Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Researchers at University of Bern have reported promising results after attaching electrodes to the scalps of test humans to stimulate climate concern.
Research on brain explores how to slow down climate change
ANI | Updated: Jan 08, 2022 22:14 IST
Bern [Switzerland], January 8 (ANI): During a recent study by the University of Bern researchers used brain stimulation to demonstrate that the ability to sympathize with the future victims of climate change encourages sustainable behaviour.
…
“The fact that people aren’t acting in a more climate-friendly way isn’t because we know too little about this critical situation, though,” explained Daria Knoch, Professor for Social Neuroscience at the University of Bern.
To find out more about the reasons that prevent us from acting sustainably, Daria Knoch and her team have conducted a neuroscientific study.…
“It is precisely our inability to mentalise with these strangers that discourages climate-friendly action,” said Daria Knoch, commenting on the findings of the new study that she carried out with her research group in the “Social Neuro Lab” at the University of Bern.
During the study, participants received stimulation to a part of their brain which plays an important role in taking the perspective of others. This stimulation led to more sustainable behaviour.
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“Applying brain stimulation to the general public is out the question, of course,” explained Benedikt Langenbach, lead author of the study and a former PhD student at the Social Neuro Lab.
However, according to the researchers, the functioning brain area in question can also be enhanced, for example, through neurofeedback and meditation.
…
Read more: https://www.aninews.in/news/science/research-on-brain-explores-how-to-slow-down-climate-change20220108221444/
The article in Cortex Magazine;
Brain study on how to slow down climate change
Date:December 15, 2021 Source:University of BernSummary:When it comes to climate-friendly behavior, there is often a gap between what we want and what we actually do. Although most people want to see climate change slowed down, many do not behave in an appropriately sustainable way. Researchers have now used brain stimulation to demonstrate that the ability to sympathize with the future victims of climate change encourages sustainable behavior.
Read more: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211215113240.htm
The abstract of the study;
Mentalizing with the future: Electrical stimulation of the right TPJ increases sustainable decision-making
Author links open overlay panelBenedikt P.LangenbachabBranislavSavicaThomasBaumgartneraAnnika M.WyssaDariaKnochaaUniversity of Bern, Institute of Psychology, Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology, Bern, SwitzerlandbUniversity of Duisburg-Essen, LVR Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Essen, Germany
Received 23 April 2021, Revised 22 September 2021, Accepted 2 November 2021, Available online 23 November 2021.
Action editor Alan Sanfey; Reviewed 25 July 2021
Abstract
While many people acknowledge the urgency to drastically change our consumption patterns to mitigate climate change, most people fail to live sustainably. We hypothesized that a lack of sustainability stems from insufficient intergenerational mentalizing (i.e., taking the perspective of people in the future). To causally test our hypothesis, we applied high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). We tested participants twice (receiving stimulation at the TPJ or the vertex as control), while they engaged in a behavioral economic paradigm measuring sustainable decision-making, even if sustainability was costly. Indeed, excitatory anodal HD-tDCS increased sustainable decision-making, while inhibitory cathodal HD-tDCS had no effect. These finding cannot be explained by changes in participants’ fairness norms or their estimation of how other people would behave. Shedding light on the neural basis of sustainability, our results could inspire targeted interventions tackling the TPJ and give neuroscientific support to theories on how to construct public campaigns addressing sustainability issues.
Read more: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945221003609?via%3Dihub
The scientists are not entirely correct in assuming direct brain stimulation could never be applied to the public. There is plenty of speculation about the possibility of reforming criminals by implanting electrodes in their brain to suppress undesirable behaviour traits.
As the researchers note, there are plenty of less overtly intrusive ways to stimulate the identified brain areas, such as drugs or even precisely tuned propaganda, tested against subjects wired up to a brain monitor.
Lots of people take Prozac, Xanax and other anti-depressants. It is easy to imagine a dystopian future in which standard medical treatments for depression or whatever are covertly spiced up with experimental drugs to stimulate climate concern or alter voting intentions.
