Seasons
This is a forum or general chit-chat, small talk, a "hey, how ya doing?" and such. Or hell, get crazy deep on something. Whatever you like.
Posts 2,518 - 2,529 of 6,170
Posts 2,518 - 2,529 of 6,170
I have found that sometimes when I listen to trance music, I go into a weak state of hypnosis, where I sometimes lose awareness of my surroundings and just flow with my introverted thoughts... is this only me, or does trance do this to everyone?
Bev - I got an E-mail around a week ago regarding the new IBM blue gene supercomputer brain simulation - the blue brain. Upon reading the sight at the link that you provided, I came across this -
"Some academics, such as Roger Penrose of Oxford University, argue that brains do not work in a way comparable with a computer, so any kind of simulation that is built on digital architecture and uses traditional programming techniques is doomed to failure. Dr Penrose thinks that exotic quantum processes are involved in the generation of consciousness. The Blue Brain project will help to determine whether he is right or wrong."
I completely agree with Dr. Penrose. Here is why.
The computer today runs on the binary system. Why the Binary system? Because it is the most economical for CPU manufacturing. In the early days, before transisters and IC's, computers used analog vaccum tubes. That was too unecconomical. But, in switching to digital processing, we have lost a vital element that I think is needed for replication of a a brain that will induce intelligence and conciousness. You see, the binary system can only perform mathematical equations one at a time, while our brains function with millions of neurons and synapses carrying messages all simultaniously, and completely randomly generating conciousness. Further research in that field may shed some light on abstract thought... Here is an excerpt from an E-mail I recieved regarding Disassociative Identity Disorder, where they were discussing the construction of the brain in relation to what may cause this disorder.. they had suggested that the two hemispheres of the brain were connected by the corpus callosum, and this connection is what unified conciousness. Here is the counterargument:
"A more plausible theory is that which is emerging from both biology and
artificial intelligence. As Daniel Dennett, the philosopher, puts it:
Complex systems can in fact function in what seems to be a thoroughly
purposeful and integrated way simply by having lots of subsystems
doing their own thing without any central supervision. The self, then,
is not what it seems to be. There is no soul, no spirit, no supervisor.
There is just a brain, a dull grey collection of neurons and neural
pathways -- going about its business. The illusion of self is merely a
by-product of the brains organisational sophistication."
Daniel Dennett stressed a good point: Complex systems can in fact function in what seems to be a thoroughly
purposeful and integrated way simply by having lots of subsystems
doing their own thing without any central supervision.
Now the computer, cannot do this, for two reasons. One, as I said above, for it can only do one process at a time, no matter how fast, and a second reason, a computer IS governed by a central processing unit (CPU).
All of this is just my thoughts the information that I read, and I am waiting eagerly for the results of the blue brain project (although it might not be for some years now), for it will shed a lot of light on three closely related scientific fields - psychology, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence.
"Some academics, such as Roger Penrose of Oxford University, argue that brains do not work in a way comparable with a computer, so any kind of simulation that is built on digital architecture and uses traditional programming techniques is doomed to failure. Dr Penrose thinks that exotic quantum processes are involved in the generation of consciousness. The Blue Brain project will help to determine whether he is right or wrong."
I completely agree with Dr. Penrose. Here is why.
The computer today runs on the binary system. Why the Binary system? Because it is the most economical for CPU manufacturing. In the early days, before transisters and IC's, computers used analog vaccum tubes. That was too unecconomical. But, in switching to digital processing, we have lost a vital element that I think is needed for replication of a a brain that will induce intelligence and conciousness. You see, the binary system can only perform mathematical equations one at a time, while our brains function with millions of neurons and synapses carrying messages all simultaniously, and completely randomly generating conciousness. Further research in that field may shed some light on abstract thought... Here is an excerpt from an E-mail I recieved regarding Disassociative Identity Disorder, where they were discussing the construction of the brain in relation to what may cause this disorder.. they had suggested that the two hemispheres of the brain were connected by the corpus callosum, and this connection is what unified conciousness. Here is the counterargument:
"A more plausible theory is that which is emerging from both biology and
artificial intelligence. As Daniel Dennett, the philosopher, puts it:
Complex systems can in fact function in what seems to be a thoroughly
purposeful and integrated way simply by having lots of subsystems
doing their own thing without any central supervision. The self, then,
is not what it seems to be. There is no soul, no spirit, no supervisor.
