Comments on: Brain Bugs and Brain Features

By: Sally Morem

Sally Morem — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:36:24 +0000

“Consider this: earlier this week, my newborn daughter was subjected to her first-ever hearing test. The pediatrician hooked her up to an electroencephalograph, put headphones on her, and started piping in sounds. In a matter of minutes, the brainwave scan confirmed that she is hearing everything she should be hearing in each ear. Great news for new parents when there is no problem, and extremely useful in the unfortunate cases where there is a problem. Rather than waiting months or years for a child’s behavior to reveal that something is amiss, these parents know what they are up against from the very beginning.”

Excellent. When I was a kid, most kids got their first hearing and vision tests in the 1st grade.

Which reminds me of a story about Ronald Reagan. When he was a kid, no one was tested for good hearing and vision, unless there was something obviously wrong. It wasn’t till he was a teenager that he realized he had very poor vision. He just assumed fuzzy vision was normal. When he was goofing around with a friend’s pair of glasses and tried them on, he was astonished that he could see leaves on the tree and blades of grass.

That was back in the 1920s. Look how far we have come in the past century. And it’ll keep getting better.

By: MDarling

MDarling — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:22:16 +0000

It was published earlier- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325162626.htm

ANd it seems credible to me too. And not that surprising.

I agree with Phil that the cool part is that the outside observers can measure anything in a way that allows them to advise their patient- yes, it’s really what your mind is experiencing, but it’s still not “real”

Though I question the wisdom of forcing an infant to listen to recordings of Fast Forward Radio.

By: Phil Bowermaster

Phil Bowermaster — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:22:32 +0000

Guy –
Granted, that is a classic April 1 headline. But the story is all wrong for a hoax. The phantom limb should be lifting actual objects or helping the woman cheat at cards or something.

By: Guy David

Guy David — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:37:58 +0000

Unfortunately, the story was published on the 1st of April, which sort of discredits it.

I do believe that moving into virtual worlds would start with programmable matter and not with uploading. Most people just won’t be that enthusiastic about giving up their physical presence when an alternative already exists.