Wildcat

"Every human society has had its gods, whether worshiped from Gothic cathedrals or Mayan pyramids. In all cultures, humans pour resources into elaborate religious buildings and rituals. But religion offers no obvious boost to survival and reproduction. So how and why did it arise? In my Origins essay this month, I follow two very different disciplines—archaeology and cognitive psychology—as they attempt to understand this puzzle. To Charles Darwin himself, the origin of belief in gods was no mystery. “As soon as the important faculties of the imagination, wonder, and curiosity, together with some power of reasoning, had become partially developed, man would … have vaguely speculated on his own existence,” he wrote in The Descent of Man. In the past 15 years, a growing number of researchers have followed Darwin’s lead and explored the hypothesis that religion springs naturally from the normal workings of the human mind. This new field, the cognitive science of religion, draws on... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

What kind of cult would we be if we didn't have bumper stickers, Eric? :) - Eivind

"Ever heard of a 'Cyborg Astrobiologist'? Probably not. But I bet you'll want to be one after learning that future exploration of Mars (and other planets, for that matter) may employ the use of artificial intelligence integrated into spacesuits to enhance the ability of astronauts in taking scientific data while exploring. The AI assistance could help future astronauts exploring planets to recognize differences in their surroundings as being due to the presence of life. Does this sound like something from 50 years from now? Well, a prototype model has already been tested, and has shown the principle behind this idea to be sound. University of Chicago geoscientist Patrick McGuire and his team have developed the basic systems needed for such a spacesuit, using mostly off-the shelf technology. The system uses a Hopfield neural network to analyze data taken in by a either a camera phone or a microscope. The AI system employs a 'novelty detection algorithm' which analyzes images from either imaging device, and is able to identify features in images that are out of place." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

Now this sounds promising-the first inklings of AI. Yet, I don't know if we'll be up to Red Planet or Hal 9000 anytime soon. - Aaron Kendrick

"The annals of science are stuffed full of stories about researchers who were trying to achieve one thing and ended up accomplishing something entirely different. Fortunately for both scientists and science writers, the serendipitous find is a cliché that manages to retain its fascination no matter how many repetitions it goes through. That fascination arises from a fundamental truth about science: the more we think we understand, the more there is to know. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of neuroscience. Over the past few decades, scientists have made great strides in teasing apart the workings of the brain’s structures on a micro level. We now know, to an astonishing degree of detail, how neuronal cell bodies direct basic functions such as breathing, walking, and other motor functions. We can diagram, model, and even predict how the long, thread-like axons projecting from each brain cell carry electrical impulses from one neuron to another. Yet our fundamental grasp of... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

Despite its disquieting name, deep brain stimulation has proven to be a life-changing therapy for thousands of patients who suffer from otherwise intractable disorders. It’s also been an amazingly rich source of accidental discoveries about how the mind works. - Wildcat

"Cappelen A. W., Moene K. O., Sørensen E. Ø., Tungodden B., Rich meets poor - an international fairness experiment" - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

by Neal Leach What is the potential for applying digital simulation for research in urban planning and development? Neil Leach pursues this question with influential ‘street philosopher’, one-time programmer and professor Manuel DeLanda. Manuel DeLanda has exerted an enormous impact onarchitectural culture. For several years now the self-styled ‘street philosopher’ has been teaching at some of the world’s leading schools of architecture. He is the author of a number of highly influential books, including his critically acclaimed volume on urban growth patterns, A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History.1 However, he also has a background as a programmer, and has written numerous high-profile articles about architecture and digital design, such as ‘Deleuze and the Use of the Genetic Algorithm in Architecture’.2 It was therefore pertinent to ask him whether he has made any connections between his interest in digital simulation and his research into urban planning. ‘On one hand, some of the... - Wildcat

"In the second section of Samuel Barber’s exquisitely mournful composition “Adagio for Strings,” the cellos, violas, and violins join together to build to a rising melodic climax, reaching a thrilling, almost keening peak of grief - and then sharply stop. There is a breathtaking silence that lasts several long seconds. Finally, after more than a few thudding heartbeats, the instruments resume their play with a series of soft chords that now seem painfully delicate, carrying the piece to its sighing, fading conclusion. When you listen to “Adagio for Strings,” that brief pause two thirds of the way into the music is anything but empty; in fact, it fairly aches with woe. Of course classical composers, jazz musicians, and pop stars alike have always known the power of the pregnant pause. They carefully insert silence in between their notes, using it like a supple extra voice. It can be full of tension, humor, serenity, or dramatic finality, its character conditioned by the shape of the... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

