Animal religion: Evolution, affect, and radical embodiment

Animal religion: Evolution, affect, and radical embodiment

"Radical embodiment applied to religious studies, then, suggests that religion is a complex outgrowth of multidimensional, affectively determined bodies, not a rationally elected and cognitively streamlined set of beliefs."

The Language of the Political Crowd in Tunisia | African Futures

The Language of the Political Crowd in Tunisia | African Futures

"The revolutionary crowds asserted the unity of the population, both rural and urban, against State oppression. The crowds were written over with words expressing the shared sentiment of the people. The events of 14 January and of Kasbah I and II , mass gatherings during the weeks after the flight of Ben Ali, in Tunis defied the politics of a rural/urban split when the populations from the central and southern regions came and occupied the center of political power, using a common language and holding the same signs."

James C. Scott, Farmer and Scholar of Anarchism - NYTimes.com

James C. Scott, Farmer and Scholar of Anarchism - NYTimes.com

"“Seeing Like a State,” published a decade later, looked at the limitations of state power from the other end, examining — through examples as diverse as 18th-century German scientific forestry and “villagization” in 1970s Tanzania — the way that “high modernist” social engineering doomed itself by ignoring local custom and practical knowledge, which Mr. Scott, borrowing the classical Greek word for wisdom, calls “metis.”"

A new model of empathy: The rat - The Washington Post

A new model of empathy: The rat - The Washington Post

"... Recently, scientists demonstrated “emotional contagion” in mice, a situation in which one animal’s stress worsens another’s.
But empathy that leads to helping activity — what psychologists term “pro-social behavior” — hasn’t been formally shown in non-primates until now."

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

"The more complex the structure the more effective is the energy dissemination. Populations are better in this respect than single individuals; ecosystems even more so, and most effective of all—so far—are human high-tech societies."

Can Engineers and Scientists Ever Master “Complexity”? | Cross-Check, Scientific American Blog Network

Can Engineers and Scientists Ever Master “Complexity”? | Cross-Check, Scientific American Blog Network

*A key insight to emerge from chaos theory is that many complex systems are inherently unpredictable, because infinitesimal causes can have enormous consequences.  This is the notorious butterfly effect—a term coined by meteorologist Edward Lorenz–which says that the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in Iowa can culminate in a typhoon in India.

Collective Intelligence | Conversation | Edge

Collective Intelligence | Conversation | Edge
"It's also possible for groups of people to work together in ways that seem pretty stupid, and I think collective stupidity is just as possible as collective intelligence. Part of what I want to understand and part of what the people I'm working with want to understand is what are the conditions that lead to collective intelligence rather than collective stupidity. But in whatever form, either intelligence or stupidity, this collective behavior has existed for a long time. "

BBC - Future - Technology - Will the internet become conscious?

BBC - Future - Technology - Will the internet become conscious?

Time's quantum arrow has a preferred direction: BaBar experiment confirms time asymmetry

Time's quantum arrow has a preferred direction: BaBar experiment confirms time asymmetry

a violation of time reversal symmetry and confirmation that some subatomic processes have a preferred direction of time.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-quantum-arrow-babar-asymmetry.html#jCp

Human brain, internet, and cosmology: Similar laws at work?

Human brain, internet, and cosmology: Similar laws at work?: "Having the ability to predict – let alone trying to control – the dynamics of complex networks remains a central challenge throughout network science. Structural and dynamical similarities among different real networks suggest that some universal laws might be in action, although the nature and common origin of such laws remain elusive."

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Safely Switching Consciousness Off and On Again: Scientific American

Safely Switching Consciousness Off and On Again: Scientific American: When consciousness was lost after anesthesia was initiated—that is, when the patients no longer opened their eyes following the command—the cortical EEG changed dramatically, switching from low amplitude and irregular activity into readings dominated by large and slow brain waves that occur about once every second. Such so-called delta band activity is characteristic of deep sleep. Furthermore, the complexity of the cortical EEG signal decreased significantly when patients stopped responding. None of these changes occurs in the thalamic electrode at the time that consciousness is lost.

