Month: December 2020

Corpus Callosum

The corpus callosum per se is the largest bundle of commissural fibers in the human brain. It consists of at least 200–300 million fibers connecting the right and left cerebral hemispheres together (Huang et al., 2005; Sakai et al., 2017). It plays important roles in transferring sensory, motor, and cognitive information between the right and left cerebral hemispheres (LaMantia and Rakic, 1990-9). Most of these fibers provide homotopic connections between all the mirror-imaged areas in the cerebral hemispheres (Huang et al., 2005).

Notwithstanding, heterotopic fibers that connect anatomically and functionally different regions of the cerebral cortex in an asymmetric manner are also present (Mooshagian, 2008).

Anatomically, the CC is divided into four distinct regions, consisting of the rostrum, genu, body, and splenium (Sakai et al., 2017). The genu is the most anterior region, near the frontal lobe, while the splenium is the most posterior area, near the occipital lobe. The rostrum is the inferior backward extension from the genu, and the body is the largest area of the CC, located between the genu and splenium (Jones, 1985).

An early review on studies of the corpus callosum found that a thicker corpus callosum in schizophrenia patients was associated with both more negative symptoms and earlier age of onset. As both of these are more common in males, it may be that corpus callosum abnormalities in schizophrenia are sex-dependent. Indeed, an exploratory meta-regression in a study showed that sex may explain differences in diffusion properties of the corpus callosum in schizophrenia.

These results provide compelling evidence for the hypothesis that the corpus callosum plays a key role in the specialization of language to the left hemisphere. In AgCC, cortical processing for language becomes distributed across the two hemispheres and becomes right hemisphere dominant in cAgCC, a functional change that is independent of handedness. The timing and magnitude of activity in the left hemisphere for the main components of the frontotemporal language network was comparable between the groups, with greater activity in the right hemisphere over the same time windows in AgCC for both auditory and visual stimuli. Interestingly, the time windows that manifest left hemispheric lateralization in neurotypical cohorts (Findlay et al., 2012) overlapped time windows that manifest right hemisphere activation in AgCC. This shift away from left hemisphere dominance in AgCC was unrelated to additional clinical diagnoses.

It is possible that there is a nonlinear relationship between callosal volume and language laterality exists in which, in extreme cases (such as abnormally large callosa or AgCC), the likelihood of functional asymmetry decreases. Given that the tasks being conducted here are designed to drive the general processes of language input and speech output, it is not clear which patterns of activity correspond to different linguistic processes (e.g., syntactic vs lexical processing) across the two tasks. Nonetheless, we demonstrate here the novel finding that the establishment of left hemisphere language lateralization is associated with normal callosal development. We further provide evidence that linguistic impairments in those born without this structure are associated with profound increases in activity in the right hemisphere. Because language is not the only lateralized process in the human brain, future studies are needed to address how other cognitive functions (such as spatial ability) are dependent on healthy callosal development.

It is known that response synchronization between neurons of homotopic areas from both cortical hemispheres disappear after callosotomy (Engel et al. 1991), indicating that interhemispheric communication has an integrative function coordinating distal equivalent circuits in a single computational unit (Schmidt et al. 2010). Nonetheless, evidence for a net inhibitory role of the corpus callosum also exists (Hlushchuk and Hari 2006; Reis et al. 2008; Beaulé et al. 2012; Palmer et al. 2012). Accordingly, it has been proposed that callosal axons sustain competition between contralateral ensembles, leading to lateral dominance (for a review on these two opposed hypothesis see Bloom and Hynd 2005; van der Knaap and van der Ham 2011).

The lack of a detailed description of the connectivity between callosal projecting neurons (CPNs) and their contralateral targets remains as a major limitation in our understanding of the functional role of the callosal transfer. Our aim was to fill this gap by studying the influence of the CPNs on contralateral cortical microcircuits. Despite several attempts have been done to characterize the impact of CPNs on contralateral circuits (Karayannis et al. 2007; Palmer et al. 2012; Lee et al. 2014; Rock and Apicella 2015), so far, this is the first study considering the contribution of this pathway within the entire columnar extension of the contralateral cortex. For this, we have performed a detailed electrophysiological screening across different categories of pyramidal and gabaergic neurons in the retrosplenial cortex, a high-order association area involved in spatial cognition and context recognition (Wolbers and Büchel 2005; Smith et al. 2012; Czajkowski et al. 2014; reviewed in Vann et al. 2009).

Our results suggest that the origin of the corpus callosum in early eutherian ancestors likely included the conservation of preexisting features of intra- and interhemispheric connectivity. Notably, humans with congenital absence of the corpus callosum, but with preserved interhemispheric integrative functions, often show compensatory wiring through the anterior commissure that resembles the noneutherian connectome (51). This suggests that, under certain unknown conditions, neocortical commissural neurons may exploit developmental plasticity of ancient mechanisms of axon guidance, resulting in functional interhemispheric circuits. Our findings provide a comparative framework to further elucidate the molecular underpinnings of interhemispheric wiring in individuals with and without a corpus callosum, as well as to investigate developmental hypotheses concerning the evolution of homologous circuits in the vertebrate brain.

Light, Magic, Masonry by Michael Tsarion

The entrance of ithyphallic beams of light into the vesica-shaped eye can be likened to the sexual act. The penetration of light is experienced as an erotic act by the brain which is after all a mass of super- sensitive nerves. This real subtle optical experience may be compared to a miniature orgasm – small enough to not be noticed consciously but strong enough to be stimulate and entrain.

“Everything that we see obscures something else we want to see.” Rene Magritte. Magritte was referring to a remarkable ability of human beings to believe in ideas of reality rather than in reality itself. He was speaking about the strange antipathy that apparently exists between idea and reality, appearance and fact, deception and truth, darkness and light.

Reality is primarily a visual experience. The light and power wielded by agents of the Demiurge is always contextualized by difference, opposition and separation. Light in this mode cannot be true and real. It is by definition weak, transitory and illusory.

The corpus callosum connecting the left and right hemispheres is larger and more dense in males, resulting in less harmonization and communication between hemispheres. Hence the connection between masculinity and left-brain cognition. Although the existence of the left- brain’s functions makes us conscious, there’s a lot more to the advent of the ego and Self than neurologists presently understand. They fail to address what kind of consciousness – now repressed – would exist without the draconian oppressiveness and exclusion of the left-brain. They fail to address the impoverished phantasmagoria presented by the left-brain, which omits everything in reality that threatens its dominion and expansion. They are for the most part apologists for the left-brain’s refracted chimera. It’s not conducive for them to question their master’s authorized edition of reality.


It is clear, therefore, that our hallucinatory vision of the world as a concrete material manifestation, and our fixation on phallic and ithyphallic phenomena, indicate our enslavement to the left-brain’s preferred but contrived mode of cognition. Our fixations on dualism and language (particularly metaphorical language) are also indicative of this. The power and force we commonly associate with light and phallic sexuality is a power inferior to that of the right-brain and deeper hemispheres of consciousness. But this deeper more numinous flow of Spirit is invisible to us due to left-brain editing. It is also unknown due to our insensitivity, brought about by our reliance on misleaders in society, and our chronic craving for the approval of the misguided.

Experiencing aging or demystifying myths – impact of different geriatrics-gerontology teaching strategies in first year medical students

An intervention-based study in education was conducted at the beginning of the first year of a medical course. Students submitted to educational strategies were compared against students with no intervention.

The two strategies were: “Experiencing Aging” – also known as the “aging game” (simulation of the disabilities and physiological changes of aging), and “Myths of Aging” – a knowledge discussion based on a “quiz show”, questioning common myths about aging. All students were assessed on their attitudes towards older persons (Maxwell-Sullivan, UCLA attitudes), empathy (Maxwell-Sullivan), knowledge on facts and positive view about aging (Palmore), and cognitive knowledge. Data were analysed using Student’s t, Chi-squared or ANOVA tests.

The “experiencing aging” intervention was associated with improvement in empathy but worsening of attitude. The “myths of aging” intervention was associated with an improved attitude overall and positive view about aging but with no change in empathy towards older persons.

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The Exceptionally High Life Expectancy of Costa Rican Nonagenarians by Luis Rosero-Bixby

According to the World Bank in 2006, by the year 2004, Costa Rica had a per capita gross national income of about US$4,700 and a health expenditure of $310.

These figures are about one-tenth those in high-income countries. In the USA, these amounts were $41,400, and $5,700, respectively. Indicators of health services, such as, per capita physicians and hospital beds, are also substantially lower in Costa Rica. They equate to only one-third the number of USA physicians and, one-tenth the number of Japanese beds. It is perple-xing that a country with these modest levels of well- being, health investments, and infrastructure may be the one with the highest life expectancy among the elderly.

