“The I-PFC extends between the longitudinal cerebral fissure that divides the two cerebral hemispheres and the lateral fissure below.
This region receives processed multimodal information and has been described as a place "where past and future meet" by associating memories from the past with future actions.”
Source: A Brain for Numbers: The Biology of the Number Instinct
“Life without numbers is inconceivable for us. How else would we count objects, tell time, calculate prices, and so on? Our scientifically and technically advanced culture simply would not exist without numbers.”
Source: A Brain for Numbers: The Biology of the Number Instinct
“Imaginistic rituals, especially more severe types involving high stress, trauma, or other forms of shared intense emotion, can lead to identity fusion. Identity fusion is a visceral sense of -oneness- with other group members where acts of self-sacrifice on behalf of the group are not uncommon. Imaginistic rituals tend to be more frequent among smaller, more closely-knit groups where a strong sense of unity is necessary to accomplish challenging goals (for example, sports teams, Nay Seals, subversive political movements, etc.).”
Source: Ritual in Human Evolution and Religion: Psychological and Ritual Resources
“The incompleteness of our knowledge is often addressed with different extrapolations and assumptions, sacrificing precision for ease, and reflecting the self onto the world.
This is not always bad, but it can – easily – become tricky.”
Source: Fuzzy on the Dark Side: Approximate Thinking, and How the Mists of Creativity and Progress Can Become a Prison of Illusion
“People are Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) of their actions [and previous selves], with a varying number of data points.
You(Today) = Acts(Today)*a + You(Yesterday)*b
You are an expanding fuzzy network!”
Source: Fuzzy on the Dark Side: Approximate Thinking, and How the Mists of Creativity and Progress Can Become a Prison of Illusion
“AI can manifest a unique form of purposefulness distinct from traditional human-like consciousness and emotions, critically examining both supporting evidence and opposing views.”
“[O]ur brains try to predict the patterns that serve our needs and that fit our action repertoires. This may well result in the use of simple models whose power resides precisely in their failing to encode every detail and nuance present in the sensory array. This is not a barrier to true contact with the world - rather, it's a prerequisite for it. For knowing the world, in the only sense that can matter to an evolved organism, means being able to act in that world: being able to respond quickly and efficiently to salient environmental opportunities.”
“Wild cognition, it seems, has (literally) no time for the filing cabinet.”
“You’re the calm and the cognitive storm!”
Source: Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth
“We are both thinking and feeling animals. The challenge is to know when to activate the cognitive (thinking) versus the affective (feeling) systems.”
Source: Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense