10% mental capacity?

We measure time,
yet we are always and only in the eternal now.

We ponder and anguish over things of long gone past,
yet stumble along the path.

We project our possible futures,
yet do not make the right adjustments to the moment at hand.

Is this why they say a human doesn't use his full mental capacity?

One definition of mental capacity being the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience.

Why is this reality then shaped in linear time, when it is rather billions of reappearing micro and macro loops each with their own periodicity? Yes, you can place and track its events on a linear time scale, but how often do we also mark "Halley's comet not sighted anymore" once we initially made grand remark of its first appearance in the night sky?

Are we incapable to see and take right action because of not being rooted in the now and not even realizing it? Instead we choose to wallow in the mire of distractions, so to speak, including ourselves first and foremost.

Mods, please move to rant section or where-ever or delete if unworthy of discussion... sorry, no links, images, just mi own gibberish surfacing... And this has been bugging me lately a lot...

If we didn't "wallow in the mire of distractions" we would all be in a state of constant amazement that we find ourselves in this place... this universe, existing, at all, facing certain annihilation.

That's my take, anyway... but I suspect I'm weird.

eta: oh, and the reason I typed in the first place was that the old idea we only use 10% of our brains is mistaken... we use all of it... but we are unaware of certain facets of brain function, but will learn it, eventually... otherwise the brain would be more an appendix, although we now know that, too, has a function.

And on second thought, I'm likely just using 02% of my own brain at the moment.

a reply to: TatTvamAsi

We use 100% of our mental capacity.

The other 90% is reserved for use by 'them'. You're a walking remote terminal.

10% of your mush is available for use by you.

90% of your mush is used to operate your body and organs.

The only way to gain access to the 90% used for autonomic purposes is to free it up from being used for autonomic purposes.

We need that 90% to keep doing what it does without our thinking consciously of it.

You wanna sit around and think about making your intestines move the food you ate move in the right direction?, or decide what hormones your body should put into your bloodstream to message other parts of your body on what to do?.

That 10% stuff is a myth.

originally posted by: Baddogma
If we didn't "wallow in the mire of distractions" we would all be in a state of constant amazement that we find ourselves in this place... this universe, existing, at all, facing certain annihilation.

Well, I was thinking along the same lines, nowadays its just the amount of human bull# that leaves me stupefied and not the amazement at the universe like it should be.

a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

Well, I see it more like only 10% of possibilities explored of what reality offers you. The rest is missed because of too much historical, cultural and psychological payload.

originally posted by: TatTvamAsi

originally posted by: HolgerTheDane2
10% ehh.?

Surely that is an american survey.




Ahhh. Grow Up!

***snip***
and I would work on manners if I were in your pants...

You are absolutely right. How rude of me. I apologize.

It is of course rude of me to divert the question of whether we actually only have the effective use of 10% of our potential mental capacity into a snide attack on America.

I should of course have mentioned some of the reasoning behind the comment.
But then again I thought I'd get an awful lot of flak for pointing out such things as... Oh dear....
I don't know where to start

We could start with the american obsession with the second amendment. To the point where they discard the supreme court who declares that the "right to bear arms and the well regulated militia" does not inherently mean that you can own all the guns you like and certainly not without some sort of regulation.
You would do well to remember that the amendments set forth in The Bill of Rights are a reflection of the inadequacy of the constitution. And even the amendments might be wrong and they certainly didn't stand the test of time and perversion by big business.

That you allow the church to interfere with education to the point where scientific books are labeled some sort of message that evolution is a theory and as such is less valid than the fantasy of creation as described in The Bible.

In fact you defend the right to be free of religious persecution while at the same time allow the christians attacking those who are not christian.

That you allow businesses to become "legal persons" so that policy and decision makers within a company can evade responsibility for decisions. Yet you persecute people who got caught up in dictatureships and had to follow orders or get shot. They are not excempt from responsibility even if their "company" was to blame.

You take the two singlemost polluting privately owned vehicles (SUV and Trucks) and excempt them from the "Gas Guzzler tax).

You fight tooth and nail against a health system which will benefit the less than rich who happens to have an employer who doesn't see medical benefits as part of the employment. And if you loose your job - you're screwed.

In the land of the free you are still fighting against "leftist" ideas, even if those ideas are there as an exstension of being free.

That you invade other countries because you decide it is the right thing to do. Afghanistan, Grenada, Iraq and others. The reason being that you protect the people. Where were you when Idi Amin was in power? What did you do about apartheid in South Africa? Rwanda anyone?

When you protect the right of the indvidual to be a general pain in the butt towards neighbors and fellow americans, why don't you protect the fellow amercans and their rights to be free of harassment from those people? When we hear the shouting "IT'S MY RIGHT! THIS IS AMERICA", where are the rights of the victims?

Why do you keep extending the limitation of copyright whenever Disney needs it?
The limitation of copyrights and patenets are there to further business and inventions and.

Why do you protect medical companies right to demand exorbitant prices for some of the most important medicines in the world? Don't your citicens health mean anything to you? Do you REALLY believe it is good that families go bankrupt and end in lifelong debt because some greedy bastards want another jet and want to buy an island for their sons birthday?

Will you still defend the system when you end up unemployed and your mother dies because noone could pay for her medicine?

Is it a sign of a healthy nation that so much of their tv programs are all about guns, blowing things up and "testing myths" that you would know to be falacies from the very start of the program (if you had a decent education)? AND blowing things up because "it is always fun to blow things up".
That nature programs have shifted from learning about wildlife all over the world to seeing yet another idiot seek out the big snakes, lions, crocodiles and sharks.
Not to mention "documentaries" about bigfoot, skunk ape, mermaids, megalodons etc.