Robust data from a voter registry show that Costa Rican nonagenarians have an exceptionally high live expectancy. Mortality at age 90 in Costa Rica is at least 14% lower than an average of 13 high-income countries. This advantage increases with age by 1% per year. Males have an additional 12% advantage. Age-90 life expectancy for males is 4.4 years, one-half year more than any other country in the world. These estimates do not use problematic data on reported ages, but ages are computed from birth dates in the Costa Rican birth-registration ledgers. Census data confirm the exceptionally high survival of elderly Costa Ricans, especially males. Comparisons with the United States and Sweden show that the Costa Rican advantage comes mostly from reduced incidence of cardiovascular diseases, coupled with a low prevalence of obesity, as the only available explanatory risk factor. Costa Rican nonagenarians are survivors of cohorts that underwent extremely harsh health conditions when young, and their advantage might be just a heterogeneity in frailty effect that might disappear in more recent cohorts. The availability of reliable estimates for the oldest-old in low-income populations is extremely rare. These results may enlighten the debate over how harsh early-life health conditions affect older-age mortality.

According to the World Bank (2006), by 2004, Costa Rica had a per capita gross national income of about US$4,700 and a health expenditure of $310. These figures are about one-tenth those in high-income countries. In the United States, these amounts were $41,400 and $5,700, respectively. Indicators of health services, such as per capita physicians and hospital beds, are also substantially lower in Costa Rica: they equate to only one-third the number of U.S. physicians and one-tenth the number of Japanese beds. It is perplexing that a country with these modest levels of well-being, health investments, and infrastructure may be the one with the highest life expectancy among the elderly.

Broad explanations of Costa Rica’s health achievements in the literature include the orientation of the government toward equity and social development, with large social investments being possible, in part, because of the absence of military expenditures (Rosero-Bixby 1991). The 1949 constitution abolished the armed forces. Investments in education and the very high coverage of health insurance are often mentioned as key factors (Caldwell 1986). Health insurance covers 82% of the population, including the 9% population deemed destitute, whose insurance is paid by the government (Rosero-Bixby 2004). Provision of primary health care, particularly to remote or poor populations, has a quantifiable impact on death rates, especially among children (Rosero-Bixby 1986). A 17-year follow-up of a group of Costa Rican elderly has shown no meaningful differences in survival by socio economic condition (education or wealth) nor by being covered by the national health insurance9 (Rosero-Bixby, Dow, and Lacle 2005); this suggests that the Costa Rican advantage at old ages may be present across the entire society, with no clear-cut health interventions or classic socioeconomic gradients as explanation.

Smoking, past and present, is not a factor among males, nor is high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol or triglycerides levels. It does not seem that Costa Ricans have the genes or a diet that reduce these risk factors. The only lowered risk factor for which Costa Rican males have a clear advantage is a lesser prevalence of obesity. Prevalence of obesity in Costa Rican males is two-thirds that found in the United States. This probably results in the significantly lower prevalence of uncontrolled diabetes in males as measured by the glycohemoglobin level, the only other factor in Table 4 that shows a Costa Rican advantage. Other factors that may be worth investigating are levels of stress, support networks, and the like. The explanations, however, say nothing regarding why the Costa Rican advantage occurs mostly among males, or why the sex gap in mortality is so small. The only thing known so far is that this population exhibits low cardiovascular mortality and that Costa Rican males of these ages are thin. Comparatively, Costa Rican women tend to be obese, which perhaps is due to their high fertility in the past; each extra pregnancy usually increases mother’s weight, as shown, for example, by Arroyo et al. (1995) for Mexican women.

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Luminosity determination in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

ATLAS monitors the delivered luminosity by measuring vis , the visible interaction rate per bunch crossing, with a variety of independent detectors and using several different algorithm.

The luminosity is assumed to be proportional to a number of reconstructed charged-particle tracks, with the visible interaction rate vis taken as number tracks per bunch crossing averaged over a given time window typically a luminosity block.

The ATLAS luminosity scale for the 2012 LHC run has been calibrated using data from dedicated beam- separation scans, also known as van der Meer scans. The vdM-calibration uncertainty is smaller than for the 2011 data set [3], thanks to improved control of beam-dynamical effects (beam–beam deflections, dynamic , non-factorization) and to a refined analysis of the non-reproducibility of beam conditions (orbit drift, emittance growth). The total systematic uncertainty in the delivered luminosity is no longer dominated by vdM-calibration uncertainties. The largest contribution arises from instrumental effects that require the transfer of the absolute luminosity scale from the low-rate vdM- scan regime to the high-luminosity conditions of routine physics operation; residual run-to-run and long-term inconsistencies between independent luminosity measurements also contribute significantly.
The combination of these systematic uncertainties results in a final uncertainty of !/! = ±1.9% in the luminosity measured by ATLAS during pp collisions at ! = 8 TeV for the 22.7 fb!1 of data delivered to ATLAS in 2012. This uncertainty applies to the high- luminosity data sample and any subset thereof, but not necessarily to a few special runs taken under very low pile-up conditions, such as those dedicated to elastic-scattering measurements: the latter require a separate analysis tailored to their specific experimental conditions.

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Gadamer, A Philosophical Portrait by Donatella Di Cesare

Experience unifies perceptions and concepts into universality, which actually overshadows the universality of science. But it differs from the universality of science too: it is a universality at once open to and inseparable from experienced perceptions.

This universality, which must be distinguished from the abstract, the universal concept of science, shows the constitutive openness of experience, which is always changing and transformable.”

Templeton World Charity Foundation’s Accelerating Research on Consciousness initiative [ARC]

Consciousness is a foundational concept for the understanding of human nature, but there is little agreement on what the anatomical structures and physiological functions produce consciousness. Scholars across disciplines can look at the same data, and draw different conclusions. As a result different theories of consciousness have become siloed.

Templeton World Charity Foundation’s Accelerating Research on Consciousness initiative (ARC) proposes a solution to these problems. Drawing on best practices in open science and adversarial collaboration, ARC promotes open and rigorous engagement among leaders of opposing theories. We do not expect to solve all the mysteries of consciousness, but we aim to foster progress by reducing the number of theories through rigorous scientific and conceptual investigation. We hope this will accelerate research and increase the legitimacy of the remaining theories.

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‘Orch OR’ is the most complete and the most easily falsifiable theory of consciousness

Conscious versus nonconscious I strongly dispute that Orch OR fails to distinguish conscious from non-conscious processes. Under anesthesia Orch OR prevented, non-conscious evoked potentials can continue by

1. membrane and synaptic activities 2. non-quantum microtubule processes 3. Quantum computations in microtubules (‘Orch’) which don’t reach threshold may have sub-conscious influence (e.g., dreams).


Small network criterion Can 10 neuron networks be conscious? With approximately 108 tubulins/neuron (109 tubulins/10 neurons), by t = ħ/EG, 109 tubulins would require 500 msec to reach threshold for a low intensity, low content conscious moment. But microtubule quantum states are shown to persist only 0.1 msec. A 10 neuron network is unlikely to sustain ‘Orch’ for 500 msec, although it’s possible.


Minimization of mysteries Orch OR has been derided for seeming to invoke a mythical ‘law of minimization of mysteries’ to explain both quantum mechanics and consciousness. But wouldn’t ‘Occam’s razor’ favor a ‘minimization of mysteries’? Indeed, Orch OR may also help explain other mysteries including how anesthesia works, the origin and evolution of life, free will, the flow of time, memory, dreams, and how general relativity relates to quantum mechanics.


Conclusion
Spanning disciplines and scale, with high explanatory power, Orch OR is the most complete theory of consciousness. But if quantum interference in microtubules (‘Orch’) cannot be demonstrated, or if demonstrated, proves insensitive to anesthesia, Orch OR will be falsified. Orch OR is the most complete, and most easily falsifiable theory of consciousness.

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The finer scale of consciousness: quantum theory

The nature of consciousness, once the exclusive realm of philosophers, has been, very gradually penetrated by neuroscientists, biologists, and physicists. Consciousness has always been defined as the Hard Problem in all these subjects.

With the emergence of unprecedented devices and the development of multidisciplinary experiments in different research fields, more details of this hard problem have been revealed, especially in quantum mechanics and neuroscientific fields. Quantum computers are considered the brightest new star in the quantum field and increasingly fascinate quantum physicists and information technology specialists. Advances in new materials and cryogenic physics have led to remarkable breakthroughs in quantum computing in recent years. Because quantum mechanics deals with the tiniest constituents of the material world, it seems capable of elucidating numerous unsolved and tough problems. Quantum theory, a branch from the finer scale of consciousness, has been accompanied by numerous controversies since its inception, but abundant proof demonstrated that this theoretical framework is capable of explaining the majority of consciousness problems that traditional neuroscience could not, especially the orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR) theory introduced by Penrose and Hameroff.

It was widely accepted that most neuronal communication and information transmission initially occurred on receptors and ligands (especially among synapses in the central nervous system) on the cell membrane, followed by second messengers that broadcast or transfer the information to various parts of the interior cell. Almost all basic studies in neurobiology converge on the various receptors, ligands and signaling pathways. However, are we 100% certain about this prerequisite basis of neuroscience? Rather than the conventional receptors and ligands of the membrane, the principal cellular components of the Orch-OR theory are microtubules that are mostly considered pivotal structures for material transportation, cell movement, mitosis and establishment and maintenance of cell form and function.


