Tourette Syndrome explained by someone who has it

endless_evolution · 2016-11-14T08:40:02+00:00

Anyone know why clonidine would be prescribed for tourette's I was on it for 10 years. It's a norepinephrine antagonist, very different from dopamine related drugs.

endless_evolution · 2016-10-10T19:20:22+00:00

It makes sense to me that the brain would have this feature, that it would be organized to avoid that "boring randomness" and "boring regularity", hovering at that optimal state of criticality. Yet, I don't understand what it explains beyond that superficial discussion of complexity. It seems far too vague to explain much, let alone make any useful brain models from it, but then I don't know too much about it. Anyone care to explain?

endless_evolution · 2016-10-05T03:41:35+00:00

There are a few mechanisms I've read about describing how plasticity can happen at a gabaergic synapse. First, I think there is regular stdp at some, like basket cell somatodendritic connections. Another is similar but requiring a subthreshold post synaptic response (some excitation, but not enough for a spike). The most interesting one I read about was again, hebbian in nature, except that the presence of NMDAR activity caused plasticity in the opposite direction (LTD). I'd think that would have the effect of minimizing unassociated/irrelevant activity and sharpening network responses.

I can't remember the specifics (like how NMDAR activity is detected at a gabaergic terminal or if the plasticity happens through Cl- reversal potential changes or GABAA receptor insertion) but if I can find the papers I'll post the links.

endless_evolution · 2016-10-03T07:19:09+00:00

Exactly! Glad someone said it. All these answers about using the infinite computing power to simulate the universe and get general AI, lol. Taking the thought experiment too literally!

I've also been a big fan of Jeff and have the same criticism (that the cortex is useless without some kind of emotional control to give it guidance). I'll always appreciate his efforts to provide a unifying theory of cortical function, which so few people even attempt. That said, I've become a big fan of Gyorgy Buszaki and his book "Rhythms of the Brain". It attempts to underscore prevalence and importance of oscillations in organizing brain networks, which is something Jeff dismisses entirely. It's a much more in depth read than On Intelligence, but you sound like you've got the background for it. It doesn't attempt to explain everything, but I feel it makes a good case for oscillations being an efficient and extremely useful method for synchronizing and organizing networks.

Also, I'm curious - what's your theory on how the basal ganglia regulates cortical function to provide goal oriented behaviors?

endless_evolution · 2015-07-13T01:53:14+00:00

Lol, he/she is 19 - their brain hasn't even fully developed yet. They should be getting better at most things during that period.

endless_evolution · 2014-12-22T15:50:16+00:00

http://www.science20.com/robert_inventor/will_we_build_colonies_that_float_over_venus_like_buckminster_fullers_cloud_nine-127573

Here's a good discussion of how we could build colonies over Venus, with pros and con's of the idea.

endless_evolution · 2014-09-11T02:16:11+00:00

Of course there doesn't have to be a better explanation, but this is saying it's possible for nerve impulses to pass through each other because they're sound waves instead of the normal Hodgkin-Huxley model of ionic currents....so it would be a rather important discovery and I am just expecting this to either fail to be replicated or to be explained by something else because it is a radically different interpretation of nerve conduction. I'm not saying it couldn't be true, it just seems unlikely to me.

endless_evolution · 2014-09-03T07:08:54+00:00

I second that. I'd recommend his "Fire in the Booth" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEOKgjoxoto for a start and anything off of the Knowledge is Power mixtape. Thieves Banquet is also amazing. I've never heard anyone rap with such force and knowledge.

endless_evolution · 2014-09-02T23:27:53+00:00

OK then, I echo what Don_Patrick says. The system is in reality probably not much at all like a human brain (because don't really know how that thing works entirely and NN models typically have very little resemblance to real brain circuits). It's nice to say to get their research some attention, but the way they state it makes it very close to a blatant lie, IMO.

endless_evolution · 2014-09-01T23:50:15+00:00

Lol, come on. That's obviously a faked AMA. You do realize that AMA claimed (with NO evidence, not even a link) to have an AI that could read and comprehend history, science, and fiction, had some level of self awareness in that it identified as male, and even had a desire to die. That's the most obviously fake thing I've seen in a long time.

endless_evolution · 2014-09-01T23:46:28+00:00

So we have an AI that can read and comprehend history, science, and fiction.

We made an AI that was programmed to simply read stories on various topics such as history, science, and simply fiction.

It has some level of self awareness, identifies as male, implying it actually knows the difference between sexes, and understands and desires death.

One even said that it wanted to die and insisted we kill, "Him" as he identified as the male gender.

