[work in progress blag] 
"I can’t free will into his brain."
I had the pleasure of seeing a QA and book reading (well, was really off the cuff actually) by David Eagleman, with his new book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain.
The brain is fascinating, more powerful then the combined computer capacity of the entire spectrum of computing power (argumentative, but nothing can imitate consciousness, ergo, Moot.) The more one dives into Neuroscience, the more uncomfortable people of all spectrums get over "free will" and eventually, religion, the "spirit" etc.
That is fine..Eagleman is not here to hit you over the head that you have no free will, rather, he states he cannot conclude one direction or the other. More rational then really any other path to take. Silly to assert a singular knowledge of free-will, or lack of free-will, as it cannot be proven or disproven, I dare say!
tldr;
- Brains are not created equal, are constrained like a net via environment, genes and past experiences. This constrains actions / reactions, but does not forgive actions chosen by other people to be against social structured norms. Custom penal brain treatment is a necessary (or idealic) future. You cannot "will" your way into certain things..try changing your sexual preference.
- Eagleman pronounces psychopathy "psychAWpUthy," amusing! Our cortex seems to be the "magic" of making humans, human.
- "oh, sanity is a legal, not a scientific term, just to be clear" | "life is too complicated and crime is too circumstantial"
/tldr
>is Eaglemen
This is me
Start:
Look for comparisons to Neuropath. Already, very cogent.
>Man has written for Wired (audio), several other publications, a "expert" guest on television, specifically celebrities, "why" oh "why" do people do what they do, etc. Has an intense focus into criminology, rehabilitation and a rightful disdane for the American Prison system.
>Our brains are made up of Billions of neurons each as "complex as a city" (it is so hard to wrap ones head around micro and macro examples..what is a trillion dollars [link blog, scale of our minds, the inability to grasp: excercise, picture 1 person. Picture 5, duplcates, picture 10, 10 x 10, picture..10 of those 10..find pic] what is a neuron?]
>We are at a strange point where, by examining our own brains, we are basically computer systems turning their own web camera’s inside, into the circuitry and guts, of its own mechanisms (he has a fondness for Mechanical comparisons, which is interesting in itself)
>1 cubic Centimeter of the brain (did he say CM?) roughly equal to the complexity and scope of the Milky Way Galaxy.
>Like an Alien computational fabric
A 3 lb Lump of existence…
Question: REM dreams as a Valve or release of far too much input. >Studies, across generations, age groups, regions, war zones vs "peaceful" zones have shown no distinct differences in dream conduction. In itself interesting.
> Dilated eye study on attraction, where only difference in a female model for observation of attractiveness was, dilation of the pupils: a sign of sexual readiness. on brain receptors to marijuana or other drugs / dilation and sexual promiscuity
>Interesting discussion on the blanking of ones consciousness to allow the uber unconsciousness (uber, as in, much larger in our decisions and automaton reactions) to take over; a concert pianist, a sports athelete [the "muse" blog on creativity, what is that tapping into, if unconscious "training" leads to super-elites at a sport / activity "zoning" into an activity, then where does Creativity come from? Perhaps the War of Art has a lovey answer] – Wired Magazine article citation perhaps
Days later, some synchronous threads, conversation on Blink and Deliberate Practice, how too much information leads to poor decision making, or How Iraq Destroyed the US in 2001.
"Blink" about Millennium Challenge, which was the $500 million war game the Pentagon conducted in 2001. It was an elaborate dress rehearsal for the Iraq War, with one side "playing" the U.S. and another team playing Iraq — and Iraq won. The chapter is all about how that happened, and it focuses on a retired Marine Corps General named Paul Van Riper, who was playing Saddam Hussein. [Gladwell Interview Source]
>You are not One thing, you are multitudes – several sub populations of minds for behavior. This sounds like one of those "duh" statements, which, you only think "duh" after it is stated. – but can neuroscience explain "bad" behavior / competing networking’s EG: short-term gratification vs. long term Rational goals.
me: I picture globes of networked neuron lightening fire storms, bumping, smashing, contracting and expanding around one another, subjugating or dying, blogging, taking over and setting up a New path of behavior from the competing take over. Setting threads and collapsing potential infinite possibilities of ones life.
