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Digital Danger! Brain Drain!

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Tiredretiredlawyer
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Digital Danger! Brain Drain!

#1

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »



Rewired is one of the most important new books I have read that has yet to get significant media attention. Dr. Marci is a Harvard psychiatrist and social neuroscientist who uses incontrovertible scientific evidence in this remarkable and sobering book. He has a chapter titled ‘The Power of the Prefrontal Cortex’ that describes it as the ‘most highly evolved part of the modern human brain.’ It performs executive functions and is an ‘orchestral conductor of neuronal symphonies’ in our brain. One of the central premises of this book is that our obsession with social media and cell phones is rewiring our brains and causing irreversible damage. Specific advice on what we can do to have a healthy tech-life balance is given and discussed. Please listen to this fascinating and essential conversation at this pivotal time in human history. We need to control our technology and not allow our technology to control or unduly influence us.
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Digital Danger! Brain Drain!

#2

Post by Danraft »

Thank you, TRL. That was on topic for what I have been digesting and thinking about.
Small quibble with the phrase “most highly evolved part of the human brain.” I get the surface level of the their meaning, but it is actually one of the most recent additions to the brain, and is therefore the least evolved (under the concept that it has adapted to evolutionary pressures). It sits on top of other more stable ancient systems, but is highly imperfect and fragile.
Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:38 am

Rewired is one of the most important new books I have read that has yet to get significant media attention. Dr. Marci is a Harvard psychiatrist and social neuroscientist who uses incontrovertible scientific evidence in this remarkable and sobering book. He has a chapter titled ‘The Power of the Prefrontal Cortex’ that describes it as the ‘most highly evolved part of the modern human brain.’ It performs executive functions and is an ‘orchestral conductor of neuronal symphonies’ in our brain. One of the central premises of this book is that our obsession with social media and cell phones is rewiring our brains and causing irreversible damage. Specific advice on what we can do to have a healthy tech-life balance is given and discussed. Please listen to this fascinating and essential conversation at this pivotal time in human history. We need to control our technology and not allow our technology to control or unduly influence us.
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Digital Danger! Brain Drain!

#3

Post by humblescribe »

Danraft wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 4:27 pm Thank you, TRL. That was on topic for what I have been digesting and thinking about.
Small quibble with the phrase “most highly evolved part of the human brain.” I get the surface level of the their meaning, but it is actually one of the most recent additions to the brain, and is therefore the least evolved (under the concept that it has adapted to evolutionary pressures). It sits on top of other more stable ancient systems, but is highly imperfect and fragile.
Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:38 am

Rewired is one of the most important new books I have read that has yet to get significant media attention. Dr. Marci is a Harvard psychiatrist and social neuroscientist who uses incontrovertible scientific evidence in this remarkable and sobering book. He has a chapter titled ‘The Power of the Prefrontal Cortex’ that describes it as the ‘most highly evolved part of the modern human brain.’ It performs executive functions and is an ‘orchestral conductor of neuronal symphonies’ in our brain. One of the central premises of this book is that our obsession with social media and cell phones is rewiring our brains and causing irreversible damage. Specific advice on what we can do to have a healthy tech-life balance is given and discussed. Please listen to this fascinating and essential conversation at this pivotal time in human history. We need to control our technology and not allow our technology to control or unduly influence us.
Doesn't that describe tfg to a T? A "stable genius" but highly imperfect and fragile? Asking for a friend.

(Sorry to hijack this interesting topic, TRL) :batting:
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#4

Post by Danraft »

Well, hell. It also describes many people. In “Political Animals— How our Stone Age brain gets in the way of smart politics,” Shenkman makes the point that we evolved our systems of evaluation and trust in the context of very small communities ranging from families to groups up to 150 or so. We saw the intimate little actions of the other people and knew them fairly well. There wasn’t a need to find signals of reliability about people we didn’t know. We really aren’t built to do that. Reliability of information has much of the same issues.

Once knowledge, or rather trust in knowledge, has been destabilized, one is left with the options of just choosing what to believe based on what feels good or right. This is why the Elon Musk action in regards to the verified accounts has such concern. He is effectively ( I think intentionally) destabilizing the knowledge and authority of verification to where anyone with $8 is on the same level as an actual authority in a particular field.

But, it all comes down to how the brain works and how it doesn’t work. Humans aren’t, as the phrase goes, mostly rational and sometimes emotional. But, mainly emotional and often rationalizing. “Rational” is not really on the field most of the time for most people. So, good mental hygiene is important.
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#5

Post by mojosapien »

During 2022...I was politely escorted out of three bathrooms in RI. due to the post-COVID hayfever.

Then my Chinese T-Mobile sponsored OnePlus8 shit the bed.

I am (was) the owner, the charging port was the original culprit...till Assuron told be the whole motherboard is damaged.

All that is left is the battery.

I am now the proud owner of a new Samsung S22, which is more a panhandling device.

