How to Live Forever By Turning Your Brain Into Plastic Brad, I am not unnecessarily defining anything. I am certain that if you have a clone made of you, whether physically or in some sort of computer rendering, that clone will live on. But, you will die when our time comes, and go into the "big black" wherever that leads to. Meanwhile (or even while you live), the clone will be "born" and awake into it's own existence, but you must have a continuity of your consciousness for it to BE you. Your mind doesn't just teleport when a copy or rendering of you is made, any more than a copy of a computer file, or a photocopy is where the original moves to! Now, if you want to have your "essence" live on, and in a sense, elements of yourself, then clone away! What illustrates this clearly is to imagine a physical clone being made with your full memory implanted in it, while you are alive. So, how the hell are you still "alive" and experiencing "life" just because that clone of you is walking around? Do you get it now?
10 Practical Uses For Psychological Research in Everyday Life People love to give each other advice. The web is full to bursting with all types of pseudo-psychological advice about life. The problem is, how much of this is based on real scientific evidence? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. One Step Closer to Building a Simulated Human Brain "So, I'm not sure that mapping a brain to software is going to yield a brain - the simulation will be statically wired and a real brain is not." This isn't really a good objection because obviously the software neurons will grow, prune or change over time as well. You're assuming a snapshot when it could easily be a movie. Just apply more computer power. "A bigger question for me is if the brain is wired pretty much by chance, how are basic human behaviors wired in the same for everyone (generally the same, i.e. jealousy, anger, happiness, etc.)." Because here Markram gets it wrong or oversimplifies. The brain is not wired entirely by chance, certainly not globally over the entire brain. To correct Markram, I think he really means that the connections happen by chance only on the cellular level, in small groups of neurons—and by "small" I mean groups of a 100 or 1000 neurons. "And lastly, if the thing ever becomes conscious, I feel sorry for it - it will be completely sensory deprived."
5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think The Internet has introduced a golden age of ill-informed arguments. You can't post a video of an adorable kitten without a raging debate about pet issues spawning in the comment section. These days, everyone is a pundit. But with all those different perspectives on important issues flying around, you'd think we'd be getting smarter and more informed. Unfortunately, the very wiring of our brains ensures that all these lively debates only make us dumber and more narrow-minded. #5. Think about the last time you ran into a coworker or family member spouting some easily disproven conspiracy theory -- somebody who still thinks Obama's birth certificate is a fake or that Dick Cheney arranged 9/11 to cover up his theft of $2.3 trillion from the government. That has literally never happened in the history of human conversation. Getty"OK, so Dick Cheney doesn't have a third arm. The Science: Getty"Check it out, you guys, Carl has something called 'Loose Change' loaded up on his iPhone." #4. #3.
The Drug That Never Lets Go Photo By @FatTonyBMX Dickie Sanders was not naturally prone to depression. The 21-year-old BMX rider was known for being sweet spirited and warm -- a hugger not a hand-shaker. The kind of guy who called on holidays. Who helped his father on the family farm. Who spent countless hours perfecting complicated tricks on his bike. Yet on Nov. 12, 2010, Sanders was found dead on the floor of his childhood bedroom. PBS NewsHour Science Support Provided By The National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the S.D. The suicide was the culmination of five days of strange behavior that began shortly after Sanders snorted a powdery substance he bought from a friend. “I don't like the way this is making me feel," Sanders told his stepmother, Julie, as the two awaited his release from the hospital. An autopsy revealed a powerful stimulant in his system: methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV. What Do Bath Salts Packages Look Like?
The Ten Most Revealing Psych Experiments Psychology is the study of the human mind and mental processes in relation to human behaviors - human nature. Due to its subject matter, psychology is not considered a 'hard' science, even though psychologists do experiment and publish their findings in respected journals. Some of the experiments psychologists have conducted over the years reveal things about the way we humans think and behave that we might not want to embrace, but which can at least help keep us humble. That's something. 1. The Robbers Cave Experiment is a classic social psychology experiment conducted with two groups of 11-year old boys at a state park in Oklahoma, and demonstrates just how easily an exclusive group identity is adopted and how quickly the group can degenerate into prejudice and antagonism toward outsiders. Researcher Muzafer Sherif actually conducted a series of 3 experiments. 2. The prisoners rebelled on the second day, and the reaction of the guards was swift and brutal. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Scientists Discover How Brains Keep Clean | Wired Science Two-photon imaging shows how the brain flushes out wastes via a system of water channels (purple) in cells (green) wrapped tightly around blood vessels. Image: J. Iliff and M. Nedergaard We all need to clear our heads, sometimes literally — and now scientists have learned how our neurological plumbing system works. Every organ produces waste, and the brain is no exception. “If you look at a body-wide map of the lymphatic system, you see a great big void in the brain,” said neuroscientist Jeffrey Iliff of the University of Rochester Medical Center. Scientists long suspected that the brain’s refuse ended up in the cerebrospinal fluid, which cushions the brain inside the skull. Thanks to new imaging techniques that made it possible to peer inside the brain of a living mouse, Iliff’s team saw the process in action. Fluid circulation in brain tissue as imaged with traditional methods. Healthy brains produce amyloid normally, but this system clears it out frequently, the researchers suspect.
