Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Finnish Underwater Ice Fishing



This clever video, like the opening sequence of Shyamalan’s “Devil,” again adroitly makes the point that our preconceived notions (what psychologists would call “top-down processing” really do color how we perceive what is otherwise perfectly straightforward information:


Especially with Krulwich’s admitted mystification (apparently he doesn’t much get fluid dynamics or buoyancy—no “hidden air balloons” would be necessary to keep air in an inverted underwater bucket; any curious kid actually allowed to play outdoors near a water source could tell you that!), it really reminds us to be patient with those who just don’t “get” the whole worldview thing.  It’s like the baby fish who asks his mommy fish, “So, what’s this ocean thing everybody’s always talking about?”  You may be trying to talk to somebody who just cannot—literally CAN not—see, at this time, what you are talking about.  Keep loving them.  The love gets through, even if the perspective doesn’t at first, eventually drilling a hole in the ice for the trapped air to escape to. 

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