#self-experiment

[gosherlocked]

Unaware of the beautiful

This is beautiful. I love this!  (TGG)

Er, beauty is a construct based entirely on childhood impressions, influences and role models. (TSOT)

SHERLOCK (in reference to the music): Beautiful. GUARD: Kills you in the end. SHERLOCK: Aye. Still beautiful, though. (TFP)

EURUS: What do you think? SHERLOCK: Beautiful. EURUS: You’re not looking at it. SHERLOCK: I meant your playing. (TFP)

(All quotes courtesy Ariane DeVere)

So we have this impressive sentence in the best man speech:

I am dismissive of the virtuous, unaware of the beautiful and uncomprehending in the face of the happy. 

But if you looks closely, at least the middle part is complete bullshit. From series 1 on Sherlock has definitely known what he thinks is beautiful and has expressed it clearly. He is not unaware of the beautiful, never was. Of course his concept of beauty may vary between traditional (the stars, music) and unconventional (admiration for a clever case of art fraud) but he knows quite well what is beautiful. 

The famous TSOT quote has traditionally been applied to male beauty as a construct based on the image of Sherlock’s own father that is reflected in Victor and later in John. So may we infer from this that someone in his life told him about astronomical and musical beauty as well? Probably. 

And this made me think. If one part of the sentence is wrong, what about the others? 

Now virtue may seem an old-fashioned concept so maybe we should replace it with morals or ethics. Sherlock clearly knows right from wrong and good from evil and usually applies his considerable skills to support the former and fight the latter. When did he ever dismiss moral or ethical people or behaviour? Even when he dismisses the concept of caring, one second later he states that he wants to help people:

SHERLOCK: Will caring about them help save them? JOHN: Nope. SHERLOCK: Then I’ll continue not to make that mistake.

I never understood how anyone could see Sherlock as amoral or cold. He saves people. And if something keeps him from doing so, he chooses not to adhere to that behaviour. 

In short, Sherlock is not dismissive of the virtuous as long as you define those as people acting in a moral and ethical way and not as some hypocrites who just take on the semblance of virtue. 

Now for the last one - uncomprehending in the face of the happy.  

This is not something Sherlock talks about often but you cannot doubt that he wants to ensure John’s happiness (whatever that may be). And there are his words to Molly:

I hope you’ll be very happy, Molly Hooper. You deserve it.

It does not matter that neither Mary nor Tom succeed in making people happy, what matters is that Sherlock thinks they do and that he understands happiness very well. At least in others. Sigh. 

So what is the conclusion? Sherlock either does not know himself (which I cannot really believe) or people have brainwashed him into thinking that he is dismissive, unaware and uncomprehending. Which with regard to Mycroft’s behaviour seems very plausible. And this is something he has to break free from, he has to liberate himself from this trap. Which, again, leads me to the idea that we are experiencing Sherlock’s self-experiment on how to break free of the limitations of 130 years. 

Tags under the cut

@ebaeschnbliah, @sagestreet, @sarahthecoat, @tjlcisthenewsexy,  @possiblyimbiassed, @raggedyblue, @someovermind, @shylockgnomes, @sherlockshadow, @hemlock-her-loss, @devoursjohnlock, @loveismyrevolution, @beingallmysterious, @i-believe-n-sherlock-holmes, @sherlock-overflow-error, @spenglernot, @the-signs-of-two​, @lukessense​

[mt-fujin]

Self-Experiments

Like I said before, I used to do self-experiments to see what I prefer and what affects me the most. It's a good way to grasp how "X Induction" works or how "X feels when Y is said" to a degree without any outside source. Also, you have the most control of what happens to you which... is like a double edge sword in some cases. Since no one is guiding you, you're only guiding yourself and if you lose focus, well then the experiment could be halted or ruined which sucks. Also in some cases, depending on what you do to yourself, you can't really do it (at least for me). Like I can't make myself become a dumb and thoughtless pup and try to keep hypnotizing myself afterwards. On the bright side, if there's a specific scenario or session that you want to be done, you can do it. You know yourself the most (which sounds corny but...) therefore, you'll know exactly what you want. Case in point, I like self-experiments, they make me learn a lot about myself and I learned 1 thing. I really like audio triggers and audio in general.

[loafyloaf]

A Brief Update.

I am aware that recently I have been failing to make posts as often as I had before, and many of the posts I do make are merely reblogs.  There is a reason for this however, and it has several parts, which are best explained in a list format:

I have been working on the finishing stages before creation of a passive prototype for my artificial heart

I have been applying to colleges left and right

My classes sure as hell aren’t going away, and I am in two new college level courses (English 102 and Intro to Psych) as well as my standard classes

There has been tension in my family due to certain events

I have been reading both The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Superintelligence (Nick Bostrom)

And most importantly, I am presently in the middle of what are - without a doubt - 2 of the largest self-experiments I have ever attempted: determining if the arts are a benefit or a detriment to one’s mental functioning, and determining if a person can thrive in an environment void of any form of emotional output and extremely limited input.

I hope to write more on both of these experiments later (much later, as I have designed them to last several months), but for the time being, I hope this explanation will do.

[whyrsm]

Self-Experiment #1

Eksperimen

Baca buku sambi denger podcast.

Hipotesis

Dapet ilmu dari buku dan dari podcast. Bisa sambil nyambi-nyabi; atau

Enggak bisa fokus. Jadi ga dapet sesuatu dari dua-duanya: buku dan podcast. Seperti yang dikatakan riset-riset.

Hasil

Baru 20 menit enggak kuat--setelah nyoba ditahan-tahan. Ga dapet sesuatu dua-duanya: buku dan podcast. Jadi harus milih salah satu :v

Bagaimana dengan perempuan yang (katanya) lebih ahli multi-tasking?

[psychbuilder]

This will hurt a bit

By David Hunter BMJ Group Blogs Originally posted April 11, 2014 Here is an excerpt: In this piece she describes the case of a Cornell graduate student who carried out a piece of self-experimentation without IRB approval (based on the mistaken belief it wasn’t required) which aimed to assess which part of the body was worst to be stung by a bee on and involved:  ”five stings a day, always between 9 and 10am, and always starting and ending with “test stings” on his forearm to calibrate the ratings. He kept this up for 38 days, stinging himself three times each on 25 different body parts.” The entire blog is here.

[15-blade]

cluelessmedic replied to your post: Saturday goals

Watch out, liquorice can cause hypokalaemia and hypertension ;)

Haha, always good to keep in mind! Maybe I'll do an experiment, n=1 to see if it raises my blood pressure. My blood pressure is typically crazy low so I figured a little boost wouldn't hurt. On the other hand, I can never remember a single thing about potassium handling even though it is really important :/.

The kidney. There's a thing.

[innovationumerique]

On a more serious note...(Coursera 2)

...I also enrolled for the "E-learning and Digital Cultures" and the "Fundamental of Online Education: Planning and Application" courses. The former is taught by Jeremy Knox, Sian Bayne, Hamish Macleod, Jen Ross and Christine Sinclair from the University of Edinburgh and the latter by Fatimah Wirth from Georgia Tech.

Both start on Jan 28th, better be prepared by then!