HENRY - The human evolution news relay
Entries written in April 2007
Written April 29, 2007 in psychology
Are you conscious? 17 Criteria for Consciousness:
A lack of clear definitions for terms like “intelligence” and “consciousness” plagues any serious discussion of those concepts. A recent article by Seth, Baars & Edelman argues for a core set of 17 properties that are characteristic of consciousness, and could be used in the “diagnosis” of consciousness in [...]
Eva Lindström has a fascinating guide to travel in Papua New Guinea from her field work experiences in New Ireland:
It’s a good idea too to inform people that you are dumber than a newborn babe when it comes to their environment, so can they please tell you if you are about to step into a snake hole or swim in a croc-infested river. People are very accommodating and assume that you’re doing what you want and why should they interfere, so they may not say anything (this is also a manifestation of respect).
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Malcolm Tredinnick found himself a great collection of international phrases to use for testing software – My hovercraft is full of eels in many languages
For the Austronesianists amongst us:
- Cebuano: Puno ug kasili ang akong hoberkrap/hovercraft
- Indonesian: Hoverkraf saya penuh belut
- Malay: Sampan saya penuh dengan belut
- Tagalog: Puno ng palos ang aking hoberkrap/hovercraft
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You should be able to leave comments on things again now. Please let me know if there are any bugs!
—Simon
The shortlist for this year’s Royal Society Prize for Science Books has been announced:
- Homo britannicus, by Chris Stringer (Penguin Allen Lane)
- In Search of Memory, by Eric R Kandel (WW Norton & Co)
- Lonesome George, by Henry Nicholls (Macmillan)
- One in Three, by Adam Wishart (Profile Books)
- Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert (Harper Press)
- The Rough Guide to Climate Change, by Robert Henson (Rough Guides)
…looks like I’ll have to go buy some more books. Eric Kandel’s In search of memory sounds particularly interesting.
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A new paper in P.N.A.S. shows that co-operation in chimpanzees is not limited to kin groups. National Geographic says:
By combining field observations with DNA analysis of fecal samples, his team found that male chimps prefer to work with their brothers by the same mother. The chimps often teamed up with these siblings to perform one [...]
It’s April, and for some reason this means that Slate magazine’s doing a yearly roundup. Without further ado, here are Slate’s five ‘biggest’ neuroscience developments of the year:
The arrival of “mind-reading”.
The neural alteration of morality.
The medicalization of sexual orientation.
The discovery of vegetative consciousness.
The progress of artificial intelligence.
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