Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor has identified what she calls “the deep inner peace circuitry” of the human brain. She believes that we can tap into that circuitry to transform not only our own conscious state, but the state of the world around us. I would certainly have to agree with Taylor that our brains can […]
“Way” back in ’05, we wrote with enthusiasm about the then up-and-coming Blue Brain project: The neocortex is that special core brain part that only mammals have. That’s how you can tell a mammal brain from a reptile brain. Look for the neocortex. From this site, I learned that the neocortical column (NCC) is a […]
“Way” back in ’05, we wrote with enthusiasm about the then up-and-coming Blue Brain project: The neocortex is that special core brain part that only mammals have. That’s how you can tell a mammal brain from a reptile brain. Look for the neocortex. From this site, I learned that the neocortical column (NCC) is a […]
I may have more to say later, but let me start by just throwing out this quote from Psychologist Daniel Gilbert: The brain is a beautifully engineered get-out-of-the-way machine that constantly scans the environment for things out of whose way it should right now get. That’s what brains did for several hundred million years — […]
This is interesting: Deactivating a specific gene transforms meek mice into daredevils, researchers have found. The team believe the research might one day enable people suffering from fear – in the form of phobias or anxiety disorders, for example – to be clinically treated. The research found that mice lacking an active gene for the […]
Arnold Kling, in the second in his series of essays inspired by Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near, writes: Perhaps the last unenhanced human to make a significant contribution in the field of mathematics has already been born. In twenty years, the tenure track at top university mathematics departments may consist entirely of people who depend […]
With genetic engineering, we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the genetic code. By contrast, computers double their speed and memories every 18 […]
FuturePundit reports: The long-held belief that older people perform slower and worse than younger people has been proven wrong. In a study published today in Neuron, psychologists from McMaster University discovered that the ageing process actually improves certain abilities: Older people appear to be better and faster at grasping the big picture than their younger […]
FuturePundit reports: The long-held belief that older people perform slower and worse than younger people has been proven wrong. In a study published today in Neuron, psychologists from McMaster University discovered that the ageing process actually improves certain abilities: Older people appear to be better and faster at grasping the big picture than their younger […]
Huge news via Kurzweil AI : Harvard scientists have manipulated stem cells already present in the brains of mice to induce the birth of new neurons, an advance once considered impossible by most scientists. They induced the birth of new cells by killing nearby neurons in mice, which set off a cascade of events that […]