In some ways this may already be happening. Scientific American wrote a glowing article in 2020 about how the magic mushroom hallucinogen Psilocybin turns Conservatives into Liberals.
Blue states seem to be leading the way decriminalising the use of magic mushrooms.
Personally I’m skeptical about whether the claimed effect of Psilocybin on voter intentions is real, and I’m not in any way claiming the magic mushroom decriminalisation movement is a plot to change election outcomes. But if the effect on voter intentions turns out to be genuine, it will be fascinating to see how authorities in different jurisdictions respond to that information.
In an age when governments feel empowered to bully ordinary people about their personal health choices, dystopian medical population control nightmares which might once have seemed unthinkable no longer seem so impossibly unlikely.
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“This stimulation led to more sustainable behaviour.”
Further research by the team revealed that a small windmill threaded into the top of the subject’s skull returned a composite – and unprecedented – 97% sustainability.
so the goal is to “ drastically change our patterns of consumption “ . in that case you might want to start with the uber wealthy folks and profligate consumers who are the ones most fervently pushing the climate crisis story . from my experience the higher up the income / consumption ladder you go the greater the push for fighting climate change . often with very expensive solutions like electric cars and heat pumps complete with subsidies which take money from poorer people and give it to wealthier people . green policies do drastically reduce patterns of consumption but often detrimentally in indirect proportion to wealth . the poor always pay more . maybe if we give jeff bezos a good dose of psilocybin he could be convinced to donate all his money to charity and live like a monk .
I think reducing consumption is a great idea but there are two ways of doing that. The first is to consume less but produce more. This requires higher efficiency. The second way is to consume less and produce less. The second way is somewhat problematic since the ability to focus resources onto a problem is likewise reduced. Energy hungry industries will be forced into making their products more and more expensive to pay off the capital investment that they initiated may years before going on an energy diet. The product will be made where such demands are not as strict, like Viet Nam or India. How can Big Oil help save the planet if they are not allowed to produce oil? When COVID hit, most people saw the moral necessity of the government helping people get through not being able to produce. But for some reason, Big Oil can just flip sand.
Were those criminals allowed to perform those experiments?
Read the abstract: it is NOT model outputs, it is the real manipulation of human brains!
Climate “researchers” shocked to find that people’s actions regarding climate don’t match up with their Beliefs decide to return the favor.
Film at 11.
But you can be sure the ‘researchers’ still use lots of fossil fuels every day! Ya see, they are exempt from being subject to the ramifications of their own energy policy goals. the HYPOCRITES!
This is just a subset of the knowledge that scientists haven’t found a way to make the average person smarter, but the brain can be damaged with directed shocks.
I have known a lot of smart people and the main advantage to being smart seems to be the ability to come to a wrong conclusion quicker, defend it better and dismiss those who disagree.
An older movie that I saw comes to mind as I read this. Something about a mad scientist playing with electricity and watching his experiment exclaiming: “It’s alive!” “It’s alive!”
Don’t these fools have something better to do with their time?
They appear to want to implement MK Ultra on a large scale basis.
The “It’s alive!” meme was a Hollywood creation. In the actual Mary Shelley book, after Dr. Frankenstein creates his “masterpiece”, he goes to bed and tries to pretend it didn’t happen.
“Applying brain stimulation to the general public is out the question, of course,” explained Benedikt Langenbach,
The scientists are not entirely correct in assuming direct brain stimulation could never be applied to the public. There is plenty of speculation about the possibility of reforming criminals by implanting electrodes in their brain to suppress undesirable behaviour traits.
Spot the difference? Langenbach refers to ‘the general public’. ie. Just about everybody.
Eric Worrall refers to a very small section of the population.
Various alarmists have already proposed making disagreement with them a crime.
The governor of California recently proposed making the telling of certain “lies” a crime.
I guess this is the start of “The Matrix”.