To date, this theory has remained one of the most acceptable and continuous theories that covers in detail quantum physics, quantum gravity, quantum information theory, molecular biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy, and anesthesiology. Additionally, this theory was known to neurobiologists who were interested in the “Hard Problem” as well as physicists and philosophers.
Under the background of rapid development of world computer technology, Hameroff likened the flow of information in the brain to computers in which microtubules were to the brain what transistors were to the computer (40-43). Inspired by this fantastic analogy and Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, in The Emperor’s New Mind (44) published in 1989, Roger Penrose first attached the quantum effect in human cognition. For example, he considered whether consciousness can affect quantum mechanics or vice versa and that quantum mechanics itself might be included in consciousness. Penrose suggested that the “objective collapse”, that is, the collapse and superposition of quantum interference, is a real physical process, similar to the bursting of bubbles (44). Furthermore, consciousness was the product of quantum space-time structure (Figure 2), which was inextricably related to the universe, and the theory describing the relationship between consciousness and the universe was the Orch-OR theory (44). These quantum theories facilitated the emergence of later biological hypotheses of consciousness based on quantum mechanics.

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What Can Consciousness Anomalies Tell Us about Quantum Mechanics? By George R. Williams

In this paper I explore the link between consciousness and quantum mechanics. Often, explanations that invoke consciousness to help explain some of the most perplexing aspects of quantum mechanics are not given serious attention.

However, casual dismissal is perhaps unwarranted, given the persistence of the measurement problem, as well as the mysterious nature of consciousness. Using data accumulated from experiments in parapsychology, I examine what anomalous data with respect to consciousness might tell us about various explanations of quantum mechanics. I examine three categories of quantum mechanics interpretations that have some promise of fitting with this anomalous data. I conclude that explanations that posit a substratum of reality containing pure information or potentia, along the lines proposed by Bohm and Stapp, offer the best fit for various categories of this data.

The paradoxical nature of quantum mechanics virtually assures that any explanation invokes a theoretical construction that clashes with our accustomed view of the world. As a result we have Schrödinger’s Cat or Everett’s interpretation that every possibility implied by the standard waveform is manifested. Against these sorts of alternatives, an explanation that posits links between consciousness and matter may not appear so radical. And while many of the hows and whats of consciousness remain unanswered, it nevertheless possesses a significant virtue that other alternatives lack: It is not merely a theoretical construction. The existence of consciousness, however mysterious, cannot be doubted.

Arguably, the various explanations for quantum mechanics can be grouped into three categories: collapse explanations, relative states (or many worlds) interpretations, and theories that depend on hidden variables or orders. The best-known collapse model is the conventional or Copenhagen interpretation, developed primarily by Bohr and Heisenberg. Numerous experiments have confirmed the validity of its mathematical rules. The Copenhagen interpretation frames a given quantum system as a wave function that represents a superposition of possible vector states of the system. Unlike classical systems, quantum systems are essentially probabilistic, with no way to predict which possible state will eventually manifest. According to Copenhagen, the wave function evolves smoothly in time until a measurement leads to the collapse of the waveform into the state that is observed.

Von Neumann’s (1932) formal analysis of the measurement problem acknowledged the crucial role that the observer played with the waveform collapse. More explicit arguments that consciousness itself causes the waveform collapse were made by Wigner (1967). Stapp (1993) invoked Von Neumann’s framework to investigate waveform collapse within the brain. Stapp proposed that the microscopic dimensions within neurons create quantum uncertainty, leading to a cloud of possible neurological states within the brain. According to Stapp, consciousness selects from possible brain states the one that is congruent with personal experience.

Penrose (1989, 1994) also explores a theory of objective collapse, which in this case requires substantial innovation across a number of challenging areas, including quantum gravity, consciousness, and the neurological structures within the brain. Collaborations with Hameroff have led to a proposed model (Hameroff & Penrose 1996) in which conscious experience emerges from a sort of quantum computing within the brain’s microtubules. That is, the brain’s microtubules sustain coherent superposition of quantum states. Consciousness results through the gravitation-induced collapse of these states. Tegmark (2000) has argued that the brain’s warm temperatures do not allow a sustained quantum collapse for the duration of time required for neural processing. However, Hagan, Hameroff, and Tuszynski (2002) have replied that under reasonable conditions, the superposition within microtubules might be sustained within the brain.

If we somehow get past this problem, another concern arises: how do we extract meaningful information? Hameroff and Penrose developed a sophisticated model within the brain describing networks of microtubules in coherent superposition, through which our conscious experience emerges. Another class of mind–matter experiment uses Young’s double-slit appa- ratus, perhaps the best-known experiment showing quantum mechanical effects, as a framework for testing.

Quantum mechanics is arguably the most successful theory in physics. Yet it remains the most mysterious one as well. The heart of the mystery is the measurement problem, the transition from the evolution of subatomic particles described by the Schrödinger equation to the results observed in experiments. After nearly a century of experimentation and debate, no consensus among physicists has emerged, and virtually all interpretations depart from classical physics, as well as from common sense reality. And yet the standard (Copenhagen) interpretation fits the data so well, with no apparent anomalies, that making a breakthrough in understanding may be very difficult.

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Raul Marino Júnior A Religião do Cérebro: as novas descobertas da neurociência a respeito da fé humana [original in Portuguese]

Agostinho, um dos mais importantes teólogos da Igreja no século V, acreditava que a imagem de Deus residia não na capacidade para pensamento abstrato, mas naquela para o autoconhecimento, a introspecção e a memória.

Experiências ditas religiosas ou espirituais, levam-nos a inferir que, relativamente à existência de Deus, o único lugar onde Ele poderia revelar-se para nós seria no emaranhado de vias neurais e estruturas fisiológicas de nosso cérebro.

A física quântica tem revolucionado os conceitos tradicionais de um mundo material e manifesto, que denominamos de espaço real, afirmando, por exemplo, que partículas podem se propagar como se fossem ondas e vice-versa, podendo, portanto, ser consideradas uma função quântica. Assim, experiências têm demonstrado que a luz pode se comportar como partículas ou fótons e, em outros experimentos, como ondas, sendo verdadeiros ambos os achados. Desse modo, de acordo com Niels Bohr, ondas e partículas são aspectos complementares da luz e da mesma “realidade”, descoberta que lhe valeu o Prêmio Nobel de Física em 1922. À velocidade da luz, tanto a velocidade de uma partícula como a de uma onda são idênticas. Mas, quanto mais lenta é a partícula, mais rápida é a velocidade da onda e, quando a partícula pára, a velocidade da onda torna-se infinita. O espaço-fase, invisível, gera eventos que podem ser localizados no tempo-espaço contínuo ou mundo manifesto — espaço real — e, portanto, visível. Assim, tudo o que é visível emana do que é invisível.

De acordo com S. Hameroff e R. Penrose (1995), os microtúbulos dos neurônios podem processar informações geradas por padrões auto-organizadores, produzindo estados coerentes, que poderiam explicar a possibilidade de experimentarmos pensamentos e consciência (ver Fig. 8). H. Romijn (2002) concluiu que campos eletromagnéticos em constante mudança, a partir de redes neuronais, podem ser considerados fenômenos de coerência quântica biológica e, possivelmente, “suportes” elementares da consciência.

É certo que a física quântica não tem explicação para a “essência” da consciência nem para o segredo da vida, mas nos ajuda a entender a transição de campos de consciência do espaço-fase para o mundo material, em cujo processo o córtex serve apenas como uma estação intermediária para partes da consciência e das memórias a serem recebidas pela consciência desperta.

Neste conceito, os autores citados afirmam que essa atividade — a transição da consciência do espaço-fase para o tempo-espaço contínuo — não se baseia em um substrato físico e comparam o campo da consciência à internet, a qual não se origina no interior do computador, mas é apenas recebida por ele. De acordo com essa hipótese, a vida cria a possibilidade de recebermos os campos da consciência na forma de ondas ou de informação em nossa consciência desperta, que pertence ao corpo físico e é constituída de partículas. O aspecto físico da consciência no mundo material se origina no aspecto de ondas da consciência no espaço-fase, por colapso da função ondulatória em partículas (redução objetiva), aspecto esse que pode ser medido e comprovado por magnetoencefalograma, eletroencefalograma, ressonância magnética e PET scanner. Esse novo conceito de “colapso da função das ondas” é vital para a compreensão desses fenômenos tão complexos.

O aspecto ondulatório de nossa consciência indestrutível no espaço-fase, sem interconexões locais, não pode ser medido por meios ou processos físicos. Segundo os autores, quando morremos, nossa consciência deixa de ter o aspecto de partículas para assumir o eterno aspecto de ondas. Com esse novo conceito sobre consciência, tanto a relação mente-cérebro quanto os fenômenos de EQM durante paradas cardíacas podem ser explicados. Segundo esses conceitos, o DNA do corpo funcionaria como uma antena quântica ou uma cadeia de bits quânticos (qubits) providos de uma torção helicoidal, funcionando como um aparato supercondutor de interferência quântica.

