Optical illusions, anyone?

https://www.fractuslearning.com/optical-illusions/

Auditory illusion – BAAA or FAAA?

How high can you hear?

How many minds do we have? One? More? According to Jill Bolte Taylor, we have four!

She divides the brain into four “characters”:

• Left 1 → analytical, logical, language (your “scientist”)
• Left 2 → structured, organized, identity, past/future
• Right 1 → big-picture, intuitive, present-moment awareness
• Right 2 → emotional, embodied, deeply connected

This is a psychological/experiential model, not an anatomical one.

פייק? במוזיאון?

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_As1942-01-1

for me, the teacher:

INDUCTIVE VS. DEDUCTIVE REASONING

The main difference between inductive and deductive reasoning is that inductive reasoning aims at developing a theory while deductive reasoning aims at testing an existing theory.

Rationalism is the belief in innate ideas, reason, and deduction. Empiricism is the belief in sense perception, induction, and that there are no innate ideas.

rationalist critiques of empiricism usually contend that the latter claims that all our ideas originate with sense experience.

• Empiricism is the idea that knowledge is acquired through observation and perception.
• Rationalism is the idea that using logic and reason is knowledge in and of itself.
• Pragmatism is a logical and practical way of getting things accomplished.

Is smell symmetric? No, says Chat gpt

Left vs. right differences

• Right hemisphere
  • Better at recognizing and discriminating smells
  • More involved in the “this smells like…” intuitive identification
  • Strongly tied to emotional aspects of smell
• Left hemisphere
  • Better at naming and describing smells
  • If you can say “this smells like cinnamon,” that verbal labeling leans left

A key twist

Unlike vision and touch, smell is mostly processed on the same side (ipsilateral):

• Right nostril → right brain
• Left nostril → left brain

So in short

• Recognition: leans right hemisphere
• Naming/describing: leans left hemisphere

What you need

• 3–5 familiar smells (keep them non-irritating):
  • coffee
  • cinnamon
  • vanilla
  • orange peel
  • chocolate

1. Amygdala (emotion & salience)

• Right amygdala
  • Faster, more automatic responses
  • Picks up emotional significance quickly (especially threat or novelty)
  • Think: “something feels important or dangerous”
• Left amygdala
  • Slower, more deliberate processing
  • More tied to interpreting and labeling emotion
  • Think: “what exactly am I feeling?”

👉 This mirrors what we saw with smell:

• Right → rapid, intuitive
• Left → more analytical, verbal

2. Hippocampus (memory)

• Left hippocampus
  • More involved in verbal and narrative memory
  • Facts you can describe
• Right hippocampus
  • More involved in spatial and contextual memory
  • Places, scenes, layouts

Core Idea of the Course

Not “left-handed people are special,” but:

Human beings are built with asymmetry—and most of our tools, culture, and thinking assume symmetry.

Left-handedness becomes your entry point into:

• brain asymmetry
• perception vs reality
• cultural bias
• creativity and adaptation

Module 1: The Myth of Symmetry

Visual and biological asymmetry

6

Key ideas:

• Humans look symmetrical—but aren’t
• Internal asymmetry (heart, liver, brain lateralization)
• Rare reversals (situs inversus)

Your angle:

• How accurate are we at detecting asymmetry?
• Why do we care so much about symmetry?

Discussion thread you raised:

• Are rates like 1 in 10,000 (reversed organs) underestimated?
• Do people who’ve never seen mirrors perceive themselves differently?

Module 2: The Divided Brain

Left/right specialization (with nuance)

7

Key ideas:

• Language usually left-lateralized—but not always
• Left-handers show more variability
• The brain is not “logical vs creative”—that’s oversimplified

Connections you explored:

• Where is writing located vs speech?
• Limbic system—does emotion have lateral dominance?
• Relation to Jill Bolte Taylor and her “four brains” idea

Module 3: Mirror Worlds

Perception, reversal, and confusion

6

Key ideas:

• Mirror writing (common in left-handed children)
• The brain’s handling of reversed images
• Why your mirror face feels “right” but photos don’t

Literary connection:

• Through the Looking-Glass
  → a philosophical exploration of reversed logic and reality

Your questions:

• Do people prefer their mirror image?
• Are there studies on this?
• Is mirror writing literally “what you see in the mirror”?

Module 4: The Left-Handed World Problem

Living in a right-handed world

6

Key ideas:

• Tools designed for right-handers:
  • scissors
  • desks
  • musical instruments
• Subtle daily friction

Your observations:

• Typing advantage historically?
• Driving asymmetry (left-foot dominance)
• Why no simple solutions (e.g., “a sock that fixes it”)?

Module 5: Genius, Bias, and the Left-Handed Myth

The survivorship bias problem

6

Key ideas:

• Lists of “famous lefties” are misleading
• We notice successful outliers
• We ignore the baseline population

This connects beautifully to:

• your scientific thinking
• your question: are lefties really more creative—or just more noticed?

Module 6: Adaptation and Compensation

When difference becomes strategy

Key ideas:

• Left-handers must adapt constantly
• This may build:
  • flexibility
  • problem-solving
  • alternative strategies

But:

• Evidence is mixed
• Not romantic—often just necessity

Your angle:

• Link to broader idea:

  People who are “off-center” often learn to navigate differently

Module 7: Ambidexterity and Fluid Identity

Not just left vs right

Key ideas:

• Ambidexterity is rare but real
• Many people are mixed:
  • write with one hand
  • throw with another

Raises deeper questions:

• Is dominance fixed or trained?
• What does “preference” even mean?

Module 8: Beyond Hands – A Philosophy of Asymmetry

This is where your course becomes uniquely yours.

Core idea:

The world is not symmetrical, but we think as if it is.

Connections:

• Science: searching for objective truth
• Storytelling: creating meaningful truth
• Your own career shift

You can bring in:

• perception vs reality
• uncertainty vs narrative
• how we construct “normal”

Possible Closing Frame

You might end with something like:

Left-handedness is not the story.
It’s the clue.
The real story is how humans deal with a world that is slightly—but persistently—off.

If you want to push this further

Two directions that would elevate it to a full course:

1. Add one experiment per lecture

Simple, live:

• mirror writing attempt
• face preference (photo vs mirror)
• handedness tasks

2. Anchor each lecture in a person or story

You already asked:

• Was Shel Silverstein left-handed?
• Who are surprising left-handers?

Use individuals as entry points—not lists.

If you’d like, next step I can do:

• turn this into a full 8-session syllabus with timing and talking points, or
• help you shape Lecture 1 exactly as you would deliver it aloud (which ties back nicely to yo