The connectome simply put is the wiring diagram of your brain. But this is not so simple to obtain due the incredible complexity of the human brain. I wrote previously in the last couple weeks of new research that indicates that one human brain has more ‘switches’ than all the computers in the world. Work…
Category: information
brain health, information
Reading and your brain: past, present, and future
by Ward • • 2 Comments
Image via Wikipedia Most of us take reading for granted but in the grand scheme of things it is a fairly recent invention and skill of humans. Even in our modern times according to UNICEF the illiteracy rate worldwide is 20%. Past Reading: If you go back only as far as 1841 in developed nations…
information
David Foster Wallace: brain and information
by Ward • • 2 Comments
I have now written several short pieces about the novelist David Foster Wallace (DFW) (The death of a genius, David Foster Wallace’s memorial). Now, the full Rolling Stones article is online (The lost years and last days of David Foster Wallace) (previously only a portion of the article was available). Here is one short quote…
information, neuroeconomics
The logical and illogical influence of information on our thinking
by Ward • • 0 Comments
Information (painful or pleasurable) is simply input from our environment (can be in many forms) that plays a role in our decisions (after we have done a bunch of thinking and error prediction). One example of environmental information would be the amount of money in your bank account (your saving – much like how much…
bioinformatics, brain hack, information
Designing the human brain: the big blue singularity
by Ward • • 8 Comments
For any of you fans of the singularity you will have to check out this short 15 minute video; “Designing the human brain” (hosted at seedmagazine). One component of the singularity is when man humans are able to build computers as powerful as the human brain. Some also think of this point as when we…
information, neuroeconomics
How information can be painful or pleasurable to the brain
by Ward • • 6 Comments
“Do you want the good news or bad news first” is an age old question. I wonder if which we choose tells something about how we are wired up? The economics of information is a fairly new field of study (1982 Nobel prize winner George Stigler is credited with starting this field in around 1961)…
brain hack, information, neuroeconomics
How to improve the efficiency of your brain
by Ward • • 1 Comment
One great brain hack would be to improve your brain efficiency. Our brains have evolved to use more and more of the total energy that we intake in effort to have higher functioning brains (see previous post). Additionally, as we age our brain becomes less efficient – it not only feels this way but scientific…
information, neuroeconomics
Your brain: it all comes down to energy and information
by Ward • • 1 Comment
The brain has evolved as a very exceptional device that takes in information and tries to optimize prediction of the near, and far, future. Your brain must reduce prediction errors; hence reduce surprise to increase its ability to survive in the world (at least this is one theory of the brain). However, just like any…
brain health, information, neuroeconomics
Knowledege to reduce stress of the financial crisis
by Ward • • 0 Comments
I am sure many people in the world are currently stressed about the current financial crisis. And we all know uncontrolled chronic stress is bad for your brain health. I am linking to last nights 60 minute segment on the financial crisis. I hoping the knowledge will at least give you a bit better understanding…
bioinformatics, genetics, information
The price of personal genomics keep coming down
by Ward • • 0 Comments
Just a few week ago I updated some of the price drops in personal genomics (price drop from $ 999 to $ 399 for the scanning of 500,000+ SNPs). But these personal genome scans are not the entire genome but for specific single nucleotide polymorphisms. The holy grail of personal genomics is the scanning of…