Saturday, July 30, 2011

Bookforum - Questioning the authority of your brain

In yesterday's collections of links, Bookforum included another series of brain, mind, and behavior links (and some philosophy) - some good, some not so much. I present all of them for your Saturday surfing pleasure.

Maree Kimberley (QUT): Neuroscience and Young Adult Fiction: A Recipe for Trouble? A review of Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives by Dean Buonomano. Has the Internet become an external hard drive for the brain? According to a new paper, reading a short article which argues that free will is an illusion causes measurable changes in brain function. The first chapter from The Recursive Mind: The Origins of Human Language, Thought, and Civilization by Michael Corballis. The neurobiology of bliss: Sex in the brain, and what it reveals about the neuroscience of deep pleasure. A review of How Intelligence Happens by John Duncan. Top ten myths about the brain: When it comes to this complex, mysterious, fascinating organ, what do — and don’t — we know? A review of The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good by David Linden. R.U. Sirius on questioning the authority of your brain. The limits of intelligence: The laws of physics may well prevent the human brain from evolving into an ever more powerful thinking machine. Simon Baron-Cohen reviews The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human by V. S. Ramachandran. Sean Carroll on how free will is as real as baseball. Sam Harris on free will (and why you still don't have it). The design of the brain: Evan Lerner on the design of something that wasn’t designed at all. A review of How the Mind Uses the Brain: To Move the Body and Image the Universe by Ralph Ellis and Natika Newton. A review of What Should We Do with Our Brain? by Catherine Malabou. We often think of mathematics as a language, but does our brain process mathematical structures in the same way as it processes language?


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