God Awful Things

BReaking with the tradition of lists of dudes and chicks, Cracked.com actually has a rather interesting link I found from someone’s site, I forgot who I’m afraid, so apologies.

The first thing they list is change blindness, this is essentially how your brain selectively processes everything it seems, because if you didn’t it would feeling like when you’re on a big shroom trip and you can feel everything in the entire universe at once.. or rather, thats my description.

Then there is a bit about Saccadic Masking, that is how your eyes look around even when you’re not looking around, yep.. Well, your brain tends to ignore about 40 minutes a days worth of stuff it sees because it has to filter it out so you don’t feel perpetually motion sick.

Next is Proprioception, that is just how your brain knows where your body parts are.. except when you’re slizzard and can’t find the tip of your nose, or sadly, the tip of someone else’s nose.. you know, when you’re swaying, and you want to touch them on the tip of the nose and say “this guy/gal *hic* this is the best guy/gal *hic*”

This part sounds really cool:

The best example we’ve found so far is “the Pinocchio illusion.” Scientists have found they can have the subject touch the tip of their nose with their finger, and have their bicep or triceps electrically stimulated at the same time. Your brain “feels” your arm muscle extending, but also feels that you’re maintaining contact with the tip of your nose, and leaps to the immediate, yet fully sober, conclusion that your nose has suddenly grown to be about three feet long.

Next is Cryptomnesia, sure we’ve all suffered from it, but a recent case was presented to me by a certain reader of this blog when they presented an idea of theirs to me only for me to say “yes, thats a great idea, thats why you got it directly from my blog!” and them not realizing it.. (It was the parachuting horse idea if you’re wondering).  Trying to discover what the term is was how I found this article actually, sadly I can only wish I wrote it first.

And finally, an old favorite of this blog, and that being your Subconscious Behavior, most explicitly that your brain decides stuff before you do.  See, this is why I’m saying, trust your brain last, it’s a lying sack.  See, say you “decide” to pick your nose, well, did you really decide to, man? Amazingly enough, your brain had already decided to before you decided too.. whoa..

Scientists recently found out that if they hook your brain up to a scanner and then ask you to make a decision, a part of your brain lights up to take action several seconds before you consciously make the decision. So when you’re working out in your head whether or not to go to work tomorrow, a part of your brain has already decided to call in sick, several seconds before the voice in your head arrives at that same conclusion.

I’m calling the shots, here.

That’s right: If somebody had electrodes hooked to your brain, they could tell you–with 100% accuracy–what decision you’ll make a few seconds from now. Now think about what that means for free will, and prepare to have your mind blown.