a grand unifying theory of kirky's brain

For someone who's very inflexible, that's a pretty open-ended tangent.

Have to wonder another thing, though: doesn't this kind of playful, tangential thinking just lead to the brain complicating itself evermore and fighting against any kind of unifying theory to explain itself? I read in this book about Myth, Religion and Art by a UU minister something about our brains having an objective thinking process but also the subjective thinking about itself and the thinking process itself, which with it being so subjective. . .I think you might get the idea. Or maybe not. . .I lost it.

--The_Lex Sat Aug 19 23:25:27 2006

Christ on a cracker, you're your own worst enemy.
Just do what you have to do and do what you want to do, your strengths and weeknesses will become evident in the results..... regardless of what you may think they are or wish them to be.

Acusing someone of inflexible thinking, or having no sense of humor, are the oldest tricks in the book for winning arguments.
Get the other guy defending himself and you don't have to defend your position.
It's usually not called inflxible thinking, however, more often old fashioned ideas, inexperienced youth, or plain stubborn.....all the same tactic though.

What the hell are you good at? maybe everything? Certainly not nothing. You pick a quality and I'll bet there's someone who's better at it. Do you feel you should be the best in the world at something? Wouldn't that sort of force you to be a specialist?

Relax man, you'll make yourself nuts. ;o)

--xoxoxo Bruce Sun Aug 20 00:56:09 2006

There's a lot to chew on there, particularly because not only am I prone to introspection (though not quite as much meta-introspection), but I have similar mental environs. My memory isn't as good as I'd like either, probably because of sleep dep.

But anyway, I still have some processing to do on the bulk of your post, but your talk of brain differences reminded me of a concept that's fascinated me for many years.

First of all, it's a long dfebunked fallacy that you never grow new brain cells. They are being grown and pruned all of the time. Ans of course we all know how chemistry affects thought and vice versa. So take the next step, realize that simple words, that you utter, actually cause a physical change in the universe. That change is the neuronal configuration and chemical environment of someone elses brain, when they hear the words. Or that by thinking in a certain way, you are making that same change in your own brain.

Think about that. Your thoughts

--Mr. Ibis Sun Aug 20 01:34:04 2006

Two thoughts inapired by your post, Mr.Ibis:
The firat, silly-ish thought; I've heard this justification of alcohol conaumption: the need to provide more darwinian pressure on braincells so the old and weak ones are winnowed out and thus the brain can be more flexible and light on its feet.

The second, slightly more profound thought is how the second half of your post kind of begs the question of the mind/brain duality. (And I'm not trying to accuse of oversimplifying, because we'd go nuts if we always thought about it,) but when you talk about, say, thinking creating physical changes in our own brain, it seems so crazy how our "selves" are both the product and the cause of those changes, and how unless you subscribe to a mysticism for the seat of consciousness, you wonder how there's "some kind of there, there" to think those thoughts.

Well, I do, anyway.

--Kirk Sun Aug 20 07:03:15 2006

It's an anecdotally proven fact that our thought habits and what we cognitively tell ourselves affects our thinking. . .very cyclic. . .our thoughts become products of our thoughts, they reproduce themselves.

But yes. . .the long road of introspection becomes fraught with danger unless you know how to play with the thought, too. Speaking from experience there.

--The_Lex Sun Aug 20 10:38:07 2006

<geek subtype="java">
...and to think all I really wanted from introspection was a list of my member functions...

ba dum bum
</geek>

--Mr. Ibis Mon Aug 21 09:41:26 2006

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