How the Computer Won Jeopardy

Not to keep you wondering, the reason the computer won the Jeopardy game with the people: the computer had a half second head start. That’s right, an entire half second. This is significant in so many ways to the composition of now.

Oh yes, that is what I'm saying. What we perceive as here/now, happened no less than ½ second ago. What happens in that ½ second becomes the systematic illusion, perceived as now. Understanding this process is invaluable for anyone wanting to perform the act of, anything. A powerful tool, if you know what to do with that half second.

Here’s the story of the chart:

This research started by attempting to time the biological process of stimuli/perception that leads to conscious awareness. Along this path, researchers were running into temporal anomalies. The timing wasn’t adding up  as expected.

So, instead of poking the subject in the finger, they found a way to poke the location inside the brain, during open skull surgery, that "lights up" when the subject's finger was poked. They found that whether the stimuli occurred on the finger or inside the brain, it took ½ second for the participant to become consciously aware of said stimulus.

In further research, while attempting to determine when the participant believed he or she experienced said stimulus, the subject perceived that time span as eight one hundredths of a second. Researchers call this a “backward referral of subjective experience.”

In review: an event occurs, marked as zero or start time. A process apparently ensues that, resulting in conscious awareness of said past event occurring that pesky 1/2 second earlier.

Conclusion: each of us quite literately writes the play we are playing. By necessity, we write ourselves as the central role. The character you write for yourself could be hero or villain; however, you are always the central character.

Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you. This is what happens in that silly little half second. You are writing and producing your "Now" play. It goes on at one half second o'clock. At the price of being boring some times, it never fails to be open when your conscious is on.

This research was conducted by Dr. Benjamin Libet. His work during the mid 1970s through the 1980s is fundamental to current understanding of the timing of consciousness. His open brain experiments have been duplicated 100s of time and are widely accepted in the neurological science community. This fellow’s story is amazing.

This truth, as a tool, is a double edge sword. It cuts both ways and requires the utmost respect to use. More on this as a tool later.

In the sixties and seventies it was not legal to do this research, as it was linked to subliminal advertising. The U.S. governments tried to control and even expunge this information from the public knowing. Can you say “FEAR!”

Before I close today’s post, I’d like to check the score on concepts so far:

“Here/Now,” expressed as the present.

“Perception,” expresses witness.

“Time – Space – Matter – Energy,” expressing continuing creation.

“Self – other than Self,” expressing the concept that there is an out there,

          out there.

“Bandwidth,” expressed as measurable units of information,

          having a flow rate and volume.

“Consciousness” (50 bits/sec) and

“Sub-consciousness” (50,000,000 bits/sec) expressing one being.

“The Half Second Delay,” is expressed as the length of time it takes

          for a here/now present event, to be experienced consciously.

When I add about this many more concepts, it will add up to one single idea worth talking about. No, REALLY.