The more you focus on a particular something, the more you lose sight of the bigger perspective (my blogs). Example: if you use your camera to zoom in on a bird in a forest then you will not see anything else that is happening in that forest. This phenomenon is called change blindness and has been documented by experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist Daniel J. Simons (1999 study, video, Wiki).
Apart from space, time is another reason for change blindness. Some growth developments happen so slowly that it takes years or even generations to see the change (eg, trees, urbanisation).
Recently, a scientist argued that there might be another dimension, apart from the space and time dimensions. This would then explain why we cannot find dark matter, which is supposed to make up for some 85% of the Universe (see Journal of High Energy Physics). In 2020, another physicist claimed that information is a new form of matter in the journal AIP Advances.
In my view, both scientists probably refer to the same issue: information is another (invisible) dimension. The growth in information may explain the growth of the Universe. The information explosion is another example of change blindness in humans. Example: see first paragraph (ie, Abstract) in The information catastrophe.
The above may seem farfetched but the quantum mechanics theory also argues that information cannot be lost in the Universe (eg, Phys-2011: Quantum no-hiding theorem experimentally confirmed for first time, Wiki: black hole information paradox, Wiki: no hiding theorem). Hence, the Universe must expand because information expands. We only see that time and space are expanding.
Change blindness also separates the micro vs macro perspective. When you stand on a balcony and look at 1,000 people in front of you then you will not see that 1 or 2 people are missing after 2 years. This explains the lack of empathy for the 0.2% of Covid-19 victims when you have a macro view. When you work in a hospital then you only see patients and not the 99% of the population who have never been a patient.
Two quotes from Daniel Simons:
– “We pay attention to what we are told to attend to, or what we’re looking for, or what we already know…what we see is amazingly limited.”;
– “people will focus on procedures and not notice anything that isn’t just part of the procedures”.
Selective attention test, a 1999 video by psychologist Daniel J. Simons
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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