Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Richard J. Haier • The Neuroscience of Intelligence (Cambridge Fundamentals of Neuroscience in Psychology)
First key step in the evolution of our brain was shifting to an extra genetic method of learning. This meant learning from experience rather than solely relying on genetic information. Further, the next key step was devising an extra somatic method of learning by discovering how to store knowledge outside of our bodies.
We store key information outs
... See moreSo Dunbar proposed a novel idea: the size of a species’ brain determines the optimal size of their social groups. Maintaining relationships, argued Dunbar, requires brain power. More relationships require more neurons. Extrapolating his straight line from primate brains to human brains, he found that the optimal human group size, if this hypothesis
... See moreSafi Bahcall • Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
“we maxed out intelligence but minimized wisdom”
With just shy of 21,000 genes, the human genome is hardly bigger than that of The Worm (C. elegans). It is half the size of the rice plant, and even the humble water flea outstrips it, with 31,000 genes. None of these species can talk, create, or think intelligent thoughts. You might think, as the scientists entering the Genesweep pool did, that hu
... See moreAlanna Collen • 10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness
No brain has yet been emulated. Consider the humble model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which is a transparent roundworm, about 1 mm in length, with 302 neurons. The complete connectivity matrix of these neurons has been known since the mid-1980s, when it was laboriously mapped out by means of slicing, electron microscopy, and hand-labeling of s
... See moreNick Bostrom • Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
For the bulk of human history, the most learned members of our species have wildly underestimated the human brain’s capabilities. This is understandable, since your brain occupies only about 2 percent of your body mass, and it looks like a blob of gray gelatin. Ancient Egyptians deemed it a useless organ and tugged it out of dead pharaohs through t
... See moreLisa Feldman Barrett • How Emotions Are Made
Increasing your production of BDNF and thus increasing neurogenesis while adding protection to your existing brain neurons doesn’t require that you enroll in a research study to determine if some new laboratory-created compound will enhance BDNF production. The gene that turns on BDNF is activated by a variety of factors, including voluntary physic
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