CogSci: The Role of Dreams in Great Discoveries

An article from scientific american about an "alternative state of consciousness" we enter when dreaming, allowing us to tackle problems we cannot understand consciously

CogSci: A Map of the Brain

Just a quick link to a short TED talk.

Patent wars

A recent interview with a google lawyer on the patent system.

And I added another link to the last post on CogSci...

CogSci: Embodied Cognition and Consciousness

Arguing against a Descartian dualism and for a interconnection between brain and body, the article at scientific american blogs gives nice pointers and references for an embodiment point of view of cognition. It's interesting to see if there is some "mind" kind of core in the biomachine that the human being actually is. The normal bio-chemic interconnection between mind and body seems to be quite natural as the mind needs the body to survive (and stay healthy) in order to do so itself.

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At the thoughts on thoughts blog you'll find a 3 part post on the possible functions of consciousness which is an interesting topic to think about, especially keeping in mind the aforementioned article:

• http://charbonniers.org/2011/10/20/possible-functions-of-consciousness-1-leading-edge-of-memory/
• http://charbonniers.org/2011/10/29/possible-functions-of-consciousness-2-gate-to-meaning/
• http://charbonniers.org/2011/11/04/possible-functions-of-consciousness-3-working-memory/

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[edit] Slightly related, there is another article on the work our subconscious does for us at the discovery magazine. [/edit]

Some Commentaries on Politics

Project Syndicate features some interesting articles and commentaries about politics.

Project Syndicate: the world's pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. A unique collaboration of distinguished opinion makers from every corner of the globe, Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives on our changing world by those who are shaping its politics, economics, science, and culture. Exclusive, trenchant, unparalleled in scope and depth: Project Syndicate is truly A World of Ideas.

It includes authors like Ban Ki-moon, Christine Lagarde, Javier Solana, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Martin Feldstein, Otmar Issing, Peter Singer and many more.

On the (Un-)Reality of Mathematics

I stumbled upon a paper by Barry Mazur titled "Mathematical Platonism and its Opposites" which points out a few things to keep in mind when thinking about the question: Is mathematics discovered or invented?

Updates

During the last 15 months, I discovered quite some interesting things....unfortunately I didn't post anything. Some of those discoveries will be posted here in near future.