Philosophy
Continuing with his investigation of The Human Body, Lord Robert Winston explores today the process of birth and the first few years of a baby's life and its development. You probably think babies are cute and adorable, of course, and, as you'll see, that's partly because babies have evolved the ability to manipulate a sort of mind control over adults which is virtually irresistible. Just try not smiling to a baby who smiles at you, try not getting restless when a baby cries, or just try speaking to a baby like you would an adult... impossibly hard!
One of the many interesting things about babies is their display of instinctual reflexes that point directly to our evolutionary ancestry. Next time you see a newborn, hold your index fingers up to its hands, and when it grasps, slowly lift your fingers. Newborn babies have the ability to carry their own body weight. We get that from our monkey/ape ancestors :)
But their development goes beyond physical strength and the ability to walk and focus their eyes. As their little brains develop, their minds undergo changes that are just baffling, effortlessly learning cognitive abilities that we still don't have a clue how to program into artificial intelligent machines: language and syntactical rules, norms of social behavior, self-awareness, strategic lying and theories of mind.
Check oure more of The Human Body.
.
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Philosophy
The Human Body - First Steps
Continuing with his investigation of The Human Body, Lord Robert Winston explores today the process of birth and the first few years of a baby's life and its development. You probably think babies are cute and adorable, of course, and, as you'll see, that's partly because babies have evolved the ability to manipulate a sort of mind control over adults which is virtually irresistible. Just try not smiling to a baby who smiles at you, try not getting restless when a baby cries, or just try speaking to a baby like you would an adult... impossibly hard!One of the many interesting things about babies is their display of instinctual reflexes that point directly to our evolutionary ancestry. Next time you see a newborn, hold your index fingers up to its hands, and when it grasps, slowly lift your fingers. Newborn babies have the ability to carry their own body weight. We get that from our monkey/ape ancestors :)
But their development goes beyond physical strength and the ability to walk and focus their eyes. As their little brains develop, their minds undergo changes that are just baffling, effortlessly learning cognitive abilities that we still don't have a clue how to program into artificial intelligent machines: language and syntactical rules, norms of social behavior, self-awareness, strategic lying and theories of mind.
To watch the entire documentary, download the Veoh Web Player.
Check oure more of The Human Body.
.
- Viagra As The Ultimate Baby Boomer Irony
When the baby boomers arrived, their sheer size allowed them to dominate the nation's demographic. In overthrowing the World War II generation's hold on popular culture, they idealized youth. "Hope I die before I get old," was more than a random...
- Plurals
An old classic -- A town had undergone a bitter fight over sex-ed in the schools when a woman's daughter comes home from first grade and announces proudly, "In school today, we learned how to make babies." The woman had been in favor of teaching reproduction,...
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Posted by confused, maybe not I had a recent (fun) argument with an ex-girlfriend. We were talking when a male friend approached and announced that he and his wife were pregnant. After a brief stop and chat, he left and I said, Me: ?I hate it when men...
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My dear friend Aspazia from Mad Melancholic Feminista is giving birth today. The welcoming our our newest little feminista is indeed a happy, happy occasion. No matter what else she is, there is no doubt little m will be cute. That's a word that...
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What does it mean to be you? How is it that the physical matter making up the many neurons in your brain somehow produce your subjective, conscious experience? Are your neurons themselves conscious? While we're at it, what exactly is consciousness?...