Ask a physicist anything. (7)

[Chalnoth]

Ok. Mr. Physisisicist- Pheromones. Some businesses (such as Ahtenainstitute.com) sell pheromone fragrances to attract the opposite sex. Does this really work and if so, is the use of such considered ethical in mate selection?

Oh, well, you can consider anybody trying to sell pheromones to be a fraud.

As far as I am aware, human pheromones are generally considered to be pretty unlikely. We just don't have the pheromone receptors that some other species do. There remains a possibility that there is some effect here, but it's going to be pretty minimal if any. And we certainly don't yet know what the pheromones are if we do have any.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Hasve scientists ever created nes "modalities of consciousness" - like something other than seeing or hearing.... - by brain stimulation etc? I do not mean new sensory faculties as such, just a new way of experiencing which might be called "quiggling" or "squirking" for example.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Why do some people take so long to defecate? I'm usually don in a minute or two. Is it related to dyspraxia or something?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Ok. Mr. Physisisicist- Pheromones. Some businesses (such as Ahtenainstitute.com) sell pheromone fragrances to attract the opposite sex. Does this really work and if so, is the use of such considered ethical in mate selection?

It doesn't work because humans don't emit pheromones, or at least not pheromones that magically strip women of their clothes.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Hasve scientists ever created nes "modalities of consciousness" - like something other than seeing or hearing.... - by brain stimulation etc? I do not mean new sensory faculties as such, just a new way of experiencing which might be called "quiggling" or "squirking" for example.

So have scientists stimulated the brain to cause the concious mind to... what? If not seeing or hearing, if not some new sense like 'quiggling', then what?

Why do some people take so long to defecate? I'm usually don in a minute or two. Is it related to dyspraxia or something?

I imagine it relates to diet, consistency of the stool, how thoroughly clean they are, etc. Some people poop a single stool, some poop everything they can, some have chronic constipation, some have diarrhoea, etc.

A minute, though? That seems... fast. How often do you poop in an average day, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[GrowingSmaller]

So have scientists stimulated the brain to cause the concious mind to... what? If not seeing or hearing, if not some new sense like 'quiggling', then what?

That was not the answer I was expecting. Did you understand the question? As far as I know brain stimulation has only caused the type of experience we are already accustomed to.

I imagine it relates to diet, consistency of the stool, how thoroughly clean they are, etc. Some people poop a single stool, some poop everything they can, some have chronic constipation, some have diarrhoea, etc.

A minute, though? That seems... fast. How often do you poop in an average day, if you don't mind me asking?

Once or twice. No blood or anyhting. I asked because I am flabbergasted that I can wait sooooo long in McDonalds etc for a public cubicle, whan I do not seem to take soooo long.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

That was not the answer I was expecting. Did you understand the question?

Not even a little, hence my follow-up question.

As far as I know brain stimulation has only caused the type of experience we are already accustomed to.

But your question seemed to rule out all possibilities - neither regular senses nor new, artificial senses. I don't understand what phenomenon are you're asking about. Seeing sound, smelling colour?

Once or twice. No blood or anyhting. I asked because I am flabbergasted that I can wait sooooo long in McDonalds etc for a public cubicle, whan I do not seem to take soooo long.

Well, MacDonald's isn't the kind of place you find healthy bowel movements High fat content in one's diet, especially fats that the body has trouble with, run through you like a warm knife through butter. It's also the reason baby's poop smells bad: if you give them anything other than breast milk, the abnormal fats just pass straight through, making the poop smell. If a baby is breastfed, there's practically no fat in the poop, leaving it... well, not rose-scented, but a lot less horrible

 

[GrowingSmaller]

But your question seemed to rule out all possibilities - neither regular senses nor new, artificial senses. I don't understand what phenomenon are you're asking about. Seeing sound, smelling colour?

Have you heard of the philosophical question "What is it like to be a bat?" (E Nagel). I think the idea is a bat with it's bat mind may have another form of experience other than seeing, hearing, touching etc.

In humans there are the traditional senses, plus some more, emotion and intellectual awareness. I am presuming that it might be possible for brain stimulation to produce an experience as yet unknown to man, perhaps like "being a bat" if you see what I mean.

I am assuming that it is physically possible for there to be many more forms of consciousness than the ones we have evolved and are accustomed to.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Also has there been a scientific account of "unitive awareness", "nonduality", "union with God", "atman=brahman" as the experience may variously be known?

 

[Chalnoth]

Also has there been a scientific account of "unitive awareness", "nonduality", "union with God", "atman=brahman" as the experience may variously be known?

I'm pretty sure that intuition is well-understood as being due to the fact that our brains do most of their processing subconsciously. Intuition won't get you anywhere in a situation you have no experience with, but can be very valuable when you do have that experience.

