Week 1 Reading Blog

It's all invented, so think outside the box. "We perceive only sensations we are programmed to receive, and our awareness is further restricted by the fact that we recognize only those for which we have mental maps or categories" (Zander 2000, p.10). Simply put, our interpretation of the world is made up of perceptions ingrained in our categorized mind. Think about it. A baby will reach out and touch a hot stove, not knowing that it might be hot and that will hurt. Once the child learns that touching a hot stove hurts, they will "map" in their mind not to do it again. The mind associates the hot stove to pain.
Zander writes, "its through the evolved structure of the brain that we perceive the world" (p. 12). Evolution has created a thoughtful, mindful, creative brain that thinks and learns at a rapid rate. Perception is an evloution of one's life span and all that comes with that life that allow one to perceive hopes, fears, joy and love. These have many different meaning to differnet people and different cultures where some may not even know the menaing of the word or not in the same way or thought process.
If the world is a construct of the mind, then the world means different things to different people and cultures and therfore is constantly being reinvented to fit the "map or category". Invention is only what we perceive as new and useful. One culture may invent the wheel and find it useful, however another culture simply has no use for it.
References:
Zander, B., (2000). The art of possibility. Glassbook Edition. pp. 9-12