My bright idea: Guy Deutscher | Science | The Observer

Robert McCrum in My bright idea: Guy Deutscher | Science | The Observer:

writes:

"Guy Deutscher is that rare beast, an academic who talks good sense about linguistics, his chosen field. In his new book, Through the Language Glass (Heinemann), he fearlessly contradicts the fashionable consensus, espoused by the likes of Steven Pinker, that language is wholly a product of nature, that it does not take colour and value from culture and society. Deutscher argues, in a playful and provocative way, that our mother tongue does indeed affect how we think and, just as important, how we perceive the world."

Brain Size Matters... For Video Games

Brain Size Matters... For Video Games

The Enchanted Glass: Scientific American

The Enchanted Glass: Scientific American by Michael Shermer

"Francis Bacon and experimental psychologists show why the facts in science never just speak for themselves."

"Cognitive barriers that color clear judgment presented a major impediment to Bacon's goal. He identified four: idols of the cave (individual peculiarities), idols of the marketplace (limits of language), idols of the theater (preexisting beliefs) and idols of the tribe (inherited foibles of human thought)."

The Subconscious Brain - Who's Minding the Mind? - New York Times

The Subconscious Brain - Who's Minding the Mind? - New York Times:

According to the article, hot-wiring the brain works, so that subconscious inputs precede conscious action - it reminds one of the principle of autosuggestion in hypnotism.

It would seem to this observer that the pathological fixations and obsessions that masquerade today in many places as religion can be explained by this phenomenon. Collections of individuals who have made themselves to believe a given dogma are essentially brainwashed psychopaths.

The question is, how can this be reversed? or can it be reversed?

The Subconscious Brain - Who's Minding the Mind? - New York Times

The Subconscious Brain - Who's Minding the Mind? - New York Times

BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Mind

BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Mind

EDGE

EDGE

"To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves."

UC Berkeley social scientists build case for 'survival of the kindest' | Eureka! Science News

UC Berkeley social scientists build case for 'survival of the kindest' | Eureka! Science News