"The power to resist temptation has been extolled by philosophers, psychologists, teachers, coaches, and mothers. Anyone with advice on how you should live your life has surely spoken to you of its benefits. It is the path to the good life, professional and personal satisfaction, social adjustment and success, performance under pressure, and the best way for any child to avoid a penetrating stare and a cold dinner. Of course, this assumes that our natural urges are a thing to be resisted – that there is a devil inside, luring you to cheat, offend, err, and annoy. New research has begun to question this assumption. A new brain imaging study by Josh Greene and Joe Paxton at Harvard University published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that what separates the well-behaved from the poorly-behaved might not be the ability to control your temptations but rather what kind of temptations you have. For example, foregoing the opportunity for short-term gain and... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

"From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

Wermke's team recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns, 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 born into German-speaking families, when they were three to five days old. That analysis revealed clear differences in the shape of the newborns' cry melodies, based on their mother tongue. Specifically, French newborns tend to cry with a rising melody contour, whereas... more... - Wildcat

"The cost of three nights on the Galactic Suite Space Resort (plus a two-month training course on a Caribbean island beforehand) will be $4.4 million US. At least 43 people have already reserved their place, with over 200 expressing an interest. The Galactic Suite Space Resort plans to start with one pod holding four passengers and two astronaut pilots. The pod would orbit 280 miles (450 km) above the earth and travel at 18,640 mph (30,000 kph). Passengers would take a day and a half to reach the pod by Russian-built rocket, after blasting off from a spaceport on a Caribbean island. The rocket would dock with the pod for their entire stay to give the guests a sense of security. At the end of their stay the passengers would return to the rocket for the trip back to earth. Claramunt said the project had received an anonymous grant of $3 billion given to the company by a space enthusiast billionaire." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

"A robot powered by recorded rodent brain impulses may help researchers understand how people recognize and adapt to change. Findings from the work could advance robotic design as well as knowledge of human behavior. “Little is known about the areas of the brain involved in making decisions when faced with uncertainty,” says Jeffrey Krichmar, a University of California, Irvine, cognitive scientist and one of the study’s lead researchers. The joint project between UC Irvine and University of California, San Diego, is expected to provide neuron-level insight about the specific brain areas responsible for decision-making and attention." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

"The metaphor of the brain as a database (or, if you prefer, the database as a brain) flatters and anthropomorphizes the machine more than it explains the mind. Gray matter doesn't seem to be organized in a way that makes the storage and retrieval of information easy; rather, the classification and categorization that characterize the database are pre-digital technologies invented to manage the ever-increasing amounts of information that civilization requires citizens to master. Cicero used a "memory palace" when delivering orations. As he spoke, he would imagine moving through a house where each room and object represented points he needed to make in his speech and the supporting evidence he needed to make them. The antithesis of such memory systems might be the dream, the mind's nightly refresher that reconfigures the day's events and data in disjointed, symbolic narratives. Both the memory palace and the dream are based on irrational elements: subjective experience, arbitrary... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

"Soon we’ll be able to remember every second of our lives. But how will we make sense of it? Research projects like Microsoft’s SenseCam and, most importantly, the huge increases in the affordability, portability, and storage capacity of electronic devices, are driving us closer to a form of ‘perfectly recalled life’ in which everything we see, hear, and read will be saved and available for us at any time. After cellphones have made the memorization of phone numbers an almost obsolete minor art, equally ubiquitous but enormously more powerful gadgets might do the same for most forms of autobiographical memory. But although most proposed uses for this capability describe people attempting to remember what they saw or did at an specific moment in the past, this isn’t the most important use we have for our memory. Just like most people search the Internet for summaries and opinions instead of raw data, our memory is less an activity log than a essay we keep rewriting. “What I saw last... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

When I saw "edit" I thought immediately about some Ministry-of-Truth-like stuff... - Ashalynd

This link doesn't work. - Ruchira S. Datta

"Although humans and chimpanzees genetically vary by just 1.2 percent, that small percentage makes a world of difference in the mental and linguistic capabilities between the two species. A study shows that a certain form of neuropsin, a protein that plays a role in learning and memory, is expressed only in the central nervous systems of humans. The scientists conclude that this critical difference originated less than 5 million years ago." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

Headline is a bit sensationalist, but ya an important finding. - Sandeep Gautam