Tinkering our Way to the Singularity
Artificial savants? Savant augmentation? The path to mentats?
Imagine the effects of fine-tuning this crude stimulation with precision, then additionally doing “x”so as to amplify the remaining abilities, not simply suppress the contraindicative cognitive process.
Now imagine the potential effects of doing it on a systemic, societal, basis for a generation or two.
Hat tip to The Eide Neurolearning Blog.
September 26th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
The implications are fascinating. On a side note, Betty Edwards, the author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, offers methods that would have the subject drawing a better pony in under a week. I checked out the source blog and agree with one of the comments: I’d prefer to remain a spectator to this research as the uncertainties of "what" the good doctor is doing with his magnets are unknown beyond the the lab.
September 26th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
"…as the uncertainties of "what" the good doctor is doing with his magnets are unknown beyond the the lab."He he he…!
September 26th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Hi Zen: .I’m intrigued by the video, but by no means sure that "savants" represent the peak of human creativity: if anything, I tend to doubt it.
.In a comment on their blog, the Eides agree "This is like Dr. Taylor’s experience" – referring to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, whose book My Stroke of Insight and TED talk report that neuroscientist’s explanation of what she learned from suffering and recovering from a major stroke. Dr. Taylor’s account so fits many of enthusiasm I will allow myself in extrapolating from what she has said or written. Having said that, it does seem to me that creative artists and scientists often enter states that somewhat resemble Dr. Taylor’s stroke and Dr. Snyder’s subject’s experience with the magnet – and for that matter, the state of "unknowing" which is the goal of Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy as presented in Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel’s book, The Power of an Open Question.
September 26th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
I have a longer response up at the Eide’s, but really need to write up something more complete for here. — http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/lurking-genius-untapped-savant-ability.html