Earth's Survival in Space

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TV warping minds

(PhysOrg.com) -- If your best friend is a guy from "The Office" or a young doctor on "Grey's Anatomy," you may be relying too much on TV shows to fill a social void in your life.
A new study from the University of Michigan says lonely people may use television characters to cope with solitude and to feel a sense of belonging.
The study examines how social and emotional tendencies—social inclusion needs and solitude experiences—are related to people's imagined intimacy with media characters and emotional connection with television programs.
"Media programs are, after all, inherently social and may offer individuals a soothing if temporary replacement for genuine social interaction," said Dara Greenwood, assistant professor of communications studies who co-authored the study with Christopher Long, an assistant professor of psychology at Ouachita Baptist University.
More than 300 participants completed a questionnaire that looked at how the need to belong and different experiences of solitude (such as inspiring self-discovery, diversionary activities, or loneliness) contributed to increased emotional connection to TV characters and programs.
Solitude was defined for participants as time spent alone—or, if in the presence of others, without any social interaction. Participants rated the frequency with which they experienced different types of solitude as well as the importance they placed on these experiences.
After participants identified a favorite character or personality and the show they are featured on, they responded to 15 items to determine what imagined friendship and affinity for a media persona. Items include "My favorite TV personality seems to understand the things I know," and "My favorite TV personality keeps me company when his or her program is on television."



Results showed that increased affiliation needs (e.g., "I try hard not to do things that will make other people avoid or reject me") and lonely solitude experiences predicted increased emotional involvement with media characters. Engaging more intensely with media may be one way that individuals with unmet intimacy goals cope with loneliness, the research indicated.
Solitude experienced as self-discovery also predicted increased involvement with TV characters and programs.
"This underscores the emotional versatility of entertainment media and suggests that the alternative realities of movies or television programs may provide opportunities for imaginative and emotional processing that facilitate personal growth," she said.
This study found that, not surprisingly, the most popular characters were drawn from successful TV programs like "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Office." Most participants (218 people) selected fictional characters; the next most frequently chosen characters were real people, such as Oprah, reality show participants, and Jon Stewart (53 people); followed by cartoon characters (20 people).
"However, there may be a downside to this kind of attachment if the viewer in question idealizes the character and consequently holds her or himself up to unrealistic standards of physical attractiveness, romantic, or professional success," said Greenwood, whose research focuses on emotional well-being and media involvement and on young women's media affinities and self/body image.
Future research will continue investigating the conditions under which media involvement may be more or less beneficial to emotional well-being over the short and long term.
The findings appear in the current issue of Communication Research.

how TV works..

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Morphogenetic Fields

The term [morphic fields] is more general in its meaning than morphogenetic fields, and includes other kinds of organizing fields in addition to those of morphogenesis; the organizing fields of animal and human behaviour, of social and cultural systems, and of mental activity can all be regarded as morphic fields which contain an inherent memory.
—Rupert Sheldrake, The Presence of the Past (Chapter 6, page 112)

Morphogenetic fields contain the information necessary to shape the exact form of a living thing, as part of its epigenetics, and may also shape its behaviour and coordination with other beings.[citation needed] The term morphogenetic field has also been used in a different sense by mainstream developmental biologists, as regions within a developing embryo that will subsequently develop into particular structures or organs. Since the 1920s, mainstream biology has used the term morphogenetic field to mean "that collection of cells by whose interactions a particular organ formed". This usage is distinct from Sheldrake's in that nothing external to the cells themselves is implicated.


In 1981 Rupert Sheldrake outraged the scientific establishment with his hypothesis of morphic resonance. A morphogenetic field is a hypothetical biological field that contains the information necessary to shape the exact form of a living thing. A presentation at the Biology of Transformation Conference in 2007.

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Science of The Impossible

Time travel, death stars and invisibility cloaks – writer and noted scientist, Michio Kaku, believes they could all be possible in the not to distant future.
To the skeptics he points out that aeroplanes, lasers, televisions and atomic bombs were all considered impossible by scientists in the past.
On Wednesday’s Riz Khan we speak with noted scientist Michio Kaku author of Physics of the Impossible.
The book explores the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed impossible today but that might become commonplace in the future.

Part 1

part 2

PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT

The rumors have persisted for over fifty years. They have all the trappings of fiction, yet there are those who persist on believing that the U.S. Navy actually rendered a warship invisible and teleported it to and from the Philadelphia Naval Yards in a top-secret project. THE TRUE STORY OF THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT chronicles the origins and spread of this tallest of all sailor's tall tales, revealing how research into antisubmarine technology likely provided the catalyst for the accounts and documenting stages in the story's development in the pages of pulp fiction. Of course, it wouldn't be fair to ignore the other side of the story, so HISTORY'S MYSTERIES seeks out eyewitnesses to the alleged event to hear their tales of clandestine operations and strange occurrences at the Philadelphia Naval Yards. Finally, we'll examine the science that might support the fantastic accounts in a visit to Cal Tech, where scientists are currently conducting experiments in teleportation. Travel back in time for an authoritative examination of the Philadelphia Experiment


this is a little "tabloid-y" but gives you an insight into this if you havent heard about it before.

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