Minds on FF

From the brains behind Iran's Green Revolution to the economic Cassandra who actually did have a crystal ball, they had the big ideas that shaped our world in 2009. Read on to see the 100 minds that mattered most in the year that was. - Amira from Bookmarklet

"Where I intend to be divisive is with respect to the argument that religion, and moral education more generally, represent the only — or perhaps even the ultimate — source of moral reasoning. If anything, moral education is often motivated by self-interest, to do what's best for those within a moral community, preaching singularity, not plurality. Blame nurture, not nature, for our moral atrocities against humanity. And blame educated partiality more generally, as this allows us to lump into one category all those who fail to acknowledge our shared humanity and fail to use secular reasoning to practise compassion." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

"Apparently, this is not a Photoshopped image, as there are several more just like it, taken from various locations. This morning in northern Norway, people saw a strange light in the sky which shocked residents and so far, the phenomenon has yet to be explained. This picture was taken from a pier, looking to the east, approximately at 07.50 am local time. "I can imagine that it went on for two, three minutes," said the photographer Jan Petter Jørgensen. "It was unbelievable. I was quite shaken when I saw it."" - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

here has been no substantial change in the number of adult brain tumours since mobile phone usage sharply increased in the mid-1990s, Danish scientists say. - Amir from Bookmarklet

they drop calls....but don't fry your brain; nice :-) - winckel

"Here is the text and slide share of a lecture I gave at ECCO research group seminar at the free university of Brussels on Nov 4th 2009. Thoughts and comments are welcome." - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

"Most of us don't like to think about the labor involved in creativity. It takes away the glamour and the magic. But real creators know different. They know that creative work isn't particularly glamorous. It requires discipline, routine, and a nitpicky attention to detail. But they also know that none of that takes away the magic. We often talk about “the creative process,” but it's really several interlocking processes. The magic happens at the point where they intersect. Here are three core processes you need to coordinate in your work as a creative professional:" - chaz2b from Bookmarklet

suggestions bellegarde-webb? - chaz2b

"In a nutshell: the new genetics will reveal much less than hoped about how to cure disease, and much more than feared about human evolution and inequality, including genetic differences between classes, ethnicities and races." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

bellegarde-webb: I agree with that sentiment. - Christopher A Carr

"‘Compliance to unexposed experts’ makes it sound a bit like conspiracy theory stuff. The vastly powerful impact achieved by a single individual immediately invokes an instinctive suspicion. ‘No one should hold such a power’, ‘No one should perform such act whatsoever’, ‘No one is god’, are probably voices that arise in one’s mind in response to the experiment proposed. I do not automatically subscribe to the advice of these voices. I do accept that these are manifestations of the regulating processes of our social organism. I even accept that in the majority of cases these voices are expressing a general beneficial heuristics. The important point however is that in some very (very) rare cases such as the one I am describing in my last comment, these voices are to be ignored. This is not said with carelessness but with the firm belief that if one hand can devastate all humanity, we must allow the possibility that one hand can initiate a transformative beneficial process at the scale... more... - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

This is a comment on a post I wrote a few days ago about the prospects and necessities of human augmentation and the ethical aspects of the issue. - Spaceweaver

"There is a tiny period of time between the registration of a visual stimulus by the unconscious mind and our conscious recognition of it ― between the time we see an apple and the time we recognize it as an apple. Our minds lag behind our eyes, but by how long? And how does this affect our reactions to the world around us?" - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

"God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial issues. "Intuiting God's beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one's own beliefs," writes a team led by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ... "The experiments in which we manipulate people's own beliefs are the most compelling evidence we have to show that people's own beliefs influence what they think God believes more substantially than it influences what they think other people believe," says Epley. - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"Spend enough time riding the New York City subway—or any big-city metro—and you'll find yourself on the tenure-track to an honorary degree in transit psychology. The subway—which keeps random people together in a contained, observable setting—is a perfect rolling laboratory for the study of human behavior. As the sociologists M.L. Fried and V.J. De Fazio once noted, "The subway is one of the few places in a large urban center where all races and religions and most social classes are confronted with one another and the same situation.".." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"My recent efforts at speaking French whilst in the French-speaking part of Switzerland mostly provoked derisory laughter from the natives, so I know all about difficulties with accent and pronunciation. According to a new study, I could benefit from watching French films with French, but not English, subtitles. Like the boundaries between colours, the boundaries between verbal sounds (or "phonemes") are somewhat arbitrary, and they can especially vary according to regional accent. Now the psycholinguists Holger Mitterer and James McQueen have shown that foreign-language subtitles can help us retune our perception of these phonetic boundaries thus aiding our comprehension of a foreign language spoken with an unfamiliar accent. - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"Spending hours on the net isn't only changing the way we work, shop and socialise. A leading neurologist says it is subtly re-wiring the way we think and behave – often for the better. Dr Small, one of America's leading neurologists, has written a book, iBrain – Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, that describes what he believes is the profound impact of new technology on our brains and behaviour. His research indicates that internet use and web-browsing has a marked effect on our brains, which, he argues, are much more changeable than most of us think, especially in the case of young people. Repeated daily actions such as web research and browsing direct the growth of neurons and connections within the brain, affecting thinking and behaviour. (...) Research at UCLA has revealed that just one hour of internet use per day can measurably boost brain function. "As our brain is plastic and remoulds itself in accordance to our daily activities, prolonged computer... more... - Amira from Bookmarklet