Os autores ilustram essa assertiva citando casos em que um receptor de transplante cardíaco recebe um coração com DNA diferente do seu e algumas vezes experimenta pensamentos e sensações novos e estranhos que, mais tarde, passam a combinar com o caráter e a consciência do doador já falecido.
É interessante estabelecer uma comparação entre esses fenômenos quânticos e os meios corriqueiros de comunicação através dos campos eletromagnéticos dos aparelhos de rádio, TV, telefones celulares, laptops e outros equipamentos sem fio. Não tomamos consciência da vastíssima quantidade de campos eletromagnéticos que constantemente atravessam nosso corpo, paredes e edifícios. Somente nos damos conta deles no momento em que ligamos um desses aparelhos e passamos a detectá-los sob a forma de imagem ou som, no momento em que conseqüências de causas que nos são invisíveis se tornam observáveis aos nossos sentidos e sua percepção atinge nossa consciência.
As imagens e os sons não estão dentro dos aparelhos nem a internet está dentro de computadores. Ao desligá-los, a recepção desaparece, mas a transmissão continua e a informação permanece nos campos eletromagnéticos.
Segundo a teoria da continuidade da consciência de Van Lommel, se a função do cérebro fosse perdida, como na morte clínica ou cerebral, as memórias e a consciência continuariam a existir, perdendo-se apenas a recepção pela interrupção da conexão. Ao tempo da morte física, a consciência continuaria a existir e a ser experimentada em outra dimensão, num mundo não-visível e imaterial — o espaço-fase — que contém o passado, o presente e o futuro. Infelizmente, os estudos de EQM não podem ainda fornecer provas irrefutáveis dessas conclusões. Afinal, esses pacientes não morreram, apenas estiveram muito perto da morte, por uma parada momentânea do funcionamento do cérebro. Resta-nos, então, a conclusão de que a consciência pode ser experimentada independentemente do funcionamento cerebral, o que poderá futuramente acarretar uma enorme mudança nos paradigmas da medicina, surgindo a possibilidade de se admitir que a morte, assim como o nascimento, constitui meramente a passagem de um estado de consciência para outro.

NEUROIMAGEM

A aquisição de imagens computadorizadas do cérebro humano por meio da tomografia computadorizada e da ressonância magnética tem nos fornecido imagens que nos permitem examinar esse órgão como se fosse uma peça anatômica em nossas mãos, excelência da exatidão dessas imagens radiológicas. Essa tecnologia trouxe progresso à neurologia, à psiquiatria e à neurocirurgia, permitindo o diagnóstico de lesões, tumores e outras doenças que, há duas ou três décadas, não seria possível.

Essas imagens, puramente anatômicas, associadas agora a exames funcionais do cérebro humano realizados por meio de radioisótopos, como o single photon emission computed tomography (Spect) e o positron emission tomography (PET), têm nos permitido realizar outros estudos além dos de anatomia. Com esses recursos, podemos registrar o funcionamento do cérebro durante convulsões, nas epilepsias, detectar seu fluxo sanguíneo, seu metabolismo, a ação dos neurotransmissores durante a atividade mental e neuropsiquátrica nas doenças e no cérebro normal e monitorar as funções de todas as áreas do cérebro durante as atividades motoras, sensoriais, comportamentais e cognitivas. Hoje esses registros constituem as bases para as pesquisas nas ciências neurocognitivas. Nas telas desses aparelhos, podemos determinar com precisão — e em cores — as áreas cerebrais envolvidas na elaboração e no entendimento da linguagem, assim como as áreas visuais e auditivas, a recepção e a sensação dos fenômenos dolorosos e as sensações superficiais e profundas. A ressonância magnética funcional (fMRI) também tem proporcionado dados impressionantemente precisos sobre o mapeamento funcional dessas várias áreas.

Newberg e outros pesquisadores (2001) têm utilizado especificamente o Spect, por ser mais simples, para o estudo da fenomenologia cerebral durante a prática de atividades espirituais em monges budistas voluntários e em freiras de clausura, dedicadas à vida monástica contemplativa, sobretudo durante estados de meditação profunda.

Nesse estudo, os autores encontraram um aumento importante do fluxo cerebral mapeado bilateralmente no córtex dos lobos frontais do cérebro, nos giros cíngulos e em ambos os tálamos. Em contrapartida, detectaram um decréscimo desse fluxo nos lobos parietais superiores, bilateralmente — o esquerdo, em geral, era mais afetado que o direito.

Em outros estudos de imagem cerebral, Lazar et al. (2000) utilizaram o exame de fMRI e Herzog et al. (1990-91), o PET scanner. Em ambos os casos, demonstrou-se aumento de atividade nas áreas frontais, sobretudo no córtex pré-frontal, concomitantemente à diminuição nas regiões parietais, coincidindo, portanto, com os achados de Newberg, que utilizou o spect.

Integrated Quantum Photonics with Silicon Carbide: Challenges and Prospects

Quantum information processing (QIP) is among the most rapidly developing areas of science and technology. It is perhaps the final frontier in the quest to harness the fundamental properties of matter for computation, com-munication, data processing, and molecular simulation.

Any physical system governed by the laws of quantum mechanics can in principle be a candidate for QIP; to date, however, the most advanced QIP demonstrations have been implemented via superconducting qubits [1], trapped ions and atoms [2,3], and photons (via linear-optical quantum computing) [4]. Recently, optically addressable crystal defects have emerged as a novel platform for QIP [5– 8], interfacing some of nature’s best quantum memories (a protected solid-state spin [9–11]) with a robust flying qubit (photon) that can transport the quantum informa- tion [12]. Notably, solid-state defects lend themselves to on-chip integration, promising future scalability. Optically addressable spin defects are thus noteworthy candidates for several QIP proposals, including network-based quantum computing [13–15], cluster state generation [16–18], and quantum communications [19,20].

Optically addressable solid-state spin defects are promising candidates for storing and manipulating quantum information using their long coherence ground-state manifold; individual defects can be entan- gled using photon-photon interactions, offering a path toward large-scale quantum photonic networks. Quantum computing protocols place strict limits on the acceptable photon losses in the system. These low- loss requirements cannot be achieved without photonic engineering, but are attainable if combined with state-of-the-art nanophotonic technologies. However, most materials that host spin defects are challenging to process: as a result, the performance of quantum photonic devices is orders of magnitude behind that of their classical counterparts. Silicon carbide (SiC) is well suited to bridge the classical-quantum photonics gap, since it hosts promising optically addressable spin defects and can be processed into SiC-on-insulator for scalable, integrated photonics. In this paper, we discuss recent progress toward the development of scalable quantum photonic technologies based on solid-state spins in silicon carbide, and discuss current challenges and future directions.

In summary, spin-based photonic technologies for quan- tum computing will likely operate in the network architec- ture (Fig. 1) and will require the integration of spin-qubit registers with high-quality photonic structures and efficient photon detectors to reduce the total photon loss below the demanding thresholds for quantum computing [15]. While there may be numerous approaches for achieving this goal, we believe that a fully chip-integrated quantum photonic platform holds the most promise, as this approach is most scalable and avoids additional coupling loss from waveguide interconnects. SiC has emerged as a promising platform for realizing this technology, with demonstrations of wafer-scale integration of high-quality emitters into semiconductor junctions [63], isotopic engineering for nuclear spin registers [88], indistinguishable single-photon emission [52], and a quantum-grade SiC-on-insulator plat- form for fabrication of photonic devices [32]. However, several key results must be demonstrated to confirm its promise, starting with the integration of large arrays of tunable narrow-linewidth emitters into nanostructures.

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Electron efficiency for measurements with the ATLAS detector and using the 2012 LHC proton–proton collision data – The European Physical Journal

This paper describes the algorithms for the reconstruction and identification of electrons in the central region of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These algorithms were used for all ATLAS results with electrons in the final state that are based on the 2012 pp collision data produced by the LHC at  = 8 TeV. The efficiency of these algorithms, together with the charge misidentification rate, is measured in data and evaluated in simulated samples using electrons from  Z → ee, Z → eeγ and J/ψ → eedecays.

For these efficiency measurements, the full recorded data set, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb-1, is used. Based on a new reconstruction algorithm used in 2012, the electron reconstruction efficiency is 97% for electrons with ET = 15 GeV and 99% at ET = 50 GeV. Combining this with the efficiency of additional selection criteria to reject electrons from background processes or misidentified hadrons, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify electrons at the ATLAS experiment varies from 65 to 95%, depending on the transverse momentum of the electron and the background rejection.

