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The brain… it makes you think. Doesn't it? 
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Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2012 2:36 pm
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Post The brain… it makes you think. Doesn't it?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/ ... ond-tallis

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It is clear at this point that we are irrevocably tied to the 3lb of strange computational material found within our skulls. The brain is utterly alien to us, and yet our personalities, hopes, fears and aspirations all depend on the integrity of this biological tissue. How do we know this? Because when the brain changes, we change. Our personality, decision-making, risk-aversion, the capacity to see colours or name animals – all these can change, in very specific ways, when the brain is altered by tumours, strokes, drugs, disease or trauma. As much as we like to think about the body and mind living separate existences, the mental is not separable from the physical.


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A person is not a single entity of a single mind: a human is built of several parts, all of which compete to steer the ship of state. As a consequence, people are nuanced, complicated, contradictory. We act in ways that are sometimes difficult to detect by simple introspection


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Even if that community ultimately originated from brains, this was the work of trillions of brains over hundreds of thousands of years: individual, present-day brains are merely the entrance ticket to the drama of social life, not the drama itself. Trying to understand the community of minds in which we participate by imaging neural tissue is like trying to hear the whispering of woods by applying a stethoscope to an acorn


Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:08 pm
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Post Re: The brain… it makes you think. Doesn't it?
Good stuff! Thanks.

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Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:42 am
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