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Author: Edward Berge

What are numbers, really?

What are numbers, really?

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The nature of math came up in our embodied cognition discussion. Here is a presentation by Dehaene on the topic followed by comments from The Reality Club: George Lakoff, Marc Hauser, Jaron Lanier, Rafael Núñez, Margaret Wertheim, Howard Gardner, Joseph Traub, Steven Pinker, Charles Simonyi. A few brief, edited Lakoff excerpts follow from that discussion. Note that this is a discussion from 1997, so a lot of confirming science has happened since then. ” [Dehaene] has made it clear that…

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From ecology to brain development

From ecology to brain development

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The above is the title to a new, free Frontiers book subtitled “Bridging separate evolutionary paradigms.” I thought it would be of interest to this group. I can be found here, then scrolling down. From the Introduction: “The nervous system is the product of biological evolution and is shaped by the interplay between extrinsic factors determining the ecology of animals, and by intrinsic processes that dictate the developmental rules that give rise to adult functional structures. This special topic is…

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Neural Correlates of Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning

Neural Correlates of Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning

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The abstract from this article: “Going back to Kohlberg, moral development research affirms that people progress through different stages of moral reasoning as cognitive abilities mature. Individuals at a lower level of moral reasoning judge moral issues mainly based on self-interest (personal interests schema) or based on adherence to laws and rules (maintaining norms schema), whereas individuals at the post-conventional level judge moral issues based on deeper principles and shared ideals. However, the extent to which moral development is reflected…

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The death of the invisible hand (job)

The death of the invisible hand (job)

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Speaking of metaphors, article by David Sloan Wilson. Some excerpts: “[Adam] Smith was critical of Mandeville and presented a more nuanced view of human nature in his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), but modern economic and political discourse is not about nuance. Rational choice theory takes the invisible hand metaphor literally by trying to explain the length and breadth of human behavior on the basis of individual utility maximization, which is fancy talk for the narrow pursuit of self-interest.” “The…

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Gibbs on Haidt’s righteous mind

Gibbs on Haidt’s righteous mind

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From Gibbs’ Moral Development and Reality: “Haidt’s new synthesis leads to recognition of at least three serious limitations: descriptive inadequacy or negative skew; unwarranted exclusion or studied avoidance of prescriptive implications; and moral relativism” (33). He then goes into detail on those inadequacies. From the section on moral relativism: “Haidt’s (2012) sentiment that liberals and conservatives should share meals and narratives and ‘get along’ is helpful, but missing is any call for rational dialogue or moral progress. Nor did Haidt…

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Looking for the metanarrative of our lives

Looking for the metanarrative of our lives

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Excellent article by David Lane. Therein he goes into Edelman’s primary and higher-order consciousness. While acknowledging that natural selection has no purpose it is indeed ironic that we humans, with our self-aware higher consciousness that creates purpose, ended up at the top of the selection process. The downside of the latter is that it is a double-edged sword; it can make up stories that serve the purpose of giving us comfort but not be true. However it also has the…

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Bonding with your algorithm

Bonding with your algorithm

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The blurb follows from this video and transcript: “The relationship between parents and children is the most important relationship. It gets more complicated in this case because, beyond the children being our natural children, we can influence them even beyond. We can influence them biologically, and we can use artificial intelligence as a new tool. I’m not a scientist or a technologist whatsoever, but the tools of artificial intelligence, in theory, are algorithm- or computer-based. In reality, I would argue…

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Neurofeedback as a tool to modulate cognition and behavior

Neurofeedback as a tool to modulate cognition and behavior

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Article here from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017, 11:51.  The abstract (note my italicized highlighting): “Neurofeedback is attracting renewed interest as a method to self-regulate one’s own brain activity to directly alter the underlying neural mechanisms of cognition and behavior. It not only promises new avenues as a method for cognitive enhancement in healthy subjects, but also as a therapeutic tool. In the current article, we present a review tutorial discussing key aspects relevant to the development of electroencephalography (EEG)…

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Raising Darwin’s consciousness

Raising Darwin’s consciousness

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A Scientific American interview with famed primatologist and evolutionary theorist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. “If we really want to raise Darwin’s consciousness we need to expand evolutionary perspectives to include the Darwinian selection pressures on mothers and on infants. So much of our human narrative is about selection pressures but, when you stop to think and parse the hypotheses, they’re really about selection pressures on males: hunting hypotheses or lethal intergroup conflict hypotheses to explain human brains. Well, does that mean…

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