Book: Beyond the Body – The Future of Embodied Cognition

Book: Beyond the Body – The Future of Embodied Cognition

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Free e-book from Frontiers in Psychology. It was published in 2016 so has more updated chapters from various authors on the subject. Given the more recent information this might be a better alternative for our book discussion group then the one I recommended earlier . Their blurb follows: Embodied cognition represents one of most important research programs in contemporary cognitive science. Although there is a diversity of opinion concerning the nature of embodiment, the core idea is that cognitive processes…

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Why did consciousness evolve?

Why did consciousness evolve?

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From David Barash, evolutionary biologist and professor of psychology at University of Washington. “Brief explanatory excursion: it is a useful exercise to ask what brains are for. From an evolutionary perspective, brains evolved not simply to give us a more accurate view of the world, or merely to orchestrate our internal organs or coordinate our movements, or even our thoughts. Rather, brains exist because they maximise the reproductive success of the genes that helped create them and of the bodies…

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Free Frontier e-books July 2018

Free Frontier e-books July 2018

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Here‘s the link to their lineup of new free e-books. Maybe we could even use one of them for a book discussion? I’m inclined toward the one titled Insight and Intuition: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Their blurb for the latter: In the field of intuition it is widely accepted that problem solving proceeds in a more or less graded fashion from problem formulation to problem solution as previously encoded information is activated by clues to coherence. The resulting…

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Gaps in our focused attention

Gaps in our focused attention

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Two papers released in the journal Neuron discuss these gaps, which happen 4 times every second. Hence the object of our focus only gets these quick snapshots and we have to piece them together to create the appearance of continual attention. The reason our focused attention is diverted so frequently is due to evolutionary selection pressures to remain vigilant to dangers in the environment around us. Thus any environmental distraction will interrupt our focus with this frequency. This reminds me…

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Kara Swisher: Keeping tech honest

Kara Swisher: Keeping tech honest

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This reminded me of our Singularity meeting. Talking about platforms like Facebook she wonders why they didn’t build social responsibility into it. This is partly because the techies don’t understand much outside of their specialty, like the humanities (see 4c), thereby not having a sense of how their tech impacts the broader world. They assume that somehow the tech will magically solve these broader problems, but Facebook has proven beyond doubt that they do not, instead exacerbating them. And ultimately…

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The neuropolitics of voting

The neuropolitics of voting

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In this MIT Technology Review article. Some firms are using tech to monitor our eye and facial responses to various stimuli to not only determine our emotional responses but to manipulate them toward a particular result. Our facial expressions often reveal our nonconscious preferences and are thus more easily manipulable. One factor is the delay in our responses from a stimuli, indicative of indecision and thus more easily manipulated. The faster the response the harder it is to change the…

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Elephant neural variation suggests a contemplative mind

Elephant neural variation suggests a contemplative mind

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An article in The Conversation explores the variety of neuron structures in the elephant brain. Taken together, these morphological characteristics suggest that neurons in the elephant cortex may synthesize a wider variety of input than the cortical neurons in other mammals. In terms of cognition, my colleagues and I believe that the integrative cortical circuitry in the elephant supports the idea that they are essentially contemplative animals. Primate brains, by comparison, seem specialized for rapid decision-making and quick reactions to…

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How many does it take to tip the scales?

How many does it take to tip the scales?

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25% of a group according to this study published in Science journal. “A new study finds that when 25 percent of people in a group adopt a new social norm, it creates a tipping point where the entire group follows suit. This shows the direct causal effect of the size of a committed minority on its capacity to create social change.” And this is encouraging and a key reason I do my blog: “While shifting people’s underlying beliefs can be…

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Embodied cognition and mindfulness

Embodied cognition and mindfulness

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The podcast is below. The blurb follows: “Evan Thompson discusses Embodied Cognition, 4E Cognition, and the problems with studying the mechanisms of mindfulness from a brain-only perspective. Evan is a writer and professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He works on the nature of the mind, the self, and human experience by combining cognitive science, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Asian philosophical traditions. Evan holds a thoughtful, critical view in these times…

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The ethics and governance of AI

The ethics and governance of AI

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From the Harvard Law Bulletin, summer 2018, “The morality in the machines.” “Its goal: to research and brainstorm new legal and moral rules for artificial intelligence and other technologies built on complex algorithms.[…] ‘Companies are building technology that will have very, very significant impacts on our lives,’ says HLS Clinical Professor Christopher Bavitz, faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center and another leader of the AI initiative’s research. ‘They are raising issues that can only be addressed if you have…

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