excelsior-
well, it depends on how someone means "uses 10%". if you mean that people
only remember a small percentage of what they could, have the capacity to be
more intelligent (better at pattern recognition, logic or something), or
even be somehow more emotionally intuitive- it may be true that most people
don't work up to their capacity. And there may be something to that-
although the 10% thing seems completely arbitrary. Either way, that's a
difficult thing to measure and a shaky assertion at best. (although it seems
people actually remember lots more than they consciously recall... another
topic). i think this is the idea you're getting at, and i'd agree with you
to a point.
If you somehow mean that only 10% of the physical mass of the brain is used-
well, that's ridiculous and can be easily disproven (and has been, in many
well-documented experiments). some folks actually think this because of the
oft-quoted figure.
i've heard of the 10% thing being used to defend the possibility of psychic
powers or telepathy. i think the original poster made reference to it in
this context (though he seemed to be sort of half-joking). There's no
evidence for anything like this, of course- but one should never say
never....
the 10% thing was just totally made up to make people feel better about
themselves, i suppose. but even if the message behind it has some truth
(that people have more potential than they use), the 10% figure was just
thrown in there to make the assertion sound like somebody measured it. all
i'm trying to say is that no one ever has, and so the specific 10% assertion
with which we are all familiar is a popular-culture myth (yes, it's included
in that urban-legend listing right alongside the kidney-stealing thing and
the HIV-infected needles in pay phone change returns)- and nothing more.
i still think GP3 will be out later than september....
