The Limits Of Neuroscience, Ctd

Neil deGrasse Tyson guides you through a long and lively introduction to the field:

Psychiatrist Sally Satel and psychology professor Scott Lilienfeld have a new book out, Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience, which stresses that there are limits to what brain science can teach us. Neuroskeptic praises the book:

The overselling and misinterpretation of neuroscience is everywhere, because – for some reason – we’ve convinced ourselves that the human brain, which has been working away quite steadily for 50,000 years, has suddenly become more important.

Also praising Brainwashed, David Brooks happily downplays neuroscience:

The brain is not the mind. It is probably impossible to look at a map of brain activity and predict or even understand the emotions, reactions, hopes and desires of the mind. … [T]here appears to be no dispersed pattern of activation that we can look at and say, “That person is experiencing hatred.”

Gary Marcus counters Brooks:

It is reasonable to think, based on current research, that no single spot of the brain maps to hatred. But there is no principled reason to think that we will never be able to find some neural pattern, or set of patterns, that correspond to that emotion. …

[T]he idea that the mind is separate from the brain no longer makes sense. They are simply different ways of describing the same thing. To talk about the brain is to talk about physiology, neurons, receptors, and neurotransmitters; to talk about the mind is to talk about thoughts, ideas, beliefs, emotions, and desires. As an old and elegant phrase puts it, “The mind is what the brain does.”

Satel sums up:

The brain creates the mind through the actions of neurons and circuits, yes, but it cannot reveal its nuanced contents. … No matter how intricately scientists understand the brain, they won’t be able to answer why we sabotage ourselves—the question that, in some form or another, has launched a zillion therapy hours. It won’t compel us to adopt a new moral code or revamp our system of criminal justice. … [B]rain-based explanations of our longings, exploits, and foibles are sure to break our hearts.

An excerpt from the book is here.  Previous Dish on the subject here and here.

Quote For The Day

“Anxiety may be compared with dizziness. He whose eye happens to look down the yawning abyss becomes dizzy. But what is the reason for this? It is just as much in his own eye as in the abyss, for suppose he had not looked down. Hence, anxiety is the dizziness of freedom, which emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom looks down into its own possibility, laying hold of finiteness to support itself. Freedom succumbs to dizziness. Further than this, psychology cannot and will not go. In that very moment everything is changed, and freedom, when it again rises, sees that it is guilty. Between these two moments lies the leap, which no science has explained and which no science can explain. He who becomes guilty in anxiety becomes as ambiguously guilty as it is possible to become,” – Søren Kierkegaard, from his 1844 work The Concept of Anxiety.

The Best Of The Dish Today

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This story about the insane war on marijuana should make you sit up straight. The House Tea Party Republicans destroyed another bill, when they could have reformed it to their liking. The thing they most have in common: hatred of Obama, one of the more congenial presidents we’ve had in a long while.  A victim and survivor of “reparative therapy” for homosexuality, earned a victory lap. If you want to know what the latest NSA leaks reveal, we surveyed the field of opinion. And Islam is for to have fun!

The most popular posts of the day remained An Unconditional Surrender In The Culture War and the latest installment of “The Cannabis Closet“: “Home Invasion.”

See you tomorrow.

(Photo: Lazarus by Jacob Epstein by a Dominican monk on Flickr)

A Constellation Of Cities

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For his series Lightscapes, designer Troy Hyde created flickering GIFs from satellite images of cities across the globe:

Much like someone on earth looking up at the night sky to admire the twinkling stars, this collection reverses the perspective of the viewer as though they are in the sky looking down at the sparkling dance of manmade lights on our planet. Each flicker seems to signify a sense of life and movement.

The artist says, “The impact of human industry is visible; the work captures a contemporary, transient vision of earth which is different from it’s past and will inevitably change. The work engages with the issue of light pollution, but is intended to be observational, encouraging the viewer to experience the beauty of the lightscape simultaneously with the uncomfortable recognition of the uncertainty of the future.”

(Image: Las Vegas, Nevada, by Troy Hyde)

Diversity Pays Dividends, Ctd

A reader complements this post:

When I worked at ESPN in the mid ’90s, we had to attend diversity training. One story told in the training classes really struck me. I’ve been repeating the story for years and have tried to determine it’s true or apocryphal, without success.  Maybe Dish readers have more info? It goes like this:

When Mobil was first experimenting with the technology for pay-at-the-pump at gas stations, the Board of Directors had to approve more investment money. At one Board meeting, discussion ensued and they voted it down. All of the people at the table were men, of course (this was maybe the early ’80s?). The Board left the room and one of them was walking to back to his office with his secretary, who had attended to take notes. He mentioned the pay-at-the-pump technology and said he saw no need for it. His secretary – female of course – then said something like: “Well, it would be real convenient for me with the kids. I wouldn’t have to take them out of the car and into the gas station to pay and then pack them all back up in the car. Especially the baby.”

A light bulb went off and the BoD member related it to the other members. Eventually the money was approved and the rest is history. Clearly, the point of using this story in a diversity training class was: not only listen but actively request feedback and input from people who are not like you. You might miss great opportunities if you don’t.

P.S. Love that your VFYW on Friday was a great picture of the American flag. On Flag Day. You guys are awesome.

Face Of The Day

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Revelers celebrate the pagan festival of ‘Summer Solstice’ at Stonehenge in Wiltshire in southern England, on June 21, 2013. The festival, which dates back thousands of years, celebrates the longest day of the year when the sun is at its maximum elevation. Modern druids and people gather at the landmark Stonehenge every year to see the sun rise on the first morning of summer. By Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images.

The Recipe For Revenue

Alex Mayyasi reveals where restaurants make their money:

The best profit margins in the restaurant industry come from drinks. Beverages offer 80% profit margins or more in a business where 4% or lower margins are common. That’s why they represent, on average, 30% of restaurants’ revenues.

Dunkin Donuts recently relabelled itself a “beverages company,” acknowledging that revenue-wise, it is actually in the coffee business. Without admitting it, many restaurants are an overpriced drinks company in disguise. While restaurants could use profits from drinks to subsidize great food, you need to be on the lookout for restaurants that lavish their time and money on bartenders, unique drink menus, and a venue that makes you feel okay about spending $12 for a cocktail.

The Meaning Of Zombies

Do they represent terrorism, or consumerism?

Meanwhile, the release of the Brad Pitt blockbuster World War Z causes Michale Vlahos to consider the success of the novel and the meaning of zombie culture in general:

Like Tolstoy, the main purpose of World War Z is the celebration and reinforcement of collective meaning and belief. Tolstoy was building a narrative of Russian identity that would transcend the venality and ruling impoverishments of his time. He hoped it would show the way to something true and beautiful for all Russians. Max Brooks does this for us in World War Z, offering a believable path to reclaiming ourselves. For Americans this path has always been about sacrifice and the rediscovery of civic virtue. At novel’s end, those remaining Americans, whose way of life is now back to something like 1920, are yet better Americans for their privation and sacrifice.

But most important, the Americans in World War Z have cast off their former narcissism, today’s it’s-all-about-me mentality. The faux elective wars and their remorseless cheerleading too are over.