Electron isolation

In order to further reject hadronic jets misidentified as electrons, most analyses require electrons to pass some isolation requirement in addition to the identification requirements described above. The two main isolation variables are:

Calorimeter-based isolation: The calorimetric isolation variable EconeΔRT is defined as the sum of the transverse energy deposited in the calorimeter cells in a cone of size ΔR around the electron, excluding the contribution within Δη × Δϕ= 0.125 × 0.175 around the electron cluster barycentre. It is corrected for energy leakage from the electron shower into the isolation cone and for the effect of pile-up using a correction parameterized as a function of the number of reconstructed primary vertices.

Track-based isolation: The track isolation variable pconeΔRT is the scalar sum of the transverse momentum of the tracks with pT > 0.4 GeV in a cone of ΔR around the electron, excluding the track of the electron itself. The tracks considered in the sum must originate from the primary vertex associated with the electron track and be of good quality; i.e. they must have at least nine silicon hits, one of which must be in the innermost pixel layer.

Both types of isolation are used in the tag-and-probe measurements, mainly in order to tighten the selection criteria of the tag.

Whenever isolation is applied to the probe electron candidate in this work, this only happens in the J/ψ analysis, the criteria are chosen such that the effect on the measured identification efficiency is estimated to be small.

Max The efficiency εID of the algorithms used by ATLAS to identify photons during the LHC Run 1 has been measured from pp collision data using three independent methods in different photon ET ranges. The three measurements agree within their uncertainties in the overlapping ET ranges, and are combined.
For the data taken in 2011, 4.9 fb-1 at s√=7 TeV, the efficiency of the cut-based identification algorithm increases from 60– 70% at ET = 20 GeV up to 87–95% (90–99%) at ET > 100 GeV for unconverted (converted) photons. With an optimised neural network this efficiency increases from 85–90% at ET = 20 GeV to about 97% (99%) at ET > 100 GeV for unconverted (converted) photon candidates for a similar background rejection. For the data taken in 2012, 20.3 fb-1 at s√=8 TeV, the efficiency of a re-optimised cut-based photon identification algorithm increases from 50–65% (45–55%) for unconverted (converted) photons at ET = 10 GeV to 95–100% at ET > 100 GeV, being larger than ≈ 90% for ET > 40 GeV.
The nominal MC simulation of prompt photons in ATLAS predicts significantly higher identification efficiency values than those measured in some regions of the phase space, particularly at low ET. A simulation with shower shapes corrected forthe average shifts observed with respect to the data describes the values of εID better in the entire ET and η range accessible by the data-driven methods. The residual difference between the efficiencies in data and in the corrected simulation are taken into account by computing data-to-MC efficiency scale factors. These factors differ from one by up to 10% at ET = 10 GeV and by only a few percents above ET = 40 GeV, with an uncertainty decreasing from 1.4–4.5% (1.7– 5.6%) at ET = 10 GeV for unconverted (converted) photons to 0.2–0.8% (0.2–0.5%) at high ET for s√=8 TeV. The uncertainties are slightly larger for s√=7 TeV data due to the smaller size of the control samples.

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Harry Martinson, The Electrons, 1970

With their round dance the electrons spin chrysalises of that which abides, the inmost cocoons which do not open of their own accord but of that which abides. There is not a matter of hatching out. There it is a matter of tending and protecting the metamorphoses of the inmost deeper-down swaying.

Jean Baudrillard, Symbolic Exchange and Death (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) First Edition

Cutting-edge theorist Jean Baudrillard on the complicitous dance of art, politics, economics, and media; includes “War Porn,” on Abu Ghraib as a new genre of reality TV. Images from Abu Ghraib are as murderous for America as those of the World Trade Center in flames.

The whole West is contained in the burst of sadistic laughter of the American soldiers, as it is behind the construction of the Israeli wall. This is where the truth of these images lies. Truth, but not veracity. As virtual as the war itself, their specific violence adds to the specific violence of the war. In The Conspiracy of Art, Baudrillard questions the privilege attached to art by its practitioners. Art has lost all desire for illusion: feeding back endlessly into itself, it has turned its own vanishment into an art unto itself. Far from lamenting the “end of art,” Baudrillard celebrates art’s new function within the process of insider-trading. Spiraling from aesthetic nullity to commercial frenzy, art has become transaesthetic, like society as a whole. Conceived and edited by life-long Baudrillard collaborator Sylvère Lotringer, The Conspiracy of Art presents Baudrillard’s writings on art in a complicitous dance with politics, economics, and media. Culminating with “War Porn,” a scathing analysis of the spectacular images from Abu Ghraib prison as a new genre of reality TV, the book folds back on itself to question the very nature of radical thought.

Jean Baudrillard is one of the most celebrated and most controversial of contemporary social theorists. This major work, appearing in English for the first time, occupies a central place in the rethinking of the humanities and social sciences around the idea of postmodernism.

It leads the reader on an exhilarating tour encompassing the end of Marxism, the enchantment of fashion, symbolism about sex and the body, and the relations between economic exchange and death. Most significantly, the book represents Baudrillard′s fullest elaboration of the concept of the three orders of the simulacra, defining the historical passage from production to reproduction to simulation.

The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess
In this lucid and fascinating book, Peter Brooks argues that melodrama is a crucial mode of expression in modern literature. After studying stage melodrama as a dominant popular form in the nineteenth century, he moves on to Balzac and Henry James to show how these “realist” novelists created fiction using the rhetoric and excess of melodrama – in particular its secularized conflicts of good and evil, salvation and damnation. The Melodramatic Imagination has become a classic work for understanding theater, fiction, and film.

A Sociologia do Corpo – David Le Breton

Um novo imaginário do corpo, luxuriante, invade a sociedade; nenhuma área da prática social sai ilesa das reivindicações que se desenvolvem na crítica da condição corporal dos atores. O corpo, lugar do contato privilegiado com o mundo, está sob a luz dos holofotes.

Problemática coerente e até inevitável numa sociedade de tipo individualista que entra numa zona turbulenta, de confusão e de obscurecimento das referências incontestáveis e conhece, em conseqüência, um retorno maior à individualidade.


Freqüentemente indiscreta, a crítica apodera-se de uma noção de senso comum: “o corpo”. Sem discussão prévia, faz dele símbolo de união, cavalo de batalha contra um sistema de valores considerado repressivo, ultrapassado, e que é preciso transformar para favorecer o desabrochar individual. As práticas e os discursos que surgem propõem ou exigem uma transformação radical das antigas repre- sentações sociais. Uma literatura abundante e inconscientemente surrealista convida à “libertação do corpo”, proposta que, quando muito, é angelical. A imaginação pode perder-se indefinidamente nesse discurso fantástico no qual o corpo se “liberta”, sem que saibamos bem o que acontece com o homem (seu mestre) a quem o corpo dá, no entanto, a extensão e a aparência. Nesse discurso o corpo é colocado não como algo indistinto do homem, mas como uma posse, um atributo, um outro, um alter ego. O homem é a fantasia desse discurso, o suieito suposto. A apologia ao corpo é, sem que tenha consciência, profundamente dualista, opõe o indivíduo ao corpo e, de maneira abstrata, supõe uma existência para corpo que poderia ser analisada fora do homem concreto. Denunciando freqüentemente o “parolismo” da psicanálise, esse discurso de liberação, pela abundância e pelos inúmeros campos de aplicação, alimentou o imaginário dualista da modernidade: essa facilidade de linguagem que leva a falar do corpo, sem titubear e a todo momento, como se fosse outra coisa que o corpo de atores em carne.
A crise de significação e de valores que abala a modernidade, a procura tortuosa e incansável por novas legitimidades que ainda hoje continuam a se ocultar, a permanência do provisório transformando-se em tempo da vida, são, entre outros fatores, os que contribuíram logicamente para comprovar o enraizamento físico da condição de cada ator. O corpo, lugar do contato privilegiado com o mundo, está sob a luz dos holofotes. Problemática coerente e até inevitável numa sociedade de tipo individualista que entra numa zona de turbulenta, de confusão e de obscurecimento das referências incontestáveis e conhece, em conseqüência, um retorno maior à individualidade.

O lugar e o tempo do limite, da separação como a crise da legitimidade torna a relação com o mundo incerta, o ator procura, tateando suas marcas, empenhar-se por produzir um sentimento de identidade mais favorável. Hesita de certa forma com o encarceramento físico do qual é objeto. Dá atenção redobrada ao corpo lá onde ele se separa dos outros e do mundo. Já que o corpo é lugar do rompimento, da diferenciação individual, supõe-se que possua a prerrogativa da possível reconciliação. Procura-se o segredo perdido do corpo. Torná-lo não um lugar da exclusão, mas o da inclusão, que não seja mais o que interrompe, distin- guindo o indivíduo e separando-o dos outros, mas o conector que o une aos outros. Pelo menos este é um dos imaginários sociais mais férteis da modernidade.

