Ou brain is based on pattern recognition, on memory, on rules (channels that direct the signals between brain regions or between groups of patterns), and on feedback (self regulation).
How does a child learn mathematics? First it counts its fingers (that is why we use a decimal system and not a binary or hexadecimal system which both would have advantages -- unfortunately we have only ten fingers and not sixteen). After the child has memorized the numbers from one to ten it learns the sums and differences of single digit numbers and later the multiplication tables and some neat tricks how to write down numbers and conduct multiplications and divisions. If the child knows, that 7 times 7 is 49, it doesn't mean, that the brain is able to process multiplications, it means, that the child remembers the multiplication tables. And as the education goes on from arithmetics to algebra and from there to calculus and from there to more advanced mathematics like nonlinear dynamics/chaos theory and statistics/probability theory and various branches of applied mathematics and finally ends up with quantum mechanics, it doesn't mean, that the brain has acquired some new functions. It is still pattern recognition and memory. New channels (rules) between clusters of patterns have been established and lot of new patterns have been created, but the principle working of the brain is not different from counting the fingers.
E=mc2
Einstein acquired much of his education as an autodidact, but his findings nevertheless were based on the work of others (for instance Newton's classical physics). One of Einstein's famous quotes is: "If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants".
What I want to say with the preceding paragraphs is, that we are depending on the findings of other people in every decision that we make. That we are depending on other people in all our judgements. Our wisdom is based on the wisdom of many generations of our ancestors. We didn't invent the wheel, we didn't invent the combustion engine. If all car drivers would have to invent and construct their cars by themselves there would be not much traffic.
We are depending on other people in every aspect of our complicated modern life and we are also depending on other people to sort and evaluate the news.
If we had access to all the media streams in the world, we would not be able to process the terabytes of information by ourselves. We would not be able to sit day and night and sort out the important facts from the garbage, distinguish the important data from the constant background noise of useless or false data. We need to find news organizations that do this for us. We need professionals, specialists, who do this for us. We need somebody who helps us to make sense of all the information and get an idea of what is really going on.
There are quite a few news organizations, many news analysts, talk show hosts, pundits, and renowned experts who offer help. Can we trust them?
We get advice from distinguished and supposedly reasonable persons to avoid the echo chamber effect and to take opinions from all corners of the political spectrum into account. Don't take that advice! The people who make such recommendations are nothing else than con men of the establishment, who are payed to spread confusion and to obscure facts.
I don't believe in "fair and balanced" news (and certainly I don't believe Fox News). I also don't believe in unbiased, even-handed opinion. Every news organization is filtering, every reporter interprets events according to her/his view of the world. Corporate media applies strict criteria to news reporting. Informations that reveal inequality, corruption, injustice or threaten the stability of the political system are suppressed or twisted or accompanied and countered by contradicting informations. This is the real meaning of "fair and balanced". If they cannot suppress news they try at least to confuse the public with all kind of lies knowing that nobody is able to check every single fact in this age of information overflow.
The agenda of corporate media is not my agenda. I'm not a billionaire, not even a millionaire, I don't own any corporate shares. I'm not a banker, I'm not in the business of weapons production, I don't have to advertise crap, I don't need to make a quick buck with selling crap. I don't have to compete in a tight market, I don't have to cheat and bluff and mislead.
I have revealed my view of the world quite explicit in the blog entries that I published until now, therefore I don't discuss it here again, but I want to present a list of the news sources that I use. The news outlets in this list are not even-handed, not neutral, not impartial or dispassionate. These news outlets have an agenda, it is the same that I have, the same agenda that drives me to write this blog entries.
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