Monday, July 21, 2008

Mirror Mirror On the Wall

Tonight I came across "Mirrors Don’t Lie. Mislead? Oh, Yes" in the NYTimes and was immediately captivated...I've always grouped "mirrors" with conundrums like whether or not there are an finite number of universes, reincarnation and which animal I was, etc...finally, one can be explained!

This diagram elucidates (or at least gets at) that which I never understood about mirrors...

July 22, 2008
Mirror Images






Two other parts of the article worthy of chewing on for a few:

Mirror Therapy:
Mirror therapy has been successful in treating disorders like phantom limb syndrome, chronic pain and post-stroke paralysis...they use mirrors to create reflected images of patients’ limbs or other body parts and thus trick the brain into healing itself.
The link between self-awareness and elaborate sociality:
Animals that are able to pass the mirror self-recognition test (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, dolphins, and Asian elephants) live fairly sophisticatd lives. They will also scrutinize any marks that have been applied to their faces or bodies and will check up on personal hygiene, inspecting their mouths, nostrils and genitals when given a mirror.


(via NYTimes)

1 comment:

Ultramafic said...

i for one never pass up an opportunity to examine my genitals in a mirror.

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