O homem como”produto” do corpo. A ordem do mundo obedece à ordem biológica cujas provas são encontradas nas aparências corporais. Mede-se, pesa-se, corta-se, fazem-se autópsias, classificam-se incontáveis sinais transformados em índices a fim de decompor o indivíduo sob os auspícios da raça ou da categoria moral. A corporeidade entra na era da suspeiçao e torna-se facilmente uma peça de convicção. As qualidades do homem são deduzidas da feição do rosto ou das formas do corpo. Ele é percebido como a evidente emanação moral da aparência física. O corpo torna- se descrição da pessoa, testemunha de defesa usual daquele que encarna. O homem não tem poder de ação contra essa “natureza”.

Freud edifica uma ruptura epistemológica que liberta a corporeidade humana da língua de pau dos positivistas do século XIX. Muito embora não sendo sociólogo, torna a corporeidade compreensível como matéria modelada, até certo ponto, pelas relações sociais e as inflexões da história pessoal do sujeito.

Evangelizado, submete a existência aos olhos de Deus e, a partir de então, as fronteiras delimitadas pelo corpo o distinguem dos companheiros. Ele se sente muito mais indivíduo que membro da comunidade, mesmo que nesse coletivo, meio híbrido, a passagem não seja feita de modo radical. A centração sobre o eu, resultado dessa transformação social e cultural, comprova nos fatos o que Durkheim colocava em evidência para distinguir um indivíduo do outro: “é preciso um fator de individualização, é o corpo quem faz esse papel”.

Especialistas do sentido oculto das coisas (médicos, curandeíros, psicólogos, pajés, tiradores de sorte, etc.) interferem para dar nome ao mistério, explicar sua gênese, (re)inserir no interior da comunidade o homem e a doença que o atinge. Indicam a via a seguir para facilitar a resolução do problema. Se a primeira tentativa não dá resultado, outras podem ser feitas e novos especialistas solicitados; nossas sociedades são exemplos formidáveis desse procedimento. Sempre resta o imaginário social para retomar aquilo que escapa provisoriamente ao controle social.

Mas o sociólogo não esquece que ele próprio vive num mundo de categorias mentais inseridas na trama da história social, e, de modo geral, na trama da história das ciências. De modo mais específico, o qualificativo “corpo” que limita o campo dessa sociologia é uma “forma simples” no sentido de André Jolles: “Todas as vezes que uma atividade do espírito conduz a multiplicidade e a diversidade do ser e dos acontecimentos a cristalizar-se para adquirir uma certa forma, todas as vezes que essa diversidade, percebida pela língua em seus V elementos primeiros e indivisíveis e transformada em produção da linguagem, puder ao mesmo tempo querer dizer e significar o ser e o acontecimento, diremos que ocorre o nascimento de uma forma simples”

A sociologia do corpo é a sociologia do enraizamento físico do ator no universo social e cultural.

Gilles Lipovetsky, 1999, interview

Há uma nova regulação de valores morais, com o aprofundamento dos ideais do Iluminismo, como o respeito ao outro, a tolerância, a liberdade, a recusa da escravidão. Nessa nova regulação, a tradição e a Igreja perderam o privilegiado lugar que possuíam. Passamos da ilusão de transcendência a verdadeira imanência. Temos uma axiomática de base: o humanismo.

Estamos vivendo uma revolução individualista subterraneana. Por meio dela a condição de existência esta sendo mudada. Estamos longe da barbarie, apesar da permanência da desigualdade, da exclusão, da miséria, da solidão de muitos, da depressão e da incerteza.

Haverá o direito a superficialidade. Nietzsche dizia que devemos ser superficiais, por profundidade. Avancar em relação a sociedade pos-moderna da exclusão.

Observa-se, no entanto, o abuso do direito a superficialidade pela pós-modernidade como fonte de desigualdade, exclusão, miséria, solidão, incerteza e depressão psíquica.

(translated to Portuguese)

DL Breton, Darwin, Foucault, Hegel, LCS Martin, Nietzsch

“Que suicídio contínuo é sua conduta. Que possa alienar-se desta cloaca que é um precipício sempre aberto. Ao invés de transmitir inteligência aos seus semelhantes, não sabe se preservar da ignorância e da morte.” LCSM

It’s been extremely noticeable even on academic pages the increase of a visual manifestation of a general fixation on procto and ithyphallic phenomena which indicates a sort of enslavement to their representation. Breton


The eyes, both circles around an “excremental fantasy”, a legacy of an anal fixation worked out in a psycoanalytic cure. This fantasy involves, through the process of evolution, the moviment of a tremendous erotic force up from the ape’s provocative anus to the erect human’s head and brain. The next stage of evolution, manifested by a kind of parodic Nietzschean Superman, posits a “pineal eye”, a final but deadly erection, which blasts through the top of human skull and “sees” the overwhelming sun. The point here is not to sublate the anal obsession, but to embrace it: the dialectical procedure of the psychoanalytic cure when completed suddenly falls, and with it the dialectical movement of human evolution as well. And behind Darwin lurks Hegel: the temporal movement toward erect, properly adjusted, rational man is one with the dialectical movement toward Absolute Spirit. But what happens when this movement is not simply denied but pushed as far as it can go? The answer is that the end of reason, at the end of man, at the end of the Cartesian pineal gland (the supposed seat of consciousness) there is only orgasm and a simultaneous fall, a simultaneous death. Death and perversion do not take place in splendid isolation; instead, they are at the endpoint of the human. (Breton)


Here I believe one’s point of reference should not be to the great model of language {langue} and signs, but to that of war and battle. The history which bears and determines us has the form of a war rather than that of a language: relations of power not relations of meaning. Power relation permeate all levels of social existence and are therefore to be found operating at every site of social life – in the private spheres of the family and sexuality as much as in the public spheres of politics, the economy and the law. (Foucault)

A vida humana sempre se conforma com a imagem de um soldado obedecendo ordens. Como tambem com o covarde e a pobreza de espírito. Como na natureza, a decadência é o laboratório da vida. Seja qual for a extensão, o infeliz ser burguês mantém uma vulgaridade humana com um certo gosto pela virilidade.

Metafisicamente, a águia é identificada com a idéia, quando, jovem e agressiva sem ainda ter atingido um estado de pura abstração, quando ainda é apenas o desenvolvimento ilimitado de fatos concretos disfarçados de necessidade divina. Os olhos da polícia finalmente são apenas a expressão de uma sede cega por obscenidade. Os dois círculos oculares apresentam-se em torno de uma “fantasia excremental”, um legado de uma fixação anal. Essa fantasia envolve, através do processo de evolução, o movimento de uma tremenda força erótica que vai do ânus provocador do macaco à cabeça e ao cérebro do ser humano ereto. O próximo estágio da evolução, manifestado por uma espécie de Super-homem nietzschiano paródico, apresenta um “olho pineal”, uma ereção final, mas mortal, que atinge o topo do crânio humano e “vê” o sol avassalador. O ponto aqui não é sublimar a obsessão anal, mas o procedimento dialético da cura psicanalítica quando concluída repentinamente observa a queda e, com ela, o movimento dialético da evolução humana. A energia da sexualidade obscena e anal pode ser temporariamente levada a um nível superior no militar heterossexual. Tudo estaria visivelmente conectado se pudéssemos descobrir de uma só vez e em sua totalidade os traços do fio de uma ariadne levando atraves de seu próprio labirinto. Mas a cópula de termos não é menos irritante do que a cópula de corpos. Coito é a paródia do crime. E por trás de Darwin espreita Hegel: o movimento temporal em direção ao homem racional, ereto, adequadamente ajustado, é aquele com o movimento dialético em direção ao Espírito Absoluto. Mas em sua deturpação, no final da razão, no final do homem, no final da glândula pineal cartesiana (a suposta sede da consciência), existe apenas o orgasmo e uma queda simultânea, uma morte simultânea. A morte e a perversão não ocorrem em esplêndido isolamento; em vez disso, eles estão no ponto final do ser humano.”

O processo de significância e referência está associado à alegoria continua, mas leva à subversão terminal das referências pseudo-estáveis que fizeram a alegoria e suas hierarquias parecerem possíveis. A queda de um sistema não é estável. Não há substituição pela elevação de outro sistema; essa queda da alegoria é uma espécie de processo incessante e/ou repetitivo. Dessa forma, a sujeira não “substitui” Deus; não há novo sistema de valores; nenhuma nova hierarquia. Existe uma espécie de alegoria da queda da própria alegoria. Esta queda da alegoria é de fato consonante com a queda da cópula e com as ramificações dessa queda. A alegoria da queda da cópula. Mas a cópula de termos não é mais irritante do que a cópula de corpos. E quando eu grito, eu sou o sol, resulta uma ereção integral, porque o verbo ser é o veículo. A vida é paródica e carece de interpretação. Assim, o chumbo é a paródia do ouro. O ar é a paródia da água. O consumo conspícuo não é um remanescente pernicioso do feudalismo que deve ser substituído pela utilidade total; em vez disso, é a perversão da “necessidade de destruição dos homens”. Os nobres e, mais hipocritamente, os burgueses, usam essa “destruição” para não destruir completamente, mas simplesmente para reafirmar sua posição na hierarquia. Efervescente, a violência subversiva das massas, a base de sua recusa em entrar em discussões tediosas, e na ausência de uma teoria clara e correta embasadora, pode facilmente ser revertida para o fascismo.”