Your Evolved Intuitions Part of the sequence: Rationality and Philosophy We have already examined one source of our intuitions: attribute substitution heuristics. Today we examine a second source of our intuitions: biological evolution. Evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology1 has been covered on Less Wrong many times before, but let's review anyway. Lions walk on four legs and hunt for food. Certain evolved psychological mechanisms in humans are part of what makes us like each other and not like lions, skunks, and spiders. These mechanisms evolved to solve specific adaptive problems. An an example of evolutionary psychology at work, consider the 'hunter-gatherer hypothesis' that men evolved psychological mechanisms to aid in hunting, while women evolved psychological mechanisms to aid in gathering.6 This hypothesis leads to a list of bold predictions. And as it turns out, all these predictions are correct.7 (And no, evolutionary psychologists do not only offer 'postdictions' or 'just so' stories. Notes
Science says underpaid people enjoy their jobs more! Kinda have to agree—making a "journalistic" headline sexy seems to be par for the course on Gizmodo related websites these days. Yeah, this isn't what the study says. Though it would be interesting to do an actual study on job satisfaction versus underpayment/overpayment. There are definitely underpaid people who are willing to be underpaid *because* they have fantastic jobs, though I would guess most knowingly underpaid people hate their jobs but cannot find anything better. Yes, thank you. As an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist—and a former journalist—this article's title is bullshit and completely misleading. For the Festinger study in particular, the two thoughts at odds were: 1) that was really boring, and I hated it, VS 2) I got paid only a dollar to say it wasn't. The theory alone cannot be directly translated to job satisfaction. Please be better than this, Gizmodo.
Top 10 Thinking Traps Exposed — How to Foolproof Your Mind, Part II In the first part of this article, we focused on 5 traps that hinder our ability to think rationally. As a quick recap, we discussed: The Anchoring Trap: Over-Relying on First ThoughtsThe Status Quo Trap: Keeping on Keeping OnThe Sunk Cost Trap: Protecting Earlier ChoicesThe Confirmation Trap: Seeing What You Want to SeeThe Incomplete Information Trap: Review Your Assumptions Now it’s time to complete the list and expose the remaining 5 dangerous traps to be avoided. Let’s dive right in. 6. In a series of experiments, researchers asked students in a classroom a series of very simple questions and, sure enough, most of them got the answers right. This “herd instinct” exists — to different degrees — in all of us. This tendency to conform is notoriously exploited in advertising. Conformity is also one of the main reasons why once a book makes into a well-known best-sellers list, it tends to “lock in” and continue there for a long time. What can you do about it? 7. 8. John Riley is a legend.
The crayola-fication of the world: How we gave colors names, and it messed with our brains (part II) | Empirical Zeal Untitled (Cubes) by Scott Taylor Update: This post was an Editor’s pick by Cristy Gelling at Science Seeker, and was included in Bora Zivkovic‘s top 10 science blog posts of the week. Lately, I’ve got colors on the brain. In part I of this post I talked about the common roads that different cultures travel down as they name the colors in their world. And I came across the idea that color names are, in some sense, culturally universal. The way that languages carve up the visual spectrum isn’t arbitrary. So what? Rose coloured glasses by jan_clickr This question goes back to an idea by the American linguist Benjamin Whorf, who suggested that our language determines how we perceive the world. This idea is known as linguistic relativity, and is commonly described by the blatantly false adage that Eskimos have a truckload of words to describe snow. Hyperbole aside, color actually provides a neat way to test Whorf’s hypothesis. Do you see what I see? That was 1984. That’s easy enough. Footnote:
10 More Common Faults in Human Thought | Listverse Humans This list is a follow up to Top 10 Common Faults in Human Thought. Thanks for everyone’s comments and feedback; you have inspired this second list! It is amazing that with all these biases, people are able to actually have a rational thought every now and then. The confirmation bias is the tendency to look for or interpret information in a way that confirms beliefs. The Availability heuristic is gauging what is more likely based on vivid memories. Illusion of Control is the tendency for individuals to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes that they clearly have no influence on. Interesting Fact: when playing craps in a casino, people will throw the dice hard when they need a high number and soft when they need a low number. The Planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time needed to complete tasks. Interesting Fact: “Realistic pessimism” is a phenomenon where depressed or overly pessimistic people more accurately predict task completion estimations.
The Two-Headed Boy of Bengal | Articles In early February 2004, the press reported the birth of a ‘Two-Headed Baby’ in the Dominican Republic. Eight weeks earlier, on 10 December 2003, Rebeca Martinez (below, with her family) had been born with a second head joined to her own, crown to crown, but without any other obvious developmental defect. The second head had partially developed eyes, ears and lips and grew quicker than the lower one, probably due to hydrocephalus caused by defective venous drainage. Leading American surgeons with considerable experience of separating conjoined twins were consulted, a charity paying for all expenses, and they planned to operate before the weight of the second head made it impossible for Rebeca to lift her own. The sad story of the ‘Two-Headed Baby’ was a five-day wonder all over the world. In 1790, the Two-Headed Boy of Bengal was described by the surgeon Everard Home. Everard Home much regretted that medical scientists never got the opportunity to examine the boy.
Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism The authors test the hypothesis that low-effort thought promotes political conservatism. In Study 1, alcohol intoxication was measured among bar patrons; as blood alcohol level increased, so did political conservatism (controlling for sex, education, and political identification). In Study 2, participants under cognitive load reported more conservative attitudes than their no-load counterparts. In Study 3, time pressure increased participants’ endorsement of conservative terms. © 2012 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.