Download or read book Mind Is Flat written by Nick Chater and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a radical reinterpretation of how the mind works, an eminent behavioral scientist reveals the illusion of mental depth Psychologists and neuroscientists struggle with how best to interpret human motivation and decision making. The assumption is that below a mental “surface” of conscious awareness lies a deep and complex set of inner beliefs, values, and desires that govern our thoughts, ideas, and actions, and that to know this depth is to know ourselves. In this profoundly original book, behavioral scientist Nick Chater contends just the opposite: rather than being the plaything of unconscious currents, the brain generates behaviors in the moment based entirely on our past experiences. Engaging the reader with eye-opening experiments and visual examples, the author first demolishes our intuitive sense of how our mind works, then argues for a positive interpretation of the brain as a ceaseless and creative improviser.
Download or read book The Language Game written by Morten H. Christiansen and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forget the language instinct—this is the story of how we make up language as we go Language is perhaps humanity’s most astonishing capacity—and one that remains poorly understood. In The Language Game, cognitive scientists Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater show us where generations of scientists seeking the rules of language got it wrong. Language isn’t about hardwired grammars but about near-total freedom, something like a game of charades, with the only requirement being a desire to understand and be understood. From this new vantage point, Christiansen and Chater find compelling solutions to major mysteries like the origins of languages and how language learning is possible, and to long-running debates such as whether having two words for “blue” changes what we see. In the end, they show that the only real constraint on communication is our imagination.
Download or read book The World Is Flat Further Updated and Expanded Release 3 0 written by Thomas L. Friedman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 682 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks--environmental, social, and political.
Download or read book When the Earth Was Flat written by Graeme Donald and published by Michael O'Mara Books. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perfect for anyone with an interest in our scientific history, When the Earth Was Flat exposes the scientific theories that were once widely believed to be true but have since been disproved.
Download or read book Consciousness written by Susan Blackmore and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-27 with total page 838 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a theory that explains the essence of consciousness? Or is consciousness itself an illusion? Am I conscious now? Now considered the 'last great mystery of science', consciousness was once viewed with extreme scepticism and rejected by mainstream scientists. It is now a significant area of research, albeit a contentious one, as well as a rapidly expanding area of study for students of psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. This edition of Consciousness, revised by author team Susan Blackmore and Emily Troscianko, explores the key theories and evidence in consciousness studies ranging from neuroscience and psychology to quantum theories and philosophy. It examines why the term ‘consciousness’ has no recognised definition and provides an opportunity to delve into personal intuitions about the self, mind, and consciousness. Featuring comprehensive coverage of all core topics in the field, this edition includes: Why the problem of consciousness is so hard Neuroscience and the neural correlates of consciousness Why we might be mistaken about our own minds The apparent difference between conscious and unconscious Theories of attention, free will, and self and other The evolution of consciousness in animals and machines Altered states from meditation to drugs and dreaming Complete with key concept boxes, profiles of well-known thinkers, and questions and activities suitable for both independent study and group work, Consciousness provides a complete introduction to this fascinating field. Additional resources are available on the accompanying companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/blackmore
Download or read book A Whole New Mind written by Daniel H. Pink and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-03-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller An exciting--and encouraging--exploration of creativity from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't. Drawing on research from around the world, Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others) outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are absolute essentials for professional success and personal fulfillment--and reveals how to master them. A Whole New Mind takes readers to a daring new place, and a provocative and necessary new way of thinking about a future that's already here.
