smomara

how democracies can learn from experience, recognise failure and change course—and why their survival may depend on getting better at it.

Here’s the second part podcast of my book chapter ‘’ - more parts will follow in the future. #electric #guitar #electronica #trance #democracy #cognition #politics #democracy

#Sleep #SleepHealth #BetterSleep #WorkPerformance #WorkLifeBalance #Productivity #Memory #Cognition #BrainHealth #CognitiveFunction #Science

#dopamine #shopping #detox #gibberish

When power is very personal (part 1)

#neuroscience #neuroskyence #neurogrifters #neuro-nonsense #fraud #exploitation

New post up on the loose thinking around brain uploading and downloading; this is the first of a two parter.

Part two will explain why there is no tech, and never will be a tech, to merge human brains and AI. The speculation is based on a simple and obvious misconception.

Don’t believe our tech overlords…!

No, Elon, NO! (part one)

brain downloading and brain uploading are never going to happen

#BrainTechnology #AIIntegration #TechMisconceptions #NeuroscienceDebate #BrainMergeDebunked #TechRealityCheck #ElonMuskViews #TechSpeculations #FutureTechLimits #HumanAIIntegration

…energy conservation, and other metabolic marvels

'Toy models' of metabolism and exercise don't work. Something else is going on.

You’ll have often heard the ‘cure’ for obesity is a twofold, easy to implement, behavioural change: just ‘(i) eat less; (ii) exercise more’.

This ‘cure’ is based on a toy model of our energy use: bring the energy you consume in food plus the energy burned through exercise into a negative balance (less food + more activity), and obesity will be ‘cured’ - because you’ll be burning more calories through activity than you take in through eating.

Economic unfairness, not inequality, is a profound source of people's dissatisfaction in life

Psychological effects of economic inequality are influenced by perceived, rather than objective, inequality

People naturally favour fair distributions over equal ones, and prefer fair inequality over unfair equality.

Biological economics: 'Live fast, die young’; ‘live slow, die old’ Terry Pratchett’s Mayflies and Life History Theory; Star Trek and the Economics of Abundance

thought stickiness; living rent-free in your head; Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom; introspection; maps of meaning

“life was driving at brains—at its darling object; an organ by which it can attain not only self-consciousness but self-understanding.” (GB Shaw: Man and Superman)

Regular essays and other pieces will resume in September. In the meantime, here's a little Summer reading, with some commentaries.

Political Philosophy/Policy

Francis Fukuyama in sparkling form:

One of the great, but understated, scenes in The Godfather occurs at the periphery of the wedding scene. FBI agents are present, taking photos of cars and guests; Sonny hotheadedly confronts them - smashing cameras, throwing some dollars in recompense down (how contemptuous a gesture is that?) , and storming off...

'...our commitment to the policy positions of our preferred political parties is cognitively fragile, and we do not remember what is was that we used to commit ourselves to'