Editing 2787: Iceberg
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|Created by a MISUNDERSTOOD ICEBERG. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
− | + | This is one of many comics in the [[My Hobby]] series. The previous comic in this series was [[2733: Size Comparisons]], released just over 4 months prior. | |
− | The | + | The [https://www.agcas.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/Resources/ITG/iceberg_metaphor.pdf iceberg metaphor] is a famous metaphor sometimes [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31633371/ misattributed to Freud]. It asserts that the majority (often stated as 90%) of an iceberg is out of sight below the surface, as a metaphor for the invisible aspects of something. For instance, about 95% of the mass in the universe does not appear to be in the form of ordinary ("{{w|baryonic matter|baryonic}}") matter, but rather {{w|dark matter}} and dark energy. Excluding dark energy, dark matter accounts for about 85% of the total mass of the universe. So baryonic matter is like the "tip of the iceberg," visible to us above the surface, while dark matter is the invisible majority of the iceberg below the surface. |
− | The title text references the myth that we use only 10% of our brain, and we could become more intelligent or powerful by "unlocking" the remaining 90%. If icebergs had brains, and the 90% in the "dark matter" part underwater used only 10% of its brain, while the tip also used 10% of its brain, then most of the cognition would occur in the underwater part. Hence the "9%" figure would refer to the cognition occurring underwater, with 1% of its cognition occurring above water. In reality, human beings use pretty much all of their brain | + | The author deliberately misunderstands the metaphor by taking it literally. He thinks the teacher is saying the part of an iceberg below the surface is literally made of dark matter. He points out that the {{w|Titanic}} sank after its hull hit an iceberg underwater, which wouldn't be possible if it were made of dark matter, which is not known to interact at all with ordinary baryonic matter except by gravity; we have only detected dark matter gravitationally. |
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+ | The title text references the myth that we use only 10% of our brain, and we could become more intelligent or powerful by "unlocking" the remaining 90%. If icebergs had brains, and the 90% in the "dark matter" part underwater used only 10% of its brain, while the tip also used 10% of its brain, then most of the cognition would occur in the underwater part. Hence the "9%" figure would refer to the cognition occurring underwater, with 1% of its cognition occurring above water. In reality, human beings use pretty much all of their brain. The effect of using the whole brain would depend on precisely what is meant by that -- for example, all excitatory neurons firing with no inhibition for a prolonged period would be a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seizure seizure] (most likely fatal), but there's no reason to exclude inhibitory neurons and adenosine when "using all of the brain at once"They just don't use it all at the same time. | ||
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+ | Cueball has previously been confused about dark matter in [[2186: Dark Matter]]. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== |