Steve, Your experiences suggest that a visualization can prompt insightful thinking and that is very cool. I also note the problems and issues you raise and do not discount them.
I have no reason to believe that my "conception vision" gave me any insights, fundamental or extravagant. I lack the background in cellular biology to "interpret" usefully. What I am curious about are the discrepancies in what I "saw" and animations I have seen that supposedly demonstrate what is happening when two cells combine to form a third - ala conception. If I was able to transform my vision into a movie, show it to a cellular biologist, would they see the same discrepancies? Would they obtain an insights that could lead to a better understanding and perhaps novel approaches to genetic engineering? The fact that the vision "held together" in some way, is simply a criteria I would use to sort visions that I would be willing to share with someone in an attempt to be helpful, and those that I retain for self-amusement. The latter reminds me of Bennie Stokes in John Brunner's, Stand on Zanzibar, who is constantly watching the news feeds and muttering to himself, "Christ what an imagination I have." davew On Fri, Mar 6, 2020, at 4:59 PM, Steven A Smith wrote: > Dave - > > > 1) I am fascinated by the field of scientific visualization, using imagery > > to present complex data sets. Recently I "observed" the precise moment of > > sperm-egg fertilization. A whole lot was going on inside the egg cell > > boundary immediately upon contact (not penetration) with the sperm. The > > visualization was of thousands (millions?) of discrete inter-cellular > > elements breaking free from existing structures, like DNA strands, > > proteins, molecules and moving about independently. I could see several > > "fields" that were a kind of "probability field." These fields constrained > > both the movement of the various elements and, most importantly, what > > structures would emerge from their recombination. "Watching" the DNA > > strand 'dissolve" and "reform" was particularly interesting because it was > > totally unlike the "unzip into two strands, the zip-up a strand-half from > > each donor" visualization I have seen presented in animations explaining > > the process. Instead I saw all kinds of "clumps" form and merge into > > larger/longer "clumps" then engage in an interesting hula/belly/undulation > > dance to rearrange the structure into a final form. All of this "guided" > > by the very visible "probability fields;" more than one and color coded. > > > > Now, if I were a cellular biologist could I make use of this vision? > > > > Since I am not a cellular biologist and have no understanding of > > inter-cellular structures/dynamics/chemistry, nor any DNA knowledge, where > > did the imagery come from and why did it hang together so well? > > > > Was this experience just an amusing bit of entertainment" Or, is there an > > insight of some sort lurking there? > > I have some complementary experiences. In a lifetime of trying to > facilitate insight to scientists and engineers by building tools to help > them visualize (perceptualize) their models of physical (and sometimes > highly abstract) phenomena I have seen "a thing or two". What I have > seen more than anything is those researchers/practitioners increase the > scope of their intuition when facilitated by > computer-mediated-representation of their data. > > I have also seen naive false-positives generated in the process. In > fact, the most common experience I have had is when I might present a > scientist with a novel (to them) visualization, they see anomalies from > what they *expected to see* and they usually question *my* > systems/software. If it is a mature system/tool I am using, it usually > turns out that these anomalies are exposing errors/bugs in *their* > systems (data collection, grooming, modeling). In the most rare (but > most useful?) case, it turns out to expose errors in their assumptions, > in the models themselves (not just the expression of them). In the > very best case, the scientists came to me with an intuition, a > hypothesis and a rough model who needed to have those models coupled > back to there sensoria so that they could reinforce their own intuition > and/or invite colleagues into their hypothesis LONG before they had > everything nailed down. > > On the flip side, another common experience was "false positives". > Often, simply applying mostly unmotivated interpolations to their > discretized data, I "accidentally" added (excess?) meaning to their > models. Few sophisticated scientists make those mistakes, but > sometimes "wishful thinking" trumps "thoughtful awareness". > > On the topic of "visualizing whirled peas"... I have a lot of lucid > dreams, many of them about physical systems. I reported here (and you > gave me a great Science Fiction reference) having months worth of lucid > dreams involving orbital mechanics and orbital mining/salvage. I never > really imagined that these dreams were going to help me learn anything > revolutionary about orbital mechanics, at the very best, they either > provided me with loads of entertainment or perhaps *incremental* > improvements to *my* understanding of established orbital mechanics that > I have learned "the hard way" (studying the math). > > Do you have any reason for believing that your visions of cellular > fusion/fission are giving you fundamental or extravagant insights (as > opposed to incremental refinements) than that "they hold together well"? > > - Steve > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
