The sheer banality of tomorrow

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Free Will versus the Programmed Brain

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http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=free-will-vs-programmed-brain&sc=WR_20080826 People are starting to understand that a human being is just a collection of neurons. Things are determined. Humans are behaving as per how the brain works. Brain has 100 billion neurons and the complex connections help in the complex behaviour. Neurons are so big that there is no place for uncertainty principle or principles of quantum mechanics. Or could it be that the dendrites and axons are smaller than neurons that uncertainty principle may apply. I guess that even if that is true, it may not be the reason for the stable complex behaviour and free will. But overall I do believe that a human brain is a determined machine. Quantum uncertainty would not apply. At the same time, I would say that every human being is morally responsible for his own actions. Another way of saying this is that my brain is determined to say that "things are determined but I am morally responsible for my own actio...
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The Limits of Intelligence

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-limits-of-intelligence&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_MB_20110615 The laws of physics may well prevent the human brain from evolving into an ever more powerful thinking machine Human intelligence may be close to its evolutionary limit. Various lines of research suggest that most of the tweaks that could make us smarter would hit limits set by the laws of physics. Brain size, for instance, helps up to a point but carries diminishing returns: brains become energy-hungry and slow. Better “wiring” across the brain also would consume energy and take up a disproportionate amount of space. Making wires thinner would hit thermodynamic limitations similar to those that affect transistors in computer chips: communication would get noisy. Humans, however, might still achieve higher intelligence collectively. And technology, from writing to the Internet, enables us to expand our mind outside the confines of our body.
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Science, Art and writing

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http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/3803/ "It’s just that I perceive science—the disciplined pursuit of truth—to be a higher calling than spinning imaginative tales, no matter how vivid, innovative, or even deeply moving those tales may turn out to be." "Science gives man what he needs, But magic gives him what he wants." "At its core, criticism is the only antidote that human beings have discovered against error. It is the chief method that a skilled person can use to become “even better.” The key to discovering correctable errors before you commit a work to press. But criticism hurts! A deep and pervasive flaw in human character makes all of us resistant to the one thing that can help us to do better. The only solution? Learn to grow up. To hold your head high, develop a thick skin, and take it."
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