Thoughts on Cognitive Science as a major?
I mean, I know interdisciplinary studies can kinda suck- but it seems decent as a way to officially study technoshamanism.
>Study of Consciousness
>Neurobiology
>Mathmatical Models
>AI
I mean, I've done a lot of drugs, and well- it seems like the shit I've already been interested in.
It's either that or something like logic.
>>8060660
I'm interested in cog sci as well. I'd love to create an IQ test for highly gifted people such as myself. Unfortunately the conventional IQ tests stop being accurate at 160 but mine is definitely higher.
I don't know how it works in the states, but you can do dual majors or even dual degrees over here -- if you're interested in that, spend the arts half your degree doing psych/neuro/philosophy and the science half doing chemistry/neuroanatomy/mathematics
without the science no one will take you seriously, but without the arts you won't get laid, or have a "theoretical framework" to justify all the drugs you're doing
Logic is near
>>8060660
It's possible you'll find yourself engaged, then stricken with a sudden detachment, then apathy.
I've been focused around, and iterated on, the very things you mentioned. The machinery of the mind, philosophical abstractions, whatever. It's been this way since very early childhood, and since the start, I've also been aware that I had absolutely no desire to center my life around it in any structured sense, nor have any meaningful involvement in the field. There's a spectrum of reasons for that, and they probably don't apply to you, but I thought I'd respond.
My brain is prone to malfunction either way. My core faculties and self construct are left intact well enough to be useful though. I rarely agree with anyone's perspective, and it may just be simply via having access to more low level information to inform the whole chain of reasoning. Most people are dim. You cannot work with them, you can't collaborate, you can only deal with them and the tribal structures that form around you. Treat them like fields to harvest, if you just figure how to get the machine to generate a worthwhile crop. Pessimistic, but in all likelihood a useful heuristic.
Dealing with people. Wading through hundreds of years of other people's attempts to understand themselves and others. All the conjecture. The access to information is always dualistic, the price is clutter and a lot of processing. It is much different to become someone who's evaluating and engaging the material of their field alongside their own ideas. The process becomes more readily serialized rather than asynchronous. The end would be misery and slow numbness, for me.
Good luck with whatever choice you make.
>>8060993
http://iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/
>>8060993
No one cares what your IQ is in the real world.
>>8060660
Hi OP I'm a cognitive neuroscientist. Do you like neural oscillation and brain rhythms? Dynamics of attention and percpetion and their influence on conscious states?
>>8060993
Penne rigate.
>>8060993
Rigate, penne.
>>8062004
I've only done a little formal study on them. Messed around with binaural beats and isochronic tones a bit. I would need some sort of biofeedback device to really ascertain the worth of their conscious control.
Ah, technocratic limitations =/
Was the formal education worth what you're doing now?
>>8062004
Ever encounter anyone with visual snow, or Alice in Wonderland syndrome? Early results show the two may correlate.
>>8062468
Someone talk about Alice in Wonderland syndrome with me pls. I want to talk about the possibility of fixed function filtering and mixing stages. Saliency map. Depth and relative size, color constancy, etc. I can't quite figure, yet, why tactile stuff and awareness of limbs are involved. To my recollection there's just a splitter that duplicates the final signal before it's allowed to exit the motor regions. So how can I feel as though my limbs are strewn everywhere around a room? What is malfunctioning in the temporal lobes?
Questions without answers. But I am drunk on kava and want to discuss.
>>8062781
I'll die without understanding the machine, just like those before me. That's okay. As long as I figure it out enough.
>>8062953
>Have you taken A Muscaria?
No. Thought of it though. It could be interesting, but I've already had plenty of tastes of the supposed effect. Don't feel like learning how to properly process out the toxic alkaloids either.
>>8062965
Eh, its just decarboxylation.
How did you get a taste of the effects?
>>8062781
>kava
Also- a noble variety?
I've tried the stuff they have at the health store, Starwest Botanicals I believe, and that shit gave me a horrendous rash after a few days.
I need to try it again, but with some Noble and a proper prep method I think.
