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POPSFixing My Gaze
"It is hard to imagine the dramatic nature of the sudden epiphany that stereoblind people have if they gain stereopsis, as when Barry saw the steering wheel floating before her. Stereoblind people perceive the world in two dimensions, as a flat display; they judge distance and depth by such cues as size, shading, and the partial obscuring of one object by another. They have to develop these techniques in childhood because they suppress the information coming from one of their eyes, since the data from both eyes fail to match. Nothing in the experience of the stereoblind can prepare them for what stereoscopic vision is like. If they get it, the experience can be overwhelming; it can even cause vertigo, as happened to Barry, and sensations of travel-sickness." "It is a pleasant and optimistic thought indeed, that at any point in life we might, if determined enough, be able to fix things, improve, mend, and grow in positive ways: even to see more clearly, and not just with our eyes."
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POPSA game for life "The challenge is to learn enough about the brain changes induced by different technologies and types of games in order to be able to guide them, enhancing functions that result in a functional and behavioral advantage for each individual. If done properly, the motivating, almost addictive, nature of these technologies, may actually prove a very valuable ally to achieve desired goals in education, medical treatment, and rehabilitation." I do agree to the point that it is up to us, humans, to pour the meaning into the availability that is technology.
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POPSBrain could adapt well to cyborg enhancements Farné says the same kind of brain "plasticity" might be involved in regaining control of a transplanted hand or a prosthetic limb when the original has been lost. The brain might also readily incorporate cyborg additions – a cyborg arm or other body part – into its body schema, says Farné, "and possibly new body parts differing in shape and/or number, for example four arms." Small implants such as pacemakers are inserted in the existing body so do not need to be accepted by the body schema, adds Farné, "but a pair of wings would – that would be tough!"
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POPSA snow white science? “People shouldn’t think of this as the one language gene but as part of a broader cascade of genes,” he said. “It would have been truly spectacular if they had wound up with a talking mouse.”
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POPSEarliest piece of erotic art uncovered “How far this ‘symbolic explosion’ associated with the origins and dispersal of our species reflects a major, mutation-driven reorganisation in the cognitive capacities of the human brain — perhaps associated with a similar leap forward in the complexity of language, remains a fascinating and contentious issue.”
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POPSThe Science of Concentration "direct therapy that could help people with schizophrenia and attention-deficit problems (and might have fewer side effects than drugs)." Of course again the direction of the improved concentration is to the disabled. Why? i , as far as i know, do not fill the criteria for both conditions mentioned above, and still i would want to use such a device; there are some things that demand more than is possible for this body to perform, so why not augment it?
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POPSThe seeing hand A nice experiment into the way the neural system operates. An autonomous internal dynamics, an autonomous environment, and a meeting line.
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POPSBrain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory "Artists and writers have led the exploration of identity, consciousness and memory for centuries. Yet even as scientists sent men to the moon and spacecraft to Saturn and submarines to the ocean floor, the instrument responsible for such feats, the human mind, remained almost entirely dark, a vast and mostly uncharted universe as mysterious as the New World was to explorers of the past." "Yet as scientists begin to climb out of the dark foothills and into the dim light, they are now poised to alter the understanding of human nature in ways artists and writers have not." I think that the image that the human holds of what it is to be a human compels us to pursue the paths of improvement and augmentation. Not doing so is unethical in regards to how one perceives himself and her fellow humans.
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POPSEat less, Remember more Though some of the effects are clearly physiological, i think it also the fact that eating less interferes with the need for immediate full satisfaction. That gap might as well be utilized in better ways (such as in this context improving memory). No wonder that one of the best rock songs is dubbed 'i can't get no satisfaction'... ;-)
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POPSUnlocking the Secrets and Powers of the Brain more from the discussion: "it turns out, actually, that our brains are constructing representations for all the possible actions with all the possible objects in front of us and then tamping them down. You can see this in patients who have lost some inhibitory controls because they’ve had damage to their frontal lobes. You get what’s called utilization behaviors. You get people who, literally anytime you put a comb in front of them, will start combing their hair just because there’s a comb. They’ll use it. If you put a glass in front of them they’ll drink from it. I think that’s probably also true of our emotional responses. There’s much more being generated and then tamped down. So one really important function our brain provides us is the ability to not act on all the possibilities that it’s generating." interesting.
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POPSRemembering an unknown memory Very interesting study to show that Images people see but don't consciously register are affecting people's decision-making. Another look into our 'familiar' sense of what is real? and touching the concept of what people call free choice..
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POPSEnvy, pain and the brain As a rule, we envy those who are like us in most ways — in sex, age, class and curriculum vitae. Potters envy potters, Aristotle observed. i very much agree to the above saying. Envy is a problematic emotion, it may nourish from the tendency to avoid assuming responsibility; meaning instead of gazing to ones limit and working to cross it, some prefer to point to others as if they stand in their way. So envy makes you stay the same whilst craving in the sense of 'i want more' may change you...
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POPSInternal Choices Are Weaker Than Those Dictated By The Outside World "The implication is that, despite our feelings of being in control, our own internal choices are flexible compared to those driven by external stimuli, such as a braking in response to a traffic light. This flexibility might be important - in a dynamic world, we need to be able to change our plans when necessary." very interesting results. i think that it points to how much confidence and ease one gains from not taking responsibility (external/outside choices) rather than having to validate an action by his own life resources (internal choice). as they said acting as/in a crowd does hold survival benefits.
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POPSThe Serious Need for Play “Play has to be reframed and seen not as an opposite to work but rather as a complement,” Curiosity, imagination and creativity are like muscles: if you don’t use them, you lose them.”
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POPSEnhancing learning through brain stimulation this is an exciting finding. pointing towards ways of enhancing and augmenting basic abilities. i think it ought not to remain in the confines of treating illnesses only. unless we will define unaugmented abilities as illness...
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POPSLove Vaccine "mouselike creatures are among the small minority of mammals — less than 5 percent — who share humans’ propensity for monogamy. When a female prairie vole’s brain is artificially infused with oxytocin, a hormone that produces some of the same neural rewards as nicotine and cocaine, she’ll quickly become attached to the nearest male. A related hormone, vasopressin, creates urges for bonding and nesting when it is injected in male voles (or naturally activated by sex). After Dr. Young found that male voles with a genetically limited vasopressin response were less likely to find mates, Swedish researchers reported that men with a similar genetic tendency were less likely to get married" :) so after all it is all in the chemistry...
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POPSIs it in his kiss? oh no, it's in his sweat They also noted that it was not necessarily the area of the brain associated with sexual attraction that was affected by the male pheromones. Only pointing to the myriad of unseen yet registered influencing signals. making our sense of authenticity and realness so "real".. is it?
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POPSIt is not the dope, it's the dopamine :) I think this finding is interesting in the light of the latest and fast growing body of experimental results in neuroscience; finding correlation (some are straight forward, and not very complex) of so called unique attributes to genetics and physiology. this might carry with it a fundamental perceptual change. first we learned that the earth is not the center, than we realized that the human emergence is part of a bigger continuum (evolution that is) and now we come to know that one own psyche is not unique...
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POPSHoney Bees On Cocaine Dance More, yet not out of control "Because cocaine causes honey bees to dance more – an altruistic behavior – the researchers believe their results support the idea that there is a reward system in the insect brain, something that has never before been shown. To determine whether the cocaine was merely causing the bees to move more or to dance at inappropriate times or places, the researchers conducted a second set of experiments. These tests showed that non-foraging honey bees don't dance, even when exposed to cocaine. They showed that foragers on cocaine do not move more than other bees (except when dancing), and that they do not dance at inappropriate times or in locations other than the dance floor." "And, most important, their dances are not distorted. "It's not like they're gyrating wildly on the dance floor out of control," Robinson said. "This is a patterned response."
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POPSBionic sex chip I think it may be more influential than meets the eye; both in the way sex is perceived and operated in society, and in boosting the augmentation revolution that is coming.
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