This Is Your Brain. This Is Your Brain as a Weapon. On an otherwise routine July day, inside a laboratory at Duke University, two rhesus monkeys sat in separate rooms, each watching a computer screen that featured an image of a virtual arm in two-dimensional space.
The monkeys' task was to guide the arm from the center of the screen to a target, and when they did so successfully, the researchers rewarded them with sips of juice. But there was a twist. The monkeys were not provided with joysticks or any other devices that could manipulate the arm. Rather, they were relying on electrodes implanted in portions of their brains that influence movement. The electrodes were able to capture and transmit neural activity through a wired connection to the computers. Making things even more interesting, the primates shared control over the digital limb. Neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, who led the research, published earlier this year, has a name for this remarkable collaboration: a "brainet.
" Consider Nicolelis’s brainet idea. 13 of the most difficult documentaries to watch. 10 Mind-Boggling Paradoxes. A paradox is a statement or problem that either appears to produce two entirely contradictory (yet possible) outcomes, or provides proof for something that goes against what we intuitively expect.
Paradoxes have been a central part of philosophical thinking for centuries, and are always ready to challenge our interpretation of otherwise simple situations, turning what we might think to be true on its head and presenting us with provably plausible situations that are in fact just as provably impossible. Confused? You should be. The Paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise is one of a number of theoretical discussions of movement put forward by the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea in the 5th century BC. It begins with the great hero Achilles challenging a tortoise to a footrace.
Logically, this seems to prove that Achilles can never overtake the tortoise—whenever he reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he will always have some distance still left to go no matter how small it might be. Is Earth a Prison Planet and the Moon – Its Guardian? Isaac Asimov suggested a long time ago that the Moon is not a natural astral body.
All independent studies ever since backed Asimov’s calculations and it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the gravitational features of the Moon are not just abnormal. They are the exact numbers required so that the Moon does not escape from the Earth’s gravity and be pulled towards the Sun, as it should be, according to the law of universal gravitation. Taking under consideration the hundreds of unnatural phenomena that happen on the surface of the moon that NASA never bothered to reveal to the general public but have nevertheless been observed for centuries by independent observers, it may be assumed that the Moon is a constructed spacecraft and not a normal astral body.
To mention but a few of these observations: 10 Websites for the Wannabe Psychologist. 1. yourlogicalfallacyis.com – Learn about common flaws in reasoning. 2. mindhacks.com – Neuroscience and psychology tricks to find out what’s going on inside your brain. 3. youarenotsosmart.com – A blog exploring self delusion. 4. alleydog.com – A psychology student’s best friend.
Search defintions, jobs, degrees, and more. 5. thelastpsychiatrist.com – Psychiatry, philosophy, money, war, sex, narcissism. You Are Not So Smart. Is Work Necessary? I saw this bouncing around Facebook, and I would like to endorse the underlying philosophy: For those of you still using text-based browsers (hey, remember Lynx?)
, here we have Buckminster Fuller making a point about work and responsibility in a high-tech society. Namely: maybe people don’t have to work. Maybe, if machines become really good at producing the basic necessities of life, rather than bemoaning a loss of jobs we should celebrate our liberation from the toil of labor. As a practical matter, I recognize that this might be hopelessly utopian. But nevertheless the spirit is admirable, and that’s what I want to endorse. The 21 creepiest Wikipedia pages out there - Album on Imgur. 10 Mind-Blowing Theories That Will Change Your Perception of the World.
Reality is not as obvious and simple as we like to think.
Some of the things that we accept as true at face value are notoriously wrong. Scientists and philosophers have made every effort to change our common perceptions of it. Scott Santens - If we no longer force people to work to meet their basic needs, won't they stop working? How Skynet Might Emerge From Simple Physics. Why Smart People Are Stupid. Editors’ Note: The introductory paragraphs of this post appeared in similar form in an October, 2011, column by Jonah Lehrer for the Wall Street Journal.
We regret the duplication of material. Here’s a simple arithmetic question: A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? The vast majority of people respond quickly and confidently, insisting the ball costs ten cents. For more than five decades, Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Laureate and professor of psychology at Princeton, has been asking questions like this and analyzing our answers.
When people face an uncertain situation, they don’t carefully evaluate the information or look up relevant statistics. You're living in a computer simulation, and math proves it.