neurology, math, trauma, hope
um
what
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190411-the-violent-attack-that-turned-a-man-into-a-maths-genius
Yeah. Summary: a traumatic assault turned a mathophobe into an obsessive savant who sees everyday patterns as rich and beautiful. I wouldn't wish his other symptoms on anyone, but... this is our final frontier and source of my greatest hopes.
Human brains are pretty broken and dysfunctional... in their crappy factory-default settings. But their untapped potential is fucking amazing. THIS, not some egomaniac dipshit libertarian dream of immortality, is why I became a transhumanist.
If we can do this, not only can we drastically increase raw human potential, we might figure out how to fix the GAPING COGNITIVE FLAWS that makes us so vulnerable to authoritarian manipulation and memetic attacks.
Heh, or they could engineer a race of perfectly obedient computing devices out of it. Probably that one. *shrugs and laughcries* But if SOMEHOW we can win this round of the Red Queen's Race, and beat them to this technology...
I mean, hey, what the hell, damn near everything ELSE Bruce Sterling and William Gibson predicted ended up coming true. Maybe we'll get something good for a change...
"The secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!"
re: neurology, math, trauma, hope
@chandra No, I get you. We've got one of the worst cases of early adopter syndrome imaginable, and maybe the crows, raccoons, et al will get to evolve by rummaging around in our ruins, and thus do a far better job than us. :p
neurology, math, trauma, hope
@zebratron2084 Look, it's not an easy road ahead, but so long as I eventually get to fuck up the Villa Straylight, I'm in.
re: neurology, math, trauma, hope
@Phorm OK, but I must INSIST you put a gratuitous integer in front of your name.
re: neurology, math, trauma, hope
@zebratron2084 As if I WOULDN'T be Lady 3Djinn?
re: neurology, math, trauma, hope
@Phorm OK, I... I need to be alone under the covers for a few minutes. *sweatdrop* >_>;;
neurology, math, trauma, hope
@zebratron2084
Human brains, in their original setting, were pretty damn effective, which is how we ended up with enough free time and resources to get into so much trouble.
Brains are like bodies in many ways. What we want is a machine that responds to certain well-defined inputs. What we have is a blob with fuzzy edges that gets contaminated by everything around it, chemical or memetic. It has an amazing ability to keep functioning (at some level) despite that, but not always in a way that we may find desirable.
I am too sleepy this morning to really put this together in a coherent way, sorry.