Tag Archives: Psychology

The layers of emotion creation

Posted on August 12, 2017 by

What are emotions?  Where do they come from?  Are they something innate or something we learn?  The classic view is that they’re precognitive impulses that happen to us.  If so, this would imply that they have specific neural signatures. Early … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , , | 41 Comments

Politics is about self interest

Posted on August 5, 2017 by

I’ve read a lot of history, including American history of the 18th and 19th centuries.  It’s interesting to read about the politics of these periods.  From a distance across generations and centuries, you can see the distinction between the self … Continue reading →

Posted in Society | Tagged , , , | 66 Comments

Don’t trust your emotions. They will betray you.

Posted on August 8, 2016 by

I’ve mentioned before that my views have changed dramatically over the years.  But thinking about that the other day, it occurred to me that most of that change happened in a fairly narrow period.  At the beginning of 2004, I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged , , , , | 44 Comments

Is there a moral arc to history?

Posted on June 20, 2016 by

The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. As someone who isn’t able to find an objective basis for morality, I’ve often wondered what that means for the above statement from Martin Luther King.  It certainly … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Morality | Tagged , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

SMBC: Apologies by discipline

Posted on February 26, 2015 by

  Click through for full sized version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. STRICT REDUCTIONIST: Anyway, apologies are an evolutionary survival mechanism and therefore just an illusion.  

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

When should we consider an AI a fellow being?

Posted on December 4, 2014 by

Fears of AI (artificial intelligence) are still showing up the media, most recently with another quote from Stephen Hawking warning that it might be the end of us, with Elon Musk, due to his own anxious statements, now being referenced … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

Are social psychologists biased against conservatives? A simple check for ideological bias.

Posted on November 1, 2014 by

Maria Konnikova has an article in the New Yorker on whether there is bias in social psychology against conservatives.  One of the people calling attention to the issue is Jonathan Haidt, whose work my long time readers will know I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

SMBC: Proof altruism exists?

Posted on October 29, 2014 by

(Click through for full sized version and for the red button caption.) via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Of course, as we discussed on the Selfish Gene post, even if we are acting completely altruistically at a conscious level, our impulse to … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The attention schema theory of consciousness deserves your…attention

Posted on October 16, 2014 by

Michael Graziano published a brief article in the New York Times on his attention schema theory of consciousness, which a number of my fellow bloggers have linked to and discussed.  I’m not sure this article was the clearest description of it that … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 41 Comments

The psychology of your future self

Posted on June 14, 2014 by

Somewhat related to Zach Weiner’s cartoon on our continuing death, this TED talk looks at how transitory the self actually is.  We seem to have no problem recognizing our transitory our self from ten years ago was, but not how … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments