.com>

THE CHRONOCENTRICITY PROBLEM IN U.F.O. RESEARCH

First off, I'm not a debunker. There is no doubt in my mind that Something Else is Going On. Now that something else may be solely a function of our central nervous systems, or it may be our inability normally to perceive certain stimuli, or it may be due to co-existence in some sort of parallel structure, or it may be due to extraterrestrial intelligence, or time travel, or . . . . there are, as you all know, many hypotheses. I'd like to focus this comment on the issue of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence which manifests itself in physical craft and other artifacts. I'd like to focus on the crash/retrieval reality -- that we are being visited by intelligent critters of non-Earth origin.

I think a strong case (probably meeting the current cultural standard of burden of proof in a civil lawsuit) can be made for this explanation. Some of the evidence is quite compelling -- e.g., the Roswell incident data and the crash/retrieval documentation of Stringfield. But the possibility always exists that we are being fooled by our own brains. I just spend 3.5 years in a Ph.D. program in neuroscience and biopsychology at UT- Austin, and I know a little something about brain function and human psychology. I have a problem I call "chronocentricity."

The best example of chronocentricity concerns explanations of brain function itself. If you look back in history, you find various paradigms that were believed by the establishment science of that time to almost certainly provide a correct explanation of how the old cerebrum functions. Aristotle had his humors, coincident with his understanding of physical structure of the universe. About the time we got a handle on hydraulics and fluid dynamics, the prevailing theory was that the brain was a hydraulic system. Later, the telephone switchboard got a lot of publicity, and all of a sudden neuroscientists agreed that the brain functioned like a telephone switchboard. Most recently, the digital computer became our prevalent technology, and now nearly every neuroscientists and neuropsychologist in the world is convinced that the brain functions like a computer. I think this is hogwash. It's chronocentric -- whatever the state of knowledge concerning physical devices at any given point in time, that also happens coincidentally to be the prevailing view of brain function. We fall into the trap of believing that the science and technology of our particular time is the ultimate knowledge which can be applied by analogy to explain other phenomena.

How we can persist in this view in the face of continued technological development is beyond me. Yet one of the most highly respected cognitive psychologists in the country said to me, when I explained chronocentricity, that he couldn't imagine I was right because what could possibly provide a more accurate description of the way the brain works than the digital computer?! I answered that it would be exactly how the next innovative technology worked. He asked me what that would be. I answered, of course, that by definition I did not know -- that if I did I'd have a Nobel Prize and a zillion dollars in my pocket. So he said if I didn't know what it was, it must not exist and the computer is the ultimate analogical explanation of brain function. Amazing! Anyone who thinks we will not see further stunning technological developments, which will give us both theoretical analogies and hardware tools for analyzing the brain please raise your hands! If you just put your hand up, please go sit on a mountain somewhere until you become enlightened! (-:

So, what I worry about in the context of U.F.O.'s is that throughout history mankind has explained things he did not understand in terms of things that he did understand (or at least could contemplate). You're all aware of the references to wheels in the sky, chariots in the sky, airships in the sky -- all explanations of something that was not understood in terms of something that was. The early part of the 20th century saw advances in rocketry, a lot of thoughtful discussion about the possibility of life on other planets in our solar system, much science fiction on the theme of interplanetary and interstellar travel, and so forth. This was the prevalent understood (or contemplated) technology of the time, so is it surprising that when things occurred that defied logical explanation (especially when they occurred in the sky) we applied a chronocentric explanation.

Maybe our current explanation is correct. But when you look back through history at the long-standing trend to explain the unknown in terms of the known AT THAT POINT IN TIME, one wonders if we aren't being a bit chronocentric in accepting explanations that appear to be rooted in the technology (and other knowns) of our own time. Maybe the Something Else That is Going On is something, to paraphrase Eddington, that is not only weird but weirder than we can imagine. Maybe the truth lies in technologies or other forms of knowledge which we not only do not possess but cannot even imagine. I get very suspicious when reading reports of UFO experiences, encounters, etc., when the report is cast very much in terms of known phenomenon, of known cultural behavior patterns. When aliens are alleged to behave very much like humans, I get very suspicious. I suspect that actual contact with alien intelligence will be of a nature that is so far beyond our comprehension that we might be no more aware it was happening than ants are aware of the finer nuances of high-energy particle physics. At the very least, there were be extremely unusual behaviors which do not have analogies in human experience (which means there is a good possibility they simply won't register in our brains at all).

Chronocentricity -- aren't we dealing with a great deal of hubris to believe that we, of all the people who have ever lived on Earth, or who ever will live on Earth, have at this very moment the full and complete explanation for these otherwise inexplicable phenomena? I wish I were so lucky!! Maybe I am. But I'm suspicious.

Thoughts, anyone?

Gary

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