Download or read book Flat Earth written by Christine Garwood and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 623 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to popular belief fostered in countless school classrooms the world over, Christopher Columbus did not discover that the earth was round. The idea of a spherical world had been widely accepted in educated circles from as early as the fourth century B.C. Yet, bizarrely, it was not until the supposedly more rational nineteenth century that the notion of a flat earth really took hold. Even more bizarrely, it persists to this day, despite Apollo missions and widely publicized pictures of the decidedly spherical Earth from space. Based on a range of original sources, Garwood's history of flat-Earth beliefs---from the Babylonians to the present day---raises issues central to the history and philosophy of science, its relationship to religion and the making of human knowledge about the natural world. Flat Earth is the first definitive study of one of history's most notorious and persistent ideas, and it evokes all the intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual turmoil of the modern age. Ranging from ancient Greece, through Victorian England, to modern-day America, this is a story that encompasses religion, science, and pseudoscience, as well as a spectacular array of people and places. Where else could eccentric aristocrats, fundamentalist preachers, and conspiracy theorists appear alongside Copernicus, Newton, and NASA, except in an account of such a legendary misconception? Thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating, Flat Earth is social and intellectual history at its best.
Download or read book The Cat on the Mat Is Flat written by Andy Griffiths and published by Feiwel & Friends. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Day My Butt Went Psycho!, comes a collection of ten slimy, rhymey, easy-to-read Dr. Seuss-style short stories. Muck! Uck! Yuck! It is just bad luck When the truck of a duck Gets stuck in the muck? Wacky rhymes that won't bore! All of this and so much more; What are you waiting for? With silly rhymes, sound effects, and hilarious art on every page, Andy Griffiths and illustrator Terry Denton capture slapstick physical comedy in a book so easy to read that early elementary school students can read it themselves!
Download or read book How to Talk to a Science Denier written by Lee McIntyre and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can we change the minds of science deniers? Encounters with flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, coronavirus truthers, and others. "Climate change is a hoax--and so is coronavirus." "Vaccines are bad for you." These days, many of our fellow citizens reject scientific expertise and prefer ideology to facts. They are not merely uninformed--they are misinformed. They cite cherry-picked evidence, rely on fake experts, and believe conspiracy theories. How can we convince such people otherwise? How can we get them to change their minds and accept the facts when they don't believe in facts? In this book, Lee McIntyre shows that anyone can fight back against science deniers, and argues that it's important to do so. Science denial can kill. Drawing on his own experience--including a visit to a Flat Earth convention--as well as academic research, McIntyre outlines the common themes of science denialism, present in misinformation campaigns ranging from tobacco companies' denial in the 1950s that smoking causes lung cancer to today's anti-vaxxers. He describes attempts to use his persuasive powers as a philosopher to convert Flat Earthers; surprising discussions with coal miners; and conversations with a scientist friend about genetically modified organisms in food. McIntyre offers tools and techniques for communicating the truth and values of science, emphasizing that the most important way to reach science deniers is to talk to them calmly and respectfully--to put ourselves out there, and meet them face to face.
Download or read book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind written by Julian Jaynes and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000-08-15 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry
Download or read book The Flat Rabbit written by Bardur Oskarsson and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a dog and a rat find a flat rabbit, they decide to move her off the road. But where can they take her? After much thought and consideration, they decide to give the rabbit a proper send off. They say goodbye and give the rabbit a beautiful gift - seeing the world from a new perspective.