(translated to Portuguese)

David Le Breton

A vida humana sempre se conforma com a imagem de um soldado obedecendo ordens. Como tambem com o covarde e a pobreza de espírito. Como na natureza, a decadência é o laboratório da vida. Seja qual for a extensão, o infeliz ser mantém uma vulgaridade humana com um certo gosto pela virilidade.

Metafisicamente, a águia é identificada com a idéia, quando jovem e agressiva sem ainda ter atingido um estado de pura abstração, quando ainda é apenas o desenvolvimento ilimitado de fatos concretos disfarçados de necessidade divina. Os olhos da polícia finalmente são apenas a expressão de uma sede cega por obscenidade. Os dois círculos oculares apresentam-se em torno de uma “fantasia excremental”, um legado de uma fixação anal. Essa fantasia envolve, através do processo de evolução, o movimento de uma tremenda força erótica que vai do ânus provocador do macaco à cabeça e ao cérebro do ser humano ereto. O próximo estágio da evolução, manifestado por uma espécie de Super-homem nietzschiano paródico, apresenta um “olho pineal”, uma ereção final, mas mortal, que atinge o topo do crânio humano e “vê” o sol avassalador. O ponto aqui não é sublimar a obsessão anal, mas o procedimento dialético da cura psicanalítica quando concluída repentinamente observa a queda e, com ela, o movimento dialético da evolução humana. A energia da sexualidade obscena e anal pode ser temporariamente levada a um nível superior no militar heterossexual. Tudo estaria visivelmente conectado se pudéssemos descobrir de uma só vez e em sua totalidade os traços do fio de uma ariadne levando atraves de seu próprio labirinto. Mas a cópula de termos não é menos irritante do que a cópula de corpos. Coito é a paródia do crime. E por trás de Darwin espreita Hegel: o movimento temporal em direção ao homem racional, ereto, adequadamente ajustado, é aquele com o movimento dialético em direção ao Espírito Absoluto. Mas em sua deturpação, no final da razão, no final do homem, no final da glândula pineal cartesiana (a suposta sede da consciência), existe apenas o orgasmo e uma queda simultânea, uma morte simultânea. A morte e a perversão não ocorrem em esplêndido isolamento; em vez disso, eles estão no ponto final do ser humano.”

O processo de significância e referência está associado à alegoria continua, mas leva à subversão terminal das referências pseudo-estáveis que fizeram a alegoria e suas hierarquias parecerem possíveis. A queda de um sistema não é estável. Não há substituição pela elevação de outro sistema; essa queda da alegoria é uma espécie de processo incessante e/ou repetitivo. Dessa forma, a sujeira não “substitui” Deus; não há novo sistema de valores; nenhuma nova hierarquia. Existe uma espécie de alegoria da queda da própria alegoria. Esta queda da alegoria é de fato consonante com a queda da cópula e com as ramificações dessa queda. A alegoria da queda da cópula. Mas a cópula de termos não é mais irritante do que a cópula de corpos. E quando eu grito, eu sou o sol, resulta uma ereção integral, porque o verbo ser é o veículo. A vida é paródica e carece de interpretação. Assim, o chumbo é a paródia do ouro. O ar é a paródia da água. O consumo conspícuo não é um remanescente pernicioso do feudalismo que deve ser substituído pela utilidade total; em vez disso, é a perversão da “necessidade de destruição dos homens”. Os nobres e, mais hipocritamente, os burgueses, usam essa “destruição” para não destruir completamente, mas simplesmente para reafirmar sua posição na hierarquia. Efervescente, a violência subversiva das massas, a base de sua recusa em entrar em discussões tediosas, e na ausência de uma teoria clara e correta embasadora, pode facilmente ser revertida para o fascismo.”

(translated to Portuguese)

René Magritte, Le thérapeute, 1967

In 1927, René Magritte first personal exhibition took place in Brussels. Most of the canvases the artist presented there were executed in the Cubist style, as well as his first surreal experiments. Art critics took Magritte’s work very coolly, and the frustrated artist, along with his wife, went to conquer Paris.

In the capital of European art, the artist met André Breton and became a member of his Surrealist circle. Despite the long-awaited recognition of his talent, Magritte’s relationship with colleagues was far from ideal. Other artists were outraged by his homebody and not bohemian lifestyle, and Magritte, in turn, scolded and ridiculed the surrealist addiction to psychoanalysis and the Freud’s works. One of such ridicules was The Therapist painting of 1937.

Magritte did not want to put up with the fact that each of his paintings became the subject of discussion among colleagues, not so much because of its artistic value, but because of the attempts to analyse the artist’s personality. He believed that the people who primarily needed therapy were the psychotherapists themselves (by the way, in the modern world, supervision is a prerequisite for psychotherapeutic practice). The subject of his painting is an excellent illustration of this statement.
Magritte portrayed his “therapist” as a certain wanderer in a wide-brimmed hat, with a crook and a shoulder bag, who is sitting on the edge of a sea cliff. Like many other Magritte’s subjects, he does not have a face, but he opens his cloak wide open, as if allowing the viewer to look into his soul for a moment, opening the veil of his own secret. Hidden under the cloak is a cage with two white doves: one bird inside, behind the closed door, and the other outside. One gets the impression that the free pigeon is trying to communicate with its fellow who is imprisoned in a cage, to support him, to help him get free. So does the therapist helping his clients get out of the dark and lonely place that is within them. Surprisingly, despite his dislike for psychotherapists, Magritte managed to portray the principle of their work very subtly.

René Magritte, Le thérapeute, 1967

(Author: Yevheniia Sidelnikova)

Bullfighting and Tourism by Erik Cohen

Bullfighting is introduced into tourism studies as the iconic example of a class of human–animal relations, involving agonistic animal contests initiated by humans. The article focuses on the most popular form of bullfighting, the corrida, at which a matador, fighting on foot (rather than mounted) kills a bull in an arena in the presence of a mixed domestic and sometimes foreign public. It discusses the polysemic perceptions of the bullfight, its exaltation by its protagonists, and growing condemnation by animal rights and welfare activists.

It argues that foreign tourism initially bolstered the expansion of bullfighting in Spain; but it is an ambivalent tourist attraction, of declining attractiveness in recent times. The article presents a comparison of bullfighting with another touristically ambivalent piercing event, the Chinese Vegetarian Festival in Thailand, and with recreational hunting, with which it shares significant commonalities. It concludes by calling for a systematic study of the range of human-induced agonistic animal contests.

Sickening slaughter, sacrificial ritual, morally obnoxious, distinctively immoral, barbaric custom of ritualized slaughter, religious ecstasy.

Pre-fight treatment: the bull has been horrendously abused for the previous two days [prior to the fight]. In fact, what spectators see is not a normal, healthy bull, but a weakened, half-blinded and mentally destroyed version, whose chance of harming its tormentor is virtually nil. (Anti-bullfighting Committee, n.d.)
Others have confirmed and expanded that criticism; thus, Sophie (2010) claims that “the odds are unfairly stacked against the bulls. Petroleum jelly is rubbed into their eyes to create blurred vision and they are shut away in the dark so as to be dazzled by the sunlight in the ring.” Some critics even insinuated that the bulls were given injections or that their legs were broken before the fight (Toti, 1963/2011).

From the very beginning of the spectacle, Spanish commentators have consistently written about bullfighting fans as though they are divided into a vast ignorant crowd that comes to the arena for cheap thrills and an elite minority of aficionados who understand what they are seeing and can make intelligent judgments [of a fight]. (p. 162)

(Bullfighting and tourism article source)

(images from Blood and Sand motion picture based on Vicente Blasco Ibanez’s novel)

Sex stock

Sexuality in the United States has never been more socially acceptable. Sex has become part of mainstream culture as reflected through the explicit coverage of sexual behaviors in the media, movies, newspapers, and magazines. In many ways, sexual expression has become a form of accepted entertainment similar to gambling, attending sporting events, or watching movies. Internet pornography has become a billion-dollar industry, stretching the limits of the imagination. Digital media offers portability, access, and visually explicit depictions of sexual acts in high-definition that leave nothing to the imagination. Sales and rental of adult movies through DVDs and pay-per-view services allow access to sex anywhere and at any time. The adult entertainment industry generates close to $4 billion per year and its acceptability in society is reflected in the mainstreaming of its products into traditional retail stores and the portrayal of its actors and actresses as role models and celebrities. Strip clubs have evolved from backroom cabarets into large multimillion dollar nightclubs and are present in virtually every state in the US. Inside them, the degree of physical contact has also increased, as compared to a generation ago, to the point where the boundaries of what constitutes sexual intercourse are blurred. Escort services, massage parlors, and street prostitution continue to be available in every major city in the US. Strengthening their presence and availability is the internet, which has created an information portal for these services through online dating services, classified ads, and discussion boards for those in pursuit of sexual gratification.

