What is Digg?34 Comments
- radicaldementia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+76...but beware of the dark side.
- SqueakyMouse, on 10/12/2007, -15/+44"The evidence seems to be that the conscious mind isn't much use in making hard decisions "
Was the test subject George W Bush? - hehe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+28My biology teacher said that a study showed 75% of the time people change answers on a test, they are wrong. They trusted their gut at first, and their concious mind then questioned it...
- spinchange, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26"Next time, look it up in your gut"
- Rice, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16My instincts tell me to digg this article.
Luckily, I took a minute to think about it and realized that using my conscious that this is a digg-worthy article.
Isn't it nice when they agree? Dugg. - Bob042, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Well, that's creepy. If our brain knows what we're going to do a half-second before we do, and a computer can read that half-second... Could a computer know what we are about to do, before we do it, and consistently?
- Scynet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The test for those 90% of Diggers who can't be arsed to read the whole article:
"In an experiment he asked subjects to perform a simple task, eg wiggle their little finger, at a time of their own choosing, and measured accompanying brain activity. Surprisingly, Libet could detect brain activity that predicted imminent finger wiggling nearly half a second before the subjects were aware they had decided to wiggle their finger!"
Makes me wonder why we're "aware" in the first place. Or are we? - bbarnhart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This may be why when I'm tackling a tough problem that I can't solve by just "thinking", many times after a few hours or a few days the answer just pops into my head.
- RandomSkratch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Could Jesus himself microwave a burrito so hot that he himself would be unable to eat it?
- directsun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Consciousness seems to be a mere bystander with just an illusion of control."
That is very creepy. - requiem18th, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This reminds me what some person said about the matrix and star wars films.
Neo is a hacker, but resolves his problems with instincts and gut feelings, Jedi are supposed to build their own light saber but their are told to "trust the force".
In the end, being smart ain't cool, mostly because most people can't be smart enough to hack their way around. So even Hollywood geeks save the day on gut feelings partially or alone.
Telling people to be smart is insulting for 90% so it's better to tell them to trust their instincts, that is a relaxing thought for most people, because it gives them the illusion that they don't need to think, something they hate to do.
My guess, these guys are telling people what they want to hear. - cshorter, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8This all sounds a little too "truthy" to me. People want to trust their gut, so they believe it's right. This may be a good strategy for Trivial Pursuit, but not engineering.
- AdamWeeden, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest."
C. S. Lewis - cogit0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Could a computer know what we are about to do, before we do it...?"
Yup. That is, of course, assuming we know what the signals in the brain are actually doing at that time. This is the basis of Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs): if we can understand the code, then we can in theory control a cursor or even a wheelchair with as much effort of thought as walking. The trouble comes with the decoding process, and is a very active, bleeding-edge topic in research these days. So far Bayesian decoding has made progress, but its still just based on probabilities. - coolmojito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Read similar stuff in Malcom Gladwell's "Blink." Worth reading. Not as good as "The Tipping Point," though.
- DisposableRob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"In the end, being smart ain't cool, mostly because most people can't be smart enough to hack their way around."
In most movies, mystical mysterious powers triumph over reason and intelligence. As a response to this, Army of Darkness, of all things, was specifically written with a storyline that promotes science over mysticism. Ghostbusters is also one of the few movies that does this as well. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1instincts are a conscious minds perception on subconscious decisions. the strength of the conscious mind relative the the subconscious is what decides if one should follow their instincts more or not, and it depends entirely on the individual.
- butlershouse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so true story :
I am currently facing a descion that in hindsight to this artcile if i was to consider my gut feelnig the descsion has been made already. If I conciously accept the descion and act on it I immediately feel less anxious and more at peace with the right choice ! - butlershouse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1but you are not here trusting something instinctual. Since you are creating an environment and building on anticipation and percpetion. You are not really acting on an instinct in the terms with which this conversation is about.
however , when your eye blinks to block that stray speck of dirt, or your hand moves to swat that balled up wad of paper thrown by your colleague then you are into reactive thinking.
