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Re: perception and reality
My belief is that most HP's take a sufficient number
of math, physics, and biology courses to be familiar
with the scientific method, and to be familiar with
the concept that a theory is developed by testing
hypotheses, usually mutliple times.
Anyone who takes science classes is introduced to the
fact that some things in the world are beyond the
range of human perception, and that instruments are
needed to observe them. Certainly HP's fit into that
category, as ionizing radiation is not visible to the
naked eye. Bacteriologists are another category of
people who study something not visible to the naked
eye.
It is true that each person perceives objective
reality according to their own experiences. For
example, I probably have different opinions about
music than someone born years before or after I was.
[The '70's had some _great_ music!].
However, the objective nature of "things" is very
important. Let's take an example to an extreme, using
driving.
If each person's perception is different from the
other's, and objective reality does not exist (as some
of these English Dept. type folks believe), what would
happen on the road? In the same spot, some people
would see a speed limit of 25 mph and others would see
70 mph. Some people would see a red light and others
would not see it. Traffic would be utter chaos, since
the objective reality does not exist according to this
theory. I would not like to try to be a traffic cop
in this situation, because I would probably get run
over by someone who perceives a speed limit of 90 mph!
Reality is reality, no matter what one's individual
life experiences. I may have a very different family
and social, cultural, economic etc. background from
the person in front of me at the intersection, but at
the moment the stop light is red, so we both have to
stop, because that is the real world at the moment.
I believe that, since most HP's have had classes where
they study things like instrumentation, as well as the
prerequisite general physics courses, they have a
background in the "scientific method" which is
basically using empirical techniques (experiments) to
test hypotheses and subsequently (after lots of work)
to form theories. I can't imagine any HP not learning
about how Isaac Newton formed the theory of gravity in
freshman physics. Although people may have different
life stories, almost all of us _perceive_ that things
(like a pencil) drop to the ground when we let go of
them. In this case, the perception matches reality
very obviously. Instrumentation classes teach HP's to
perceive parts of reality that they may not have
perceived before.
To sum up, I would be surprised to find many HP's
believing that 'perception is reality' to any extent.
Where there is a perception, i.e. an opinion that is
not supported by data, it should be corrected. If
someone believes that pencils fall _up_, they probably
won't do too well in Phy 101. :-) :-)
Of course, there are some things in life where there
is not enough data available to form a theory. These
are areas subject to research. One's opinions, or
perceptions are just that, until a hypothesis is
tested. It's irrational to say that one's opinions
are the only thing that matters, especially if the
opinions can be or are subsequently proven wrong by an
experiment. Some of the people whose philosophy is
'perception is reality' truly believe that opinions
matter more than reality. This leads to a lot of
problems.
For example, someone might have an 'opinion' that he
or she can obtain a lot of money more quickly and
easily by robbing a bank than by working, and that
this is 'OK' because they say it is. This is their
perception. If perception is all that matters ....
guess what, this justifies robbing a bank!!! [Don't
go out and do this]. Something is clearly wrong.
There are objective laws (not just of physics kind,
but of the cops' n' robbers kind, too) that say that
robbing a bank is _not_ OK, if one is to be a part of
society. [By the way, a lot of the philosophy types
who believe that 'perception is reality' are moral
relativists. To them, there is no such thing as right
or wrong, even in really obvious things like the bank
robbery example, since one's opinions, or perceptions,
are the only thing that matters. This philosophy
leads to a lot of problems].
To sum up this rather rambling train of thought, I
would hope that most HP's, along with engineers and
technicians, electronics folks, nurses, doctors and
others who have a scientific background, believe that
objective, or 'material' reality exists and is subject
to experiment, observation, etc.
To get this a little bit back on topic, I think that
anyone who has the scientific background to be able to
compare background radiation with the levels involved
in an actual or hypothetical incident should be able
to correct mis-perceptions. If certain members of the
public or journalists or actors 'perceive' 30 mrem to
be _dangerous_, this is a mis-perception that should
be corrected using comparison to natural background
['BERT'] and using what we know from studies of people
exposed to up to 12 BERT [occupational exposures].
This is because 30 mrem is less than 1/10 of natural
background. 30 mrem could be picked up in a couple
weeks skiing up in Colorado, or a few airline flights.
~Ruth 2 aka Ruth Sponsler
--- Paul lavely <lavelyp@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU> wrote:
> Ruth 2
>
> You wrote:
>
> >Very few scientists believe that 'perception is
> >reality.'
>
> What is your belief as to where HPs (who are not
> generally regarded
> to be scientists) stand on this issue?
>
> Paul lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
--
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