(source)

“The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses. All effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.”

Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’

The spectacle can be found on every screen that you look at. It is the advertisements plastered on the subway and the pop-up ads that appear in your browser. The media interprets and reduces the world for us with the use of simple narratives.

Photography and film collapses time and geographic distance – providing the illusion of universal connectivity. New products transform the way we live. Debord’s notions can be applied to our present-day reliance on technology. What do you do when you get lost in a foreign city? Do you ask a passer-by for directions, or consult Google Maps on your smartphone? Perhaps Siri can help. Such technology is incredibly useful, but it also engineers our behavior. It reduces our lives into a daily series of commodity exchanges. If Debord were alive today, he would almost certainly extend his analysis of the spectacle to the Internet and social media.
The alienation of the spectator to the profit of the contemplated object is expressed in the following way: The more [the spectator] contemplates the less he lives; the more he accepts recognizing himself in the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own existence and desires.
The more his life is now his product, the more he is separated from his life.
The proliferation of images and desires alienates us, not only from ourselves, but from each other. Debord references the phrase “lonely crowds,” a term coined by the American sociologist David Riesman, to describe our atomization. The Society of the Spectacle’s first chapter is entitled “Separation Perfected,” a quality that Debord describes as the “alpha and omega of the spectacle.” Referring to the Marxist concept of false-consciousness, Debord describes how the spectacle conceals the “relations among men and classes.” The spectacle functions as a pacifier for the masses, a tool that reinforces the status quo and quells dissent. “The Spectacle presents itself as something enormously positive, indisputable and inaccessible. It says nothing more than ‘that which appears is good, that which is good appears,'” writes Debord. “It demands […] passive acceptance which in fact it already obtained by its manner of appearing without reply, by its monopoly of appearance.”

Conflict of interest regarding clinical physicians’ relationship with pharmaceutical industry and medical education

A well known relationship between clinical physicians and the pharmaceutical industry is becoming an important social issue. Many lawsuits against drug companies in the area of psychiatric medicine have been heavily covered by the mass media in the U.S., and the injustices of drug companies and clinical physicians have been revealed in court.

Although there are few such large social issues in Japan, the relationship between clinical physicians and the pharmaceutical industry in Japan appears inappropriate. A study on the relationship between Japanese clinical physicians and the pharmaceutical industry revealed that many physicians received “gifts” from pharmaceutical companies. This is one form of evidence for the inappropriate relationship between Japanese physicians and pharmaceutical industries. Recently, many recommendations to realize an appropriate relationship between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry have been published in the U.S. However, discussion concerning the relationship between clinical physicians and pharmaceutical companies in Japan is not active. We have received a lot of financial support for continuing medical education from pharmaceutical industries. Without such support, we may not be able to maintain the same level of medical education. Understanding such present conditions, we need to discuss what is an appropriate relationship between clinical physicians and the pharmaceutical industry.

(Source)

The Radical Right by Ruth Wodak

This could confirm, as Stögner (2014) argues, the view put forth by Adorno et al. (1967) — that we are dealing with an authoritarian, immediate aftermath of 1945, syndrome, in which racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and sexism tend to reinforce each other and converge into exclusionary nativist belief system, based on ultra-nationalist ideology (Wodak 2015, 2016).

The authoritarian syndrome’s facets are (1) conventionalism: rigid adherence to the conventional values of the middle regions, especially Western Europe, traditional (Christian and racist/biological) class (2) submission: uncritical obedience to the idealized moral authority of the group. (3) aggression: a law-and-order mentality that seeks to condemn and punish violations (4) lack of introspection. (5) superstition (6) admiration of power and constitutive element of neo-Nazi and right-wing populist ideologies and rhetoric across strength. (7) cynicism (8) projectivity (9) excessive fixation on sexuality.

(The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right)

How search engines are making us more racist – A brand new book shows how the Google’s search algorithms quietly reinforce racist stereotypes.

Safiya Umoja Noble

I started the book several years ago by doing collective searches on keywords around different community identities. I did searches on “black girls,” “Asian girls,” and “Latina girls” online and found that pornography was the primary way they were represented on the first page of search results.

That doesn’t seem to be a very fair or credible representation of women of color in the United States. It reduces them to sexualized objects.

They suppressed a lot of porn, in part because we’ve been speaking out about this for six or seven years. But if you go to Google today and search for “Asian girls” or “Latina girls,” you’ll still find the hypersexualized content.

I think what you see there is the gaze of people of color looking at white women and girls and naming whiteness as an identity, which is something that you don’t typically see white women doing themselves.

These search algorithms aren’t merely selecting what information we’re exposed to; they’re cementing assumptions about what information is worth knowing in the first place. That might be the most insidious part of this.

Safiya Umoja Noble
There is a dominant male, Western-centric point of view that gets encoded into the organization of information. You have to remember that an algorithm is just an automated decision tree. If these keywords are present, then a variety of assumptions have to be made about what to point to in all the trillions of pages that exist on the web.

And those decisions always correlate to the relationship of advertisers to the platform. Google has a huge empire called AdWords, and people bid in a real-time auction to optimize their content.

That model — of information going to the highest bidder — will always privilege people who have the most resources. And that means that people who don’t have a lot of resources, like children, will never be able to fully control the ways in which they’re represented, given the logic and mechanisms of how search engines work.

In the book, you talk about how racist websites gamed search engines to control the narrative around Martin Luther King Jr. so that if you searched for MLK, you’d find links to white supremacist propaganda.

You also talk about the stakes involved here, and point to Dylann Roof as an example.

Safiya Umoja Noble
In his manifesto, Dylann Roof has a diatribe against people of color, and he says that the first event that truly awakened him was the Trayvon Martin story. He says he went to Google and did a search on “black-on-white crime.” Now, most of us know that black-on-white crime is not an American epidemic — that, in fact, most crime happens within a community. But that’s a separate discussion.

So Roof goes to Google and puts in a white nationalist red herring (“black-on-white crime.”) And of course, it immediately takes him to white supremacist websites, which in turn take him down a racist rabbit hole of conspiracy and misinformation. Often, these racist websites are designed to appear credible and benign, in part because that helps them game the algorithms, but also because it convinces a lot of people that the information is truthful.

This is how Roof gets radicalized. He says he learns about the “true history of America,” and about the “race problem” and the “Jewish problem.” He learns that everything he’s ever been taught in school is a lie. And then he says, in his own words, that this makes him research more and more, which we can only imagine is online, and this leads to his “racial awareness.”

And now we know that shortly thereafter, he steps into the “Mother” Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and murders nine African-American worshippers in cold blood, in order to start a race war.

So the ideas that people are encountering online really matter. It matters that Dylann Roof didn’t see the FBI statistics that tell the truth about how crime works in America. It matters that he didn’t get any counterpoints. It matters that people like him are pushed in these directions without resistance or context.

People who are a numerical minority in society will never be able to use this kind of “majority rules” logic to their benefit. The majority will always be able to control the notions of what’s important, or what’s important to click on, and that’s not how the information landscape ought to work.

The platform exists because it’s made by people. It didn’t come down from an alien spacecraft. It’s made by human beings, and the people who make it are biased, and they code their biases into search. How can these things not inform their judgment?

So it’s disingenuous to suggest that the platform just exists unto itself, and that the only people who can manipulate it or influence it are the people who use it, when actually, the makers of the platform are the primary source of responsibility. I would say that there are makers, as well as users, of a platform. They have to take responsibility for their creations.

In Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture by Emily Contois

In Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture, Emily Contois argues that the figure of The Dude was invented, or perhaps only capitalized on, by marketing and advertising firms to combat gender contamination and sell what may be perceived as feminine foods to men.

Contois suggests that this figure coalesced in response to the 2008 recession and the “gender crisis” that it created. Not only were job losses higher for men during this “mancession,” but struggling companies sought to improve sales by marketing products to men that had previously been targeted exclusively at women including diet sodas and low-calorie yogurts, as well as cookbooks, food television, and weight loss programs. In short, The Dude – represented by Jeff Bridges’s famous character in The Big Lebowski – is a male figure who “resit[s] the demands of manhood like competitiveness and breadwinning” by “simply opt[ing] out of the struggle.”

Contois devotes an entire chapter to the figure of Guy Fieri, who embodies the carefully crafted ambivalence of the Dude. Contois explains that while the Dude somehow seems to be breaking gender stereotypes by offering a pathway for defying social expectations and un-gendering products, the Dude only serves to reinforce binary gender and hegemonic masculinities. Contois concludes that most of the marketing campaigns featuring the Dude have essentially failed or changed course. Notably, Coke Zero and Weight Watchers for Men have had design and marketing makeovers to Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and WW. Still others have repurposed the Dude into a gender inclusive message that uncritically accepts not caring about consequences of the food system. Contois’s final word of the book is directed to media strategists and designers, asking them to think more carefully about the role that they play in forming and reforming expectations and performances of gender in the real world. “Advertisers can do better,” Contois asks, “so why aren’t they?”

(source)