This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. The process of looking back at that time must also include looking back at previous attempts […]
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A team of consciousness scientists in Wisconsin are exploring new frontiers, “translating the poetry of our conscious experiences into the precise language of mathematics.”
A new way to create and interpret real-time brain scans could help addicts consciously control their cravings by making them aware of how their brain is functioning.
Like female African cichlid fish, humans might also possess an overwhelming evolutionary imperative to find the toughest, most combat-ready mates.
There’s a lot of talk on BIG THINK about evolutionary explanations of this or that human behavior. They’re all pretty fascinating, although far from completely convincing. Darwinian explanations, for what […]
By studying the neural networks in the brain, scientists have constructed computer-based models that mirror the brain’s complex biological networks.
If we were able to move our brains, neuron-for-neuron, into a robot, would we still be the same person?
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One of the most wonderful things about the emerging global superbrain is that information is overflowing on a scale beyond what we can wrap our heads around.
The new eugenic intention seems to be not only pro-life but pro-quality of every life. The choice will be for every person against nature’s randomness and indifference.
We see them every time we go to a museum, but we never really see them. Like Rodney Dangerfield, frames get no respect. Julius Lowy Frame & Restoring Company, Inc. […]
Some believe “conscious capitalism” is too idealistic and can’t compete in the marketplace with pure-profit companies. But when you work from a higher purpose you unleash greater degrees of commitment, […]
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Country Strong hasn’t been taken seriously by film critics. I’m not going to review what they’ve said or speculate on why they said it. I’m just going to explain why […]
Those of us writers who are not experts on foreign policy have done more reading than writing this week about the tense situation between the Egyptian government and the Egyptian […]
Before shopping and football, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving to be a holiday for American solidarity.
Children as young as 3 are less likely to help a person after they have seen them harm someone else. This consciousness of other’s intentions is earlier than previously believed.rn
Does a dirty scoundrel need a bath or a moral lesson? Our brains easily confuse metaphor for reality, often with dangerous consequences, says Stanford biology professor Robert Sapolsky.
“The process of consciousness is the process that allows us to run our lives personally and in society the way we do,” says Damasio. “It’s the thing that gives us […]
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Innovation is built into the American way of life, says former President Jimmy Carter. “Quite often, the people who do leave their own nation and come to an unknown destination, […]
He didn’t look back. David Remnick’s recent thoughts on the Khodorjovsky trial, its parallels—and non-parallels—to an earlier Soviet prosecution (of poet Josef Brodsky) made us think about poets, diplomats, and […]
We all think we know what it means to be conscious, but it is hard to pin this down in a precise, scientific way—as USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio explains in our video. Every weekday in September, Big Think will offer a new insight into the human brain in our new “Going Mental” blog.
“Some of the boldest eco-warriors are those with the most to lose—our children.” The Independent says pester power can get parents to go green.
“One obvious problem for many porn users is the conflict between their stated belief in equality and respect for women, and the material they’re watching in private.”
Let me open this blog with a realistic statement: It is and will remain the case that the best way to feel good for members of our species is to […]
The amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the limbic system, is where the the brain processes and reacts to frightening stimuli. Because of its mechanism, our emotional responses to situations that feel dangerous are often unconscious.
Calling it “an insistent history that refuses to wait any longer to be told,” Lynn Hershman Leeson declares “WAR,” her acronym for the women’s art revolution begun in the 1970s, […]
“The impulse to be social is so deep-seated in human consciousness that it’s even evident in the womb, suggests a new study on the interaction of unborn twins.”
“This research is an important reminder that the unconscious is smarter than we can comprehend, as it processes vast amounts of information in parallel.”
Earlier this month I wrote about the possibility of a replay of 2001-2002 and the US targeting al-Qaeda operatives with drones. The news that the US “assisted” with this week’s […]
In a special Big Think conversation arranged by Discover magazine and published online today, Dr. Antonio Damasio, a behavioral neurobiologist at the University of Southern California speaks with novelist Siri […]
OK, I promised a post on video 2.0 over a month ago, bad form on my part not to deliver, I was busy working on my Babson application and a […]