discovermagazine.com — Of all the objects in the universe, the human brain is the most complex. So it is no surprise that, ?despite the glow from recent advances in the science of the brain and mind, we still find ourselves squinting in the dark. Even partial answers to these 10 questions could restructure our understanding of the brain.
Aug 18, 2007 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountAug 19, 2007
funny you should give half-baked to completely false to completely unrelated answers.1. horrible analogy. there are different kinds of neurons for different things and we have no way of determining any coded information within any specific neuron. 2. you didn't answer the question at all, you're entirely speculating now.3. ...? you're beginning to drift and are losing coherence to the topic at hand. 4. there is no simulation but it deals with representations? you may want to rethink the question really hard and repeat it to yourself a few times and try to get back to us on this one. 5. wow, you almost answered something correct. i'm partially impressed.6. you should try actually reading the article maybe. we obviously have defined intelligence. how does it manifest itself within the brain is the question.7. wow, not at all. you couldn't be further from the truth. when i go running and get tired, time seems to go slower as i run each lap, waiting to get that lap done. when i'm in a fight or flight situation time seems to move very fast. in both instances my heart beat is up yet there is no correlation between that and my perception of time. you completely failed on this one and this is where it becomes blatantly obvious you're trying to sound smart, however miserably you fail at it.8. finally something with the semblance of the truth in it. dreaming can be viewed as writing information to your long term memory, yet you didn't seem to answer why we need to sleep then. from your answer we shouldn't need sleep and that is one of the more mysterious things.9. stay away from your representation thing on this one. i have seperate neural nets for my left leg and my right leg plus separate nets for memory and areas for speech function plus the regulation of neurotransmitters... how do all these separate systems work together. really, rtfa.10. again, what is consciousness in relation to its manifestation from the brain. we've had consciousness scientifically defined for a bit now... the issue is how and why does it arise in the brain.
tygerrtygerrAug 19, 2007
Well, observing cause and effect is a valid and achievable part of science. Just because the effect cannot be explained, it does not invalidate the effect. You may read this post and presumably process it in order to remember, forget, reply, whatever. Nobody understands how, but that doesn't mean that you haven't ably read it and remembered, forgotten, replied, whatever.Not saying that you don't have a point, but I don't think it is as you make out.
metaforestAug 19, 2007
KANEDAAAAAA!!!
lukeevAug 19, 2007
Exactly, finally someone with some sense.
spincycleAug 19, 2007
> " it only proves that complexion does not equal "better" or "good".I think that you mean "complexity", not "complexion".Got zits?
csapdaniAug 20, 2007
I f**king hate these split-to-4-pages articles.
wholly2bAug 20, 2007
I disagree that it isn't complex, but it's a foolish, human-centric thing for Discover magazine to call the human brain "the most complex thing in the universe". I mean, come on.
wholly2bAug 20, 2007
If quantum mechanics is (one of the) framework(s) upon which our brain operates -- that is, if it is a process at a lower level than our cognitive functions -- then what makes you say that it's less complex than the brain? And what makes a human brain so much more complex than a bat's brain? Or any other brain? Or the internet? Calling the human brain the most complex thing in the universe is incorrect, arbitrary, and depressingly human-centric for what is supposed to be a leading science magazine. In thinking that you've got everything figured out, you've missed something. The forest for the trees? I don't even know.
Closed AccountAug 22, 2007
There's a reason why Scientologists wouldn't make it far as a researching neurologist.