Hello gentlemen and ladies,
I have been off chasing the moon again but I have been drawn back to earth, Sounds like an overworked story line, but with a curiously contemporary vein. I would hazard a guess you can turn this into a romp. Might I suggest another twist to make it a bit more deliciously disturbing. ( I have a Slavic streak of Black Humor) Your hero eventually has a problem with his surrogate devices, and discovers he is being poisoned/drugged. He has to discover why the justice system is having trouble finding the unknown villain and then realizes that the justice system itself is divided on the definition of attempted murder or was it simply mechanical malfeasance. He thinks he is still human but there is serious disagreement in the public. I agree the mind/body issue is over worked , the Human being versus non human intelligence is trickier. We could add to the melee a large number of recipients of artificial heart devices that are being declared dead because they no longer have a heart beat. So what is human and how do we define life. Human rights activists are unprepared for the debate as one side argues foetuses to be non human while possessing all the attributes of bona fide human beings? It degenerates into a campaign where the prejudices of some People define who is and who is not human enough for protection. I recall a disasterous argument I had once with a young female student when she asked if I was pro or con abortion. I said off handedly that society already tolerates an enormous amount of murder without blinking an eye and could see no difficulty expecting society to tolerate even more murder. She then declared it was not in fact murder since it was simply a lump of flesh. Being a biologist as she wished to become, I asked “So what is this lump you call flesh?” She looked amazed at the question. “ Is it a snail, is it a dog maybe a tree, if it exists and has life what is it then?” She withdrew in a huff and deprecating manner of body language. I then asked others that overheard the question, What is the problem with legally tolerated murder? Why does the change of name change the ethical status? Or does it? The evil we do is given a new name and becomes a virtue. Perhaps the brain in the bottle loses such psychological trickery and has to live with the truth of events around himself. Then when he wishes to escape he has to find a means of committing suicide or can he ( a good literary device )? Put our hero on the Women’s talk show circuit and follow the body language. I would love to see a sketch of the hero in a two way debate with Anne Coulter, Michele Bachman or any other Right wingers? Have the brain become a Blogger… commenting on humanity I think the mind/body issue is deceptive. Since we think it purely self referential. My nagging question is perhaps more important. Why do we need to dehumanize someone before we execute them? Why does a murderer strain logic to justify his acts to be other than what it is ? The mind/body debate hides much uncertainty about our intelligence , ethics morality and desires. Blaming the body strips us of free will. Our justice system assumes we are informed and competent when that may be seriously in doubt. I agree most people are deluded but the court system usually is aware of the fact and strictly deals with more bloody matters. Somewhere lurking behind so many social situations is the problem of intent. The intent is transformed from murder to pest disposal and we all agree to use language to disguise the truth in that we create a society of corruption. I think what your scenario for a novel prods at is that secret cognitive dissonance that allows a person to deform language and exonerate themselves from a crime. Does the Bottle brain still have the secret dissonance in place after the transformation.? Will he lie to himself about the nature of his past life? Perhaps he was a bogus war hero, tax evader or drug addict anything is possible? What if the bottle brain now unable to deceive others or himself discovers his intellect to be a fiction? The scenario seems to be a good first chapter, now consider the brain to be the evil within us that we strive to reform through theatrical sincerity. There is something about your scenario that reminds me of one of C.S.Lewis ‘ sci fi stories The title escapes me but perhaps it was “The Horror” Bulgakov wrote a short story about a scientist who experimented on a dog to enhance its development. The result was a new form of Soviet era atrocity appearing human but acting beastly. He graduated to becoming a soviet style apparatchik. The scenario needs a Hook on the nature of being Human without all the flesh. Lovely notion seems there is a lot of territory to explore when you get rolling. I hope you drop us hints of what you struggle with in your new adventure. In another offshoot it reminds me of getting older where society imposes on us a state of delegitimation or disenfranchisement. Often I watch younger people assume that white hair means we are past prime and no longer what we thought we were. I think it worth examining the beliefs of the young grad student who thought that a good argument and a nasty gaze could change murder into a virtue as if she had a special magical wand. Is the issue of human rights really so trivial that one individual can strip another of protection because of a hidden desire? Good luck. Vladimyr Burachynsky. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Smith Sent: September-17-11 9:02 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: The Psychology Of Yogurt This reminds me too much of two disparate concepts: SF Author (from ABQ no less) book "Proxies" where orphaned children with severe physical disabilities are offered an alternate existence by becoming telepresence operators of space equipment (cheaper than actually putting/keeping humans in space and a reasonable alternative for otherwise hugely physically limited children who can now have expanded sensoria and mobility but in an artificial habitat... raised as a family (of orphans), etc... and all that goes with it utopian/dystopian SF Style. http://www.amazon.com/Proxies-Laura-J-Mixon/dp/0812523873 And the Honey Mummy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellified_man ) aka, the mellified man. Not unlike a petrified tree but with a human and honey instead of tree and minerals. Great source of all the necessary/appropriate vitamins and minerals, and tasty too! - Steve Nick, I have been thinking recently about trying to write a short story. It would start with a version of Daniel Dennet's wonderful brain-in-a-vat. It would be a story of a valiant man who volunteered for the procedure; he volunteered for his love of science and the deep impact it would have on the most fundamental of questions, the relation of brain, mind, and body. There would be dual devices; the device in the head functioned to replicate effects at the surface of the brain and keep the space filled, the vat kept the brain alive, received input measures from the in-head