Posts tagged with “brain”
January 29
My dad on the neocortex
My dad just sent me the following:
On the neocortex,I came up with the ultimate theory ! All creatures function very well without it,they don’t walk into walls,manage to get food,procreate , procreation being the ultimate purpose for being (perpetuation of the species). However,the only time they "feel good" is:
1. Post postprandial satiation.
2. Post coital extasy(mission accomplished)
3. Heat,proper body temperature,hence reptiles happily froliking on rocks.
The sole purpose of the neocortex,therefore,is to be the "feel good" center of the humans.Through billions of synapses we manage to feel good about the crazyest things,music,rollerblades, blowing ourselves up for a cause,believing ! Because we wanted to feel good so badly, the brain developed neocortex and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Any other function is completely irrelevant in the big realm of nature, it’s just that evolution took one of it’s many dead end side trips, armadillos being another !
Now, technically, none of this "life" stuff is necessary in nature’s terms, is it? You could be a paramecium with no nervous system at all and be just fine as well.
But let’s roll with him for a moment. If the sole purpose of the neocortex is the feelgood center, then why would it evolve in the first place? We wouldn’t have a sense of wanting to feel good in the first place to have required its existence. Perhaps if we found a bunch of suicidal lizards back in the day before the neocortex, i would more readily buy it.
But…it’s still a fun idea to write about. Vonnegut would be proud. ;)
02:10 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: brain, mind
Your brain on fiction
From Cory at Boingboing:
”A forthcoming journal article in Psychological Science reports on the research of scientists from the Dynamic Cognition Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis into what brain activity takes place while we read narrative stories. The study concludes that our brains simulate the action in the story, echoing it as we read.”
Further proof that the brain is active during the imagination of events and characters that occurs while reading in the same areas as when it thinks it or does it in the real world. Yet another in a long line of experiments (including the much talked about mirror neurons) that allude to the brain having a single system of representation that is used in many forms. I’m always shocked it takes the science world this long to come to conclusions like this which would seem rather obvious to others. I have to admit I’m always surprised that the research world is surprised by this, and even more that it took them this long to get this far. No offense to you tireless neuroscientists, of course.
Click the image for boingboing’s post on the study.
January 20
A great series of self-induced hallucination experiments, courtesy of the <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/011109_hacking_your_brain/">Boston Globe</a>. These would be fun to have characters try. That, and they certainly help to reveal some basic truths about the association-bound brain, particularly dreams, and our internal map of our body.
01:29 PM
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Tags: inspiration, mind, brain, hallucination
September 08
<p>I've worked it out. There are 5 to the fucking-bloody-helleventy billion possible phenomenological states of the mind for every human that has ever lived and had a thought every half-second. In other words, infinite. Final proof that there is no need for a soul to exist for the experience of life to be completely and ineffibly subjective for each and every one of us. The soul is dead, long live Queen Brainium. </p><p>Maybe this will go into a story as exposition. Maybe it will simply inform a character who is obviously obsessed with such tinkerings. Stay tuned to find out! </p>
10:37 PM
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1 Comment
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Tags: mind, inspiration, brain
August 27
TRANSCRIPT:
…you asking me? Isn’t that what school’s for? Yeah, I know, you’d think. I’m pretty fucking pissed about it actually, but that’s the way it is. (Brain notes)
If you write about normal people doing/struggling with creative things, then you push the idea of everyman creativity. Inspiration from life, and patterns. Wonderment at the human body and the lines and curves that lie just beneath this malleable coating of skin. The blue veins and tendons of the wrist. (Swap Meet notes, Body Parts notes)
I’m all opening sentences, Sybil, but there’s never an end in sight. And don’t even ask me about the middle. The vultures grinded their throats overhead, and Sybil saw the world tinted red.
Mape, is the world red right now? Am I hearing it, or is that just the word we use? Are you even listening to me?
Mape slid backwards and his chair dropped eight inches.
Look at that, said Sybil, seeing a lightning strike blue in the sky.
What the fuck, er…I mean oops, said Mape, sliding off and regarding the slotted wooden floor.
Now how do you account for that, said Sybil.
And isn’t that everything, he said. I need another beer.
Have you noticed how long your beard has grown? It’s been only a few days and its full and white.
I call it my infinite regression.
That waiter came over and said “How’s everything?” for the fiftieth time and Sybil ran her fingers through her hair, listening to the swaths of yellow. He continued: “I bet you just wrote something about a waiter coming over, didn’t you?
Mind control! Shouted Mape, but he was kidding.
“Yeah, yeah, no, I’m the same way.” Neither had realized Mape was scribbling.
“Where’d this come from anyway,” said Mape.
“You stole it off a dead cop on horseback. You probably don’t remember because the horse kicked you in the head. But noooooooooo, no hospital for you, tough guy.”
“Are you out of your mind, woman?” said Mape, rising and pulling a smoke grenade from his pocket. “Come on. He’snever coming with that check anyway,” and he pulled the pin and he heard the hiss and they both watched the color pink spread and stretch at their ankles as they passed the waiter with the check, skipping… (Sybil & Mape notes)
10:33 AM
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Tags: swapmeet, brain, book of ideas, notes, moleskin, body parts, sybil and mape
TRANSCRIPT:
…the light of the world. Were they folding or unfolding through space or with space, he wondered. And as they flew past and as they cut his face and as they pelted the leather duffel on the ground beside his chair, Chingo pulled the single-shot pistol from his lap and show a one-eighth inch ball of lead deep into the old man’s head. (Chingo notes, morning sketch)
Write from the POV of a blind person.
Write with synaesthesia (story starters, obstructions)
Video input and sound visualization as an interactive story (multimedia)
“Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia”-type opening line.
The iconoclasts
Story about a vivarium shopkeeper who’s battling the creeping ice plants and who meets Alexis the Mexican beauty. (story starter)
Phantos is concerned with health, and is very knowledgable about nutrition, despite his misanthropy. It is his brand of humanism. (Molasses notes)
Big motherfucking belt buckles. (story starter)
A beautiful day. Hot, sunny, and warm. Not the type of day you expect to need a snow shovel. The smell is strong thorugh and by now the dying are dead and what’s left is bodies, not peole. They must find someone alive earlier, and show more relief effort. (Molasses notes)
Lazy bastard. Youth never thinks of anyone except itself. That statement says that it thinks about other youth too, but that’s not what you mean, right? Right.
Glasses and a goatee. You must be a writer, no? A nervous jitter too? You must be a real writer. (random notes)
“John, I need a brain.”
“Oh, don’t put yourself down all the time.”
“No, I mean it. I need an actual brain.” Pause. “In addition to my own.” Pause. “I’m serious.”
“What do you mean you’re serious? You’re a zombie now?”
“It’s for school, stupid.”
“Well, I figured, but why the hell are…. (Brain notes)
08:33 AM
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Tags: story starter, multimedia, morning, chingo, book of ideas, notes, moleskin, obstruction, brain, molasses