I don't know what you mean by "nonduality".

There is no scientific account possible of any sort of union with any supernatural.

I have no idea what you mean by "atman=brahman", but as those appear to be religious terms, I sincerely doubt that they have any relationship to science, or reality.

 

[acropolis]

Also has there been a scientific account of "unitive awareness", "nonduality", "union with God", "atman=brahman" as the experience may variously be known?

The definitions of those terms appear rather vague so I'm not sure exactly what they are, but I do know that chemicals can induce just about any altered state of awareness. This includes ego death, which might be what you're getting at in the above terms.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

I'm pretty sure that intuition is well-understood as being due to the fact that our brains do most of their processing subconsciously. Intuition won't get you anywhere in a situation you have no experience with, but can be very valuable when you do have that experience.

So emotion can communicate knowledge, albeit not 100% reliable?

I don't know what you mean by "nonduality".

AFAIK It is a supposed state of consciousness attained by practicing Advaita Vedanta (a form of Hinduism made popular by Shankara).

There is no scientific account possible of any sort of union with any supernatural.

But there is the psychology of religion, for instance neurotheology.

I have no idea what you mean by "atman=brahman"

It is a way of saying, in hindu terms, that the individual soul is one with God. A similar Hindu way would be to say that Purusha (absolute consciousness) and Prakriti (man, material existence) are one. According to book mentioned below at least.

but as those appear to be religious terms, I sincerely doubt that they have any relationship to science, or reality.

Well science can study neural correlates of religious states (trance, vision, certain hypnogocic sleep states, meditation etc) and give an interpretation of them in terms of brain dynamics.

I mentioned unitive awareness (in its various manifestations) after reading this book:

History of Mysticism by Swami Abhayananda who claims that various sages have has the same experience through the ages. I was wondering if people who claim such unitive awareness experienced by practitioners of various faiths have been studied by PET of FMRI.


Also IIRC "unitive awareness" was mentioned in the book on cognitive archeology Inside the Neolithic Mind, by Lewis-Williams and Pearce, as another "altered state" form of experience (alongside geometric hallucinations, mentally travelling through tunnels, and spirit visions) which the human mind is psychologically predisposed to under certain conditions. This understanding can allegedly be used as an explanatory tool in interpreting ancient religious remains. This book by atheists, not swami.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

The definitions of those terms appear rather vague so I'm not sure exactly what they are, but I do know that chemicals can induce just about any altered state of awareness. This includes ego death, which might be what you're getting at in the above terms.

That would be it (never heard of that term before). Has it been studied scientifically?

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

If I filled an empty, backyard pool full of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, then pumped some amino acids, fatty lipids, a lot of sodium and potassium into it, perhaps the right amount of enzymes, along with a dash of vitamins and minerals.... Is there any possible chance of ever creating, in theory, some type of franken entity that would emerge and come alive, even if it was just a small speck of moving life?

I'm actually a little serious about this. *lol*

 

[Chalnoth]

If I filled an empty, backyard pool full of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, then pumped some amino acids, fatty lipids, a lot of sodium and potassium into it, perhaps the right amount of enzymes, along with a dash of vitamins and minerals.... Is there any possible chance of ever creating, in theory, some type of franken entity that would emerge and come alive, even if it was just a small speck of moving life?

I'm actually a little serious about this. *lol*

I don't think this kind of thing can happen in a human lifetime. It takes a while. Many scientists have observed pieces of the formation of life. But I don't think it's expected for the entire process to take anything less than a very long time (that is, millions of years, perhaps tens of millions).

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that active locomotion didn't arrive for a very long time after the first life forms.

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

I honestly have never heard of the term "observed pieces of the formation of life".

Care to explain this?

Thanks ahead.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

I honestly have never heard of the term "observed pieces of the formation of life".

Care to explain this?

Thanks ahead.

I think he means that we've seen organic molecules like amino acids form spontaneously in conditions similar to those of early Earth.

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

So how much does constant radiation factor in to this spontaneous generation or is it all just a matter of time and patience?

 

[Chalnoth]

I honestly have never heard of the term "observed pieces of the formation of life".

Care to explain this?

Thanks ahead.

There have been a lot of experiments performed that have shown the basic building blocks of life can form under a variety of circumstances. We've also shown some very basic self-replicating chemical cycles that could have been active early in the process.

Bear in mind that the formation of life was a long, drawn-out process, not a singular event.

 

[Chalnoth]

So how much does constant radiation factor in to this spontaneous generation or is it all just a matter of time and patience?

Spontaneous generation is a long-discredited idea that complex life forms would routinely appear out of non-living matter. This cannot occur.

What did occur, however, was a long process of chemical evolution eventually culminating in the complex forms we call life.