device, and read any and all brain outputs. There would be details of how the vat perfectly replicates all effects the body would have on the brain, and how the artificial implant perfectly replicates all effects the brain would have on the body. All effects: Neuronal, hormonal, temperature, chemical force, everything - no safety for the body in a boxing ring or any other situation. And of course, our protagonist's heroism is rewarded. Mr. Brain-in-the-Vat functioned amazingly; he could move around, communicate, feel emotions, dream, everything. People came from miles around to wonder at him and get autographs ($15 extra for the paper to be signed on the vat). He was interviewed on every major TV show, and Larry Flynt even paid him a fortune for... being in film. But one day another man showed up on Daniel's doorstep. He too had volunteered for a brave experiment. Sitting next to him on the veranda was a vat that held his kidneys and perfectly replicated all effects the body would have on the kidneys, and inside him was a genius device that perfectly replicated all effects the kidneys would have on the brain. But everyone knew that would work, the kidneys after all are JUST a physiological system. And so, no one cared. --- Eric On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 04:09 PM, "Nicholas Thompson" <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> wrote: I cannot … for the life of me …. Understand what the mind-body “problem” is any more than I can understand what the computing-transistor problem is (if, indeed, there are still transistors in computers.) We would never wonder why a better transistor would make the computing better; why would we wonder why a better stomach would make the mind work better. To me, the interesting psychological question is why people see it is a problem. What is that they want to make of the mind that makes the mind-body problem a problem? Nick From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Victoria Hughes Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2011 1:09 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: [FRIAM] Fwd: The Psychology Of Yogurt Probiotics, reduced anxiety, and thoughts about the weird, wrong perception that we exist separately from our bodies, somehow. Date: September 17, 2011 12:18:17 PM MDT Subject: The Psychology Of Yogurt Source: Wired Science » Frontal Cortex Author: Jonah Lehrer My latest WSJ <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566820066488938.html> column uses a new study on probiotics as a launching pad to explore the mind-body problem, perhaps the most perplexing mystery in modern science: One of the deepest mysteries of the human mind is that it doesn’t feel like part of the body. Our consciousness seems to exist in an immaterial realm, distinct from the meat on our bones. We feel like the ghost, not like the machine. This ancient paradox—it’s known as the mind-body problem—has long perplexed philosophers. It has also interested neuroscientists, who have traditionally argued that the three pounds of our brain are a sufficient explanation for the so-called soul. There is no mystery, just anatomy. In recent years, however, a spate of research has put an interesting twist on this old conundrum. The problem is even more bewildering than we thought, for it’s not just the coiled cortex that gives rise to the mind—it’s the entire body. As the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio writes, “The mind is embodied, not just embrained.” The latest evidence comes from a new study of probiotic bacteria, the microorganisms typically found in yogurt and dairy products. While most investigations of probiotics have focused on their gastrointestinal benefits—the bacteria reduce the symptoms of diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome—this new research explored the effect of probiotics on the brain. The experiment, led by Javier Bravo at University College Cork in Ireland, was straightforward. First, he fed normal lab mice a diet full of probiotics. Then, Mr. Bravo’s team tested for behavioral changes, which were significant: When probiotic-fed animals were put in stressful conditions, such as being dropped into a pool of water, they were less anxious and released less stress hormone. How did the food induce these changes? The answer involves GABA, a neurotransmitter that reduces the activity of neurons. When Mr. Bravo looked at the brains of the mice, he found that those fed probiotics had more GABA receptors in areas associated with memory and the regulation of emotions. (This change mimics the effects of popular antianxiety medications in humans.) Furthermore, when he severed the nerve connecting the gut and brain in a control group of mice, these neural changes disappeared. The probiotic diet no longer relieved the symptoms of stress. Though it might seem odd that a cup of yogurt can influence behavior, the phenomenon has been repeatedly confirmed, at least in rodents. Earlier this year, Swedish scientists showed that the presence of gut bacteria shapes the development of the mouse brain, while French researchers found that treating human subjects with large doses of probiotics for 30 days reduced levels of “psychological distress.” There’s nothing metaphorical about “gut feelings,” for what happens in the gut really does influence what we feel. Nor is it just the gastrointestinal tract that alters our minds. Mr. Damasio has shown that neurological patients who are unable to detect changes in their own bodies, like an increased heart rate or sweaty palms, are also unable to make effective decisions. When given a simple gambling task, they behave erratically and lose vast sums of money. Because they can’t experience the fleshy symptoms of fear, they never learn from their mistakes. This research shows that the immateriality of mind is a deep illusion. Although we feel like a disembodied soul, many feelings and choices are actually shaped by the microbes in our gut and the palpitations of our heart. Nietzsche was right: “There is more reason in your body than in your best wisdom.” This doesn’t mean, of course, that the mind-body problem has been solved. Though scientists have ransacked our matter and searched everywhere inside the skull, they still have no idea why we feel like a ghost. But it’s now abundantly clear that the mind is not separate from the body, hidden away in some ethereal province of thought. Rather, we emerge from the very same stuff that digests our lunch. If you’d like to learn about the microbiome lurking inside your pipes, I highly recommend this wonderful <http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/08/08/an-introduction-to-the-microbiome/> slideshow by Ed Yong. Read more… <http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/the-psychology-of-yogurt/> ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org Eric Charles Professional Student and Assistant Professor of Psychology Penn State University Altoona, PA 16601 ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
