Friday, December 5, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Science & the Soul
Flesh Made Soul
Can a new theory in neuroscience explain spiritual experience to a non-believer?
By Sandra Blakeslee
Just pasting it here so can read it later...
http://www.science-spirit.org/newdirections.php?article_id=740
Can a new theory in neuroscience explain spiritual experience to a non-believer?
By Sandra Blakeslee
Just pasting it here so can read it later...
http://www.science-spirit.org/newdirections.php?article_id=740
Biblio biblio boo!
"In 1936, George Orwell published a little essay entitled Bookshop Memories. In it, he recalled his time as an assistant in a second-hand bookshop, a time that was happy only when viewed through the soft-focus lens of nostalgia. Irony might be defined as disgust recalled in tranquillity, and Orwell’s essay is nothing if not full of irony. He was glad to have had the experience, no doubt, but more glad that it was over."
From: Of Bibliophilia and Biblioclasm by Theodore Dalyrmple
http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/28194/sec_id/28194
Confabulation
Confabulation: when people fabricate reasons to explain their own behaviour.
In split brain patients studied by Gazzaniga- patients seem to have an 'explanation' for a certain action eventhough the language centre of the brain ('the interpreter module') has no access to the real cause or motives of the person's behaviour.
The 'interpreter module' is situated in the left brain. When the right brain is flashed with the word 'walk', the patient might stand up and walk away. When asked why he is getting up, he might say, "I'm going to get a Coke." The interpreter module is good at making up explanations, but not at knowing it had done so.
All these on confabulation, above, I got from Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis, page 8-9. (Randomhouse, UK) He goes on at page 21:
“Moral judgement is like aesthetic judgment, when you see a painting, you usually know instantly and automatically whether you like it. If someone asks you to explain your judgement, you confabulate. You don’t really know why you think something is beautiful, but your interpreter module is skilled at making up reasons, as Gazzaniga found in his split-brain studies. You search for a plausible reason for liking the painting, and you latch on to the first reason that makes sense (maybe something vague about colour, or light, or the reflection of the painter in the clown’s shiny nose).”
“Moral arguments are much the same: Two people feel strongly about an issue, their feelings come first, and their reasons are invented on the fly, to throw at each other. When you refute a person’s argument, does she generally change her mind and agree with you? Of course not, because the argument you defended was not the cause of her position; it was made up after the judgement was already made.”
In split brain patients studied by Gazzaniga- patients seem to have an 'explanation' for a certain action eventhough the language centre of the brain ('the interpreter module') has no access to the real cause or motives of the person's behaviour.
The 'interpreter module' is situated in the left brain. When the right brain is flashed with the word 'walk', the patient might stand up and walk away. When asked why he is getting up, he might say, "I'm going to get a Coke." The interpreter module is good at making up explanations, but not at knowing it had done so.
All these on confabulation, above, I got from Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis, page 8-9. (Randomhouse, UK) He goes on at page 21:
“Moral judgement is like aesthetic judgment, when you see a painting, you usually know instantly and automatically whether you like it. If someone asks you to explain your judgement, you confabulate. You don’t really know why you think something is beautiful, but your interpreter module is skilled at making up reasons, as Gazzaniga found in his split-brain studies. You search for a plausible reason for liking the painting, and you latch on to the first reason that makes sense (maybe something vague about colour, or light, or the reflection of the painter in the clown’s shiny nose).”
“Moral arguments are much the same: Two people feel strongly about an issue, their feelings come first, and their reasons are invented on the fly, to throw at each other. When you refute a person’s argument, does she generally change her mind and agree with you? Of course not, because the argument you defended was not the cause of her position; it was made up after the judgement was already made.”
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Magicians and Pickpocket
Always been fascinated by trickery...
Magic and the Brain: How Magicians "Trick" the Mind
Magicians have been testing and exploiting the limits of cognition and attention for hundreds of years. Neuroscientists are just beginning to catch up
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=magic-and-the-brain&print=true
Saturday, November 29, 2008
the freak speaks
Got lovely new banner for the blog thanks to my sis, Soefara! Yeay! Looks good!
Now that it has ‘freakspeak’ splayed on it, have begun to think of other kinds of ‘speak’, like ‘victimspeak’. Way too easy to couch our experiences in that way, right? Been guilty of it sooo many times. Those pleading pleas- I am a victim of circumstance, I can't help myself, the whole world is against me, born under a bad sign. boo hoo. boo hoo. ‘Dear Thelma’ I am a confused teenager- should I sleep with my boyfriend or, confess I have feelings for my best girlfriend? This is all my stepmother’s fault, she abused me when I was a toddler...boo hoo. boo hoo.
Talkshows love to get ‘victimspeakers’, tears in their eyes, choking voices, blubbery mouths talking about suffering diseases, dead loved ones, mortgage fiascos. Oh, I don’t know, maybe am desensitized when all these have been broadcasted countless times. Or maybe am beginning to feel nauseous thinking of the self-centredness of it all- Poor me, poor me…
Now that it has ‘freakspeak’ splayed on it, have begun to think of other kinds of ‘speak’, like ‘victimspeak’. Way too easy to couch our experiences in that way, right? Been guilty of it sooo many times. Those pleading pleas- I am a victim of circumstance, I can't help myself, the whole world is against me, born under a bad sign. boo hoo. boo hoo. ‘Dear Thelma’ I am a confused teenager- should I sleep with my boyfriend or, confess I have feelings for my best girlfriend? This is all my stepmother’s fault, she abused me when I was a toddler...boo hoo. boo hoo.
Talkshows love to get ‘victimspeakers’, tears in their eyes, choking voices, blubbery mouths talking about suffering diseases, dead loved ones, mortgage fiascos. Oh, I don’t know, maybe am desensitized when all these have been broadcasted countless times. Or maybe am beginning to feel nauseous thinking of the self-centredness of it all- Poor me, poor me…
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Abundance Part 2
Abundance- for that word I’ve previously used the example of food- now it seems not as abundant as before. Yet there is still abundance- of a sort not previously enjoyed by the generation before. Abundance of time? The lack of hardship, the ability to spend time on videogames and navel gazing.
Yet, this abundance is skewered- not everyone can indulge in it. For instance the example earlier- food: the number of obese teenage girls in the UK has tripled within the past 10 yrs. At the same time, on the same planet, people are eating baked mud. The slight recalibration of the cost of food has caused this, showing how large the number of people on the dangerous fringe of starvation.
Inequality must be put in the equation. Extreme wealth & extreme poverty happening simultaneously. Let’s not be blinkered. There’s a cost somewhere- someone else is paying for it.
Yet, this abundance is skewered- not everyone can indulge in it. For instance the example earlier- food: the number of obese teenage girls in the UK has tripled within the past 10 yrs. At the same time, on the same planet, people are eating baked mud. The slight recalibration of the cost of food has caused this, showing how large the number of people on the dangerous fringe of starvation.
Inequality must be put in the equation. Extreme wealth & extreme poverty happening simultaneously. Let’s not be blinkered. There’s a cost somewhere- someone else is paying for it.
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