[alife] Brain-Mind Magazine, vol. 2, no. 1, 2013

[Juyang Weng]

Brain-Mind Magazine <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/>
Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013

Table of Contexts

    Front Cover
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=Cover-V2-N1.pdf#view>
                  0

    Understanding the Self Biologically
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a1-SelfBiology-a.pdf#view>banner
                  1 - 3
    by /Yi Zheng /and/Gonzalo Munevar /
    *Abstract: *In Total Recall the hero discovers that his good-guy
    self is just implanted memories. His body used to be occupied by
    another, vicious self, whose allies want back. This fantasy gains
    some plausibility from the traditional conception of the self as a
    collection of experiences kept in memory --- a unified conscious
    self that makes our experiences feel ours. Great fiction, bad
    neuroscience. There is no central brain structure that corresponds
    to that self, and some scientists have concluded that the self is an
    illusion. The notion that the self tags our experiences as ours
    seems to be wrong. And the idea that the self is a collection of
    remembered experiences turns out to be false. We propose instead a
    revolutionary biological conception of the self: The brain has
    evolved to constitute a self that is mostly unconscious and
    distributive, which does away with the paradoxes, explains all the
    seemingly contradictory experimental results, and opens up new
    avenues of research in neuroscience.
    *Index terms: *Self, evolution, neuroscience, distributive,
    brain-imaging

    Turn Slogans into "Science"?
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a2-Slogans-a.pdf#view>banner
                  4 - 7
    by /D. W. Mabaho /
    *Abstract: *Juyang Weng's two letters to Obama amount to a lack and
    misuse of neuroscience knowledge, impoverishment and confusion in
    logic, as well as tailoring and misreading of historical facts. It
    is an example of ideological slogans disguised under the term
    "science".
    *Index terms: *brain-mind, checks of government power, history

    Every Country should Self-Organize like a Brain: Rebuttal to D. W.
    Mabaho
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a3-CountryBrain-a.pdf#view>banner
                  8 - 11
    by /Juyang Weng /
    *Abstract: *I would like to thank D. W. Mabaho for raising many
    questions, which enable me to reply more comprehensively. I am more
    convinced that every country should self-organize like a brain. This
    is not an ideology, since the brain's self-organization is highly
    holistic.
    *Index terms: *history, checks-and-balances, self-organization

    Private Data: A Huge Problem with Education Research
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a4-MilgramRichard-a.pdf#view>banner
                  12 - 13
    by /R. James Milgram /
    *Abstract: *A very influential paper on improving math outcomes was
    published in 2008. The authors refused to divulge their data
    claiming that agreements with the schools and FERPA rules prevented
    it. It turns out that this is not true. When, by other means, we
    found the identities of the schools, serious problems with the
    conclusions of the article were quickly revealed. The 2008 paper was
    far from unique in this respect. There are many papers that have had
    huge influences on K-12 mathematics curricula, and could not be
    independently verified because the authors refused to reveal their
    data. In this article we describe how we were able to find the real
    data, and point out the legal constraints that should make it very
    difficult for authors of such papers to withhold their data in the
    future.
    *Index terms: *Evaluation of publication, mathematical education

    Standing Up to Academic Bullying: and Those Who Block the Path to
    Improvements in Education
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a5-BoalerJo-a.pdf#view>banner
                  14 - 15
    by /Jo Boaler /
    *Abstract: *Honest academic debate lies at the core of good
    scholarship. But what happens when, under the guise of academic
    freedom, people distort the truth in order to promote their position
    and discredit someone's evidence?
    *Index terms: *Evaluation of publication, mathematical education

    When a Reviewer's Comments Became Longer than the Submitted Paper
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a6-SolgiMojtaba-a.pdf#view>banner
                  16 - 17
    by /Mojtaba Solgi /
    *Abstract: *The debate over the pros and cons of the so-called
    scholarly peer review of journals is as old as itself. In this short
    essay, I wish not to take a side, but to simply tell a story. The
    story is of how a recently published paper [1] was first hammered by
    the reviewers as vague, incomprehensible and worthy of rejection,
    and later praised as "unorthodox" and worthy of the attention of the
    research community.
    *Index terms: *Peer review, research evaluation, perceptual
    learning, transfer

    Brain Stories 3: Bitter Science
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a7-Brain3Bitter-a.pdf#view>banner
                  18 - 21
    by /Brian N. Huang /
    *Abstract: *Like the rest of this series, this is a true story. The
    developmental program for scientific research --- scientific
    policies and bylaws --- seems to be immature for upholding justice.
    The human race is paying dearly for this immaturity using taxpayer
    dollars. However, I do not mean to discourage bright young people
    from taking a career in scientific research.
    *Index terms: *Checks and balances, scientific policies, bylaws,
    shortsightedness, discrimination, injustice

    The 3rd Open Letter to the US President Obama: Why Government
    Ideologies Block Knowledge?
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V2-N1-a8-Letter3Ideology-a.pdf#view>banner
                  22 - 24
    by /Juyang Weng /
    *Abstract: *Ideologies are attractive to many constituents who are
    not aware of the limitations of each ideology. Although the US
    Constitution was designed for checks-and-balances of power, the most
    basic problem in the US is still the lack of checks-and-balances of
    power. Only after US governmental officials and politicians acquire
    knowledge about how the brain works can they enable the US to
    overcome the fundamental limitations of its Constitution. Many
    current major problems in the US cannot be solved without a holistic
    approach suggested by known theoretical understanding about how our
    own brains work.
    *Index terms: *US interest, science of brain and mind, domestic and
    foreign policies

    Back cover
    <http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=CoverBack-2013-03-14.pdf#view>
                  25

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Established since June 2012 	
	
Published by the Brain-Mind Institute <http://www.brain-mind-institute.org/>



-- 
--
Juyang (John) Weng, Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program
428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824 USA
Tel: 517-353-4388
Fax: 517-432-1061
Email:weng at cse.msu.edu
URL:http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/
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