“Applying brain stimulation to the general public is out the question, of course,” explained Benedikt Langenbach
“Applying brain stimulation to the general public should only be done in extreme cases,” explained Benedikt Langenbach
“Applying brain stimulation to the general public is not needed in most cases,” explained Benedikt Langenbach
“Applying brain stimulation to the general public is strongly recommended,” explained Benedikt Langenbach
“Applying brain stimulation to the general public should be mandated,” explained Benedikt Langenbach
Like the Borg from Star Trek. You WILL be assimilated into the climate collective. Resistance is futile.
Manchurian Candidate?
How unoriginal.
This is too easy?
So now researchers can emulate stupid?
Why not boost common sense?
That does not have an advocacy army supporting it and paid political caucuses pushing it.
Hmmm . . . it seems that brainwashing wasn’t enough. They’re now having to resort to direct brain
programming“stimulation”.You want sympathy for the Devil, do you? Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
OK, am I understanding this as an attempt to brainwash the maddening crowd of people who have a viewpoint opposite of what these experimenters want them to have?
One side makes you smaller
And one side makes you tall
And the things that Mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all…
These are very disturbing things that they are promoting. Very disturbing.
“Science won’t change you
Looks like I can’t change you
I try to talk to you, to make things clear
but you’re not even listening to me…
And it comes directly from my heart to you…
I need something to change your mind.”
Mind, by
Talking Heads
Fear of Music
The irrationality of those opposing hallucinogens never ceases to make me sad. Do the research, understand these compounds and how they work. Then try them. Then you can speak with some degree of authority on them.
Otherwise you’re purely speculating.
And it’s funny, the more hallucinogens I took over the course of my life, the more conservative I’ve become. Preferring no political self-label, most yet call me “libertarian.” “Republican” has been applied to me, though usually as an epithet…
Hallucinogens didn’t make me want to fly or go crazy in public or do harm to anyone. I never “talked to God” or “saw the secrets of the universe unfold before me” or any other pseudo-spiritual garbage. I just got really, really high, and had visual and other sense distortions that at times were fantastically impressive. I never saw a reduction in depression, or any benefit, other than a sort of emotional “blank” for the following few days, which, if you understand these compounds, is actually no surprise.
I suppose if you were very depressed or anxious those few days of feeling nothing would be called “relief.” Perhaps some folks have a longer period of that than I did, but mine was very short-lived.
Psilocybin and especially LSD require a time commitment of 6-12 hours where you can’t have any obligations or responsibilities or emergencies. As you have lots of energy you can end up exhausting and dehydrating yourself just as much as if you were partying on booze for a night. I got older and the recovery period and time commitment stopped it from being fun and I eventually just got bored with it.
I’ve taken hundreds of “hits” of LSD and eaten mushrooms more times than I bothered to count or recall, and in the end all I got for it was some fun times and lousy days recovering from the fun. No “flashbacks” or later effects.
And as you can see, I’m just fine cognitively. I can speak, write, think, and behave quite normally. These compounds, these hallucinogens, are hardly the demons folks here are making them out to be.
If you want demons, look inside those prescription bottles. Look at who is making those pills. Who is selling them, profiting from them. Those are your demons, those are your devils. Aim your pitchforks there.
The little mushroom has done you no harm.
They’re pretty effective for PTSD and alcoholism too.
Is it not fascinating what leftists fixate on and obsess over…
“
SocialNeuro Lab”A Neuro Lab (whatever that is) is probably a reasonably useful thing. Putting “Social” in front of it immediately negates the whole thing.
Where is Jack Nicholson when we need him?
How many Dems already went in for treatment?
Will the NYT, WaPo, and NPR offer coupons?
Is this part of the media training for the CDC officials as well?
Biden health chief endures Fox News grilling over mixed Covid messaging | Biden administration | The Guardian
Earlier this week, it was reported that Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was undergoing media training. She also told told reporters she was “committed to improve” communications.
Were they inspired by the ESP testing scene in Ghostbusters?
First it was the Austrians, now the Swiss.
All we need now is the French and Italians to have a crack at mind altering.
What is it about countries full of happy cows +lots of cheese and wine that makes them want to strap electrodes to the heads of otherwise sensible people?