Sunday, August 23, 2015

Metacognition?

“We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an Earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space, or to the atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally depend. Except for children (who don’t know enough not to ask the important questions), few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way it is; where the cosmos came from, or whether it is always here; if time will one day flow backward and effects precede causes; or whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know.”
-Carl Sagan from an introduction to A Brief History of Time By Stephen Hawking

After hearing and reading your peer's reactions during class about the listed quotation, what new insight can you add to this quotation analysis? Please respond. (Blog Response Due By Thurs., Aug. 27th at 2:30p.m.)

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there really no limits to what humans can know? Do you think that there will ever be a time when humans can no longer know anymore information?

Anonymous said...

Have we lost our innocence and child like ideas as we have grown older? As our lives clock moves onward we get less and less curious and questionable of the world and our surrounding factors. Why is that? Do we simply think we know what we need to know and we don't need to know anymore? Or is it that we have just found that much of our lives are just confusing and barely understandable?

Anonymous said...

I think that humans in this generation take what they have for granted. As students in the 21st century and in America, we are extremely privileged. However, like Sagan says, we understand almost nothing of the world. Science, I believe, is greatly related to this. There are few things that scientists know are real. For example, the layers of the earth and the molten center is all just a theory. But it would be unfair to tell the students that they don't truly know any truth about the world around us because we are only taught these theories and therefore we accept those as truth. Also, humans have an innate want for knowledge, so eventually, especially children, begin to wonder about the function of the earth.

Anonymous said...

There could be limits to what we know because the universe is so vast and expanse. With what we do know and what we strive to accomplish, I think that we could gain an understanding about much more that we can't comprehend ourselves, but with technology and our knowledge, we could get an even deeper insight into the world, universe and nature. Ultimately I think that there is and are limits because there is just too much to learn about, even with what we already know. There will always be at least one thing that we won't know about and we can only question, imagine, and experiment as much as possible.

Anonymous said...

Humans will never know everything. The universe as we know it is never ending. When we were kids we wondered all these different things but now I feel that we don't have time to just think. We are fed up with work to do and people to see that humans fall into a everyday cycle. A cycle that doesn't involve freely thinking and wondering.

Anonymous said...

I think that we still have the desire to learn just as much as we always have. We might think that all of our theories and ideas are correct today, but that's the exactly what we thought 200 years ago. 200 years from now, we will look back at our ideas and theories of tiday and we will laugh. Although the desire to learn and explore it may not be as strong as it was when we were children, it is still strong enough that thousands of scientists dedicate there life to understanding nit only the world we live in but also what lies beyond.

Anonymous said...

I think most people go through their day without thinking about the way the earth works whether it be gravity or atoms. Is it because it is what we are accustomed? I believe we take what we have for granted when it comes to how the earth can keep life on it for so many years. It is crazy to think about the fact that scientist can’t figure out what everything is, especially what is farther out in space. What could be out there?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
HenryG said...

Have we gotten so used to they way that we live that we no longer question what is around us? When we are kids we like to ask how everything works because this everything is New to us. We lose this sense curiosity as we get used to it. And we all have a basic understanding of how things in this world work, that we think we know it all and we never really stop and say i really wonder how that really works.

Anonymous said...

The quote from Carl Sagan explains that humans wonder less about the world around them. In response to MaxM's questions, I don't think there is a limit to what humans can know. I don't foresee a future where humans know everything. One thing that I still always find myself wondering about is sleep. Sleep is such a weird thing. Think about it, why do we sleep? We eat food because our cells need glucose to turn in ATP to keep themselves alive. But why do we sleep? What does sleep do for us? I find it surprising that something that leaves us so vulnerable for 8 hours would not be evolved out of. I find it important to question something everyday. I keeps the mind agile and also helps the brain hypothesize and problem solve.

Anonymous said...

As children we are innately curious. We ask ourselves and others questions not because we think that the question needs to be asked, but because genuine curiosity prompts us to ask so that we may find an answer. So what makes our natural questioning fade into steadfast acceptance of what we think we know? Why do we stop asking how or why? Does society force us unknowingly to conform our thinking? I believe that we are taught to bury our inquisitive instincts. We learn to ask certain questions but nothing outside of the limits that are set for us. All the people who dared to question something, the people who demanded to know why are the people who've made the world-altering discoveries. They are the people who make the greatest impact in history. If we were taught early on how important inquiry is and how there are an endless amount of questions to be asked how different would things be? How much of the unsolvable puzzle we call home would be filled in, and how many pieces would be left to fit in? We don't know what could happen in the next minute, week, or year so why settle for what we think we know? I realize now that with our limited awareness we don't notice the things right in front of us. How would we react if one day time did turn back or if it stopped all together? What do we have to loose by wondering?

Anonymous said...

