What Am I Doing?: June 2010

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 2)

The contemplation of anosognosia leads to many questions about how the brain puts together a picture of reality and a conception of “the self.” It also suggests that our conception of reality is malleable; that it is possible to not-know something that should be eminently knowable.[17] It may also suggest that it is possible to know and not-know something at the same time. But additionally, it puts the question of how we “know” things at the heart of a neurological diagnosis, and raises questions about how we separate the physical from the mental.

Oil in the Gulf, two months later

62 days have passed since the initial explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the crude oil and natural gas continue to gush from the seafloor. Re-revised estimates now place the flow rate at up to 60,000 barrels a day - a figure just shy of a worst-case estimate of 100,000 barrels a day made by BP in an internal document recently released by a congressional panel. Louisiana's state treasurer has estimated environmental and economic damages from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could range from $40 billion to $100 billion. Collected here are recent photographs from the Gulf of Mexico, and of those affected by the continued flow of oil and gas into the ocean.

If Wheeler was too stupid to be a bank robber, perhaps he was also too stupid to know that he was too stupid to be a bank robber — that is, his stupidity protected him from an awareness of his own stupidity.

Oh you KNOW you wanna read this! Click the title for the full article.

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