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

*****************************************************************
                 I M P O R T A N T  N O T I C E
               concerning the following text file
*****************************************************************
ParaNet  makes  no  endorsement of this material  and  the  views
expressed herein are not necessarily the views of ParaNet.   This
information is provided as a public service only.

This file is SHARETEXT material.  This means that you are free to
distribute  it to anyone you like, as long as it is not used  for
commercial purposes, you do not charge for it, you do not  remove
this header, or change the contents in anyway.  Additionally,  we
ask  that  you contribute to ParaNet, if possible,  to  assure  a
continuation  of  this valuable, educational  SHARETEXT  service.
The  suggested  contribution is $75.00 and entitles you  to  full
access to our comprehensive library and our network of electronic
affiliates  all  over the world.  Other services  are  available.
Mail your contribution to:

ParaNet Information Service
P.O. Box 172
Wheat Ridge, CO  80034-0172

ParaNet(sm):  Freedom of Information for a better world!

(C) 1991 ParaNet(sm) Information Service.  All Rights Reserved.
****************************************************************
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

-------
 * Origin: Paranet(sm) - The world's most important computer network (1:30163/1