‘Bi-Fi’ — the biological Internet | KurzweilAI

‘Bi-Fi’ — the biological Internet | KurzweilAI: Cells engineered with M13 can be programmed to communicate in much more complex, powerful ways than ever before. The possible messages are limited only by what can be encoded in DNA and thus can include any sort of genetic instruction: start growing, stop growing, come closer, swim away, produce insulin and so forth.

How Culture Drove Human Evolution | Conversation | Edge

How Culture Drove Human Evolution | Conversation | Edge: The emergence of high-moralizing gods is an important example of this. In small-scale hunter-gatherer religions, the gods are typically whimsical. They're amoral. They're not concerned with your sexual behavior or your social behavior. Often you'll make bargains with them, but as we begin to move to the religions in more complex societies, we find that the gods are increasingly moralizing. They're concerned about exactly the kinds of things that are going to be a problem for running a large-scale society, like how you treat other members of your religious group or your ethnic group.

Review - The Primate Mind - Psychology

Review - The Primate Mind - Psychology: One of the most intriguing is found in the first section "From Understanding the Actions of Others to Culture" in which several authors review current research on mirror neurons and other neural systems in primates in an attempt to show how this neural structure offers a mechanistic explanation of how primates are affected by the behavior of others. What is distinctive about this approach is the authors' contribution to the topics of imitation and culture in primates by attempting to show how mirror neurons and the neural processing of others may be the building blocks for the evolution of imitation, empathy, and social rules in primates.

Stanford biologist and computer scientist discover the 'anternet' | School of Engineering

Stanford biologist and computer scientist discover the 'anternet' | School of Engineering: "Ants have discovered an algorithm that we know well, and they've been doing it for millions of years," Prabhakar said.

Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network

Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network: "Presumably, human infants are conscious—they perceive and respond to people and things around them—but they are not yet self-aware."

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Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network

Does Self-Awareness Require a Complex Brain? | Brainwaves, Scientific American Blog Network: "Humans are more than just conscious—they are also self-aware. Scientists differ on the difference between consciousness and self-awareness, but here is one common explanation: Consciousness is awareness of one’s body and one’s environment; self-awareness is recognition of that consciousness—not only understanding that one exists, but further understanding that one is aware of one’s existence. Another way of thinking about it: To be conscious is to think; to be self-aware is to realize that you are a thinking being and to think about your thoughts. Presumably, human infants are conscious—they perceive and respond to people and things around them—but they are not yet self-aware. In their first years of life, infants develop a sense of self, learn to recognize themselves in the mirror and to distinguish their own point of view from other people’s perspectives."

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Brain complexity led humans to evolve differently than chimps

Brain complexity led humans to evolve differently than chimps: ""The biggest differences occurred in the expression of human genes involved in plasticity - the ability of the brain to process information and adapt. This supports the premise that the human brain evolved to enable higher rates of learning," said Konopka."

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Frontiers | The role of prediction in social neuroscience | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Frontiers | The role of prediction in social neuroscience | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: "These accounts of the mirror neuron system highlight the potential role of predictive mechanisms, particularly simulation, and inference with the predictive coding, and associative learning accounts, in social interaction. Consequently, these accounts could legitimately be extended to highlight the role of prediction, simulation and inference in other non-motor social cognitions associated with mirror neuron activity. Inference-based accounts of the mirror neuron system could potentially apply to some examples of work in social neuroscience showing that mirror neuron activity has been implicated in the distinction between self and other (Sinigaglia and Rizzolatti, 2011), mentalizing (De Lange et al., 2008; Centelles et al., 2011) and simulation of emotions (Bastiaansen et al., 2009). Even though the mirror neuron hypothesis provides a very appealing explanation for the processing of others' actions, there are other theories also related to predictive mechanisms that propose integrative frameworks for sensorimotor control and social interaction."

