Pondering Time

These are the kinds of cognitive psychology articles I like to read and ponder.

1) Are doing harm and allowing harm equivalent to the brain?
2) Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas
3) Relying on the wealthy to give back to society is psychologically improbable
4) The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to ‘sell out’
5) IQ Drops When You’re In a Group

( Now, Let's discuss )

On Neural Pathways

Ishara Yar: Are you able to have friends?
Lt. Commander Data: Yes.
Ishara Yar: But you don't have feelings, do you?
Lt. Commander Data: Not as such. However, even among humans, friendship is sometimes less an emotional response, and more a sense of... familiarity.
Ishara Yar: So, you can become used to someone.
Lt. Commander Data: Exactly. As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The input is eventually anticipated, and even missed when absent.


The interesting thing about this is that it coincides with my thoughts on how a pattern recognition system can create its own reward and punishment system (via prediction).