sci fi
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On sleep and creativity
Just came across a nice little article by Ed Yong on how the two major phases of sleep — REM and slow-wave sleep — might contribute to creativity. These ideas have been floating around for a while, but it’s nice to see them in a pop sci article. A New Theory Linking Sleep and Creativity
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How many minds can one organism have? (Answer: One.)
I was asked this question on Quora: Do the two halves of the brain have wills of their own? Can they dislike each other or fight? Here’s my answer: It’s very difficult to define what exactly the will is in neuroscientific terms. It seems best to reserve this word for the whole organism, rather than…
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“Are thoughts just a bunch of electrical and chemical signals being tossed around inside the brain, or is there more to it than that?”
“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of…” The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis I really like the quote above, which is from the Chronicles of Narnia.…
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Yanny or Laurel? A perspective from the science of mind and brain
I really like the Yanny versus Laurel meme, which exploded yesterday. It helps illustrate some key points about human perception: In some situations people can differ wildly in their experience of low-level perception. Active top-down expectations (and other, weirder processes) have a strong effect on low-level perception. So basically, it’s an auditory version of #ThatDress.