The Marketplace in Your Brain→

Neuroeconomics came into being around the turn of this century, growing out of a critique of the basic idea in economics that people are driven by rational attempts to maximize their own happiness. A new breed of behavioral economists had noted that in reality, individual definitions of "maximize" and "happiness" seemed to vary. Neuroeconomists added the idea that, by mapping parts of the brain doing the maximizing and the happiness-defining, they could better account for those actions.

Through experiments, researchers have shown that when people reject a low, unfairly priced offer, a part of the brain associated with disgust kicks in, but that when they view the offer as fair, a brain region linked to reasoning seems more active. Researchers have also tackled the puzzle of "overbidding," when people pay too much for something. An area called the striatum, associated with rewards, is more active when people bid high in an auction because they fear losing an item, but is not as active when they think they have a good chance of winning. So fear of losing may be key to things like overvalued stocks.

There is a neuroscience trend at the moment. Not the scientific study, but the using of the research to justify and explain a multitude of behaviors. In this article by Josh Fischman for The Chronicle of Higher Education he delves into the world of neuroeconomics.

While some scientist believe that the research is unnecessary others believe that better understanding how the brain interprets transactions would help explain, among other things, why people that spend hundreds of dollars on a smartphone balk at the idea of paying more than a dollar for an app (while holding a latte on the other hand.)

In recent days I've had many conversations about pricing. Pricing performances, the person is basically buying the promise of quality and a good time. The pricing of one's work and how to determine one's value as an individual, team and company. And what is the pricing threshold between some being perceived as cheap vs. inexpensive. 

I think that when it comes to transactions we tend to behave irrationally and the field of neuroeconomics perhaps will eventually help make sense why we react that way. ​

50 Years of Space Exploration

​Inspired by Curiosity here is an extraordinary illustration showing 50 years of space exploration. 

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Notes Towards a Philosophy of Sleep

For sleep is rather extraordinary. If I told you that I had a neurological disease which meant that for eight or more hours a day I lost control of my faculties, bade farewell to the outside world, and was subject to complex hallucinations and delusions – such as being chased by a grizzly bear at Stockport Railway Station – you would think I was in a pretty bad way. If I also claimed that the condition was infectious, you would wish me luck in coping with such a terrible disease, and bid me a hasty farewell.

Of course, sleep is not a disease at all, but the condition of daily (nightly) life for the vast majority of us. The fact that we accept without surprise the need for a prolonged black-out as part of our daily life highlights our tendency to take for granted anything about our condition that is universal. We don’t see how strange sleep is because (nearly) everyone sleeps. Indeed, the situation of those who do not suffer from Tallis’s Daily Hallucinating Delusional Syndrome is awful. They have something that truly deserves our sympathy: chronic insomnia.

Since all animals sleep, we assume it has a biological purpose. The trouble is, we don’t know what that purpose is. There are many theories – energy conservation, growth promotion, immobilisation during hours of darkness when it might be dangerous to be out and about, consolidation of memories – but they are all open to serious objections. William Dement, one of the leading researchers of the last century and co-discoverer of Rapid Eye Movement sleep, concluded from his fifty years in the forefront of the field that “the only reason we need to sleep that is really, really solid, is that we get sleepy.”

Raymond Tallis tackles an exhortation by Christopher Hamilton ​for philosophers to spend more time exploring the phenomenon of sleep. 

Celebrating Curiosity→

While the World is distracted by sports and in the US we can't decide what to do about guns despite the increased frequency of terrifying mass murders, I hope today we all take a moment to acknowledge that NASA engineers and crews have landed what is basically a 2 ton humvee on the surface of Mars, exploiting the laws of Physics with extraordinary precision. Let us take a moment today to celebrate education, creativity, the joy of science, engineering, a sense of wonderment, design, strong work ethics, the desire to learn, the passion for discovery. Let us take a moment to celebrate the things that ignite passions within us making us want to explore. In other words, let us take a moment today to celebrate Curiosity. 

Dare Mighty Things: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror

And you thought your job was hard. ​