Talk:The Invisible Gorilla

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The Cosmic Gorilla effect refers to a cognitive (perceptual/ attentional event) inspired by the original experiment carried out by the researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons in the 90s (Simons & Chabris, 1999) to show the inattention blindness of the human being. In the Chabris and Simons experiment, a boy in a gorilla costume could walk in front of a scene, gesticulating, while the observers were busy in something else (counting the ball passes of players in white shirts), and more than half did not notice the boy in the gorilla costume. The cosmic gorilla effect represents this same effect in relation to SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). We are so focused trying to find certain type of signals of Extraterrestrial (ET) origin that we might miss the "gorilla" in the room, meaning other type of signs of ET presence. According to the neuropsychologist Dr. De la Torre from University of Cadiz in Spain, who coined the term "the cosmic gorilla effect" (De la Torre & Garcia, 2018), this can be due to 3 possible factors: 1) Due to limitations of our physiology and consciousness development, 2) because of a wrong technological approach (e.g. using mainly radio signal detection in detriment of other types of signals and 3) intentional avoidance by ET. The original cosmic gorilla effect experiment consisted of a task where people had to distinguish aerial photographs with artificial structures (buildings, roads, etc.) from others with natural elements (mountains, rivers, etc.). In one of the images, a tiny character disguised as a gorilla was inserted to see if the participants noticed it. Again more than a half of the participants did not notice the gorilla. This experiment has potential serious implications for SETI and indirectly for other astronomical scientific tasks since our own neurophysiology, mind and consciousness may be mediating and conditioning the task itself and the results due to its nature and limitations. Another explanation according to the cosmic gorilla effect is that ET may be some form of dark matter, unknown form of life or using other dimensions to enter and leave this reality at will(De la Torre & Garcia, 2018). The article about the cosmic gorilla effect, published in Acta Astronautica in 2018 produced a big impact and controversy in the SETI community and worldwide media (see references). The article reached a 382 score in altmetric placing it within the top 5% of all research output ever scored by this tool. The new search for techno-signatures SETI (Wright, 2019)approach including tasks performed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) may offer new insights away from previous described limitations or not. AI may bring us to a new reality we are not ready to apprehend or understand and AI may also commit the same errors and present the same bias humans do (De la Torre, 2020)

references: D.J. Simons, C.F. Chabris, Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events, Perception 28 (1999) 1059–1074. De la Torre, G.G., & Garcia, M. A. (2018). The cosmic gorilla effect or the problem of undetected non terrestrial intelligent signals. Acta Astronautica, 146, 83-91. Wright, J. T. (2019). Searches for Technosignatures: The State of the Profession. arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.07832. De la Torre, G.G. (2020). Does artificial intelligence dream of non-terrestrial techno-signatures?. Acta Astronautica, 167, 280-285. What can a fake gorilla teach us about the search for space aliens? A new paper argues that the 'cosmic gorilla effect' may be hampering our ability to find E.T. https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/what-can-gorilla-teach-us-about-search-space-aliens-ncna867481 A cosmic gorilla effect could blind the detection of aliens. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180410132835.htm A cosmic gorilla effect could blind the detection of aliens. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-cosmic-gorilla-effect-aliens.html Aliens may exist in ways we can’t even imagine. https://nypost.com/2018/04/11/aliens-may-exist-in-ways-we-cant-even-imagine/ Cosmic gorilla effect' could distract humans from detecting aliens. https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2018/04/11/Cosmic-gorilla-effect-could-distract-humans-from-detecting-aliens/4261523458033/ Cosmic Gorilla Effect: Are Aliens Right Here Among Us? https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/cosmic-gorilla-effect-are-aliens-right-here-among-us-1.5992211 Dark matter may be a manifestation of extremely advanced alien life, researchers suggest. https://www.zmescience.com/space/dark-matter-alien-life-11042018/ Study suggests we haven't met aliens simply because we are blind to them. https://www.sott.net/article/382894-Study-suggests-we-havent-met-aliens-simply-because-we-are-blind-to-them — Preceding unsigned comment added by DrDelaTorre (talk • contribs) 16:50, 7 May 2020 (UTC)