Cognitive Science Trivia
This page is for posting useful information from Cognitive Science in a form that the average reader of this Wiki can understand.
For example, if anyone understands what the cognitive scientists mean when they say "The human brain is running backwards", could you please try to explain it here?
--observer
I've never heard that statement. (And neither has Google.) -- Mitchell Porter
I have to confess confusion too. Perhaps they're referring to the bass-ackwards way that it's set up? With complex reflective cognition built on top of very simple instinctive behaviors?--Justin Corwin
This is most likely a reference to the fact that we find out what our brains did after they did it. "You" are filled in about what your brain did a few milliseconds after it happens. "You" are just a memory of where your brain just was. This is opposed to the folk view, where "you" decide what "you" do. -- Gordon Worley
Actually, what I was referring to was the brain's hardwired rationalization mechanisms.
New question: Is there any truth to the old cliche that the left half of your brain is logical and the right half of your brain is creative?
New question: How reliable or useful is MITECS? Is there any better introduction to Cognitive Science?
Comments overheard from #sl4 and elsewhere:
- you can never rationally be more than 70% certain of anything
- The old cliche that you only use about 2 percent of your brain is false. If all of your neurons fired at the same time, you wouldn’t be superintelligent, you would be super-epileptic.
--observer
