Help me increase my metacognition. How can I best guess when my understanding of a task is adequate to the task?
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posted by LogicalDash
on Sep 4, 2012 -
15 answers
What is the most thought-provoking speculative fiction you've read on the subject of human consciousness and thought?
posted by Bookhouse
on Jun 13, 2011 -
30 answers
The Human Soul vs. General Anesthesia: I'm looking for reading material on how general anesthesia is viewed by people who hold spiritual beliefs that include the existence of an immortal soul/spirit/energy that is independent of ones physical body.
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posted by the jam
on Feb 10, 2011 -
14 answers
I'm suddenly very interested in stories, novels, films, music, poems, and comics/graphic narratives that take insanity, altered states of consciousness, and/or terminal illness as a primary theme. My general preference is for science fiction and speculative fiction, but suggestions from other genres would be very good as well.
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posted by gerryblog
on Nov 16, 2010 -
41 answers
Can human beings achieve a 'lizard brain consciousness? Is it scientifically documented? What techniques can one use to access this.
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posted by Not Supplied
on Apr 12, 2009 -
17 answers
Favourite psychedelic / drug / shaman / consciousness related books? My brother met a shaman in South American and has given me his credit card and asked me to order him a bunch of books. Think Terence McKenna, Alex Grey, Alexander Shulgin, Carlos Castaneda, DMT, Ayahuasca...
*Documentary/DVD recommendations welcome as well.
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posted by mjao
on Mar 10, 2009 -
36 answers
William James-Filter: does anybody know who said this particular thing about him, and where?
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posted by Beardman
on Oct 8, 2008 -
6 answers
The phenomenology / ontology of text: has anyone examined this issue directly in philosophical, literary and/or critical terms?
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posted by 0bvious
on Sep 18, 2008 -
26 answers
I'm looking for examples of sci fi films that focus primarily on a conflict/relationship between a human and a self-aware computer/artificial intelligence (such as HAL in "2001," but NOT the computer in "War Games" because it wasn't self-aware.)
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posted by np312
on Aug 1, 2008 -
39 answers
[spoilers within] Please help me understand the ending of Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
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posted by drgonzo
on Jul 30, 2008 -
11 answers
Jill Bolte Taylor uses a very clear cut dichotomy when explaining the respective roles of the left and right hemisphere: one is oriented towards parrallel processing of sense data, the other towards serial, conscious, target-oriented processing.
Is this reflective of the modern state of the art neurological schientific knowledge? It's an intuitively attractive explanation. But is it true? It sounds simplistic.
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posted by jouke
on Apr 22, 2008 -
13 answers
Recursion filter: I recently came across the phrase '
Mise en Abyme' and have become fascinated by recursion in literature, language and film. What writings have used these themes in their
form to address the questions they posed?
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posted by 0bvious
on Apr 2, 2008 -
20 answers
Name-my-major, Hivemind. So I go to an unusual school in that we don't have clear-cut majors, and we basically pick an area of "focus". I'm actually currently (unofficially) studying my own brain, because it's strangely hampered in certain capacities (like the process of reading music, despite being very musical and understanding cognitively exactly what's going on), or performing basic math (despite endless repetition). It's also weirdly bolstered in other regards: I have an unbelievable propensity for forming the visual "distortions" one might associate with hallucinogens.
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posted by dmaterialized
on Mar 13, 2008 -
14 answers
How is the
meaning of art and artefacts being altered by the methods we use to:
Experience,
Define and
Preserve them... In other words, in what ways have technologies been used to experience, re-define and/or preserve art and artifacts?
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posted by 0bvious
on Feb 5, 2008 -
12 answers
I need solid scientific evidence that thought can change matter - how consciousness effects DNA structure, patterns and ultimately reality. Charts, studies, videos, all is welcome as a way of viewing and understanding how the mind's energy works in relation to physical matter. Thank you so much.
posted by watercarrier
on Nov 7, 2007 -
51 answers
What are the all-time best science fiction novels which depict Artificial Intelligence?
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posted by archae
on Aug 1, 2007 -
37 answers
I want to be a better person (don't we all?). I'm looking for texts and tips to help me on my journey.
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posted by Brittanie
on Jul 31, 2007 -
29 answers
I had a weird experience with briefly losing consciousness last night. Should I be worried and/or do something about it?
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posted by anonymous
on Mar 24, 2007 -
13 answers
What experiments have been carried out where animals perform
better than us at particular cognitive tasks?
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posted by 0bvious
on May 9, 2006 -
13 answers
What is the label for an entity or idea which began as nothing and came to have identity through its own fictionalisation? That is, notions diametrically opposed to '
simulacra' - in that the entity has no referent to begin with...
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posted by 0bvious
on Feb 21, 2006 -
20 answers
How can anthropologists contribute to the answering of questions about the brain and consciousness in the 21st century?
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posted by eighth_excerpt
on Feb 14, 2006 -
8 answers
Many years ago someone told me the recognised term for the kind of involuntary shudder that commonly affects people at rest. You know the kind that spontaneously rocks you, just for a moment, like you are shaking off the ghoulies, like the cliche says 'someone was walking on your grave'? I have since lost this word to time, and searching
the internet has brought only partial results.
Does anyone know it?
posted by 0bvious
on Nov 15, 2005 -
31 answers