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The Nature of Consciousness: How the Internet Could Learn to Feel - Steve Paulson - The Atlantic

The Nature of Consciousness: How the Internet Could Learn to Feel - Steve Paulson - The Atlantic: "Koch: What I'm serious about is that the Internet, in principle, could have conscious states. Now, do these conscious states express happiness? Do they express pain? Pleasure? Anger? Red? Blue? That really depends on the exact kind of relationship between the transistors, the nodes, the computers. It's more difficult to ascertain what exactly it feels. But there's no question that in principle it could feel something.

"

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Christof Koch: Consciousness Is Everywhere

Christof Koch: Consciousness Is Everywhere: "No matter what the NCC will prove to be, a skeptic can always ask why does this particular NCC give rise to a conscious experience but not another one? The cause and effect between neuronal activity in the brain and conscious thought can seem as magical as rubbing a brass lamp and having a genie emerge. It is here that the ideas of Giulio Tononi, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, prove crucial. He advocates for a sophisticated theory that links information to consciousness. His integrated information theory introduces a precise measure capturing the extent of consciousness called Φ (phi). Expressed in bits, phi quantifies the extent to which any system of interacting parts is both differentiated and integrated when that system enters a particular state. Any one conscious experience is both highly differentiated from any other one but also unitary, holistic. The larger the phi, the richer the conscious experience of that system. Furthermore, the theory assigns any state of any network of causally interacting parts (these neurons are firing, those are quiet) to a shape in a high-dimensional space."

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Christof Koch: Consciousness Is Everywhere

Christof Koch: Consciousness Is Everywhere: "The belief in human exceptionalism, so strongly rooted in the Judeo-Christian view of the world, flies in the face of all evidence for the structural and behavioral continuity between animals and people"

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Octopuses Gain Consciousness (According to Scientists’ Declaration) | Octopus Chronicles, Scientific American Blog Network

Octopuses Gain Consciousness (According to Scientists’ Declaration) | Octopus Chronicles, Scientific American Blog Network: "Elephants cooperate to solve problems. Chimpanzees teach youngsters to make tools. Even octopuses seem to be able to plan. So should we humans really be surprised that “consciousness” probably does not only exist in us?

"

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Cybernetics and Design � .:: Peta Konsep Anak Bangsa ::.

Cybernetics and Design � .:: Peta Konsep Anak Bangsa ::.: of just about any other word you can think of in order to generically connote “futuristic” or “computer-enabled” or “electronic”. Actually, cybernetics is, quite generally, the study of “observed and observing systems”, or the study and theory of any system that uses feedback and correction in order to pursue specific goals.

Cybernetics and Design � .:: Peta Konsep Anak Bangsa ::.

Cybernetics and Design � .:: Peta Konsep Anak Bangsa ::.: of just about any other word you can think of in order to generically connote “futuristic” or “computer-enabled” or “electronic”. Actually, cybernetics is, quite generally, the study of “observed and observing systems”, or the study and theory of any system that uses feedback and correction in order to pursue specific goals.

Wright's Law Edges Out Moore's Law in Predicting Technology Development - IEEE Spectrum

Wright's Law Edges Out Moore's Law in Predicting Technology Development - IEEE Spectrum: Wright’s Law (1936). “We learn by doing.” The cost of a unit decreases as a function of the cumulative production.

Does Quantum Physics Make it Easier to Believe in God? | Big Questions Online

Does Quantum Physics Make it Easier to Believe in God? | Big Questions Online: If, on the other hand, we accept the more traditional understanding of quantum mechanics that goes back to von Neumann, one is led by its logic (as Wigner and Peierls were) to the conclusion that not everything is just matter in motion, and that in particular there is something about the human mind that transcends matter and its laws. It then becomes possible to take seriously certain questions that materialism had ruled out of court: If the human mind transcends matter to some extent, could there not exist minds that transcend the physical universe altogether? And might there not even exist an ultimate Mind?

