We can also train our brains to behave in a more ‘aware’ way by engaging in activities that facilitate greater connection or neural synchronisation. Higher synchronisation – imagine a large group of brain cells singing together – has been found following the practice of different contemplative paradigms, such as meditation and prayer (creating, as it were, slower ocean waves, now growing calmer and calmer). One way of interpreting this is that neuronal synchronisation enhances our brain ‘harmony’ or ‘integrity’ – achieving a state in which the brain works in a more congruent way, adopting a more global perspective. Other findings point to the psychological consequences of this state – greater neuronal synchronisation tends to enable a greater ability to make moral judgments and problem-solve creatively.
— Read on psyche.co/amp/ideas/spirituality-is-a-brain-state-we-can-all-reach-religious-or-not
Impeccability: the best use of our energy | The Warriors Way
“The current dragged him for a long distance. And while he was being dragged and trying his best not to succumb, he entered into a strange frame of mind. He knew his flaw. He was a very angry man and his pent-up anger made him hate and fight with everyone around. But he could not hate or fight the river, or be impatient with it, or fret, which were the ways he normally behaved with everything and everybody in his life. All he could do with the river was follow its flow.”
— Read on warriorsway.com/impeccability/
Visualizing the Power Consumption of Bitcoin Mining
As cryptocurrencies move further into the mainstream, it’s likely that governments and other regulators will turn their attention to the industry’s carbon footprint. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however.
Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry, a blockchain financing provider, believes that cryptomining can support the global transition to renewable energy. More specifically, he believes that clustering cryptomining facilities near renewable energy projects can mitigate a common issue: an oversupply of electricity.
— Read on www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-power-consumption-of-bitcoin-mining/
The ethical limits on our quest to understand the brain.
To understand brains, we record tiny pulses of electricity, the spikes sent from one neuron to another. Those spikes are you moving your eyes to read this text, cocking an eyebrow at the content therein; you sensing the gentle breeze and the waning sun on the skin; your vivid memory of strolling the streets of a beloved city. Spikes are the brain’s own language, so capturing them promises a profound understanding of how brains work.
— Read on slate.com/technology/2021/04/neuroscience-recording-brain-spikes-ethics.amp
Constantly stressed at work? It might actually be changing your personality.
A new paper by organisational researchers from the University of Illinois suggests chronic workplace stress can change your personality in the long term.
— Read on mashable.com/article/work-stress-personality-change.amp
Social Media ‘Likes’ Change the Way We Feel About Our Memories – Neuroscience News
Sharing our personal experiences on social media may negatively impact how we feel about our memories, especially if the post doesn’t get many likes, a new study reports.
— Read on neurosciencenews.com/memory-social-media-18263/amp/
A Physicist and Philosopher Examines Panpsychism | Mind Matters
Bruce Gordon: Now coming at it from the other direction, from the top down, you’ve got something like cosmopsychism. And it would say that all facts about consciousness in general, and about human consciousness in particular, are grounded in facts about consciousness that concern the universe as a whole. So the universe itself is conscious, and somehow our individual consciousnesses within the universe are manifestations or particularizations of this universal consciousness that’s gotten separated off and seems to be unto itself, but is not. It’s really a manifestation of the universe’s consciousness as a whole.
— Read on mindmatters.ai/2021/04/a-physicist-and-philosopher-examines-at-panpsychism/
Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is a blindingly human space odyssey
The film is set almost entirely aboard Icarus, a spacecraft bound for the sun. The crew has been tasked with restarting the dying celestial body by launching a giant bomb into it—“creating a star within a star.” Their mission unfolds as a daisy chain of breathless cliffhangers. Just about all of them are the products of human error; the decision to drift off course and rendezvous with the first ship sent to accomplish their task creates a domino effect of miscalculations, moral dilemmas, daunting obstacles, and impossible decisions.
— Read on www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/danny-boyle-sunshine-blindingly-human-190000557.html
Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour explain how he gets “his sound”
Witnessing David Gilmour with a guitar in his hand is one of life’s most cherished sights. The positive energy that oozes out of Gilmour is infectious when he speaks about the one thing in his life that allows him to convey emotions in a manner that few can do as eloquently with words.
— Read on faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-pink-floyd-david-gilmour-gets-his-sound/
The Brain ‘Rotates’ Memories to Save Them From New Sensations | Quanta Magazine
Research in mice shows that neural representations of sensory information get rotated 90 degrees to transform them into memories. In this orthogonal arrangement, the memories and sensations do not interfere with one another.
— Read on www.quantamagazine.org/the-brain-rotates-memories-to-save-them-from-new-sensations-20210415/
