Commentary on The Neuroscience of False Beliefs

Daily Kos recently posted an article on the neuroscience of false beliefs.
I think it should provide people with some much-needed insight into themselves.

My brief take (maybe I'll elaborate later):
I think the article and the science behind it, illustrate my premise that four of the most valuable characteristics with which people can endow themselves are:
1. Skepticism, both with your ideas and the ideas of others.
2. Self-awareness. If you are aware of how you work, you can actively prevent undesirable behavior.
3. Open mindedness or willingness to discard/refine your current beliefs with discovery of new, factual information.
4. Empathy for others. Armed with the knowledge that everyone is acting on their model of the world, and understanding that it is NOT necessary that their model coincide with your own, you might be more likely to understand others' intentions as just different, and likely not malevolent.

I think there's a lot more to be said, but for me, time is always an issue...

Cheers,

Water-Powered Car

Google it.

The Grass is Greener...

So I came across this site while listening to the StackOverflow podcast yesterday. Joel from Fog Creek was talking about their new offices (wherein every employee gets a private office) and comparing them to various others, including Google Zurich.

I saw this as a testament to the synergy (excuse the catch phrase) between treatment of employees and their productivity in the early stages of a software startup's life. Really makes me wish older companies would compromise on these benefits. I'm sure they increase morale.

Model Musician

For those who haven't heard of Serj Tankian, he is best known as the front man for one of my favorite bands, System of a Down. I like them for their odd and humorous take on rock, and because they occasionally sprinkle some purpose into their music.

I've known for a while that Serj did a solo album last year, but haven't looked into it until recently. It has a bit more of an agenda than SOAD, but still has the fun feel. Better yet, the music compels people to look into the agenda, which includes Serj's foundation Axis of Justice as well as activism on war, politics, and the US in general.

Two of his initiatives I really like:
1. Abolish the electoral college. (we now have the means for true democracy; lets take advantage)
2. On your tax form you should be able to specify which projects your money will be spent on. e.g. I might allow my taxes to be spent on health care, education (including research), infrastructure, and humanitarian efforts, but NOT on war, nation-building, or other careless spending.

Here are a pair of interviews with Serj:

Good Google Talk

Google recently had Noam Chomsky take questions.
For those outside the fields of AI, Linguistics, Psych, etc., he is a very influential and highly quoted theorist. The talk begins on the topic of universal grammar (which I think is a misleading and utterly useless premise), but quickly(about 16min in) opens to politics, history, culture, and current events (on which, his insights are more useful).

If you can spare an hour, it's worth a watch.
Heres the link so you can go watch it full screen, and it's also embedded below.

I have a confession...

I knew I didn't buy into the media's portrayal of Rev. Wright, but my reasons were naive. I figured that the media's attempts to project a clergyman's words onto a member of the church, political or not, were ridiculous. I figured that it was no coincidence that these videos surfaced just as Hillary was at her most desperate point in the campaign. The fact that the media was looping the same 5 seconds of his sermon was an indicator that his controversial statements were more sparse than they would have the public believe.

My intuition told me that this "scandal" was an overblown, convenient, load of garbage with a purely political effect(and it worked).

I am ashamed to say, however, that I never bothered to hear Rev. Wright's side of the story or simply watch one of the sermons in its entirety to put the media's sound byte in context. Nor did I consider the collateral damage of this political stunt; the effect on the church. The fact that they've had to defend themselves against undeserved public scrutiny and threats of violence.

So I saw Rev. Wright's interview on PBS (both parts) tonight and I was compelled to share it. Not only do I identify with many of his views, I admire his character, and after seeing his message in context, I think it would be good if he has influenced Barack (not that Barack's principles aren't already sound)

If you saw that looped clip the media has been parading and it affected your views on race, on Barack, or even if you shrugged it off without questioning it's consistency, you should really consider watching the interview. You might realize how effective a manufactured, misrepresentation of one's message can be in politics. Or you might realize how little regard the media has for objective, balanced conveyance of facts. Rather, they act more readily on political views, or dramatic appeal("hey, the more shocking we make this, the more people will watch!")

Bottom line; I'm recommending you watch it.
Take your own lessons from it...

Cheers,


UPDATE: Added link to part II of the video.

Brain farts aren't as productive as real ones.

haha, I'm proud of that title.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a link to an interesting article:
Mind-Reading Hat Could Prevent Brain Farts

The fact that there was observable abnormal brain activity was kind of a "duh" to me, but 30 seconds before? It must take people a while to start daydreaming (i.e. a very gradual transition).