Africa Progress Panel calls on African governments to drive towards MDGs | Global development | guardian.co.uk

Africa Progress Panel calls on African governments to drive towards MDGs | Global development | guardian.co.uk: With the Arab spring very much in mind, the report carried stark warnings about the chasm between rich and poor. The panel said Africa's wealth disparities are among the biggest in the world. In China, where rising inequality is seen as a threat to social stability and future growth, the Gini index is 42. But 24 African countries show higher inequality scores. In Mozambique, Kenya and Zambia, the Gini coefficient is between 45 and 55, while in Botswana and South Africa it is above 60.

Africa's millions of young people must add up to demographic dividend | Linah Mohohlo | Global development | guardian.co.uk

Africa's millions of young people must add up to demographic dividend | Linah Mohohlo | Global development | guardian.co.uk: If we can get this right and harness the incredible creativity, energy and innovation in our young people, we can reap a fantastic demographic dividend. But it is not guaranteed.

Time-keeping brain neurons discovered

Time-keeping brain neurons discovered "The key finding is that neurons in the prefrontal cortex and the striatum encode the time information associated with sensory cues," Jin explained. "Visual cues, for example, elicit a variety of responses in a particular population of neurons. We found that the brain is able to tell the passage of time from the visual cues because different neurons are active at different times. Most remarkably we found that there are neurons that are active at precise times after a particular visual cue, and these neurons act like clocks that mark time."

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"Another key finding of our work is that the brains of the monkeys constructed neural activities to encode time even though timing was not required for the experimental task," Jin said. "We suggest that time encoding is the essential function of the brain's neural networks."

Rare neurons discovered in monkey brains

The anterior insular cortex is a small brain region that plays a crucial role in human self-awareness and in related neuropsychiatric disorders. A unique cell type – the von Economo neuron (VEN) – is located there. For a long time, the VEN was assumed to be unique to humans, great apes, whales and elephants. Henry Evrard, neuroanatomist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, now discovered that the VEN occurs also in the insula of macaque monkeys. The morphology, size and distribution of the monkey VEN suggest that it is at least a primal anatomical homolog of the human VEN. This finding offers new and much-needed opportunities to examine in detail the connections and functions of a cell and brain region that could have a key role in human self-awareness and in mental disorders including autism and specific forms of dementia.Rare neurons discovered in monkey brains

How Climate Change Causes Earthquakes and Erupting Volcanoes | Mother Jones

How Climate Change Causes Earthquakes and Erupting Volcanoes | Mother Jones: The bottom line is that through our climate-changing activities we are loading the dice in favor of escalating geological havoc at a time when we can most do without it. Unless there is a dramatic and completely unexpected turnaround in the way in which the human race manages itself and the planet, then long-term prospects for our civilization look increasingly grim. At a time when an additional 220,000 people are lining up at the global soup kitchen each and every night, when energy, water, and food resources are coming under ever-growing pressure, and when the debilitating effects of anthropogenic climate change are insinuating themselves increasingly into every nook and cranny of our world and our lives, the last thing we need is for the dozing subterranean giant to awaken.

Tomorrow is promised to no one | World Future Society

Tomorrow is promised to no one | World Future Society: It is a fearful time, but a time of opportunity for those who will take advantage of changes in this watershed. This is especially true for those who can separate the winners from the losers and who will view the world in a long term, optimistic manner.

I fear that the pessimism that currently pervades our society will not prepare us to future prosperity and the needs in infrastructure, education and energy that will be required.

Navigating a complex world - Dr Maleeha Lodhi

Navigating a complex world - Dr Maleeha Lodhi: He depicts a world in which the shift of power from the West to the East, what he calls the ‘dynamic political awakening’ of people worldwide and America’s deficient domestic and international performance have combined to create a crisis of power.