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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   4744 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 24, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on Paradise Lost. So far God isn't coming off well and Jesus sounds harebrained. On the other hand, Satan seems to have unfortunate ideas about what to do with humanity, which feels personal.

Paper I'm reading: Magnus' Science and Rationality for One and All.

Slowly working my way through McGilchrist's The Master and his Emissary. It's about the brain hemispheres, and how current Western society is very imbalanced. We use the left hemisphere too much, which inhibits the right hemisphere.

It's a pretty long/dense book. Enlightening though.

Literally or metaphorically?

I was under the impression brain-hemisphere research wasn't in a great state. Per Scott:

I am not an expert in functional neuroanatomy, but my impression is that recent research has not been kind to any theories too reliant on hemispheric lateralization. While there are a few well-studied examples (language is almost always on the left) and a few vague tendencies (the right brain sort of seems to be more holistic, sometimes), basically all tasks require some input from both sides, there’s little sign that anybody is neurologically more “right-brained” or “left-brained” than anyone else, and most neuroscientific theories don’t care that much about the right-brain left-brain distinction. Also, Michael Gazzaniga’s groundbreaking work on split-brain patients which got everyone excited about hemispheres and is one of the cornerstones of Jaynes’ theory doesn’t replicate.

Scott should read the book. It seems to make a solid case, although I'm still in the first 20% of it, so I'm not going to start explaining how, at this point. But it already seems clear that there are more than "vague tendencies". Both hemispheres do all sorts of tasks, but how they do it and how they relate to the world is different.

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