Friday 29 June 2012

SN ATTNBRGH FRGN CRRSPNDNT 1940

//////////////////The thrill spectacle of the year

/////////////that neurochemical processes produce subjective experiences.



///////////// Where (and how) did consciousness exist before there was matter? We are left wondering



////////////strongest argument for brain causing mind, rather than vice versa - some types of brain damage can cause radical changes in the victim's personality



/////////////If mind creates brain, the physical damage should have no impact on personality, but is clearly does. Take the famous case of Phineas Gage



////////////////// for the sake of argument, if there was some metaphysical collective source of consciousness then its individual physical expression might be the product of the brain's biological processes



////////////////////neuroimaging studies of race processing. This network overlaps with the circuits involved in decision-making and emotion regulation, and includes the amygdala, fusiform face area (FFA), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).



///////////////////Sam Harris also quotes brain MRI imaging studies to show that we are implicitly racists no matter what we might claim about 'not having a racist bone in our body



////////////////Race is a social construct but as such is also a societal reality.


/////////////////the exceptional interpersonal understanding we humans show is by and large a product of our emotional responsiveness.



////////////////// if the monkey’s brain was directly mirroring the actions it observed. This “neural resonance,” which was later also demonstrated in humans, suggested the existence of a special type of "mirror" neurons that help us understand other people’s actions.



////////////////vegan progressive, so maybe there's a correlation there about empathy



///////////////////SCIAM TIDBITS


//////////////////EVO OF SORRY-as long as the apology matches the social error, the relationship can be saved—



/////////////////I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." HAWKING


/////////////////////Quantum mechanical fluctuations can produce the cosmos. If you would just, in this room, just twist time and space the right way, you might create an entirely new universe. It's not clear you could get into that universe, but you would create it.


/////////////////The laws of physics, pure and simple, sparked universal creation.


///////////////////// According to UN estimates, cities are growing by over 60 million people per year -- or over one million people per week.



//////////////////PINA BAUSCH, GRMN DANCE



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