Hans de Vries

Still overall picture seems negative to me. Just considering that without ww1/ww2 entire regions of the world that are now 3rd or 2nd world would be considered 1st world is quite a difference. Just think of how many geniuses were born in India or China in 20th century who never had a chance to get educated and use their talent

For some reason ww1 either does not happen or is limited to being Third Balkan War Do you think the world would be more technologically advanced than today? Some things to consider 1. Much less death. UK lost 700,000 young men in ww1, France, Germany, Austria and Russia over 1 mln. Many of them could have become scientists, inventors or engineers. All countries would also have much less debt. 2. Russia is in much better shape without ww1, the civil war, the Holodomor and the Gulags. It probably becomes a developed country in early 1940s and has a population of 300-400 mln in 2021 3. no ww1 = no ww2. Enough said 4.In China the communists never take power. China has an economic boom 30 years earlier. The 2nd Sino-Japanese war may not take place 5. Latin America is probably much more prosperous since the US does not need to prop up ring neoliberal dictators in order to prevent communist takeover 6. In Africa decolonization is more peaceful and orderly. Again without the rivalry between West and East there are fewer wars and the continent stabilizes faster. 7. Once India gains independence, it never has socialism. It experiences an economic boom 30 years earlier as does China

I am not talking specifically about travel. There is a general variation among individuals in novelty preference in a wide variety of areas of life. Therehave to be some neural mechanisms that determine that difference.

Any history/military enthusiasts out there except me?

What is the neural mechanism of it though? Is there some difference in the brain between novelty detection and novelty reward?

Why do some people need more novelty than others? Like some people can visit the same few places over and over again while others need to visit new ones constantly and feel bad if forced to stay in one place etc etc Is it because their brain actually detect less novelty or because they do detect novelty but value it more strongly?

If the 20th century was especially generous to nuclear power and by 1990s-early 2000s most of the world derived most energy from nuclear power, how would the rate of climate chnage be compared to the actual one?

If I breed cats in a pressurized chamber containing more oxygen than usual, will they grow larger? I am planning on breeding the 1st generation on 23% oxygen, 2nd one in 25% etc

How does motivation work in the brain? How does it work that one person when faced with some issue is super motivated to solve it while another is completely passive and does nothing?

Ketamine has been a breakthrough in psychiatry, it produces fast and dramatic improvements in a myriad of mental health conditions, including major depression, anxiety disorders, ocd and bpd likely as well. The downside is that those dramatic effects wean off in a matter of one to several weaks. Why is that so?

What is the neural basis of taking pleasure in inflicting suffering on other people/ If ventral striatum is generally responsible for reward, is it simehow misconnected?

THen it happens by magic. Still an interesting scenario to consider.

Gravity and sunlight stay the same but the pressure, atmospheric composition and biosphere stay as on Earth.

What if Mars was somehow made as habitable as the Earth and a group of humans was transported to it in 50,000 BC? Is 50,000 years from now until the present day long enough time for significant anatomical differences to evolve? What could they be?

Is interpreting neutral stimuli as threatening (reacting with anger to neutral or positive tone of voice) somehow related to the ocytocin system?

Psychodelics were shown to have immense psychotherapeutic potential in 1960s. Why were they banned then? Not only they were banned from recreational usage but also from research and basically nobody could do anything with them for 40 years. Then it was lifted and it turned out MDMA cures PTSD in 2x as many people as 2nd best therapy and in weeks rather than months... What do you guys think?

Psychodelic assisted psychotherapy is great. Helps folks a lot with stuff like depression, anxiety, PTSD etc.

The picture says "subjective intensity of experience and perception". What does it mena?

Apparently quite a bit I guess. An MRI machine costs a few mln $ weights a ton and uses as much power as several households. One also needs to be completely motionless inside. If we want to scan 1000s of people, that's certainly an issue.

How much would development of neuroscience be sped up if a portable neuroimaging technique as good as MRI/fMRI but helmet sized and costing 10-25% the price of an MRI machine became available?

You got me.. O.o Anyway I don't think she is stupid in terms of pure intellectual ability. Her maternal grandfather was an engineer and her father a lawyer which does require some brains so I think she is actually above average in intelligence. She simply does not use it because her personality (hyper-obsession with status and other people) prevent her from doing so.

I subscribe to Baron Cohen's systemizing-empathizing theory (although "empathizing" is an unfortunate name as it refers to cognitive empathy which is not the same thing most people mean when they say "empathy"). Basically brain uses different networks for analyzing people and for analyzig the material world. People high in systemizing are good in logical thinking and they pay more attention to material world and how it works. People high in empathizing pay more attention to social rules and other people's feelings and thoughts and are bored by facts. This however does not have direct relationships with intellectual ability. Your average Star Wars fan probably isn't smarter than Kim Kardashian

Do you guys consider Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson to be nerds?

What happens to a white matter tract if it's used more? Like if the frontolimbic connections are used more, do they get more myelinated?

Can COVID speed up medical research at least a bit? The vaccines went from phase 1 trial to approval in 1 year. Can at least some procedures be used in other fields of medicine?