Download or read book How Intelligence Happens written by John Duncan and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-22 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively journey through the brain’s inner workings from “one of the world’s leading cognitive neuroscientists” (The Wall Street Journal). Human intelligence builds sprawling cities, vast cornfields, and complex microchips. It takes us from the atom to the limits of the universe. How does the biological brain, a collection of billions of cells, enable us to do things no other species can do? In this book, neuroscientist John Duncan offers an adventure story—the story of the hunt for basic principles of human intelligence, behavior, and thought. Using results drawn from classical studies of intelligence testing; from attempts to build computers that think; from studies of how minds change after brain damage; from modern discoveries of brain imaging; and from groundbreaking recent research, he synthesizes often difficult-to-understand information into clear, fascinating prose about how brains work. Moving from the foundations of psychology, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience to the most current scientific thinking, How Intelligence Happens is “a timely, original, and highly readable contribution to our understanding” (Nancy Kanwisher, MIT) from a winner of the Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science
Download or read book Off the Edge written by Kelly Weill and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A history of the Flat Earth movement and a look at the recent boom in conspiratorial thinking in America"--
Download or read book How Minds Change written by David McRaney and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2022 Porchlight Marketing and Sales Book of the Year A brain-bending investigation of why some people never change their minds—and others do in an instant—by the bestselling author of You Are Not So Smart What made a prominent conspiracy-theorist YouTuber finally see that 9/11 was not a hoax? How do voter opinions shift from neutral to resolute? Can widespread social change only take place when a generation dies out? From one of our greatest thinkers on reasoning, HOW MINDS CHANGE is a book about the science, and the experience, of transformation. When self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney began a book about how to change someone’s mind in one conversation, he never expected to change his own. But then a diehard 9/11 Truther’s conversion blew up his theories—inspiring him to ask not just how to persuade, but why we believe, from the eye of the beholder. Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, HOW MINDS CHANGE explores the limits of reasoning, the power of groupthink, and the effects of deep canvassing. Told with McRaney’s trademark sense of humor, compassion, and scientific curiosity, it’s an eye-opening journey among cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists, from Westboro Baptist Church picketers to LGBTQ campaigners in California—that ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy? An expansive, big-hearted journalistic narrative, HOW MINDS CHANGE reaches surprising and thought-provoking conclusions, to demonstrate the rare but transformative circumstances under which minds can change.
Download or read book Keeping Those Words in Mind written by Max Louwerse and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can humans keep thousands of words in mind and have no difficulty understanding trillions of sentences? The answer to this question might lie in parents teaching their children language skills, or in in the human brain, which may be equipped with a language instinct or maybe in impressive memory skills that link words to their perceptual information. Undoubtedly, there is some truth to some of these explanations. But one answer – perhaps the most important answer – has been largely ignored. Keeping Those Words in Mind tries to remedy this oversight. Linguist and cognitive psychologist Max Louwerse, PhD. argues that understanding language is not just possible because of memory, brains, environment and computation, but because of the patterns in the sequence of sounds and words themselves.He demonstrates that what seems to be an arbitrary communication system, with arbitrary characters and sounds that become words, and arbitrary meanings for those words, actually is a well-organized system that has evolved over tens of thousands of years to make communication as efficient as it is. What is needed for humans to acquire language, is for humans to recognize and discover the patterns in our communication system. By examining how our brains process language and find patterns, the intricacies of the language system itself, and even scientific breakthroughs in computer science and artificial intelligence, Keeping Those Words in Mind brings a brand new and interdisciplinary explanation for our ability to extract meaning from language.
Download or read book Hot Flat and Crowded written by Thomas L. Friedman and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy, which he calls 'Code-Green', is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating - it is what we need to make us all healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.
Download or read book We Have No Idea written by Jorge Cham and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prepare to learn everything we still don’t know about our strange and mysterious universe Humanity's understanding of the physical world is full of gaps. Not tiny little gaps you can safely ignore —there are huge yawning voids in our basic notions of how the world works. PHD Comics creator Jorge Cham and particle physicist Daniel Whiteson have teamed up to explore everything we don't know about the universe: the enormous holes in our knowledge of the cosmos. Armed with their popular infographics, cartoons, and unusually entertaining and lucid explanations of science, they give us the best answers currently available for a lot of questions that are still perplexing scientists, including: * Why does the universe have a speed limit? * Why aren't we all made of antimatter? * What (or who) is attacking Earth with tiny, superfast particles? * What is dark matter, and why does it keep ignoring us? It turns out the universe is full of weird things that don't make any sense. But Cham and Whiteson make a compelling case that the questions we can't answer are as interesting as the ones we can. This fully illustrated introduction to the biggest mysteries in physics also helpfully demystifies many complicated things we do know about, from quarks and neutrinos to gravitational waves and exploding black holes. With equal doses of humor and delight, Cham and Whiteson invite us to see the universe as a possibly boundless expanse of uncharted territory that's still ours to explore.
