gulfnews : Insidious globetrotters

gulfnews : Insidious globetrotters: What is striking about this latest attempt to portray microbial doomsday is that it is 100 per cent scientifically plausible.

The Neuroeconomics Revolution - Robert J. Shiller - Project Syndicate

The Neuroeconomics Revolution - Robert J. Shiller - Project Syndicate: "The brain, the computer, and the economy: all three are devices whose purpose is to solve fundamental information problems in coordinating the activities of individual units – the neurons, the transistors, or individual people. As we improve our understanding of the problems that any one of these devices solves – and how it overcomes obstacles in doing so – we learn something valuable about all three."

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Emergence - Complexity from Simplicity, Order from Chaos (1 of 2) - YouTube

Emergence - Complexity from Simplicity, Order from Chaos (1 of 2) - YouTube: Emergent complexity can arise from simple interactions between agents following rules. The complexity that arises is suprising and challenges our assumptions about whether order comes from the top or the bottom. Life and consciousness are examples of emergent phenomena.

10 New Ways to Peer Inside The Human Mind: Scientific American

10 New Ways to Peer Inside The Human Mind: Scientific American: With 100 billion neurons and trillions of synapses, your brain spins neural webs of staggering complexity. It propels you to breathe, twitch, and butter toast, and yet we remain largely ignorant of how the brain does even these simple tasks—let alone how it stirs up consciousness.

Carl Jung � Footnotes to Plato

Carl Jung � Footnotes to Plato: Jung (Liber Primus, iii(v)):

“The meaning of events is the supreme meaning, that is not in events, and not in the soul, but is the God standing between events and the soul, the mediator of life, the way, the bridge and the going across. My soul is my supreme meaning, my image of God, neither God himself nor the supreme meaning. God becomes apparent in the supreme meaning of the human community.”

Materialists Beware: The First Gene Defends a Strictly Scientific, Non-Materialist Conception of Biological Origins - Evolution News & Views

Materialists Beware: <i>The First Gene</i> Defends a Strictly Scientific, Non-Materialist Conception of Biological Origins - Evolution News & Views: Likewise, the field of ProtoBioCybernetics "specifically explores the often-neglected derivation through 'natural process' of initial control mechanisms in the very first theoretical protocell." (p. 1) Thus, the subtitle is "The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control."

The genetics of happiness: Transporter of delight | The Economist

The genetics of happiness: Transporter of delight | The Economist: That result sits comfortably with other studies showing that, on average, Asian countries report lower levels of happiness than their GDP per head would suggest. African countries, however, are all over the place, happinesswise. But that is not surprising, either. Africa is the most genetically diverse continent, because that is where humanity evolved (Asians, Europeans, Aboriginal Australians and Amerindians are all descended from a few adventurers who left Africa about 60,000 years ago). Black Americans, mostly the descendants of slaves carried away from a few places in west Africa, cannot possibly be representative of the whole continent.