I'm far from retired, but you can console me. :notlistening:
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Digital Danger! Brain Drain!

#6

Post by Sam the Centipede »

Danraft wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:33 pm But, it all comes down to how the brain works and how it doesn’t work. Humans aren’t, as the phrase goes, mostly rational and sometimes emotional. But, mainly emotional and often rationalizing. “Rational” is not really on the field most of the time for most people. So, good mental hygiene is important.
As you say, the rational part is subordinate to emotion.

It seems EVERY decision is made emotionally, or at least non-rationally. The rational part only ever comes in as an editing or review stage. If the emotional centers are damaged, it is very difficult to make even the simplest decision, such as "tea or coffee?"

Scientists work that way too, feeling their way through their subjects emotionally. The power of science is that the rational method is coerced as the arbiter of good or bad science, correct or incorrect results. But still scientists will suspect correct results that "feel wrong" and casually accept incorrect results that "feel right".

Critical thinking is the same: in my understanding it's about applying the rational (quasi-scientific?) process to decisions: given the facts, does my choice or decision really stack up?

Most of us here probably think of ourselves as rational. But consider if Mike Lindell or Donald Trump said something sensible (yeah, I know, big leap of imagination!) - I suspect most of us would think "huh? can that be true? why might he be saying that?" Our emotional reaction immediately rejects their statements as unreliable (at best) as they come from despised sources. Whereas if Nancy Pelosi makes a statement, we're inclined to assume it's probably correct, even if it feels initially implausible.

To me it seems the pervasive presence of religion is the proof of our emotional nature. Nobody who believes in gods has ever seen any good sign of supernatural activity, they have no strong evidence (except what they imagine), whereas there is plenty for the non-existence of their gods - especially given they happily accept the non-existence of other religions' posited gods! But it feels right to the religious person, they want their stories to be true for some reason (which varies by person), and no rational argument will sway them back to reality.
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#7

Post by roadscholar »

Doubting something Lindell or Trump say is NOT emotional; it it entirely rational.

It's based on their past track record. They both lie massively, frequently, outrageously. Assuming they may be doing so again is totally reasonable.

But of course, deciding with finality that it IS a lie without checking WOULD be irrational. Provisionally suspecting that it is, is not.
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#8

Post by Sam the Centipede »

roadscholar wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 11:46 am Doubting something Lindell or Trump say is NOT emotional; it it entirely rational.
Yes but no … my point is that one rejects the Lindell or Trump statement emotionally before any rational evaluation.

Emotional is not the same as wrong or irrational. It precedes rational review. "Gosh, I'd like to eat that candy … but I'll be eating dinner in half an hour, better not."

Critical thinking is largely (in my view) about using rational thinking to refine good emotional decisions while weeding out the bad emotional decisions.
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#9

Post by roadscholar »

We’ll have to agree to disagree.

In my experience, folks who make emotional snap judgements do not then check the facts, generally. And they steadfastly resist changing that judgment, even when shown real information.

The rest of us make snap judgements based on past history… constant liars’ statements are immediately suspect. People not known for wanton fabrication, what they said is likely so. And we are more open to factual input which could reverse our initial provisional call.
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#10

Post by somerset »

mojosapien wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:37 am During 2022...I was politely escorted out of three bathrooms in RI. due to the post-COVID hayfever.

Then my Chinese T-Mobile sponsored OnePlus8 shit the bed.

T-Mobile is essentially Deutsche Telekom. It's most definitely *not* a Chinese company.
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#11

Post by Foggy »

I think it was the OnePlus 8 that shit the bed, not the network. I don't know what T-Mobile had to do with it. It's still up and running, AFAIK.

Good lord, that phone has a camera that's 48 megapixels. You can't take any photos with it and attach them to Fogbow posts ( :biggrin: ) because they're too big. This is why I have Photo Resizer even on my Goog Pickle.
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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#12

Post by Sam the Centipede »

roadscholar wrote: Mon Dec 19, 2022 8:46 am We’ll have to agree to disagree.

In my experience, folks who make emotional snap judgements do not then check the facts, generally. And they steadfastly resist changing that judgment, even when shown real information.

The rest of us make snap judgements based on past history… constant liars’ statements are immediately suspect. People not known for wanton fabrication, what they said is likely so. And we are more open to factual input which could reverse our initial provisional call.
No, you misunderstand the point completely. It is NOT about snap judgements, personality or honesty, it's about processes in the brain. The point is that rational review (if it occurs) always follows initial emotional (or just non-rational, or unconscious, call it what you will) decision-making.

And that is not airy-fairy philosophophosizzling; it's science. Human rationality is a thin veneer on our animal brains.
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#13

Post by mojosapien »

The S22 adds 200MP to bring it up to 50.
I have no problem with phpBB reducing the images. I can still do it manually via VuePrint, bytw.
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#14

Post by Foggy »

VuePrint looks good.
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