11-24-12 Hodgepodge
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Meet the "neuro doubters" ...
...
and count me among their sympathizers.
What is a neuro doubter? The New
York Times explains:
The neuro doubter may like neuroscience but does not like what he ... considers its bastardization by glib, sometimes ill-informed, popularizers.Alissa Quart goes on to applaud the neuro doubters:
As a journalist and cultural critic, I applaud the backlash against what is sometimes called brain porn, which raises important questions about this reductionist, sloppy thinking and our willingness to accept seemingly neuroscientific explanations for, well, nearly everything.Quart is on the right track, especially regarding what this says about the state of our culture. I think she could go further, both in terms of which branch of science is being abused this way and in terms of why this is even possible. I'll leave it at that for now.
Weekend Reading
"When I say I'm thankful to man, I'm expressing reverence for Reason..." -- Michael Hurd, in "Thank the Human Spirit" at The Delaware Wave
"I'm not advocating any particular way to exchange gifts. What I am saying is that we have a choice." -- Michael Hurd, in "Stress-Free Giving" at The Delaware Coast Press
"While these facts suggest that it may be a prudent decision for an individual to purchase health insurance or firms to offer health insurance as an employment perk, there is no justification for the government to nullify individual rights by forcing individuals to provide for the healthcare of others--irrespective of the effect on the national economy." -- Amesh Adalja, in "Want To Fix Healthcare? Acknowledge That It's the Responsibility Of the Individual" at Forbes
My Two Cents
Michael Hurd uses Yankee Swap (aka Dirty Santa) as an example in his column about alternatives to traditional gift-giving. My family started that years ago for the very reasons he cites and I have always appreciated the reduction in shopping stress, not to mention the time and money this has saved me.
Propagated Error
Just because it is (or has been) on Google Maps and in major atlases doesn't make it so: "South Pacific Sandy Island 'Proven Not to Exist'".
--CAV
4 comments:
Yo, Gus, Quart mentions the term "brain porn." Isn't that actually that kind of movie where a really attractive woman has an accident and has to go to the neurologist to get all of her reflexes checked?
Sorry, couldn't resist. The way I prefer to describe "brain porn" is "electrical phrenology." You can update the technological metaphor, but that doesn't get you away from the same underlying errors, particularly the view that conceptual consciousness is nothing more than a sum of faculties and reactions.
As for the disappearing island, the article I read called it Sable Island, I think, which caught my eye since the real Sable Island fascinated me when I was about 10--it was a scene of over 300 shipwrecks over the centuries. I remember my parents had some friends who collected National Geographics, and whenever we went to visit they'd just show me to the magazines and let me read while they chatted about all that boring adult stuff. My favorite issue was probably the one with an article about Sable Island, but I mostly just looked at all the pictures of shipwrecks.
Love the "brain porn" idea, which reminds me: As Jackie Treehorn once put it, "The Brain is the largest erogenous organ."
I also can't help but notice that you can accurately say that you once, "Read National Geographic for the pictures, and not the articles."
Yo, Gus, first: I'm sorry to hear about Miss Maple.
Second, you write, Love the "brain porn" idea, which reminds me: As Jackie Treehorn once put it, "The Brain is the largest erogenous organ."
And yet at the same time there's the tendency for so many men to think with, well, I guess that would make it their second-largest erogenous organs.
I also can't help but notice that you can accurately say that you once, "Read National Geographic for the pictures, and not the articles."
Interestingly enough, while that's quite true, in my case it was because of the violence, not the sex.
Thanks for the laughs and the condolences, Snedcat.
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