Gut feelings and instinctual ( emotional intelligence ) is hard to measure in a lab experiment which is why the article is important. - CrazyWolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I read the journal article, and the methodology is sound, in case anyone was wondering. They did find solid support for the claims they made. However, the ezine article left out their reasoning for the theory behind this.
The idea is that the conscious mind is very precise, but is limited in how many factors it can consider at once. So if you have price, color, and 10 other factors to consider, you are going to pick a few to think about and disregard the rest. The unconscious mind is less precise, and more likely to make bad easy decisions, but can process large amounts of information at once.
However, you can't necessarily set rules for yourself in your unconscious mind. For example, if you are searching for a car you might want to set a maximum amount of money you want to spend when thinking about the available cars. But your unconscious mind is likely to ignore that maximum and decide on the car you like best overall, even if it happens to be out of your budget.
The finger wiggling thing was another experiment done quite awhile ago. - SmokedL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The article doesn't present any real detail on the experiment and provides no rational motivation for the conclusion what so ever.
Based on decades of experience, my conscious mind believes that the author looked the conclusion up in his gut. - starmanjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1humm... i think this is what bush has been saying. so obviously there is more than gut involved.
- ArianeB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Consider This: Humans have only had linguistic abilities for about 50,000 years, yet humanoids of some sort have been around for 6,000,000 years. That means the human race spent 5,950,000 years basically trusting their instincts.
I believe that the non-verbal mind is "more evolved" (which could mean superior, or at the very least it is more efficient).
It is my theory that experiences from spiritual revelations to deja-vu can be explained by our non-verbal mind figuring out stuff before our verbal mind makes us consciously aware that we figured it out.
And as to mathematics being best left to the conscious mind, consider the common experience of mathematicians to an "elegant proof", they often compare understanding of a complicated proof (i.e. Godel's Incompleteness Theorem) to having a spiritual revelation of sorts, because often the brain "gets it" before the explanation is finished.
But before you put all your faith in your instincts, here is the negative side: Our subconsciousness is just as susceptible to deception and misunderstanding as our conscious brain. If you believe in a lot of junk, your moments of revelation will be junk too. - theone3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Could a computer know what we are about to do, before we do it, and consistently?"
Gut says no. >_> - fredrated, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I guess we're OK then, considering how few people actually use their conscious mind.
- russryba, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just heard a good joke on the radio...
George Bush is like a turtle on a post,
you know he didn't get there by himself,
he can't really get anything done while he's up there,
and you just want to help him down.
:o) - kevin.gc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The video game stimulus comes from outside, whereas the decision to wag your finger at a time of your choosing comes from an internal decision making process, not strongly correlated with outside stimulus.
- Osmanthus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The main example they give is that they could detect people's decision to wiggle their finger a half second before they were aware of it. This is a very questionable claim: does it not imply that it takes at least a half second to make a decision to wiggle your finger? If this were so, video games wouldn't work, some games require timings much less than half a second. Nah, I don't buy it.
- Algol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The unconscious mind is a strange thing. Partly perhaps we are reluctant to acknowledge it. For those int rested I recommend Malcolm Gladwells book Blink. Lots of fun and creepy examples of intuitive thinking and decision making.
- Herabec, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0whatever. my life isn't going to change because of this.
- mkayatta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0hence the article clearly states that mathematics is best left with the conscious mind...
- otomo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Trust my instincts? Ok, try this test out. Take two pop cans (anything curved will do). Suspend them from the ceiling or other place, keep them only 1-2cm apart. Take a straw and blow in between them.
Now tell me, what did you expect to happen? Everyone "knows" that the cans will blow apart. But they didn't.
Instinct is only remembered when it succeeds, we are a largely psychological animal. We remember what we find unique, but forget what happens constantly. - abqjudy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5You assume he has a mind, and that he is conscious of anything but how he looks, sounds, projects his strength and power insisting on "staying the course" on domestic policies that are bringing us to fiscal disaster and on the foreign adventures he has undertaken in the face of the failures he has fostered based upon lies he didn't even understand.
- kb9vgr, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7best reply ever
oh and this would explain why the first choice i make on a multiple choice test is usually right
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