How come you seem to think it is OK to be responsible for powerty in other countries simply because you don't like their goverment? Cuba springs to mind.

How can you have presidents like Bush juniour and still demand respect from the world?

How can you wonder about the attcks on US installations abroad when you should ask what the blazes they were doing there in the first place? You don't get respect because you stomp on people.
Don't confuse "respect" with "fear".

Why do you find it to be a good idea to ruin your educational system to the point where a lot of countries wonder where you will find intelligent people enough to run the good ol' US in less than 20 years?

Why are you still destroying everything around you in the persuit of fossil fuels? Shouldn't you use less on your meddling war machine and more on research to secure the future?

Why are you so naiive that you let yourself be manipulated by big business to actively help them destroy your nation and drag you down in the process?

Why do you still allow Israel to perpetrate war atrocities without even a raised eyebrow? And if you don't "really" allow it, why do you support them rather than those who actually suffer in the Midlle East?

And the list could go on. And on.

Suffice to say, I and a good many others with me, do not think of Americans as smart. We rather think of them as the class bullies, that might be powerful and that they "Stand upon the shoulds of others".
Just remember that those shoulders most often are foreign nationals working in the US.

So back to the 10%
You very well might use around 10% of your potential mental capabilities in the US.
In other countries the percentage is much higher.

originally posted by: TatTvamAsi
***snip***

Is this why they say a human doesn't use his full mental capacity?

***snip***

To be honest I think that society in it's development has been taken hostage by greedy people wanting money or power, but mostly the ability to shape us to their liking.

Politically speaking it is much easier to run a country where the population is docile, so it is important to control information.
Financially speaking it is easier to sell your warez if you control information.

Thus the political and the financial sector has a common goal which they can only achieve if they work together.

And the funny thing is that we are then taken "sub hostage" by those who tell us to "question authority".
Why is it that those people don't stop by telling you what is suspect, but carries on to tell you WHAT to think?

We don't learn to question authority if we do not educate ourselves. Being a "sub hostage" (or sheep) is equally as bad as being docile.

Personally I'd rather be a goat than a sheep. Sheep needs to be hearded whereas goats can be led by the right person or idea.

But until we really embrace the "Deny Ignorance" and refrain from being hearded we haven't got a chance in the long run.

Another funny thing (or scary) is that so many people follow stupid people on the internet (and ATS) because they are afraid to be called sheep. But all they do is go from sheep without a cause to sheep with somebody elses cause.

The only thing we can do to break the pattern is to be educated. But it has to be proper education. Not wild ideas from the internet.
You can't allow yourself to be sucked into the "anything is possible". When the argument is used ask yourself if it relly is likely that when you throw a cat five feet into the air and it lands, it has transformed into an autocamper.
If you decide that it isn't likely (or even possible) then you have accepted the fact that everything ISN'T possible. Now go find the limit for what IS possible. Through education and science.

And if you still think that the autocamper is possible....
Well then you are back at the 10%

a reply to: HolgerTheDane2

Well, I got your point. But, you are listing symptoms, which I also referred to as bull# in my reply to Baddogma.

I was asking why do we miss reality voluntarily in favor of bull# that is fed to us at every walk of life?

Mental laziness? Because we are happy to conform? We don't know any better?

It just can't be, every child asks those awkward questions at some point and we 'grown up' adults just reply with a nervous laughter and tell them they are silly. Even you told me to grow up... Well, guess what, I find no value in growing up, sounds like sheeple stuff to me... always has.

Where do you get the 10% figure from?

That sounds like either a big tree or a small forest.

all the anatomical sections of our brain are being used, but there is an infinitude of combinations and alterations in neural networking; implying a limitless potential.

Think about it. There's around 10 billion brain cells (neurons, glial cells, etc), think if a certain sequence of neurons firing gives rise to the image of a gorilla... change one of those neuronal firings and you could get something completely different. Now apply that rule to the infinitude of possible combinations involving 10 billion brain cells. That's not all either... Beyond the binary system of action, or non-action, for a given neuron, there is also a neurotransmitter/receptor aspect as well. Upregulation and downregulation of the countless receptors and neurotransmitters adds essentially another infinitude of possibility on top of the prior infinitude.

a reply to: HolgerTheDane2

Did you really just use the 10% false belief to write a political hatred diatribe pointed at Americans while also calling us stupid and directing it at a person clearly from Finland? With all that indicated,what percentage do you think you are using? All I see is pretentiousness and idiocracy. Meh

originally posted by: TechniXcality
a reply to: HolgerTheDane2

Did you really just use the 10% false belief to write a political hatred diatribe pointed at Americans while also calling us stupid and directing it at a person clearly from Finland? With all that indicated,what percentage do you think you are using? All I see is pretentiousness and idiocracy. Meh

I got that tone as well a bit there, but since I am from Finland, I didn't give a rat's arse about it.

originally posted by: Cauliflower
Where do you get the 10% figure from?

That sounds like either a big tree or a small forest.

It's just used like a metaphor here, I'm surprised how many get stuck on the techicalities here...

a reply to: cooperton

So, when is it actually that we trade this limitless potential to the meagre 10%? What sleight of hand there...

originally posted by: TatTvamAsi
a reply to: cooperton

So, when is it actually that we trade this limitless potential to the meagre 10%? What sleight of hand there...

I think that was the fall of humankind.

Jesus, among other enlightened teachers, teach us the way to reattain this lost potential:

"Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

I just used 2 percent, and Im hearing gears grinding.