#david eagleman

[lumonrecycles]

Interesting parallels

[lucidseduction]

Theres a story on this in Sum forty tales from the afterlives, by David Eagleman.

An excellent read.

Metamorphosis:

Audio Playlist:

They say you die three times, first when the body dies, second, when your body enters the grave, and third, when your name is spoken for the last time. You were a normal person in life, but hundreds of years later, you still haven’t had your “third” death. You decide to find out why.

[eurociudadano-blog]

Sección de libros: El cerebro social (Secretos del cerebro de National Geographic)

De nuevo vuelvo a hacer una reseña sobre una revista de National Geographic, como la que hice sobre el artículo Cuestión de piel publicado en abril de 2018. Y en esta ocasión, con un número dedicado a un tema que igual nos ayuda a resolver la pregunta con la que finalizo el artículo anterior, Amaral y la desnudez, y que enlaza con el libro que sin lugar a dudas me impacto para siempre: La espiral…

[marshmali]

“Genocide is only possible when dehumanization happens on a massive scale, and the perfect tool for this job is propaganda: it keys right into the neural networks that understand other people, and dials down the degree to which we empathize with them.

We’ve seen that our brains can be manipulated by political agendas to dehumanize other people, which can then lead to the darkest side of human acts.”

The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman.

[genericamentegiuseppe]

Cos'è il talento - Un'indagine preliminare

Esiste il talento? E se sì in cosa consiste? E se no perché è così rilevante nel dibattito culturale?

Siamo capaci fin da piccoli di riconoscere il talento. Può essere la nostra compagna di banco, capace di disegnare figure per noi impossibili, o la maestra che spiega le cose come fossero semplici, quando a noi paiono così complicate. Impariamo a notarlo nella Televisione, dove i Talent Show mettono in mostra come il talento sia qualcosa da premiare nella nostra società, da conservare e…

[vqtblog]

Javier Sampedro: David Eagleman, el investigador de los secretos de nuestro cerebro

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Any interesting books you've read lately BPP? My goal in 2024 while the tannies are enlisted is to read more. Any suggestions are welcome.

***

I just finished Sum by David Eagleman.

Highly recommend.

[etre-dana]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Eric Hananoki at MMFA:

Content warning: This article repeatedly quotes right-wing figures using an ableist slur.  Former President Donald Trump recently and falsely claimed that opponent Vice President Kamala Harris was born “mentally impaired” and is “mentally disabled.” The remarks followed numerous Trump media allies, including Fox’s Greg Gutfeld and podcaster Laura Loomer, attacking Harris with an ableist slur.  Trump has repeatedly claimed during campaign rallies that Harris has a mental disability, including saying of her and the Biden administration’s immigration policy: “If you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.” The American Association of People with Disabilities criticized Trump’s remarks. Pro-Trump media figures cheered them. 

Donald Trump’s ableist “mentally impaired” attack on Kamala Harris came from right-wing media outlets.

[horridwizardthing]

forget me not

[fat-fem-and-asian]

Severance 2x07 + SUM by David Eagleman (PDF)

[elbiotipo]

In 99% of hypotheticals, human genetic engineering is just eugenics, but I really hope that there is a version of it in the future that isn't genocidal and that allows people to have things like tails and 4-cone vision and other senses from other animals that we don't have (infrared sensing from snakes, magnetic field sensing from some pigeon species, echolocation from bats or some cetaceans, electrosense from sharks, etc)

Most (popular) takes on biotechnology are dystopic or with the undertone (or overtone) that biotechnology is inmoral or gross or contra-nature. I do oppose eugenics because it's... eugenics, not because it's "anti-natural" or the technology itself. Eugenics on itself constitutes a violation of human rights. That's a topic for another discussion.

But regarding voluntary human modification, most current ideas of genetic modification involve editing embryos which is something questionable in a lot of ways. Instead I believe that, much like cloning and manufacturing organs might be reality in a future, you could also design new organs and implant them in adult humans.