"Boosts the ability to integrate and process information as well as enhancing decision-making skills. Using rapid spurts of directed concentration for internet research enhances our ability to focus our attention, analyse information and make instant decisions. Assessing these skills, Professor Pam Briggs at Northumbria University found web surfers spent two seconds or less on any... more... - Amira

The collection includes 34 of the original 36 draft leaves of the book, according to editor David Kohn. “I’ve sat in the Cambridge University Library since 1974, touching these documents, but this is the first time that anyone can do this — online in this quantity and with this quality,” Kohn said [MSNBC]. The project leaders intend to digitize more manuscripts down the road, and also reconstruct Darwin’s library. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats... - Amira from Bookmarklet

"On October 17, Edge organized a Reality Club meeting at The Hotel Ritz in Paris to allow neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene to present his new theory on how consciousness arises in the brain to a group of Parisian scientists and thinkers. The theory, based on Dehaene's past twelve years of brain-imaging research is called the global neuronal workspace. It promises to offer new tools for diagnosing consciousness disorders in patients. "For the past twelve years", says Dehaene, "my research team has been using every available brain research tool, from functional MRI to electro- and magneto-encephalography and even electrodes inserted deep in the human brain, to shed light on the brain mechanisms of consciousness. I am now happy to report that we have acquired a good working hypothesis. In experiment after experiment, we have seen the same signatures of consciousness: physiological markers that all, simultaneously, show a massive change when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of... more... - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

"Is more choice better? Ten years ago the answer seemed obvious: Yes. Now the conventional wisdom is the opposite: lots of choice makes people less likely to choose anything, and less happy when they do choose... an objection to the “choice is bad” thesis is that the psychological effect may not actually exist at all. It is hard to find much evidence that retailers are ferociously simplifying their offerings in an effort to boost sales. Starbucks boasts about its “87,000 drink combinations”; supermarkets are packed with options. This suggests that “choice demotivates” is not a universal human truth, but an effect that emerges under special circumstances.." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"SO MUCH to do, so little time. Between a hectic work schedule and a thriving social life, Yves (not his real name), a 31- year-old software developer from Seattle, often doesn't have time for a full night's sleep. So he swallows something to make sure he doesn't need one. "If I take a dose just before I go to bed, I can wake up after 4 or 5 hours and feel refreshed," he says. "The alarm goes off and I'm like, let's go!" Yves is talking about modafinil, a stimulant that since its launch seven years ago has acquired a near-mythical reputation for wiring you awake without the jitters, euphoria and eventual crash that come after caffeine or amphetamines. Yves has been popping modafinil on and off for the past three years and says it is "tremendously useful". "I find I can be very productive at work," he says. "I'm more organised and more motivated. And it means I can go out partying on a Friday night and still go skiing early on Saturday morning." Modafinil is just the first of a wave of... more... - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

Very interesting... cannot wait till we can go on without sleep altogether - Spaceweaver

"It can take some bottle to share an anecdote, so it's somewhat harsh when your friend shoots you down with an impatient accusation that you've told them this story before. You'd think they'd be more understanding - most of us seem to be far better at remembering who's told us what compared with to whom we've told what. Psychologists characterise this as a distinction between "source memory" and "destination memory", and according to Nigel Gopie and Colin MacLeod, the latter form is surprisingly under-researched. They've just published a new study suggesting that we're poor at remembering to whom we said what because of the self-focus associated with disclosing information, rather than receiving it. This self-focus, they argue, disrupts the memory processes that would otherwise associate what was said and to whom. The good news is that their finding points to a remedy. Fed up with hearing "you told me that already!", then try focusing less on yourself and more on your listener the next time you share an anecdote.." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"When our actions conflict with our prior attitudes, we often change our attitudes to be more consistent with our actions. This phenomenon, known as cognitive dissonance, is considered to be one of the most influential theories in psychology. However, the neural basis of this phenomenon is unknown. Using a Solomon four-group design, we scanned participants with functional MRI while they argued that the uncomfortable scanner environment was nevertheless a pleasant experience. We found that cognitive dissonance engaged the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula ..." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

Amazing but it is very very hard to believe the story interpreting those metropoliis. - bellegarde-webb

"Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world’s top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers—often implicitly—assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these “standard subjects” are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species—frequent outliers." - james reilly from Bookmarklet