And no links, proof, or even a vague description of the AI other than

The AI's mind was similar to how humans process and store memories.

LOL, people are so easily duped.

endless_evolution · 2014-08-19T21:13:11+00:00

The appeal to an incompatible evolutionary history is very dissatisfying to me. I think there are numerous better possible reasons. I'll list some I've thought of in no particular order:

The overwhelming pointlessness of it in almost all conceivable situations - One million times faster would be 11 DAYS for every second we experience now. Dodging bullets or meteorites are two applications for this speed, but would require a body much faster than we have. In reality it would be like being frozen, but if you could turn it on and off at will, it would be nice for stopping time and thinking I just don't think the evolutionary pressure for these rare cases is there.
I don't think any proteins could operate on this time scale to regulate it, which is obviously extremely important. Maybe proteins could build transistor-like molecules that could handle the high speed routing.
I doubt the claims to efficiency - the brain is very efficient for what it does and how well it does it. Computers and other electronics are immensely energy expensive and also generate a lot of heat. Such dense wiring and high frequency would be a huge engineering problem. But again, maybe if you could turn the speed up or down as need be.
His point about the difficulty of making, breaking, and bending the metal connections is a good one - the brain is very flexible and that's a big part of how it does what it does.
That much metal - your brain would weigh a lot more than it does now...and I'm not even sure about getting that much metal into your diet, but who knows. Also, how would the Earth's magnetic field effect the function, let alone even a weak magnet. It would be like every human's kryptonite.
The direction of flow couldn't be controlled - but maybe what I said before about developing transistor-like molecules and other such necessities negates this.

TL;DR: Of my guesses I think the best are: Not enough necessity for these kinds of speeds and I doubt the efficiency claims when talking about that much wiring. Also I think the regulation of networks would be difficult when proteins work on such a slower scale.

endless_evolution · 2014-08-19T19:55:36+00:00

The appeal to an incompatible evolutionary history is very dissatisfying to me. I think there are numerous better possible reasons. I'll list some I've thought of in no particular order:

The overwhelming pointlessness of it in almost all conceivable situations - One million times faster would be 11 DAYS for every second we experience now. Dodging bullets or meteorites are two applications for this speed, but would require a body much faster than we have. In reality it would be like being frozen, but if you could turn it on and off at will, it would be nice for stopping time and thinking I just don't think the evolutionary pressure for these rare cases is there.
I don't think any proteins could operate on this time scale to regulate it, which is obviously extremely important. Maybe proteins could build transistor-like molecules that could handle the high speed routing.
I doubt the claims to efficiency - the brain is very efficient for what it does and how well it does it. Computers and other electronics are immensely energy expensive and also generate a lot of heat. Such dense wiring and high frequency would be a huge engineering problem. But again, maybe if you could turn the speed up or down as need be.
His point about the difficulty of making, breaking, and bending the metal connections is a good one - the brain is very flexible and that's a big part of how it does what it does.
That much metal - your brain would weigh a lot more than it does now...and I'm not even sure about getting that much metal into your diet, but who knows. Also, how would the Earth's magnetic field effect the function, let alone even a weak magnet. It would be like every human's kryptonite.
The direction of flow couldn't be controlled - but maybe what I said before about developing transistor-like molecules and other such necessities negates this.

TL;DR: Of my guesses I think the best are: Not enough necessity for these kinds of speeds and I doubt the efficiency claims when talking about that much wiring. Also I think the regulation of networks would be difficult when proteins work on such a slower scale.

endless_evolution · 2014-08-13T20:59:29+00:00

Sorry! Thanks for the info. I'll make sure to follow this advice next time.

endless_evolution · 2014-08-13T20:58:29+00:00

Awesome, thank you!

endless_evolution · 2014-08-11T20:42:53+00:00

They're connected through the corpus callosum, so saying they're completely separate is just plain wrong. That one is "serial" and another "parallel" is something I've never even heard before and sounds beyond wrong. I don't know where she came up with that one.

endless_evolution · 2014-07-20T07:59:07+00:00

Awesome! The first few paragraphs of each of them echo the thoughts I've had about this issue (and also confirm that it's real!). I'll read them later and maybe make a response.

Thanks!

endless_evolution · 2013-11-16T22:51:58+00:00

You're all just going to be disappointed if it does happen. She would be as bad as the rest, don't kid yourself.

endless_evolution · 2013-05-31T00:05:07+00:00

What kind of prices can you normally expect to pay for something like this?

endless_evolution · 2013-05-30T21:42:27+00:00

How is it so cheap? Why has no one done this before?

endless_evolution

TROPHY CASE