There is just a brain, a dull grey collection of neurons and neural
pathways -- going about its business. The illusion of self is merely a
by-product of the brains organisational sophistication."
Daniel Dennett stressed a good point: Complex systems can in fact function in what seems to be a thoroughly
purposeful and integrated way simply by having lots of subsystems
doing their own thing without any central supervision.
Now the computer, cannot do this, for two reasons. One, as I said above, for it can only do one process at a time, no matter how fast, and a second reason, a computer IS governed by a central processing unit (CPU).
All of this is just my thoughts the information that I read, and I am waiting eagerly for the results of the blue brain project (although it might not be for some years now), for it will shed a lot of light on three closely related scientific fields - psychology, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence.
I don't listen to trance music, but I can get the same effect from some classical music, especially Mozart.
well music is some pretty poweful stuff - it can drastically change emotions, and it can even subconsciously provoke introversion and abstract thought!
My math teacher put music on while we did homework in her class, that was about 7 or 8 years ago, I was in 7th grade. ONLY classical music, though. Not rock and roll, no pop...despite our begging and pleading for something more modern than mozart... 
She claimed she read somewhere it would make us perform better in the classroom...she must have been pretty desperate...we weren't all that bad...
She claimed she read somewhere it would make us perform better in the classroom...she must have been pretty desperate...we weren't all that bad...
If I was a teacher, I would stress vocabulary and creative writing over everything, for the more words a person knows, the more associations they can make between observations, and the deeper they can think. Creative writing helps develop the imagination, which stimulates abstract thought - which as far as I'm concerned, is extremely beneficial to personality and moral development.
My teachers never put music on in class, because they were too traditional - you know, cram as much monotonous and useless information as possible in the most formal way possible...
My teachers never put music on in class, because they were too traditional - you know, cram as much monotonous and useless information as possible in the most formal way possible...
My third grade teacher liked to put on The Music Man, Oklahoma, stuff like that. Don't know if it did anything for our minds besides starting me on a lifelong habit of having one song or another stuck in my head, many many many times a day, every day. 
colonel720 - On that note, I had a discussion with a friend of mine the other day on a topic similar to that. In the book "1984", they have a concept called 'newspeak', a new form of language in which all concepts relating to criminal activities have been exised. The thinking behind this is that if you're far less likely to become a criminal if you're unable to conceptualize criminal behavior. What's your thinking on this? Does language really limit thinking?
Have you ever had an idea that you just didn't have the words for? Those ideas are hard to hold onto, but not impossible. Usually to hold onto them, you have to find some way to put them into words. For some reason, I'm reminded of this exchange from Terry Pratchett's Small Gods:
"In Omnia, we have no word for slave."
"Yes... I imagine fish have no word for water, either."
"In Omnia, we have no word for slave."
"Yes... I imagine fish have no word for water, either."
hey, what a coincidence - 1984 is my favorite book!
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djfroggy - newspeak was a laguage of limited vocabulary, so of course it discouraged thought! what I was saying is that when a person knows a lot of words and has an extensive vocabulary, unlike 1984's "newspeak", deeper thought is possible.
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djfroggy - newspeak was a laguage of limited vocabulary, so of course it discouraged thought! what I was saying is that when a person knows a lot of words and has an extensive vocabulary, unlike 1984's "newspeak", deeper thought is possible.
DJ Froggy: Newspeak double minus good
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They say that the thumb caused humans to focus on intricate movement sets requiring precision which caused our cerebral cortex to grow a little but then language and its increasing complexity of potential expression made for the sharp fast (fast, like 200,000 years that is) cerebral cortex growth in our evolution.
Or that is to say: it ent broke so dun fix eet.
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They say that the thumb caused humans to focus on intricate movement sets requiring precision which caused our cerebral cortex to grow a little but then language and its increasing complexity of potential expression made for the sharp fast (fast, like 200,000 years that is) cerebral cortex growth in our evolution.
Or that is to say: it ent broke so dun fix eet.
Actually more to the point: The entire framework of our conceptual and actualized growth as a species and as individuals can thank increasingly complex language potential.
I am fairly certain that to restate that in its opposite form, future tense would also be trtue.
I am fairly certain that to restate that in its opposite form, future tense would also be trtue.
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