Desejo e distância

Alguns estudos de neurociência são fodas. Como esse aqui: “The Neuroscience of Distance and Desire“:

How far away am I from my coffee mug? Why, as far away as it looks! The authors’ argument, however, rests on the idea that the way we see the world can be distorted by the way we feel and think about it. Their research is part of an emerging body of work supporting this idea. For example, researchers have found that hills appear steeper and distances longer when people are fatigued or carrying heavy loads… Balcetis and Dunning wondered whether the desirability of an object might also influence perception, causing us to distort our proximity to objects we crave. In other words, do objects that we want or like appear closer to us than they actually are?

The closer an object appears, the more obtainable it seems. The more obtainable it seems, the more likely we are to go for it. Likewise, the more challenging a goal appears (a mile run when you’re out of shape) the more distant it will seem. The more distant it seems, the less likely you are to lace up your sneakers and the more likely you are to hit up those sweat pants and leftovers. This may seem counter-intuitive – after all, running is good for our health, so how could a perceptual bias that makes us less likely to do it be helpful? While it may be disconcerting to know that your eyes conspire against your waistline, the “impossible is nothing” mentality of our exercise culture, though it will certainly help you look great in a swimsuit, was probably not a terrific strategy over evolutionary time. That chasm over there? Impossible to jump across. How about that growling bear? It’s impossible to physically subdue. There would have been goals that were impossible or, at least, very difficult or unlikely for an individual to achieve, and having the perceptual system guide us in the right direction (e.g. by making the chasm look wider than it actually is, and the bear perhaps a bit larger and meaner) would have been extremely important.

Como a criatividade acontece?

Esse é um artigo da revista SEED que explora como a criatividade funciona no cérebro. Analisam-se dois estudos que lançam luz sobre a seqüência específica de atividade cerebral que é conhecida como criatividade espontânea.

From Jackson Pollock to John Coltrane — how creativity springs from a choreographed set of mental events.

But how does such an act of imagination happen? How does the mind create on command? William James described the creative process as a “seething cauldron of ideas, where everything is fizzling and bobbing about in a state of bewildering activity.” In the last year, two separate experiments have attempted to see inside the cauldron, to figure out how a loom of electric cells finds the exact right notes on the upright organ.

E o Jazz, memoravelmente citado e explicado de maneira mais científica

The first study, led by Charles Limb of the NIH and Johns Hopkins University, examined the brain activity of jazz musicians as they played on a piano. The musicians began with pieces that required no imagination such as the C-major scale and a simple blues tune they’d memorized in advance. But then came the creativity condition: The musicians were told to improvise a new melody as they played alongside a recorded jazz quartet. While the musicians riffed on the piano, giant magnets whirred overhead monitoring minor shifts in their brain activity.

The researchers found that jazz improv relied on a carefully choreographed set of mental events, which allowed the musicians to discover their new melodies. Before a single note was played, the pianists exhibited a “deactivation” of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a brain area associated with planned actions and self-control. In other words, they were inhibiting their inhibitions, which allowed the musicians to create without worrying about what they were creating.

E para minha sorte, hoje me deparei com a palestra bem humorada da escritora Elizabeth Gilbert, onde ela reflete sobre as coisas impossíveis que esperamos dos artistas e gênios. Ela faz um apanhado histórico de como a criatividade não é um sopro divino ou um momento de epifania. É um relato muito pessoal e surprendentemente emocionante e que costura muito bem com o assunto da matéria acima.

5 minutos de Clay Shirky

O cara fala sobre o consumo de informação e os tempos frenéticos em que vivemos, onde a emoção tende a esmagar a racionalidade (Esse link explica muito bem).

Isso tem MUITO a ver com o fim da empatia.

Sputnik Observatory

Bem, se o Jonathan Harris está no meio, é sinal que você deve perder seu precioso tempo navegando pelo Sputnik Observatory.

The Sputnik Observatory is a collaboration with New York based Sputnik, Inc., an organization that documents contemporary culture through intimate video interviews with hundreds of leading thinkers in the arts, sciences and technology, covering a wide range of topics.

The central premise of the Sputnik project is that everything is connected to everything else, and that topics and ideas that may seem fringe and even heretical to the mainstream world are in fact being investigated by leading thinkers working in fields as diverse as quantum physics, mathematics, neuroscience, biology, economics, architecture, digital art, video games, computer science and music. Sputnik is dedicated to bringing these crucial ideas from the fringes of thought out into the limelight, so that the world can begin to understand them.

Conducted over more than ten years and previously unavailable to the public, the interviews within the site chronicle some of the most provocative human ideas to have emerged in the last few decades.

O Jonathan Harris é foda, basta passar os olhos pelo The Whale Hunt para perceber. Storytelling em sua mais nobre acepção. E por falar em contar histórias, veja que possibilidade foda o Sputnik oferece:

mais interessante é que a medida que você navega, os vídeos assistidos vão sendo jogados em uma espécie de caminho que posteriormente pode ser gravado com o nome e descrição que você mesmo escolher. Esses “caminhos” ficam gravados e qualquer pessoa pode acessá-los.

Roubei essas aspas do UoD.

Ah, visita lá o site, esse vídeo aí embaixo é sobre neurociência.

more about “Sputnik Observatory : Paths“, posted with vodpod

O maluquinho fala que nós recebemos um milhão de bits de informação por segundo. A merda é que nosso cérebro só consegue trabalhar 200 bits de informação, o que faz com que 95% de nossa inteligência seja relacionada ao ato de filtrar essa quantidade absurda de informação.

Foda demais, virei fã.

The Sputnik Observatory is a collaboration with New York based Sputnik, Inc., an organization that documents contemporary culture through intimate video interviews with hundreds of leading thinkers in the arts, sciences and technology, covering a wide range of topics.The central premise of the Sputnik project is that everything is connected to everything else, and that topics and ideas that may seem fringe and even heretical to the mainstream world are in fact being investigated by leading thinkers working in fields as diverse as quantum physics, mathematics, neuroscience, biology, economics, architecture, digital art, video games, computer science and music. Sputnik is dedicated to bringing these crucial ideas from the fringes of thought out into the limelight, so that the world can begin to understand them.