Human Brains, How Bad Are They?

[dsawyers9]

The human brain has pushed us to the top of the food chain, as long as we have some sort of tool with us. Even if we don't have a tool per-say, we can always make a tool to aid us.

The brain in general, as in all creatures, has one purpose: Problem Solver. However, there is always a side effect towards our decisions which usually take time to show its ugly head.

Best known example right now:
Japan's Nuclear Plants and their locations. The human brains created a great source of power: Nuclear Power. It has radiation side effect, but look here, the brain figured out how to fix that issue too by containment measures. What the brain didn't notice, why would you put 4 nuclear power plants next to each other, so when one failed, it caused a chain reaction? See where I'm going with this?
Our brains are great tools, but the brain cant see the future and it cant predict everything and safeguard us from us.

Another example:
New Orleans and the Hurricane incident. This is by far (IMO) the dumbest thing of all time for humans and sorry to say it, Holland is in the same boat. You don't build a City/Town/Village/Country that is under sea level next to a large body of water. You're asking for trouble. There is an obvious fix, but no one will do it. All you have to do is bring in soil/dirt from an outside source and just raise the city up so its no longer below sea level.

So with all the Good that our brains do for us, when our brain becomes bored of slightly slacks off, it almost always creates another problem, which most of the time is worst than the previous problem which the brain solved.

What is your opinion/thoughts about the human brain? You agree with me? You disagree with me? You have a different viewpoint on the matter? Discuss!

 

[MolotoK]

 

[Blimey]

Human brains are quite okay. A little mushy, and slightly salty if not cooked right. Honestly, I much more prefer a nice delicious Panda brain, the texture is much firmer, yet the taste is so full-bodied. Often Human brain can be tainted depending on the source, which then requires a much more time-intensive preparation. However, with the right blend of spices and the knowledge, pretty much any brain can be a delectable, delicious treat fit for everything from a romantic evening to a Sunday roast.

 

[similar.squirrel]

They are truly astounding feats of engineering, especially when you consider that they are most likely not designed, but came about by chance and cumulative complexity.

However, it is necessary for them to cut corners for evolutionary reasons. This doesn't gel too well with our intellectual prowess. For example, the brain does not process everything that comes down the optic nerve, but instead 'fills in the gaps'. This kind of mechanism accounts for teleology, and by extension, religious belief.
It makes sentience possible by circumventing sensory overload, but doesn't translate well to complex thought.

 

[HardkorSB]

The brain in general, as in all creatures, has one purpose: Problem Solver.

I heard that there's also this thing about the brain controlling the rest of the body but maybe it's just scientific propaganda.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Well probably someone did think of the 'just raise the level of the city' solution, but what about the logistics? The cost? The man hours and labour intensity which might not even pay off?

The two options:

Build your city right away, populate it with people, and always be aware and have solutions for when things go tits up. Most cities in places of high risk (San Francisco springs to mind) have measures in place to deal with the most likely occurence. Most of Japan is actually remarkably well prepared for earthquake attack, it's just that there isn't much of anything you can do against an 8.5 richter scale earthquake without every single building costing over a million dollars to build, so you build to withstand a 5.0 earthquake, and just hope that your measures will stretch.

OR

Spend years importing the sort of high quality dirt and soil you'd need, compacting it tightly so when the water level rose it didn't just turn it into a bog (remember Venice?). Beg borrow and steal money from everywhere you can to pay the ludicrous costs of having teams of men and fleets of vehicles carting millions of metric tons of dirt across the country to build your portside city onto, then waiting until you can be sure everything's taken as well as it might do before you even begin to lay the foundations of your city.

There's a reason people don't 'just raise the land level'. It's because it's nigh-on impossible to achieve with any sort of logic or rationale. And all throughout history there will have been a ton of easier solutions vs the best laid plans, because in the end if you were trying to account for everything we'd still be living in caves, and even then not too far back in case of cave-ins. So much stuff can go wrong in the world that we have no control over, and as your own point so nicely stated, the one thing we are better at than almost any other creature under the sun is adapting to a new and difficult circumstance.

 

[Rednog]

I tend to blame the brain less and more on the lack of education some people in the world have. For example there are people out there who swear by alternative medicine and only organic crops stating that the current institution is evil and they are trying to poison us all.But when you try to refute them with actual science and people who are actually qualified and not some yuppie who wears tight jeans and a retro shirt. Yet people tend to believe fear mongers and those who shout the loudest. You'd think that common sense would dictate that you listen to the people who have studied/worked in their field for years as opposed to some guy who woke up on day and cooked up some random notion.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

Anything that only uses only 10% of its capability, can't be good.

 

[tharglet]

Anything that only uses only 10% of its capability, can't be good.

Some information on this myth

 

[tharglet]

There is an obvious fix, but no one will do it. All you have to do is bring in soil/dirt from an outside source and just raise the city up so its no longer below sea level.

Problem with this brain is it doesn't understand the logistical and other such problems that would make this task not really all that feasible.
Not sure if it applies to this location, but raising the land can make things WORSE. In the UK, some people have taken to building on flood plains, which doesn't just harm the houses there when it floods, but also causes the flooding to be more widespread, thanks to the water not being able to be absorbed into the plain. Also can muck up the ecosystem in and around the area, by changing the habitat.

Your easiest solution would be... to not live there.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

Anything that only uses only 10% of its capability, can't be good.

Some information on this myth

Some real FACTS

 

[tharglet]

Some real FACTS

Well, if you don't need the link, good for you. Also, yes, I know.

 

[Hiikuro]

The brain is a marvelous and fascinating tool to use, but it suffers from some extremely terrible bugs and security holes (like drug addiction).

What is even weirder is that some of these bugs are actually features, signal noise is an important element in the brain, and I'd even dare to say that this noise has some extremely useful functions (might be a key element to creativity, for one).

I'm waiting for a proper patch for some of these issues, though I'd stay away from the noise-fix. I like noise, it makes the world more interesting when my brain misinterprets or misrepresent signals.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

Another example:
New Orleans and the Hurricane incident. This is by far (IMO) the dumbest thing of all time for humans and sorry to say it, Holland is in the same boat. You don't build a City/Town/Village/Country that is under sea level next to a large body of water. You're asking for trouble. There is an obvious fix, but no one will do it. All you have to do is bring in soil/dirt from an outside source and just raise the city up so its no longer below sea level.

People don't build a city, it starts off small and gains popularity from commerce, resources, industry etc. Also you can't just raise a city, if you do that you'll need to completely rebuild all roads, sewers, power lines, gas pipes, potentially all structures in the city because of the different densities of ground and recently shifted soil affected the foundations of every building. This is reason Holland built dykes.

This idea of yours would lead to the very definite possibly of landslides and leave it more exposed to a hurricane.

Cities don't spring over a period of weeks or even decades, Fukushima City has been around since before the 12th Century, after which it became a castle town. After becoming known for silk production it eventually grew into a city. If you were one of the fisherman in the village pre 12th Century you wouldn't think, hmm I think I shall raise a few square km of land to help shake off damage from 10 meter high tsunami just in case 290,000 other people plan on living here.

The Nuclear plants weren't next to each other. Only Fukushima 1 and 2 were close to one another. This close to be precise

Edit: Damn I just remembered the date