Authors Mark Earls and Alex Bentley explore how ideas, behaviour and culture spread through the simple means of doing what others do.
cognition
[V.S. RAMACHANDRAN:] I'm interested in all aspects of the human mind, including aspects of the mind that have been regarded as ineffable or mysterious. The way I approach these problems is to look at patients who have sustained injury to a small region in the brain, a discipline called Behavioral Neurology or Cognitive Neuroscience these days. 
Conspiracy theories are tempting. There is something especially charming about a forged moon landing or government-backed assassination. Christopher Hitchens called them “the exhaust fumes of dem... RICHARD DAWKINS TALKS WITH HENRY FINDER: A SPECIAL FAMILY EVENT Because of the gradual process of evolution, there was no single point when Homo erectus became Homo sapiens. 
A 2007 video of a boy chomping on the finger of his brother has been viewed 417.6 million times, making it the most successful noncommercial video in YouTube history. Authors Mark Earls and Alex Bentley explore how ideas, behaviour and culture spread through the simple means of doing what others do. 
There was no pattern to the images, they were completely random. But the subjects were told that half of the patterns contained a hidden face, and that their job was to work out which ones did. Each subject saw over 10,000 random images and they took about 1 second to judge each one. The volunteers "detected" a face in 44% of the images. Somehow, all five of them convinced themselves that they were seeing faces in many of the grids. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Over many years, Daniel Kahneman has conducted groundbreaking research into this -- in his own words -- "machinery of the mind". Fast thinking has extraordinary capabilities, but also faults and biases. Intuitive impressions have a pervasive influence on our thoughts and our choices. Only by understanding how the two systems work together, Kahneman shows, can we learn the truth about the role of optimism in opening up a new business, and the importance of luck in a successful corporate strategy, or the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, and the psychological pitfalls of playing the stock market. Kahneman shows where we can trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choice are made in both our business and personal lives -- and how we can guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble Via Alessandro Cerboni Harvard Gazette: Study: Intelligence, cognition unaffected by heavy marijuana use - StumbleUpon #palikot http://t.co/rbmxkNR0... 
RT @Mike_Gamble: RT @drdavidballard: How Life Space Correlates with Decline in Cognition (via @ALZHEIMERSread) http://t.co/LXZLp5F9 #alzheimers #dementia... 
From Darwinian evolution to the idea that personality is largely shaped by chance, the favorite theories of the world's most eminent thinkers are as eclectic as science itself. 
Some theories explaining the cause of depression are written-up in the media more than others. What are some of the others? 
When it comes to getting work done Sartre was right, hell is other people. So was Picasso, who said that, “without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” And then there’s Steve Wosniak... 
Inspiration and interpretation are inevitable. As metaphor is basic to what we do, so emerging results in neuroscience will be taken well beyond the intentions and even meanings of their authors. Much caution and critique will be needed. Yet at the same time, I want to preserve a space for this other mantle, from science to art and humanism. To creation and design and expression.
A revolution based on neuroscience? No. A recognition of our bodies and experiences and senses? Yes. And thus much closer to metaphors that inspire us every day. Like HOME or WARMTH. And maybe even a tree or two. Via Sakis Koukouvis, Wildcat2030 |
Abstract: The writers and directors of The Matrix famously claimed Jean Baudrillard as a source of inspiration for their movie, going as far as to feature a copy of Baudrillard’s signature book, Simulacra and Simulation, as a prominent prop in one of the movie’s first scenes. Baudrillard, however, explicitly disowned The Matrix as a representation of his worldview. When we follow the story of The Matrix from the perspective of the protagonist Neo, as the story compels us to do, we encounter a dualistic, Platonic division between reality and illusion which, as Baudrillard rightly observes, annuls the implosive dynamic that is the heart of the hyperreal condition. On the other hand, when we consider The Matrix from the perspective of its audience, the citizens of the “real 1999” (as opposed to the simulacral 1999 generated by the Matrix), we find late-century American culture refracted back to us as the kind of world that lends itself to “neural-interactive simulation.” By performing a reading of The Matrix that emphasizes its reference to its contemporary historical moment, we can identify a sense in which the film authentically captures a Baudrillardian variety of space-time.
[full text available] Via Mariusz Leś “Academic magician” Professor Todd Landman reveals how successful people make their
Dr. Michio Kaku talks about different types of human civilizations. Join Jeremy Rifkin as he describes how the five-pillars of the Third Industrial Revolution will create thousands of businesses and millions of jobs, and usher in a fundamental reordering of human relationships, from hierarchical to lateral power, that will impact the way we conduct business, govern society, educate our children, and engage in civic life.
The rear of a mask of Charlie Chaplin is hollow but can appear convex, like a normal face. Running time 1min 58sec. The interpreter is the device we humans enjoy that provides us with the capacity to see the meanings behind patterns of our emotions, behavior and thoughts. This concept is central to understanding the relationship between our brain and our strong sense of self. The interpreter constructs the sense that there is a me arising out of the ongoing neuronal chatter in the brain and making all of lifes moment-to-moment decisions. Our compelling sense of being a unified self armed with volition, deployable attention and self-control is the handiwork of the interpreter, for it brings coherence to a brain that is actually a vastly parallel and distributed system Via Alessandro Cerboni 
A study that looked at biomarkers in the blood to correlate vitamins and brain function found clear links between nutrition and brain health. 
People often think that others would accept evolution if they really understood it, but new research suggests that intuition sometimes overrides logic. Listening to @vijayiyer while perusing his PhD diss. on African music & embodied cognition, I think I've found my hero. 
For students to accept the theory of evolution, an intuitive "gut feeling" may be just as important as understanding the facts, according to a new study. A program designed to boost cognition older adults also increased their openness to new experiences, researchers report, demonstrating for first time non-drug intervention older adults can change personality trait once thought to be fixed throughout... |
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