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Monday, March 9, 2009

Wikipedia Explains the World

«World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human point of view, as a place inhabited by human beings.

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedal primates in the family Hominidae ... DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection and problem solving.

Problem solving forms part of thinking.

Thought and thinking are mental forms and processes, respectively ... Thinking allows beings to model the world and to deal with it according to their objectives, plans, ends and desires. Words referring to similar concepts and processes include cognition, sentience, consciousness, idea, and imagination.

Imagination is the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses, and the action or process of forming such images or concepts. It helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge

Understanding ... is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object.

A concept ... is a cognitive unit of meaning – an abstract idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a “unit of knowledge,” built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics.

A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.

A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom. Certain types of rules or customs may become law

Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions.

Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals.

As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection.

The term person in common usage means an individual human being.

Humans are distributed worldwide

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human point of view, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general ... In a metaphysical context, World may refer to the Universe

The universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and constants that govern them.

(Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction ... Time is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects.)

Experiments and observations suggest that the universe has been governed by the same physical laws and constants throughout its extent and history.

History is the study of the past, with special attention to the written record of the activities of human beings over time.

The past is the portion of time that has already occurred; it is the opposite of the future.

The future is a time period commonly understood to contain all events that have yet to occur. It is the opposite of the past, and is the time after the present.

The direct experience of the present for each human is that it is what is here, now ... In the time aspect, the conventional concept of 'now' is that it is some tiny point on a continuous timeline which separates past from future. It is not clear, however, that there is a universal timeline or whether, as relativity seems to indicate, the timeline is inextricably linked to the observer.

Observation is either an activity of a living being (such as a human), consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments.

Senses are the physiological methods of perception ... perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.

Awareness is a term referring to the ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects or patterns, which does not necessarily imply understanding.

Consciousness may involve thoughts, sensations, perceptions, moods, emotions, dreams, and self-awareness

Self-awareness is the concept that one exists as an individual, separate from other people, with private thoughts and individual rights. (It may also include the understanding that other people are similarly self-aware.)

Thought and thinking are mental forms and processes, respectively ... Thinking allows beings to model the world

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human point of view, as a place inhabited by human beings

Humans are distributed worldwide»

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