Tag Archives: mind

Scientists Discover Drugs That Can Block Memories & Radically Alter Human Personalities


Scientists have discovered drugs which can block out memories and have the potential to radically alter human personalities. No, this isn’t the “nerd discovers beer” scene from every college movie ever – chemicals like propranolol and ZIP have already been shown to remix recollections. But if memories make the man, what happens when you mess with them?

We simply don’t know. Neuroscience Lesson #1 is “The human brain is a terrifyingly complex device, even ones which watch American Idol.” Any alteration could cause serious side-effects, with the additional problem that such symptoms are difficult to diagnose. If your kidney stops working, we have all kinds of ways of measuring that. How you eventually fall over, for one thing. But outside of the Care Bears cartoon there’s nothing to quantify imagination or confidence.

A major part of this problem is that human beings are simply crap at collecting data. Any number of reasons from forgetfulness to embarrassment can prevent patients from reporting regular symptoms for things like broken feet, never mind the nature of their own thoughts – they’re patients, not Zen philosophers. This is why some scientists think online logging might be the answer – a medical version of twitter, for example, where out-patients can report any and every odd feeling as they happen and have the data logged in real time. It’ll certainly be no worse than much of the content already up there – though putting somebody online and telling them to share personal information after erasing their memories may cause new problems. And boost the Nigerian economy.


Scientists Discover a Hidden “Memory” Switch in Our Brains

If you’ve e ver been educated, and the fact that you’re reading this means that you either have or are extremely good at guessing, you’ve tried to find a way to enhance your memory. Reading things ten times, flash cards, enough coffee to accelerate an elephant to eighty-eight miles an hour – and none of them work. Now scientists may have found an all-purpose “memory on” switch hiding in your head.

A team of German an UK researchers have applied magnetoencephalographic techniques to look inside the very living brain of dozens of people, and if that fact doesn’t impress you chalk one up to “humans can get used to anything.” These people have machines that can scan your mind and draw maps! Sure, those maps are like urban planners trying to document a computer chip, not really sure of which does what or how to represent it, but we can still see some general functions from all the data acquired.


Slowing Our Aging Clock -World’s Leading Expert Tells How


The power of positive thinking might make us sound infinity percent more likely to wear hemp and say “man” an inappropriate number of times for science reporters (i.e. ever), but it’s real research at Harvard. Professor Ellen Langer has conducted several studies into “mindfulness theory”, researching just how much your attitude affects your actual body. The answer: quite a bit.

One of Benjamin Button’s many stories-within-stories in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, involves the tale of a clock built for the New Orleans train station that is designed to run backwards, in the hope that it will resurrect the First World War dead.



Also see this article.

Researchers Find That Genes Determine Brain’s Processing Speed





Future shock: The PC of 2019








Regulate armed robots before it’s too late




Can a machine read your mind?

I’m sitting in a Sussex cottage, wearing a rubber swimming cap dotted with wires and electrodes. On a laptop in front of me, a constantly shifting wash of coloured graphics portrays the activity in my brain. It’s a neat party trick, but it is also a Pandora’s box: across the world, scientists are using this kind of technology to prise open our minds, to fathom our voting preferences, our guilty thoughts, our shopping desires, even the words we are thinking. Already their activities are stealthily changing our world.

I’m the guest of Dr David Lewis, a British neuropsychologist who uses electronic brain-scanning to help brands see which of their marketing strategies best snare our interest. His Sussex University-based company, the Mind Lab, uses equipment that monitors electrical activity in the brain, and is currently investigating how to refine people’s enjoyment of video games. This is definitely the least contentious end of the market.

Amid all the scientific gadgetry and research, sceptics argue that brain-reading systems are not yet sufficiently developed to be of real use in any field. But in fact, that doesn’t matter: the prospects are far too tantalising. Companies are already marketing the technology as a way to penetrate the last frontier of exploration – the space between our ears. Lawyers, military chiefs, advertisers and politicians are eagerly buying. Welcome to the world of brainjacking, where science fiction is happening now.


Canadians can read your mind





Inside the minds of the thinking computers

What if your computer had a brain, one that worked like our very own grey matter?

It sounds like science fiction, but with incredible advancements in the fields of neuroscience, nanotechnology and supercomputing technology, the time is right for computer scientists to begin trying to create computers that are able to approach the brain’s abilities.

So what would that mean for tomorrow’s computers? It’s a tantalising question that scientists working in the field of cognitive computing are striving to answer. And, if they’re successful in their goal of ousting silicon from the PC and inserting a brain, we could witness a revolution in computing power and potential. Tomorrow’s computers may be able to think rather than just follow programs.


IBM tries to bring brain’s processing power to computers

IBM Research on Thursday is expected to uncover work it is doing to bring the brain’s processing power to computers, in an effort to make it easier for PCs to process vast amounts of data in real time.

The researchers want to put brain-related senses like perception and interaction into hardware and software so that computers are able to process and understand the data quicker while consuming less power, said Dharmendra Modha, a researcher at IBM. The researchers are bringing the neuroscience, nanotechnology, and supercomputing fields together in an effort to create the new computing platform, he said.

The goal is to create machines that are mind-like and adapt to changes, which could allow companies to find more value in their data. Right now, a majority of information’s value is lost, but relevant data can allow businesses or individuals to make rapid decisions in time to have significant impact, he said.

“If we could design computers that could be in real-world environments and sense and respond in an intelligent way, it would be a tremendous step forward,” Modha said.

There is a problem in the core philosophy of computing and a new approach is needed, Modha said. Today’s model first defines objectives to solve problems, after which algorithms are built to achieve those objectives.

“The brain is the opposite. It starts with an existing algorithm and then problems [are] second. It is a computing platform that can address a wide variety of problems,” Modha said.

For example, the new approach could help efficiently manage the world’s water supplies through real-time analysis of data that could help discover new patterns, Modha said. A network of sensors could monitor temperature, pressure, wave height and ocean tide across the oceans. “Imagine streaming this data to a global brain that discovers invariant patterns and associations that no algorithms of today can do,” Modha said.

It will also be able to sense the world’s markets, like stocks, bonds and real estate, extracting patterns and associations in the way the brain extracts information from those environments.


Also see IBM to Build “Thinking” Computers Modeled on the Brain and IBM plans ‘brain-like’ computers.