TED Talk: I am my connectome
I’m a bit busy this week, so I’m going to post a TED talk that I found really interesting. The guy giving the talk is really over the top, and really cheesy, and yet the content of the talk is pretty inspired. I also find the name “connectome” to be pretty silly, but I try not to judge an idea by the name its incredibly cheesy creator gave it! It seems to me that connectome is just a weird and unnecessary way to say brain. I understand that he’s trying to point out the importance of the synaptic connections, but it doesn’t really do it for me.
So what do you think? I’m skeptical that he’ll succeed in what he’s hoping for, but I admire the undertaking. And I admire the fact that he’s willing to propose falsifiable hypotheses. Whether he succeeds or not is somewhat besides the point though; regardless, I think we’ll learn some very valuable lessons from the pursuit.
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12:57 pm
“Other programs are copies of our parents’ programs; sometimes the world
we live in writes programs into our nerves with pleasure and, too often,
with fire and pain. The origin of certain programs is a secret which
will perhaps always remain unknown. Does the brain hold the secret in
the way it molds itself to fit its tiny corner of the universe, the
billions of neurons weaving together, forming trillions of
interconnections? The akashics believe so, yet they have never realized
their dream of mapping and understanding man’s soul. “-David Zindell Neverness