People today are so busy with present day-to-day activities, that they forget to think about the big ideas that allow us to have the normals we have and experience today. We worry and question things, that on the scale are much smaller than questions addressed in this statement. Unless one has a serious interest that they are able to either make a career out of or make time to work on, we don't really wonder about the big questions about our origins and why earth/life is the way it is. A child, who is just learning about the world often asks these questions, and just then are most people confronted with the idea of them, and have to ponder an answer themselves. There is so much that we do not know, that people choose to ignore those thoughts because of fear of the unknown and/or the inability to receive answers to those questions. It is interesting to wonder if knowing the answers to all these questions will further enhance the quality of life, knowing as to why we are able to life the way we are, or change one's perspective completely?

Anonymous said...

All children get curious at some point in there life, but as they get older there interest start to fade. Everyone thinks that its because they just don't care to know anymore but that not always true. As you get older stress builds up and you have other more important things to do then ask questions you might already know the answer to. Now you can look on the internet to find almost anything you want to know, and a lot of people think its just because they are lazy but the truth is, is that if you asked a group of people the same question maybe 1 or 2 will actually know the answer. It's not always the child's fault that they don't ask questions its more that people in general need to work harder at obtaining information to share with the world in the future.

Anonymous said...

Mostly I think it to be true. We for granted the things just there for us without giving s thought about it. But there are a couple parts in this that I disagree. For one the fact that he says that kids don’t know the “important” questions. But what dignifies an “important” question. To a child the questions they ask are important. This all fall under relativity. An adult who knows more than the average kid might think a question asked by a kid might be kind of dorky; but to them, who don’t know much themselves, ask those questions to learn about the world around them it becomes important to them. The next thing that I disagree with is it says, “…few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way it is; where the cosmos came from, or whether it is always here; if time will one day flow backward and effects precede causes;” For the most part that is a generally true for an average person. But do the people with specific religions and spiritualties that answer those questions, really think about it like that? Like Christianity which answers most of those questions in that way; to them, the questions are answered.

Anonymous said...

I think as children we question everything because we know nothing about how things came to be. As we grow older and learn more and more, we start assuming how things came to be or we just simply lose our curiosity. I think that as we grow older we also tend to not care as much as how things came to be around us because we know more so we see less stuff we don't know about. I think we tend to just look at the known other than the unknown as we grow older. We tend to focus on what we know and what we are familiar with rather than taking an extra step and learning or doing something new. I think at the same time though there are people who test the unknown and don't question everything but try new things everyday. I think more people should be like this in the sense that we question things and try new stuff so we learn more and more as we grow older instead of losing that sense of curiosity.

Anonymous said...

As we grow older we deteriorate in all ways. I think that our creativity is one of the biggest things that we tend to lose. It's a very tragic thing but maybe that's just the way life goes. Do we have the power to change it all? I believe that the answer is yes. Why not? We have always been told that we can do whatever we want. With this being said, from this day forward I'm going to try as hard as I can to revert this cycle that we all go through and never become dull.

Anonymous said...

Kids wonder about this because they have time and know very little. But as we get older we learn more and are also busier. We don't have time to sit around and just wonder about things we know we'll never be able to figure out. The average everyday person does not need to wonder about these things when there are scientists whose whole career is based on these questions. Even then, we still do not know everything and probably never will.

Anonymous said...

When it comes down to it, we don't actually know all that much about the world. We discover something new and possibly ground-breaking everyday, sure, but we don't know much really at all. And we are comforted by this fact. We don't ask ourselves why we can walk around the way we do or how it is we are alive today. It doesn't reassure us to know stuff like that. When you're a kid, everything is interesting, but once you're older, nothing is anymore unless you really want it to be.

Anonymous said...

As we grow older I think we become numb to the world around us and instead of question the world around us we just listen to what people tell us the world is. There is no need to ponder these things because what we can't figure out we won't and what we can we will and eventually somebody will tell it to us.

Anonymous said...

This quote seems to suggest that if we develop a better understanding of the world and look through clearer lenses so to speak in order for us to find a place in this world where we enjoy ourselves. Because too much do human beings end up becoming lost and overcome with a sort of dissolution in their life where they themselves do not even know what they want. And through a keen understanding of the world by asking these hard questions people can often weed through a lot of the garbage in life that they know is garbage and focus on what really should be done. These questions and thoughts about the world is where you can find much of the wonder that is left today.

Anonymous said...

I feel that if we as humans were more aware of the world around us and actually cared a little bit, then we wouldn't run into this problem of not knowing anything. People would ask more questions about what makes the world tick, and broaden our understanding of everything in our surroundings. As a society, we have become somewhat numb to questioning and individual thought since any answer to anything is at our fingertips with technology.

Anonymous said...

