<a href="http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites
The brain (and, by implication, the Mind) has been compared to the latest technological innovation in every generation. The computer metaphor is now in vogue. Computer hardware metaphors were replaced by software metaphors and, lately, by (neuronal) network metaphors. Such attempts to understand by comparison are common in every field of human knowledge. Architects and mathematicians have lately come up with the structural concept of "tensegrity" to explain the phenomenon of life. The tendency of humans to see patterns and structures everywhere (even where there are none) is well documented and probably has its survival value added.
Another trend is to discount these metaphors as erroneous, irrelevant, or deceptively misleading. Yet, these metaphors are generated by the same Mind that is to be described by them. The entities or processes to which the brain is compared are also "brain-children", the results of "brain-storming", conceived by "minds". What is a computer, a software application, a communications network if not a (material) representation of cerebral events?
In other words, a necessary and sufficient connection must exist between ANYTHING created by humans and the minds of humans. Even a gas pump must have a "mind-correlate". It is also conceivable that representations of the "non-human" parts of the Universe exist in our minds, whether a-priori (not deriving from experience) or a-posteriori (dependent upon experience). This "correlation", "emulation", "simulation", "representation" (in short : close connection) between the "excretions", "output", "spin-offs", "products" of the human mind and the human mind itself - is a key to understanding it.
This claim is an instance of a much broader category of claims: that we can learn about the artist by his art, about a creator by his creation, and generally: about the origin by any of its derivatives, inheritors, successors, products and similes.
This general contention is especially strong when the origin and the product share the same nature. If the origin is human (father) and the product is human (child) - there is an enormous amount of data to be safely and certainly derived from the product and these data will surely apply to the origin. The closer the origin and the product - the more we can learn about the origin. The computer is a "thinking machine" (however limited, simulated, recursive and mechanical). Similarly, the brain is a "thinking machine" (admittedly much more agile, versatile, non-linear, maybe even qualitatively different).
When he was at oxford he met Helen Palmer then she became his wife in 1927. She persuaded him to give up on becoming an English teacher and to focus more on drawing more as a career. He left Oxford without a degree returned to the United States in February 1927. He immediately started publishing and working on books and drawings. Seuss was a perfectionist when he was writing a book he would throw away 95% of his work. His first book that he had published was called “And to Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street”. It was his first childrens book he wrote and illustrated it was published in 1937 after it being rejected 27 times it was finally published by the Vanguard Press. With that publication he ...
Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, Kourtney K. and Scott Disick broke up due to finding out that their relationship wasn't working.This shows that being in love is difficult and has a downside at times.The authors of "Love's Vocabulary", "My Shakespeare",and Romeo and Juliet use metaphors,allusions and again metaphors to illustrate how confusing love is. In "Love's Vocabulary" Diane Ackerman uses metaphors to describe how love can be a struggle when you're in a relationship.In line 1 she says "love is the great intagible" which sums up the idea
“Dr. Seuss At Work.” Scholastic News—Edition 1 69.6 (2013): 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 5 March. 2014
The human brain is a complex and interesting organ that we still do not know everything about. In the essay “Attention Deficit: the Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” the author Richard Restak talks about how our brains have changed in the way we see and respond to everything around us because of technology. Our brains have had to adapt to the different changes and the speed at which technology has advanced. Yet many argue these changes have not been for the better while others say that these changes will only benefit us. The change in the way the brain functions that he discusses, I think, are for the better of a person because advancements in technology is the way of the future and all of these changes will be for the better in the future.
Atlantic journalist Nicholas Carr confesses that he feels something has been “tinkering with his brain.” The internet, he fears, may be messing with our minds. We have lost the ability to focus on a simple task, and memory retention is steadily declining. He is worried about the effect the internet has on the human brain, and where it may take us in the future. In response to this article, Jamais Cascio, also a journalist for the Atlantic, provides his stance on the issue. He argues that this different way of thinking is an adaptation derived from our environment. Ultimately, he thinks that this staccato way of thinking is simply a natural evolution, one that will help to advance the human race.
Theodor Seuss Geisel better known as Dr. Seuss was an American writer, poet and cartoonist. His imaginative characters, colorful drawings, and appealing rhymes are familiar to anyone who grew up reading his stories. Theodor worked persistently at what he loved to do so much and never strived for personal fame. Many people have no knowledge of his private life. For example, Dr. Seuss wasn’t actually a doctor; he started signing his work as “Dr. Theophrastus Seuss” as a joke. To make it easier he later changed it to Dr. Seuss.
