1. 14 September 2006

    846 days ago

    Is God an Accident?

    Whatever 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.

    via Kjell Olsen846 days ago

  2. 22 November 2005

    1142 days ago

    This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis

    If 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.

    via Kjell Olsen1142 days ago

  3. 20 October 2005

    1175 days ago

    Damn cool illusion

    Impressive.

    via Kjell Olsen1175 days ago

  4. 09 September 2005

    1216 days ago

    dirtSimple.org: The Multiple Self

    The 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.

    via Kjell Olsen1216 days ago

  5. 17 July 2005

    Natural Born Cyborgs

    Andy Clark

    1270 days ago

    A very interesting look at human technology interaction and what it may become in the future. I’m looking to call a lot of what Clark describes postmodern technologies, where technology is moving away from large and arcane solutions (like mainframes, or desktops) and into small encapsulated inter-communicating devices. Clark describes changes happening now and how a future human technological bond would look.

  6. 19 April 2005

    1359 days ago

    FrontPage - Mentat Wiki

    Nice looking wiki on how to improve your mind, which is the kind of thing that’s just real fun.

    via Kjell Olsen1359 days ago

  7. 23 February 2005

    Mind Hacks

    Tom Stafford & Matt Webb

    1414 days ago

    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.

  8. Also somewhat recently

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