Affordances + Questions 9.21.2016

Beginnings and endings of complex things + ambient perceptions of them to derive "value" and "meaning" can be described as the "affordances" of the environment. Ecological physics.
"a specific combination of the properties of its substance and its surfaces taken with reference to an animal." Combinations of properties create meaning ("niche" is how an animal lives). In singularity, they are irrelevant.
What is the stimulus information? How is perceived?
Perceive in rigidity + levelness + flatness + extendedness.
Animals' niches must be present in the environment before the animal can adopt them. Post hoc ergo, propter hoc. Niche is a setting environmental features that are suitable for the animal, into which it fits metaphorically. "The organism depends on its environment for its life, but the environment does not depend on the organism for its existence." There is only one world, natural or synthetic. This does not alter the balance of "affordances." Things afford substance to us (nourishment to eat.) Substances offer a layout to us in order for us to interact with them (water is wet to wade in.) Things can hide places. Animals with hands can manipulate small detached objects. Babies first notice what an object has to afford, rather than what it is. Good affordances good to man. Bad affordances hurt man.
"Invitation Character / Valence:" knee-jerk impulse of what affordances you want to reap from an object. Subjective. Affordances = objective.
The affordances of the niche are measured in relation to the physical limitations of the body.
Lack of detecting affordances = misperception.

1. Heat because electricity because thermal emission. Light because heat is inefficient. Light without heat is luminescence.
2. Infrared emissions in incandescent bulbs are super-heated create light.
3. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with no resistance. This means that, unlike the more familiar conductors such as copper or steel, a superconductor can carry a current indefinitely without losing any energy. MRIs scan bodies. How to make a superconductor.
4. Ampere's Law describes the circular motion of a magnetic field around a conductor.
5. Same size current + same direction = magnetic field.
6. Same size current + different directions = magnetic field disappears.