Birds plan for the future

Neurophilosophy



"Minds are what brains do" (Marvin Minsky)









:-0 Don't you just love thinking... knowledge...



Today I was talking with Carlitos about Euclid's Method, and some of the inconsistencies in his propositions.. (we learn from generation to generation)



I guess we are simply a very lucky breed of animal.. :D

Instant Lakes and 5,000 year old Plants

Este articulo en National Geographic. "I can tell you that at Qori Kalis [in Peru], there's a lake that formed there that didn't exist until 1991. But the lake now covers 84 acres [34 hectares] and it's 200 feet [61 meters] deep." "It's too late for some of these glaciers," he said. "People will have to adapt to change. That's all." En otro articulo de la misma revista: "Dead goblin sharks are caught from time to time, but it is rarely seen alive," a park official told the AFP news agency. "We were able to document the way the shark swims. After it died, we dissected the specimen for further studies."

But the unusual find is giving scientists déjà vu.

Earlier this month another deep-sea prehistoric shark had been found in Japan—a frilled shark spotted on January 21 that, like the goblin, died quickly in captivity. ;) Bienvenidos al nuevo milenio.

OO's and BB's

Cosmic Variance has this post in their blog:
OO are Ordinary Observers, and BB's are Boltzman Brains...
Along the same lines as given enough time 1000 monkeys can rewrite Shakespeare; given enough time, Quantum Mechanics can recreate Intelligent Observers...

If and after the Universe dies out via heat-death expansion (no more stars, and such), in astronomically distinct time scales. the universe will be dominated by these BB's as OO's will die out.

WTF!!!

Don Page says, WTF too, and that these conclusions must mean the universe is 'decaying'...

All this reminds me of a short story by Asimov, (one sent to me by Ruben) The Last Question

And some of you may know my very personal and informal stance regarding the second law of thermodynamics....

Also I believe I once told Luis Jose about the 1000 monkey's problem, and its miss use. One must first demonstrate that the odds truely and unequivocally Increase through time. One can't just simply jump the gun. For example, monkeys probably won't have an appropriate lifespan and they most very likely die off before they ever finish hamlet.

In any case, I digress. And I contradict my own denial of the second law of thermodynamics. Still... I now understand Asimov's own point of view... And as ever I am awed by his foresight.

PS: My mind is just like Kurt's or my Dad's, it only just happens while discussing these subjects... please help me correct all the loose ends, and incoherent thoughts I just wrote... :/ :p

Wow..... Que Foto!

Cosmic Variance has this post in there blog: "Archaeologists from Valdaro, Italy, have unearthed a pair of skeletons — a couple who died young, and have been hugging for the last five thousand years. Take that, Andrew Marvell!

Commentators were unsure of many of the basic facts about the Neolithic couple — whether they died simultaneously or one followed the other, whether it was a sudden accident or a ritual sacrifice, or even whether they are man and woman or a same-sex couple.

Opinion is unanimous, however, that they are awfully cute."

Dependent personality disorder

En Wikipedia hay un articulo ahi sobre Dependent Personality Disorder... también esta Avoidant Personality Disorder... No se... me pareció curioso... la sicología es realmente un tema muy interesante... la mente humana es (para mi) una maquina muy compleja... y muy interesante... PD: A los sicólogos como que les gustan los Mnemónicos... (I wonder if it makes them feel witty). ;)

code joke

warfish.net

Visit warfish.net where you can play an online Risk game.. :p

Philosotainment

As if the world doesn't have enough false prophets.... At least Scott Adams had the decency to fess up...

"I know my readers, and some of you will start squawking that I clearly believe every word I write, as evidenced by (fill in the blank with evidence). This philosotainment thing, some will say, is just a way to cover for my long history of embarrassing stupidity. That’s probably why only someone like me could invent philosotainment; I don’t mind that people think I’m a clueless goober as long as they enjoy themselves while thinking it."

PS: All information supplied by Ruben!

Absa Cape Epic

Esa es la competencia en la que va a participar un amigo mio en Sur África.

How psychopaths work

Este articulo en HowStuffWorks habla sobre el comportamiento neuronal de los psicópatas... je... sus cerebros son encapases de empatia. Por otro lado yo puedo apostar que de igual mayoría de las personas tímidas tienen una alta capacidad de empatia. O sus cerebros son mas activos cuando tienen que identificar las imágenes. De hecho hay una condición medica que tiene que ver con una tensión social... Tiene que ser el opuesto.

Este es el reportaje original.

"When the non-psychopathic subjects saw a happy face, the fusiform and extrastriate regions of the brain -- the areas primarily responsible for processing images of facial expressions -- showed increased activity compared to their response to a neutral face. The psychopathic brains also showed increased activity in response to the happy faces, although less of an increase than in the non-psychopathic group. However, whereas the non-psychopathic subjects showed a similar increase in brain activity in response to the distressed faces, the psychopathic subjects did not. In fact, when the psychopaths were shown sad or fearful faces, their brain scans actually showed less neural activity than when they were shown neutral faces."

500kV Switch Opening