I thought this video was very interesting. People are self-aware, but where in the body does "i" live? Thats a question that people have been wondering for thousands of years. Marcus' s study covered a lot of different topics involving this question. He started by going to a doctor from Oxford who ran tests on his brain when he is under going sedation from anesthetics. He was told to imagine playing tennis while he is being injected with these imperative drugs. The doctor wanted to find the point where Marcus is still self-aware and he would b focusing on the area's of the brain that are still functioning under this heavy sedation. This, theoretically, should point us in the direction of which area of the brain our soul resides. They found that there is a "resonant loop" between the Thalamus and Basil Ganglia that is required to maintain consciousness. The doctor didn't say that this is where the consciousness resides, but it is one of the main components in being self-aware.
altm0069: February 2012 Archives
Cognitive Biases are a very common part of our everyday lives. It can be broken down into a couple different categories. The first one i want to point out is the "Hindsight Bias". The Hindsight Bias brings out a couple of really interesting points. First, it points out that we tend to overestimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes. I thought it was really interesting how they tied this back into the 9/11 terrorist attacks and how everyone was very quick to point fingers at people who "knew" how to avoid it, but did not. Another aspect the cognitive bias is overconfidence. The book showed a study on how a survey revealed that 94% of college professors believed that they were better scholars than their colleagues. This goes to show that the majority of people believe that they are "above average" when, by definition, only 50% of people can technically be above average. Biases can make us sure that we are right when in-fact we are not. This leads us to not only draw false conclusions, but even become convinced of them. The scientific method accounts for these naturally misleading factors and allows us to draw better conclusions.
