
The Brain Age - lermontov
http://thelongandshort.org/issues/season-four/the-brain-age.html
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tokenadult
The comment that linked to the New Statesman article was helpful. Another good
source on how much (or how little) to take most neuroscience hype seriously is
the book _Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience_ by Sally
Satel adn Scott O. Lilienfeld.[1] Eventually, someday, as the article kindly
submitted here for discussion suggests, there will be some actionable
knowledge for daily life derived from neuroscience studies, but meanwhile the
hype far exceeds the reality. As the article points out, "Paul Fletcher,
professor of health neuroscience at Cambridge University, explains that this
is the major obstacle for progress in the field. 'Nobody has a credible idea
of how brain processes produce mental processes, or even a vocabulary with
which to articulate such an idea, should it suddenly come to them in the
bath,' he says. 'Good science is usually about linking levels of description:
showing how an observation at one level – say, the genetic – ultimately
manifests in a physiological process or behaviour or symptom through a series
of intermediary facts each expressed at intervening levels… We just don't have
these linkages in brain-mind science; it's like the brain observations are
made in one language and the mind observations in another, and there is no
clue how to translate between those languages.'"

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Brainwashed-Seductive-Appeal-
Mindless-...](http://www.amazon.com/Brainwashed-Seductive-Appeal-Mindless-
Neuroscience/dp/0465062911)

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ExpiredLink
counterpoint: [http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2012/09/your-
brain...](http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2012/09/your-brain-
pseudoscience-rise-popular-neurobollocks)

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neuro_imager
Absolutely right. Most of what passes for "brain science" in the popular media
is neuro-bollocks. This doesn't stop quacks and scammers from trying to make a
quick buck out of books, bullshit EEG devices and other businesses based on
exploiting public ignorance.

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cafebeen
To be clear, EEG is useful for non-quack things like characterizing epilepsy,
coma, sleep, etc.

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neuro_imager
Absolutely, EEG is great in the neurology clinic. Its just not great as a
"self-development" tool or a "brain-mind" interface the way a lot of
marketeers would like to claim.

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oldpond
The lineups at the snack counters at movie theaters and sports events are
about to get very long. You walk into the theater and the neural marketing
transmitters trigger the craving for sugar or salt.

Jury tampering, neurally transmitted propaganda leaflets, crowd pacification,
the list goes on. Fun article.

I think I'll go invest in radiation shielding stocks.

[edit] grammar

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shpx
> 'warehouse' the offender indefinitely in some location cut off from society

But that's just prison, the problem is we could make mistakes, and see some
things as impossible to fix when they are, but otherwise it's just prison. And
prison doesn't have to be bad, as evidenced by some nordic countries.

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anotheryou
what does this page do to my scrolling :) ?

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kozukumi
Fuck it up. Sigh.

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opcvx
Say Yes to NoScript.