>>8062982
Drying it with a bit of heat is all it takes? Perhaps using reindeer kidneys as a filter is a myth.
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome frequently as a child. It tends to come in clusters now, much less frequently. It was surprising to find out the stuff I'd always just dealt with had a name.
>>8062996
>Perhaps using reindeer kidneys as a filter is a myth.
I doubt it's entirely a myth- as Muscimol is passed through human urine relatively unchanged.
I would suppose drinking another's urine, who consumed the dried shrooms, would be the most efficient method to bypass ibotenic acid...
>>8062993
Not certain if noble, but likely is. You have to make certain there are absolutely no stems, bark, nor leaves. Only the root and rhizome is edible, the rest synthesizes the (more) toxic kavalactones, usually in proportion with its exposure to light.
If you're sure there were no stems etc, it can make some people's skin more sensitive, and can be hepatotoxic (causing the liver to synthesize precursors to carcinogens and inducing apoptosis through other pathways). Usually with a good preparation you ought to be okay.
>>8063002
Supposedly that's how the Russian caravans handled it. Either they fed it to the reindeer and drank its urine, or one person of the group would opt to act as the filter. The latter was usually a local shaman or some such more than the caravans.
>>8063008
It was powdered, damn hard to differentiate parts of the plant.
I saw an analysis spectrum, after the fact, of Starwest's stuff- and there was a spike where chlorophyll would be. So IDK how good their connects in Fiji are. Alas...
My filtering methods were definitely half-assed.
>>8063015
>Siberian Shamans
Man, I wish all I had to do in today's society was trip balls, bang on a drum, and sing. Taking in toxins, and therefore acting as a filter, might be worth it.
I mean, someone still has to act as cultural cartographers- right?
lol maybe if I'm lucky I'll get in with "the family" and be a LSD shaman.
>>8063018
I tend to get it powdered from a local herbalist, who's apparently quite fond of it. I asked her about leaves and such and she said "believe me, I'm a lot more picky than you." Suppose for once I'm inclined to take someone's word for it.
I don't know the supplier by name though, can't offer any suggestion. I didn't really care for tinctures either. Kava and ethanol can be a very good combination though. Probably not for the liver.
>>8063024
Never know what you'll find out in Siberia.
>>8063037
Hopefully a yeti.
Been awake 38 hours. Now fatigue seems to be setting and, and I'm falling asleep.
Ugh... something keeps me thinking not yet.
>>8063065
Increase circulation. A few squats will do it.
Cold water splashed on face.
Tell me when the shadow people come ;]
>>8063081
Already seeing flashes of them. Central vision, not peripherals.
Occasionally I may start seeing geometric patterns flashing, or drawing in my vision as well. As well as patches of what your vision looks like after staring at black and white stripes.
I'd like to know more about "form constants". If they're an error or distortion in a fixed filtering function.
>>8063091
>If they're an error or distortion in a fixed filtering function.
I honestly don't believe so.
At least, error does not seem to be the most fitting word.
It's been a long while since I've compared "visions" to what occurs during sleep deprivation.
Asynchronous synaptic firing perhaps?
Maybe the visual apparatus is re-optimizing itself for the current restraints?
>>8063097
Error might not be the proper word, I agree. Maybe it's a mis-signaling of sorts. It could be a gradient wherein GABA is not maintained correctly and ultimately hypermetabolism results.
I mentioned visual snow above. The attached picture is right from the form constant wikipedia page, and is a fairly accurate depiction of what I see against blue monochromatic backgrounds. Occasionally. It's composed of parts and rotates counter clockwise. Generally I only see it if I look, then it's the kind of thing that once noticed is difficult to ignore. I've only clearly seen the pattern once as I was falling asleep, and it's actually fairly complex. I had to wonder if this was happening all the time, and part of some operation.
Sleep deprivation as a whole has a large spectrum of effects though. I'd like to do more reading on sleep, and what it actually is to sleep or not sleep. Last I knew the ADP recycling idea was a prominent piece.
Sleep.
