havemehavana

Fascinating intro from UCL neuroscientist Hugo Spiers to the physiology of memory (and thus consciousness) and its impact on the way we live.

Your memories are patterns inscribed in the connections between the millions of neurons in your brain. Each memory has its unique pattern of activity, logged in the vast cellular network every time a memory is formed.

Three-part Documentary, 2009. Ed Wardle is dropped into the unforgiving Yukon wilderness with just basic provisions and cameras to film himself as he attempts to survive completely alone in the wild.

Humans can survive almost anywhere on earth. We do it every day. But we do it together. The psychology of aloneness evident in this doc is fascinating.

This is from 2008 (we’ve learned more in the last three years) but definitely worth a look. Always satisfying when someone writes about conclusions you kind of reached (unscientifically) by yourself and then goes on to teach you details and new things. Particularly interesting is the thinking about evolutionary processes outside of natural selection. The second section is great for anyone who’s been taught religious doctrine, something I’m forever thankful I avoided growing up. (I like reading bits and pieces of all human philosophies - in which I include religions - but thank frak I wasn’t indoctrinated as a child, there are enough psychological scree slopes in just trying to be a person!)

Traits we no longer need, non-human language, planetary mega-organisms…
If you think you understand evolution, you don’t know nearly enough about it.