Source: Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays Here is a great article by Robert Epstein, senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in California, about how your brain is not a computer.... No matter how hard they try, brain scientists and cognitive psychologists will never find a copy of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in the brain – or copies of words, pictures, grammatical rules or any other kinds of environmental stimuli. The human brain isn’t really empty, of course. But it does not contain most of the things people think it does – not even simple things such as ‘memories’. Our shoddy thinking about the brain has deep historical roots, but the invention of computers in the 1940s got us especially confused. For more than half a century now, psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists and other experts on human behaviour have been asserting that the human brain works like a computer. To see how vacuous this idea is, consider the brains of babies. Thanks to evolution, human neonates, … [Read more...] about Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays
Prince: The Essential Reading List
The first time I saw Prince was on an album cover for Dirty Mind in the 80's. The image of his raw, sexuality is still seared in my brain. Then there was the masterful, pop majesty of his rule-breaking music. The methodology of artists always fascinates me and Prince was extremely prolific. He vowed to write a song a day and not only had a beautiful voice, but often played every instrument on his albums. If that wasn't enough, he wrote hit songs for other artists such as Sinead O'Conner and The Bangles. Over his three-decade-long career, Prince rarely granted interviews, but when he did we glimpsed an intriguing man and a highly disciplined artist. Here is a list at W Magazine at some of his best journalistic moments. Source: Prince Dead at 57: The Essential Reading List … [Read more...] about Prince: The Essential Reading List
Next Generation Atlas Robot Sparks Sympathy and Dread
Boston Dynamics Next Generation Atlas Robot is startling in its ability to handle objects and walk over rough terrain. But even more interesting is the reaction of observers to the robot's plight as his handler Steve pushes him around with a hockey stick. The video has turned out to be an unintended social experiment, eliciting over 24,000 comments, many of which anthropomorphize the robot, while others veer toward paranoid, dystopian scenarios where Atlas is the advanced guard of a robot army. The robot balances by using sensors in its body and legs and LIDAR, a surveying technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser light, as well as stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles and help navigate rough terrain and manipulate objects. Designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings, the new Atlas is 5' 9" tall, 180 pounds, electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. The real question is what will happen when Atlas shows up on the line at an Amazon Warehouse. Will co-workers see the robot as a friend or an enemy? … [Read more...] about Next Generation Atlas Robot Sparks Sympathy and Dread
Bowie’s top 100 books – the complete list – David Bowie Latest News
Originally posted on www.davidbowie.com “Lend us a book we can read up alone” It’s likely that most people reading this will have already seen either the original story on openbookstoronto.com last week, or a version of it referring back to that original list of “DAVID BOWIE'S TOP 100 BOOKS”. There have also been numerous suggestions of a Bowie Book Club to tackle each of the 100 volumes. However, there was a problem with that particular openbookstoronto.com feature in that only 75% of the books were actually listed! For anybody planning on completing this epic voyage of discovery, we’ve listed every single one of the 100 books here (in no particular order) for your reference. You may have also noticed the two chaps in the middle of our montage. Well, it’s none other than David Bowie sporting a Clockwork Orange T-shirt (the book by Anthony Burgess is in the list) with his old chum, George Underwood. George kindly supplied the previously unpublished photograph, which according to him was taken aboard Amtrak somewhere between New Orleans and Chicago on the first US … [Read more...] about Bowie’s top 100 books – the complete list – David Bowie Latest News
What Writers can Learn from Bruce Lee.
Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one— Bruce Lee What can writers learn from Bruce Lee? He defied the odds. He adapted to his environment. He set high standards for himself. He was a creative force, inventing his own style of fighting, Jeet Kune Do, based on traditional Wing Chun. He was a philosopher and communicator who changed the way the West thinks about Martial Arts. What did Bruce Lee think was important? He once said, "Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics. Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development of the individual for participation. ... Jeet Kune Do, ultimately is not a matter of petty techniques but of highly developed spirituality and physique." As a teacher, Bruce Lee advised his students to "Be like Water." “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like … [Read more...] about What Writers can Learn from Bruce Lee.
Happy Halloween!
The Traditional Publishing Industry Is Killing Books | Opinion | teleSUR English
An interesting opinion piece by Tamara Pearson, author of the novel, The Butterfly Prison (Open Books, 2015). She is an activist, journalist, and editor living in Latin America— The publishing industry’s focus on profits amounts to a censoring of a diversity of viewpoints and experience.Books are lives compressed, humanity summarised into screaming or striking stories. One would think the book world would be a safe haven from inequality, but instead the traditional publishing industry – the big corporate publishers - is perpetuating prejudice and limiting ideas by elevating certain authors, characters, and thoughts above all others, with significant social consequences.The big publishers are big businesses with monopolies over a product, as much as other industries. They are driven by profit, rather than the social importance of books, and only publish books that are a sure thing, causing quality to be lost to lowest-common-denominator marketability. Sure things are books by celebrities, books with a guaranteed (forced) market such as text books and required readings in … [Read more...] about The Traditional Publishing Industry Is Killing Books | Opinion | teleSUR English