Your Brain Reveals Who Your Friends Are
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Well, now we have the neuroscience to prove it. Or, the reverse of it. By looking at your brain, we can tell what your friends are like, on average. Might it be time for your friends to think about expanding their circle?
The New Science of Daydreaming
Not every prisoner placed in solitary confinement loves being alone with their Wild Mind. Unless they’ve had training, or come upon possibilities serendipitously, it’s not easy to choose peace over madness, consolation over despair, and turn isolation into solitude. Which is what Dr. Edith Bone had to do over 7 years and 58 days of imprisonment during the Hungarian Revolution. She managed to perfect the process of daydreaming and her brain was infinitely better for it. As our own can be, and we don’t have to be sent to prison in order to grow our own robust daydreaming circuitry.
How Our Brain’s Default Mode Network Thinks Us Up
Most of us spend a good part of every day daydreaming. We exert little effort to direct and inquire deeply into the people, places and things present before us. But it’s not something we have to be affected by forever. In this lengthy piece, neuro-philosopher Thomas Metzinger explores what happens when the Default Mode Network has its way with us, and what we can do to begin to shift the balance of control.
Let a Human Uber Live Your Life
Weird, but I have little doubt this is a coming reality. Why? Because it’s a great way to go out into the world and not have to worry about regulating your body’s stress hormones. It might be somewhat challenging for your Uberganger though, but that’s what you’ll be paying him or her the big bucks for!
Can Your Brain Testify Against You?
Currently defendants in a number of criminal legal cases have brought neuroscience to bear as a reasonable defense to explain and justify their criminal behavior. This article explores the ethical implications for the use of neuroscience to establish guilt by state and federal prosecutors. What do you think? Should both sides have equal access? Should the rights of the individual to privacy, due process and protection from self-incrimination supercede the rights of the community to be protected from anti-social acts resulting from verifiable dysfunctional neurobiology?
The Flowering Brain 
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