Born and raised in Springfield Massachusetts, Theodor Geisel was born on March 2nd 1904. Under the pen-name Dr. Seuss, Ted was able to accomplish his dream of becoming a writer after attending Dartmouth College and wrote for the school paper – the Jack-O-Lantern. Upon graduation, Geisel went to Oxford in which he received a PhD in English Literature and was inspired to become an English teacher and writer. Some of Dr. Seuss’s works include Horton Hears a Who, Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax, and The Cat in the Hat. Throughout his lifetime, Dr. Seuss earned three Academy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, as well as numerous degrees and other awards. Dr. Seuss was not only a highly acclaimed children’s book writer as he is popularly known to be, but also, Ted Geisel is known for his work during the WWII era. He created hundreds of political cartoons in which he gave a voice to his views on topics such as war bonds and the war itself. Ted Geisel is an author who successfully revolutionized the way children read books through the creation of new “seussical” words, interesting rhyme scheme, as well as stories with meanings far beyond what they seem to represent at first glance. Geisel was able to enlist the help of the majority of the United States in WWII through the publication of cartoons and movies.
Most of Dr. Seuss’s children's books were written after he and his wife moved to La Jolla, California. In May 1954, Life magazine reported that school children were not learning to read because their books were dull. William Ellsworth Spaulding, the director of a education division, made a list of 348 words he thought were important for first grade children should know, and gave it to Dr. Seuss, c...
These two articles are similar in the sense that they agree that the internet and computational objects are reshaping our brain’s structure by changing our neural circuit. By using examples from their personal experiences to identify a trend in technology use, the authors illustrate that the more we bury ourselves in technology the more we are unable to understand material which leads to loss of concentration and the ability to think for ourselves. As an author, Carr finds the internet a beneficial tool, but it’s having a bad effect on his concentration span. Carr points this out by stating “Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy, now I get fidgety, lose the thread and begin looking for something else to do” (39). He is no
Temple Grandin uses many metaphors to explain her way of thinking. She uses terms like “web browser,” “tape recorder,” and “computer.” She says, “I hypothesize that the frontal cortex of my brain is the operator and the rest of my brain is the computer” (Grandin 404). This is the perfect example of her
Army. Some of his most iconic works came a decade or so later, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957), The Cat and the Hat (1957; written as a tour de force using 220 words from list of 500 supplied by his publisher), and Green Eggs and Ham (1960). After the war, Seuss and Helen purchased an old observation tower in La Jolla, California. There he would write at least eight hours a day. He wrote and published several children’s books in the coming years. A major turning point in his career came when, in response to a 1954 LIFE magazine article that criticized children’s reading levels, Houghton Mifflin and Random House asked him to write a children’s primer using 220 vocabulary words. The finished book, The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957. The success of The Cat in the Hat cemented Seuss’s place in Children’s literature. Over the next several years, he wrote many more books, both in his new, simplified vocabulary style and using his older, more elaborate
What kid hasn’t heard of Dr. Seuss? From “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish” to “A person’s a person, no matter how small” to “From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere”, Dr. Seuss has filled the lives of children with whimsical stories and ideas. (8) Using casual dialect and everyday objects, he was able to spark the imagination of others. All the while, he instilled lessons into his writings. It is not a surprise that Dr. Seuss received an award for a “Lifetime of Contribution to Children’s Literature”. His work will be read and enjoyed for decades to come. All in all, no matter which Dr. Seuss story that the reader might select, his or her imagination will be sparked, and the reader will surely be entertained.
The traditional notion that seeks to compare human minds, with all its intricacies and biochemical functions, to that of artificially programmed digital computers, is self-defeating and it should be discredited in dialogs regarding the theory of artificial intelligence. This traditional notion is akin to comparing, in crude terms, cars and aeroplanes or ice cream and cream cheese. Human mental states are caused by various behaviours of elements in the brain, and these behaviours in are adjudged by the biochemical composition of our brains, which are responsible for our thoughts and functions. When we discuss mental states of systems it is important to distinguish between human brains and that of any natural or artificial organisms which is said to have central processing systems (i.e. brains of chimpanzees, microchips etc.). Although various similarities may exist between those systems in terms of functions and behaviourism, the intrinsic intentionality within those systems differ extensively. Although it may not be possible to prove that whether or not mental states exist at all in systems other than our own, in this paper I will strive to present arguments that a machine that computes and responds to inputs does indeed have a state of mind, but one that does not necessarily result in a form of mentality. This paper will discuss how the states and intentionality of digital computers are different from the states of human brains and yet they are indeed states of a mind resulting from various functions in their central processing systems.
Propaganda is very important issue in our society. The word "propaganda" however, has a very negative connotation. This may happen because people tend to associate it with "the enormous campaigns that were waged by Hitler and Stalin,' (Delwiche 2002). Now propaganda has a different face.
Shawn T. Smith, P. (2011). The User's Guide to the Human Mind. Oakland CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.