This is the path that I take in my own biopunk setting. Melanie, for example, wasn't born as a catgirl, she decided to have those implants herself. In the setting, this is considered as commonplace as getting tattoos or piercings.

What is really interesting in this sense is how humans would adapt to implanted biological parts. Given experiments with bionic prothesis, it is found that many people quickly adapt to it and consider them part of their bodies. Same with organ transplants. But what about what you asked about, completely new senses? Could the human brain adapt to an electric or electromagnetic sense? Some people have already experimented with this:

I would love to do more research into specifics for this ask, as human genetic and body modification can cover anything from gene therapy to these expressions.

But of course they are all shaped by the material reality of society. It is true that only rich or well-off people would be able to afford the technology consciously modify their bodies. Most science fiction that approaches this assumes this will remain the case and will turn out into class dystopia. What much science fiction does not approach is the fact that class struggle exists, and society can be changed. What happens when these technologies are available in a socialist or classless society?

Maybe we won't have to wait too long to find out, either.

[carpethedamndiemdejavu]

"A typical neuron makes about ten thousand connections to neighboring neurons. Given the billions of neurons, this means there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissue as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy." - David Eagleman

[answeringeverything]

Can you reccomend some books about neuroscience for beginners?

Yes!

Check out The Tale of The Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean if you want more historical background and narrative.

Check out Livewired by David Eagleman if you just want more of a beginner’s introduction to neuro principles and fun facts.

[olivebeeandstuff]

On the humans are weird subject:

I recently read this book called Livewired, by David Eagleman - pleeeease if you like anything neuroscience related, read his books, they're great- where he suggested that we dream because of neuroplasticity and the rotation of the earth.

Basically neuroplasticity means that the brain will adapt to the data it receives. You lose a hand, the brain will turn the area that was uses to process that hand's info into an area to process the rest of the arm. You lose your vision, the vision processing areas will be taken over by tact and hearing.

But this kind of adaptation can happen really quick, he mentions one study where they blindfolded people and it took only one hour to notice changes in brain activity.

So back to the rotation of the Earth, because of it we have long periods of darkness, which means not using our eyes and focusing on other senses for long periods of time daily - at least before we learned how to control fire, which was fairly recent in evolution terms.

Because of this he proposes that dreams are to practice our vision, to make sure that during those periods of darkness, the brain is still processing visual information, the theory is corroborated by the fact that there are very few areas of the brain involved in dreaming, it's mostly the visual cortex. That would also explain why we usually don't remember dreams, there's no need to.

Now imagine a world with a different rotation speed, one that's very fast, or one that doesn't have rotation at all. Imagine if these places had intelligent life. They would very likely not dream. Or maybe somewhere in the universe, intelligent life evolved with completely different brains, and they don't need to dream.

The aliens would be very confused with it. Like how do we even explain it?

Alien: So what you are saying is that you are experiencing daily vivid hallucinations where you can't tell what's true or not. Should I be worried? Should I call the doctor?

Human: No, it's not like that! It's normal, every human dreams every night, or at least they should. I think not having dreams is actually a sign that something is wrong...

Alien: Every one of you does that?! How is that not dangerous?

Human: Well you see, our bodies are usually kinda deactivated when it happens, so it all in our head. And we mostly don't even remember it anyways

Alien: Usually?

Human: Yeah, sometimes people talk in their sleep and things like that. Then there's people like Steve, he's what we call a sleep walker, his body is completely functional when he dreams, so he just walks around unconscious thinking that he's in his dream

Alien: STEVEN WALKS AROUND COMPLETELY UNCONSCIOUS WHILE HAVING VIVID HALLUCINATIONS AND YOU DON'T THINK THAT'S A PROBLEM?!

[tamurakafkaposts]

As Carl Jung put it, “In each of us there is another whom we do not know.” As Pink Floyd sang, “There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.

David Eagleman,