>Ulysses Contract – or binding behaviors that people do to change habits, neurosis, etc. Wiki / study link. Those things you "promise" yourself; drug dealers, forming new Ulysses Contracts, EG: avoiding certain people, (his off hand comment was very insightful next) or not carrying $20 or more in cash, not walking down a street alley.
>Social Policy – you are not as in charge as you might think – still more references to Machine / Mechanical functions – gears, no choice, environment, things of that nature.
[cite study on 0-2 development importance. Jared Polis, of TEDxBoulder 2010, US Representative on the importance and a fascinating model of "financing" 0-2 age education for profit / social capital http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kXEbQXzvxE http://www.icosamag.com/_webapp_1151071/Closing_the_Education_Gap "“Hemispheric human capital development is the critical competitive advantage of the future."
>Genes, no choice in that matter, environment, this Wires your brain and "constrains" (fascinating) into who who are. Constrain, is the big key I take away from that, like a net holding in ones subconscious and the potentials of choice in situations.
Picture a slow wire mesh forming about your actions growing "flock" of flying actions..slowly enmeshing those actions tighter in a certain environment and spacial possibility of your choices.
Very cool - study, brain tumor, turned a guy into a pedophile, then, retracted pedophilia tendencies once removed. Came back to a degree, found a "slight" bit left, pedophiliac tendencies gone.- but, the book contains several "lot's of examples" of brain wiring changing people.
>Myth of Equality - all brains being created equal.
Remember the Jar or Vat philosophy / argument: Wikipedia
However, Eagleman makes a solid point that we are more then just a vacuumed space of a Brain. We are a nervous system, limbs, senses, immune system, etc. If one isolated just a brain in a jar, the experiences of that brain would be significantly different (nice point, something to think more [blog] on..what would a Jar’d brain do, in control of a facility, for example..funny story potential).
>Brains are more like fingerprints..~30% of incarcerated prisoners are mentally ill – demand / brain side circuitry of addiction.
Glad he touched on recidivism in prisoners
His vision / some implementation on "custom penal brain treatment." Interesting, thoughtful notion.
>10 year long study on sex offenders [why are people obsessed with fixing sex offenders? probably because they have a "better" recidivism rate vs drug abusers, who tend to die or lapse 90% vs 45-65%, though, I contend the damage of a drug addict killing themselves is far less imprinting then fucking up a generation via a lapsed sex offender]
>brought up a risque [google] NY Times article [he?] did – of course. [can't find, found different one on war / short vs long term and American syndromes]
Q & A
The first question, of course comes from a semi indignant older gal on religion – neuroscience as a product of our unconsciousness = scary as hell to religious folks – new witch hunt in the future if we devolve I imagine
>Universe, us, as neurons, our inner complexity "luminous"
A gorgeous word.
>Sympathetic system, such as monks being able to control body temperature, blood flow to a certain limb via "thought..are only scratching the surface" (fascinating)
Good question on psychopathy (he pronounces psychAWpUthy) – what do you do? Their is NO good rehab system for psychopaths.
That, is pretty thought provoking.
>However, we can never pre-punish, their is "never cause for pre-punishment" – "life is too complicated and crime is too circumstantial"
(love that quote)
>Free Will – he cannot conclude yes, or no (many of his colleagues conclude No), but, if you do have free will, it is "but a bit player in the system" nice.
>Imagine sexual preference. Take your preference, male or female, and try to "free will" your way into changing that. Just like you can’t use "my freewill" to "be like him" a psychopathic murderer, who, gets "excited" over the actual pain / death of another human. "I can’t free will into his brain." Fantastic point, on you can never (be in another brain). This alludes to the hard-wiring of gene vs nature, but, "that argument is over, it is always both."
>Back to dream studies – different ages, cultures, the 1960′s, war zones, all the "same stuff."
