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14 September 2006
Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:35:46 GMT Is God an Accident?via Kjell Olsen754 days agoWhatever he is, he’s sure wedged deep into the human psyche/soul/being/etc.
Understanding of the physical world and understanding of the social world can be seen as akin to two distinct computers in a baby’s brain, running separate programs and performing separate tasks. The understandings develop at different rates: the social one emerges somewhat later than the physical one. They evolved at different points in our prehistory; our physical understanding is shared by many species, whereas our social understanding is a relatively recent adaptation, and in some regards might be uniquely human.
We have what the anthropologist Pascal Boyer has called a hypertrophy of social cognition. We see purpose, intention, design, even when it is not there.
the universal themes of religion are not learned. They emerge as accidental by-products of our mental systems. They are part of human nature.
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15 March 2006
Wed, 15 Mar 2006 16:27:06 GMT Hippopocampe: Something to dovia Kjell Olsen937 days agoMind hacks rock.
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22 November 2005
Tue, 22 Nov 2005 23:38:00 GMT This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosisvia Kjell Olsen1050 days agoIf the top is convinced, the bottom level of data will be overruled.
The top being your higher sensory ability, the bottom being the raw input data coming in from your nerves.
When I was a kid I bought a book from the How to do Hypnosis genre, and really liked it. I taught myself self-hypnosis, which is really just meditation, I never tried to hypnotize anyone else. For awhile I did a bit of hypnosis/meditation each night before bed, in fact it got to be the only way for me to get to sleep.
I still do it every once in a while, but not as often as I’d like. I use breathing calming techniques to get to the point that I can use visualization to further relax myself, and once I start to feel relaxed enough I climb down some stairs into my room, which surprisingly hasn’t changed a bit in the five or so years I’ve played with it.
Sometimes I go off into spectacular dreams, sometimes I just sit and think, and being that I most often did it before going to bed lots of times I’d fall asleep before I got into any real sort of hypnosis. But no doubt something goes on up there.
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29 September 2005
Thu, 29 Sep 2005 08:46:00 GMT Computer users move themselves with the mind - Electrode cap allows users to think themselves along a virtual street.via Kjell Olsen1104 days agoCalled a brain-computer interface, the device detects activity in certain brain areas linked to movement, and uses the signals to mimic that movement in a virtual world.
Could make for a kickass video game.
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09 September 2005
Fri, 09 Sep 2005 13:48:00 GMT dirtSimple.org: The Multiple Selfvia Kjell Olsen1124 days agoThe thing you need to understand is that it’s not a question of “using only 10% of your brain”. The point is, you are only 10% of your brain. The rest of your brain is bigger, smarter, and better-educated than you, because it can learn things you don’t even know you’re learning, faster and better than you.
This is what I mean about not getting in your own way. Your operating system has enormous parallel processing power, whereas “you” are a serial processing filter.
most of us don’t really know how to use our own brains in a systematic way. We give them commands like we were a cat walking across a keyboard: every now and then we end up with something syntactically valid, but semantically… questionable.
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23 February 2005
Wed, 23 Feb 2005 23:02:36 GMTMind Hacks
Tom Stafford & Matt Webb
Mind Hacks is an interesting look at how we use our brains everyday in different situations. It’s a very active book, showing principles of brain psychology concretely in ways that anyone can try out by themselves or with neat tricks posted somewhere on the internet.
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11 February 2005
Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:38:29 GMT Right Brain Workoutsvia Kjell Olsen1334 days agoCool:
110 aerobic exercises for the creative side of your brain.
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Also somewhat recently
