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34 Comments
- borez, on 07/15/2009, -1/+17Can it protect against Front page deja vu?
- frontaxle, on 07/15/2009, -0/+13Oh, my brain just stopped....
Oh there it goes . - seanruiseil, on 07/15/2009, -1/+14So...I don't need to worry about drowning a few brain cells on Saturday night then?
- mikeinto, on 07/15/2009, -0/+13Homer: All right brain, you don't like me, and I don't like you. But let's just get me through this, and I can get back to killing you with beer.
Homer's brain: It's a deal! - deviantbono, on 07/15/2009, -0/+8It also means that the brain is guessing half the time. Call it extrapolating, assuming, approximating, it's still making ***** up.
- skintigh, on 07/15/2009, -0/+5Headline:
"Blindspot shows brain can rewire in just seconds"
From the article:
"The change in what the volunteers saw was so fast, Dilks says, that it must be due to the brain redirecting signals through pre-existing circuits rather than forging new connections."
So, then it's not "rewiring" anything.
Why the ***** is science reporting so bad? Is it because if the reporters and editors were smart they would have gotten real jobs, maybe even as scientists? Or were they bored in science class, so they assume all science is boring if you don't jazz it up with sensational (and false) headlines?
\looking forward to the next headline about a killer asteroid that will destroy the Earth, followed by an article saying the asteroid will only come with a few million miles of Earth in the year 2372. - evilregis, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4Your mother's certainly is.
- skintigh, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4So is saying "the sky is blue" but it's neither relevant nor interesting.
- NathanielJ, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3This is why I hate science news. This is about a journal published by some guys at MIT, so there almost surely was some interesting and/or new findings in their research. However, whatever journalist decided that this was mainstream news muddied it down to the lowest common denominator so that by the time it reaches the digg front page, all we get is "MIT discovered that the brain compensates for not being able to see in the blind spot!!", which I'm pretty sure we all learned in grade school.
- skintigh, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Oh, and then post a contradictory story a week later that also isn't really based on science, and the result is the public loses respect for science and considers it a joke. "Does coffee cure or cause cancer this week?"
- malcolmlo, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Wow brains are really smart!
<making fun of all the other dumb comments on this article> - skintigh, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Throw in a headline that is contradicted by the article and call it a day.
- RutgerB, on 07/15/2009, -4/+6A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something
- malcolmlo, on 07/15/2009, -0/+2because its just a really dumb comment.
Its the equivalent of saying: Thank you paper for making such amazing literary achievements possible! Sure its true...its just...kind of a dumb thing to say. - trogdoor, on 07/16/2009, -0/+2"We've yet to create a computer or robot that has ever had a single original thought"
That really depends on how you define a thought.
Through evolutionary computation computers have designed controllers for robots where the system developing the algorithm to perform a given function has no "knowledge" of the environment or goal to start with. For instance a neural network might have two outputs that it constantly streams bits to, one input it constantly receives bits from, and another input from which it receives bits relatively infrequently. The only interpretation programmed by a human is that if a zero is received on the second input the task was completed successfully, and if it receives a one it failed. Through enough trial and error the neural network will start to succeed more often until it eventually never fails. That, all without pre-programmed algorithms for decoding the input, which happens to be video from a camera on top of a car, or for the two outputs one of which controls the speed and direction ( forward or backward ) of that car's wheels, while the other controls steering. Also not pre-programmed in any way is that success means parallel parking the car, and failure means crashing into anything. Neural networks have been trained like this to do more difficult driving than that, and it's clear that the algorithms used were designed by a computer, and not a human. In circuit design artificial intelligence has designed circuits to solve problems that had not yet been solved by humans. So there have been original algorithms produced by computers, the only subjective question is whether those algorithms are "thoughts".
Also, if we can ever learn enough about our own neurons to build a mathematical model for how each neuron reacts to input, which I don't think is too unrealistic, what is to stop us from modeling a human brain in a computer? - tanameyer, on 07/15/2009, -2/+4Is this news to anyone? I remember doing that experiment with the blind spot 20 years ago in grade 5 science.
- skintigh, on 07/15/2009, -0/+2I thought the same thing, that this is more to do with "software" of the brain and interpreting the missing data, but I'm assuming the article just left out all the relevant information.
- IronPhreak, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1Thanks, understood it perfectly now
- jmvallejo, on 07/15/2009, -1/+2If you are a high end guy
- heresy_fnord, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1Haha...this is digg. No it cannot.
- JQP123, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1Additional evidence making it all the more obvious that the human brain and a computer have very little in common. The only place that "self awareness" is likely to emerge anytime soon from a silicon based computer is in the movies.
- danjwray, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1why the buries? it's true...
- KISSOLOGY, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1What fag dugg me down? Oh I'm sorry, I guess you disagree with me.
- matt.rubin, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1Our brains can rewire emselves in just seconds ta cumpensate fer a break in incumin data, suggestin they aur even mow flexible than previously thought.
We already knew dat da brain is constantly adaptin throughout our lives, fer example by generatin new neurons well inta adulthood. But just how quick as a wink can it adapt – `n` does it always involve creatin new circuits?
To investigate dese questions, Daniel Dilks `n` his colleagues at da Massachusetts Institute of Technology took advantage of da blind spots dat occur naturally in our eyes wher da optic nerve exits da retina. da brain normally combines images captured by both eyes ta fill in da resultin gaps in vision, but Dilks prevented dis in 48 volunteers by patching one eye.
Blind shapes
After identifying wher da blind spot was fer each volunteer's other eye, he then presented an image of a squrrr right next ta it. da volunteers initially saw a squrrr, but reported dat wifin seconds it had morphed inta a rectangle, by extending its edge inta da blind spot.
The change in whut da volunteers saw was so licketdsplit, Dilks says, dat it must be due ta da brain redarctin signals through pre-existin circuits rather than forgin new connections. da team concludes dat da neurons which would normally fill da blind spot usin data from da patched eye cumpensated by stealing data from neighbourin neurons dat were "seeing" da squrrr, makin it appear lik a rectangle. - ducttape36, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1that... I... what... *sigh*
dugg. - 92fsInox, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1woah, I think my mind hole's been blown wide open. This person has shown me the true meaning of the universe. I am not what I am, but am what I'm not. It's pure poetry, science, and understanding wrapped in a compact package of blatant knowledge. I've been struck by the hammer of Thor and emerge a true scholar of the obsidian outer edges. Left behind are the petty, superficial, and ultimately superfluous feelings of inferiority as a galactic species. The universe is converging, and to all this, the mind is culprit. Fear not, humanity, for our presence is only as meaningless as that of any other civilization. Rejoice, for life is grand!
-But seriously dude, wtf are you trying to say? - danjwray, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1The article is about how amazing the human brain is, but whatever.
- JQP123, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1"So contemplate this: if we create robots that can think for and learn from themselves..."
That's any awfully big *if*.
Contemplate this: We've yet to create a computer or robot that has ever had a single original thought. And we're unlikely to do so until we completely and totally re-engineer the computer as we know it. - 92fsInox, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1Well, if you must know, and obviously you must because you don't: some movies, i.e. "The Terminator, i-Robot, etc." are actually based on sound scientific and computational developments, i.e "Neural Networks." It is entirely possible to replicate the human brain, although infinitely difficult, costly, and time consuming. As of right now, computers are too bulky, store too little information, and are manufactured to a relatively much lower standard of quality than the human brain, which leaves us with limited functionality in robotics to create simple-minded beings that can "learn" from their environment and react in human-like manners. So contemplate this: if we create robots that can think for and learn from themselves, what's to stop them from thinking, "You know what, ***** humans"?
Yay for run-on sentences ^ ^ ! - KISSOLOGY, on 07/15/2009, -3/+2The human body is amazing!
- KISSOLOGY, on 07/15/2009, -2/+1Gotta digg you on that one
- IronPhreak, on 07/15/2009, -5/+2Ok...now explain it in english for me, dumb english....r-tard english please
- smitas, on 07/15/2009, -10/+5Human brains have made this world full of technological and scientific achievements possible.
- PHPnerd, on 07/15/2009, -9/+2But can they play Crysis?
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