>Children have no concept of time (cool, re-research that from child dev. research), they must learn it. The frontal lobe develops the slowest of the rest of the brain, "slowest, but higher consciousness"
>Sanity question: brilliant retort "oh, sanity is a legal, not a scientific term, just to be clear" love that. He has excellent QA command, probably from years as a "guest expert," talk shows, etc. Even stuffing what I feared a dangerous path into a 20 minute stupid discussion on religion and free-will in a round about "noone will convince or unconvince" style argument
[twitter the sanity]
[twitter him neuropath]
>Epigenetics – new study, [research, sounds interesting] – you can’t change your genome, but, you can change how they are expressed (very cool)
I asked the question of Archetypes, I meant Jungian / culture, but, thats a silly question mostly related to evolution / genetics (or is it, rephrase it to mean something in neuroscience)- he took it as Personality types.
What was interesting: the DSM IV STILL judges personalities as "one or the other" never a sliding scale, it is only RECENTLY that sliding scales are being studied / introduced into V.
>Our brains are the densist (most dense) part of us, but, we have physical endocrine, hormones, etc. Brain in a jar would experience a much different experience [condense to above blurb]
Begs the question of our potential in removing physical stimuli, ala, Isolation Tanks. We could get deep [link Conspiracy theory crap] on the whole Aliens are our future / time traveling curious bug studiers. Larger brains (at odds with the "dense" question of Albert Einstein), physically week bodies. I doubt sexual attraction / the Sexual Evolution (read the book, The Red Queen..think only, of a peackock, and how, that giant tail really doesn’t enable better "survival of the fitest" rather, survival of the "sexiest")
>Why are we human? Good question.. Cortex seems to to be "the magic stuff" for separating / uniqueness of the brain. We have ~4 sheets of paper (as a rough example) of cortex, vs a close cousin, apes, who have 1 sheet of cortex. And the frontal lobe – socialization, higher functioning.
>Good ending question, but a better question before: Eagleman cites the conscious brain as the CEO of the brain, who, would fuck up an organization getting into the details of the "mailroom" but, is that not at odds with the rest of the assertation that really, we have little "control" over our own actual subconsciousness which dictates much of our behavior? I think this was the only question (and it IS a shitty analogy) that he failed to address. Perhaps the book is more indepth. Rather, he probably was trying to embody an easily accessible object, persona, hot-item (news now days, pay and all that).
Ramble ramble..
Is Fiction more accessible then Scientific studies distilled for layman consumption? Neuropath. I believe so..Neuropath has murdered the minds of all my friends who have burned through it, in a good way, for a week or so. Good, to make you think. Thinking, is good. Bleeding your soul dead with a constant stream of music, television, a shit job and social drama leads to numbness of being with oneself. Meaning, people are "scared" of silence, thought, inner reflection, and the like.
NewScientist video: a basic run down of altruism, violence, etc. tends to rise (or anti-societal behavior) with more believe in a lack of free will, but, when getting back to the "real" world (out of a lab), we still act within most social norms accordingly.
Existentialism tends to scare the shit out of people, that, their is no meaning, ergo, Archetypes of God, Soul, and other uber consciousness’ start floating along our genetics, so we don’t kill ourselves. Much existentialism leads to depression, because most paths to existentialism comes via the way of societal withdraw. This, is depression, and in itself, no meaning. People, connectivity, relationships, friends, family and lovers, is meaning, even without a God or afterlife. I am coming to realize that the world, for me, has no meaning, and that is ok. Why no meaning? I, will be dead. Perhaps, I will have children. Perhaps, they will. I will still be dead. This, has no meaning. Excepting perhaps the propagation of human life, a selfish genetic component of my biology fucking with my free will to bang every two legged female in sight.
But, the more educated [cite] folks become, the less children they have. So, is this evolution to the point of extincting the species? Or a determined path to Singularism with computers, unnecessary of biological reproduction (now thats a goddamn leap of thought process.) However, the God archetype could have another use only in the sense of giving meaning to the Others in your life. Why have children, outside of physical pleasure, if Their lives, are also meaningless. If Everything is meaningless, why do anything? Well, because you are stuck, on this rock (forever [cite why were not leaving the solar system]) and, its either kill yourself and stop wasting peoples time, or make those small steps to happiness. Because, when you are happy, it is, such, beauty.
Personally, it doesn’t matter to me whether we are in a deterministic world, God world, atheist, selfish-gened out dystop/utopia. It is only very, very interesting, disgusting, beautiful and as such, is, life.
Then, I took off to a Trojan Party from some Burning folks.