I believe that there is always someone who questions more that others think, and they learn something new about the way of life everyday. But others have no ambition to search what makes the world that we live in. To understand more of what we don't know we must question everything that we have failed to simply learn in our daily lives.

Anonymous said...

At a young age people are unfamiliar with the limitations of human knowledge; because of this, curiosity and imagination can thrive. Once children gain more experience with the unknown they realize how truly intangible our universe is and this creates a fear of what they don’t understand. People are limited by their mental capacity; it is mankind’s greatest flaw that it is restricted by flesh- a physical body which defines the boundaries of perception and reaction to the universe.

Anonymous said...

Everyone has a limit to what they are able to do. Most people don't even think about why things are the way they are after they become adults. So why are children the only ones who question the world around them and how come adults quit doing it?

Anonymous said...

Everyone has a limit to what they are able to do. Most people don't even think about why things are the way they are after they become adults. So why are children the only ones who question the world around them and how come adults quit doing it?

Anonymous said...

Everyone has a limit to what they are able to do. Most people don't even think about why things are the way they are after they become adults. So why are children the only ones who question the world around them and how come adults quit doing it?

Anonymous said...

The first time something is seen, naturally questions arise. While seeing a new face, we ask their name. While watching a new sport; "What is happening right now?" Then as children, we had a certain level of excitement while observing the world around us because everything is being seen for the very first time. We had fresh eyes. We had a sense of wonder. It was only natural for us to ask questions. Nowadays, we have gotten used to these things that we were once enamored with. We either know the answer to some of these simple questions, or we do not care enough to ask. The childlike wonder that we have lost has been replaced with a sense of worry, as we constantly keep an eye on the clock, on our deadlines. The world has consumed us...only because we have allowed it to. But how can that sense of wonder be recaptured? How can we be more like children and integrate that sense of peaceful oblivion with the stress of this everyday world? How can we take time to step back and just breath and think and marvel at these natural beauties?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

A humans have always ignored there surroundings. From not helping someone that fell to not realizing the cosmos is above your heads every second, of every day. WE fail to realize that though-sands of massive nuclear explosions are heating our world and that there are super massive bodies of gravity that wont even let light escape; just to name a few!We fail to realize that there are 5 quadrillion chemical reactions happening in our body every second. And we fail to realize all of the living life force around us. Humans ignore our surroundings because we cant even wrap our heads around what goes on today; humans do not have the capacity to realize every aspect of our surroundings. And unfortunately we can live in a world like that yet, but I can say threat the world would be much different if we all just tried though

Unknown said...

[Sorry this is late, I didn't know where to find it because I was absent] Our human nature allows us to ignore the things around us because we've seen it before. We don't take advantage of our surroundings because we're used to what we've seen before. Take for example if you saw a star in the sky. You'd take a quick glance, then maybe go back to the activity you were doing. But did you take the time to realise that the star is a great, burning ball of gas? Did you wonder, how old is that star, how far away is that star? No, because it just looks like another dot in the sky. We fail to see the realism of our world, the real components of our world. When we're walking down a dirt road or a sidewalk to a friends house, we don't stop to think how the dirt road or sidewalk was made, or how many people have walked the same path as you.

I don't understand why children are the only ones who question the world around them. As adults, or growing adults, we should still be curious about what's going on. Sure, we know some of the basic answers to questions, but why don't we learn more?

Anonymous said...

When a question I raised then that question need to be answered, but as time goes by and the question has still not been answered people just eventually give up and just leave it alone. As children we question how everything works because we are curious but eventually we lose our curiosity and we lose interest in these things. We will know the answer but only part of the answer until we decide to learn more.

Anonymous said...

There is no small amount of texts and books which say quite the same thing; it is in children that much of the world's collective pure and creative inquisitiveness exists. The prime example which comes to mind reads, "But Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14). I believe that is is through the mindset of a child unexposed to the currents of culture that the questions whose answers will grant the world the power to pull away from its doldrums of understanding will be asked, as well as answered; because it is due to the knowledge of the world that humankind gains through the tragedy of growing up that the inhibitors of asking questions for the sole purpose of increasing understanding will gain strength. But it is the children (of whom it is often said don't know any better) who have not been exposed to such inhibitors that perhaps know better than us all.

Anonymous said...

"Except for children, who don't know enough not to ask the important questions"

this is interesting, it's like it's saying that after we "grow up" we get to be more intelligent, but it's almost a bad thing because we assume we know everything there is to know so we hardly discover anything new. We assume that we are superior in knowledge so we don't try to be smarter, as children we don't know much and we have to be taught, so we ask important questions so someone smarter can tell us the answer. We need to start listening to our children and actually listening, instead of saying I don't know, we should say, lets find out, and actually try to find an answer for them, it will help us grow smarter too.