I’m not sure if this thought has ever occurred to you before, but since this is a blog about totally random musings, I’m posting it up.
That’s what this blog is for anyway…to ask the weird questions.
Here goes.
I’m sure that when you were young, you would have heard of the wise old adage which your parents would always tell you: “Son, before crossing the road, always look LEFT, then RIGHT, then LEFT again before you actually cross the road.”
I’m not sure if anyone has ever tried to ask: “Pa, why must I look LEFT again?”
Anyway, for those of you who dared ask, the standard answer would always be: “You must look LEFT again because in the time that you took to look RIGHT, a car may have approached from the LEFT.”
Ok let’s pause here for a second.
You all with me so far?
Good.
So now, the final logical question should be: “But in the time that I took to look LEFT again, a car could also have approached from the RIGHT, yes?”
Get my drift?
Actually, using this reasoning, before crossing the road, we should always look LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-(x infinity).
Because every time we look left, a car may have approached from the right, and vice versa.
I’m just saying.
(p.s. I’m not advocating that you talk back to your parents.)
i look left-right to check out the traffic on the road. then i look left since at my side of the road, cars are coming from the left. then i look right while crossing to see if there are any cars coming from the right, which is the direction the cars are coming from at the other side of the road. but i guess this works for roads where the driver is on the left side.
Wow, good answer! Never thought of that one!
agree with Chin Hon.
I wonder if Jeremy or anyone else will ever read this…
The right hemisphere takes greater control when you focus on looking to the left. That makes all the difference in the world. The left and right hemispheres are not at all symmetric in how they process, and that is perhaps more true of attention than any other trait. Not only is the right hemisphere in charge of almost all aspects of attention, the only aspect of attention that the left hemisphere is in charge of (detailed focus, blocking out all distractions) is positively dangerous in the context of crossing a road. So I hypothesize that the Look Left, Right, Left again sequence is much more about ensuring that you are applying your consciousness correctly in complex uncertain circumstances than anything else.
Now if that ain’t out of left field, I don’t know what is…