‘Dunn doesn’t think that a language-specific brain module evolved and gave rise to predictable language structures. Instead, he believes language—in all its messy complexity—emerged once humans reached a certain level of cognitive capacity. “The module thing started with the computer metaphor for the human brain, and I think this was of some use at the time,” he says. “But really, it’s a little bit deceiving. It’s all a much more ramshackle, muddled-up biological system.”’
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Nature of Stateless Societies
# 2014.09.20 – 14:18
Quote from Tumblr
Every technology has a prejudice. Like language itself, it predisposes us to favor and value certain perspectives and accomplishments. In a culture without writing, human memory is of the greatest importance, as are the proverbs, sayings and songs which contain the accumulated oral wisdom of centuries. That is why Solomon was thought to be the wisest of men. In Kings I we are told he knew 3,000 proverbs. But in a culture with writing, such feats of memory are considered a waste of time, and proverbs are merely irrelevant fancies. The writing person favors logical organization and systematic analysis, not proverbs. The telegraphic person values speed, not introspection. The television person values immediacy, not history…
Neil Postman
# 2014.09.19 – 12:52
Quote from Tumblr
Perhaps every science must start with metaphor and end with algebra; and perhaps without the metaphor there would never have been any algebra.
Max Black
# 2014.09.19 – 08:57
Tweet by kissane
You’ll see others pointing to this post by @doingitwrong. It is extraordinary and important and do read it, please. http://t.co/8dP929tbez
— Erin Kissane (@kissane) September 18, 2014
via http://twitter.com/kissane
# 2014.09.18 – 16:38
Masters of Earth, Alone in the Universe
E.O. Wilson: “The products of the opposing two vectors in natural selection are hardwired in our emotions and reasoning, and cannot be erased. Internal conflict is not a personal irregularity but a timeless human quality. No such conflict exists or can exist in an eagle, fox or spider, for example, whose traits were born solely of individual selection, or a worker ant, whose social traits were shaped entirely by group selection.”
# 2014.09.18 – 07:15
Can we lead spiritually fulfilling lives without religion? – The Week
“…a long series of philosophers and psychologists from the 17th century down to the present day have developed a range of concepts for understanding selfhood. At their most elaborate, they combine at least three dimensions: a range of desires rooted in the body; a tendency toward communal interaction with and relation to others; and a capacity for standing back from the world and oneself in a state of dispassionate reflection or observation.”
# 2014.09.17 – 09:55
Vimeo: Cellular Forms : an artistic exploration of morphogenesis
Cellular Forms : an artistic exploration of morphogenesis
# 2014.09.16 – 22:53
Quote from Tumblr
I think I’ve approached it rather imaginatively, rather than intellectually. I don’t believe in having a reason for everything. I think the dove should descend. And sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Ernest Milton
# 2014.09.15 – 14:49
YouTube: Orson Welles and Peter O’Toole on Hamlet
Orson Welles and Peter O’Toole on Hamlet
# 2014.09.15 – 14:13
Ghostbusting Lovecraft
“This, then, is the world-view Ghostbusters offers in place of the Cthonic duality. As in Lovecraft we have a surface world of institutions, with a horror zone beneath—which, if you read human history, is not far from the truth. Many bodies lie buried beneath our marble facades. But if you press through the marble and the rot—which takes work, humility, courage, and a sense of humor—you’ll be able to connect with living breathing human beings.”
# 2014.09.15 – 08:59
Awe, With And Without The Gods
“In an influential 2003 paper, psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt argued that awe is characterized by two central features: vastness and accommodation. Vastness describes the experience of something larger than the self, whether that vastness is a matter of physical size or of metaphorical size, such as great power. Accommodation refers to the need to modify one’s current mental structures to make sense of the experience — whether or not such modification is actually enacted or succeeds.”
# 2014.09.14 – 21:57
Why I Just Asked My Students To Put Their Laptops Away… — Medium
“After reading Haidt, I’ve stopped thinking of students as people who simply make choices about whether to pay attention, and started thinking of them as people _trying_ to pay attention but having to compete with various influences, the largest of which is their own propensity towards involuntary and emotional reaction.”
# 2014.09.13 – 22:37
How the Internet, Dopamine and your Brain are Working Together to Screw Your Potential.
“For the purpose of this exercise lets say there are two types of creators which will follow later with the two types of cognitive functions involved in each: Replication Creators (RC) and Skilled Creators (SC).”
# 2014.09.11 – 19:09
The American Scholar: Instant Gratification – Paul Roberts
“But this new efficiency has had serious downsides—not least in the mismatch between the self-gratifying power available to consumers and consumers’ ability to manage it all. Humans, it’s safe to say, were not designed for a world of such easy gratification. Decades of research suggest that our brains, adapted for a prehistoric world of scarce resources and infrequent opportunities, are wired to prioritize immediate rewards and costs and to disregard rewards and costs that occur in the future. This natural bias against the future, so essential for our ancestors, is an Achilles’ heel in a modern economy built around immediate pleasure and deferred pain. Nearly every consumer proposition today, from credit to fast food and entertainment to social media and online shopping, capitalizes on our anti-future bias: in all cases, we’re provided immediate pleasure, while any costs, whether financial, physical, or emotional, are deferred so seamlessly that they vanish from our perception.”
# 2014.09.11 – 09:39