In my post of February 16th, 2011, entitled How Much Do You Know About What You Don’t Know? I talk about how my own experience with migraine headaches demonstrates how we can know something about what we don’t know. At about the same time I was writing my post, a video showing a reporter in the throes of a migraine aura went viral on the Internet. Here’s a link to a YahooNews item on what happened:
TV reporter speaks about speech problem at Grammys – Yahoo! News.
Here’s a quote from this news item:
KCBS-TV reporter Serene Branson’s incoherence Sunday fueled Internet speculation that she suffered an on-air stroke. But doctors at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she went to get a brain scan and blood work done, ruled it out. Doctors said she suffered a type of migraine that can mimic symptoms of a stroke.
Here’s a quote by reporter Branson:
I wanted to say, “Lady Antebellum swept the Grammys.” And I could think of the words, but I could not get them coming out properly.
Notice that Branson could still think of the words that she wanted to use but simply could not form coherent speech. In the example I present, I could think of the numbers I wanted to use but I simply could not engage in the proper mathematical procedure. Take a look at the Branson example because in my opinion I think it points out how thinking and knowing takes place in different parts of the brain and, when all is going well, is an emergent gestalt or system. Migraine auras and prodromes have the ability to break down that overall system in unexpected and even bizarre ways.
In my February 11th, 2011, post entitled Comment: We Can Go Home Now … The “Singularity” Is Here, I talk about the controversy in the attachment community over the prospect of using robots as caregivers. I mention that in Japan, where there is a mushrooming elderly population, robot caregivers are already being used. The following news item talks about how Japan now wants to send robotic female companions to the orbiting space station.
Japan may send chatty humanoid tweet-bot to space – Yahoo! News.
Here’s a quote from the news item:
Japan’s space agency JAXA announced this week that it is looking at a plan to send a humanoid robot to the space station in 2013 that could communicate with the ground through Twitter — primarily feeding photos, rather than original ideas — and provide astronauts with “comfort and companionship.”
Just a couple of quick updates on the topics I’m covering in my posts. As always, if you know of similar types of updates, please share them with us by leaving a comment (registration required).
