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Neuronal marketplace

According to Edge Dennett has had some second thoughts. Knowing what I do of Hayek’s philosophical psychology and his proto-connectionism, he may well approve of Dennett’s characterization. My mistake was that I had stopped the finite regress of homunculi at least one step too early! The general run of the cells that compose our bodies…

Brain Salad Surgery

Pardon the title of this posting but it’s the best I can do. A mini-interview in the New Scientist (April 19-25) caught my eye. Jill Bolte Taylor’s story gives credence to the network model of cognitive architecture that postulates that cognitive representations consist of widely distributed networks of cortical neurons. Cognitive functions, namely perception, attention, memory, language,…

Ballet and Brain

Two of my passions – ballet and brain – caught my eye in the unlikely guise of a review and preview of Wayne McGregor’s Entity  at Sadler’s Wells. Rather than McGregor’s ideas being filtered through a faintly comprehending dance journalist: Technology fiend McGregor is engaged on a continuing investigation into brain and body. The ultimate goal is to…

Visual Complexity

Thanks to Simon Garnier I discovered this wonderful website dedicated to representations of complexity. As a social epistemologist I have a particular interest in knowledge networks  and  social networks. The images that draw upon biology for inspiration are particular compelling – on aesthetic grounds alone. complexity

Perspectives on Social Cognition

Here is the fully published special issue of Cognitive Systems Research Volume 9, Issues 1-2, March 2008   2. Introduction to the special issue “Perspectives on Social Cognition” Cognitive Systems Research, Volume 9, Issues 1-2, March 2008, Pages 1-4 Leslie Marsh and Christian Onof     3. Functionalism and mental boundaries Cognitive Systems Research, Volume 9, Issues…

Robots

                                The Volume 18, Number 1 issue of Scientific American Reports is a special edition on robotics. The following articles feature:  1. Bill Gates’s “A Robot in Every Home” concentrates on such commonplace items as the vacuum cleaner and not the…

Plasticizing a “computer brain”

This from today’s Jerusalem Post. What’s particularly interesting is that were a biological computer a real possibility, this would vindicate the extended mind thesis. Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob of TAU’s faculty of exact sciences and his research assistant Dr. Itay Baruchi were chosen for their innovative work in brain research and their success in creating a memory-…