Game Theory looks at situations with multiple individuals who are all playing for their own benefit.  The general idea is that if each individual only does what is in their self-interest, then the entire group suffers and they all end up worse off.  I think the whole liberal/democratic ideal is that everyone needs to sacrifice a little for the greater good.  It seems the Republicans all act in their own self-interest.  They voted for Bush because they wanted lower taxes or because they would get illegal moneys from the horribly corrupt government.  While that may have seemed the best move at the time, if you look at the long-term, I’m sure that a small sacrifice for society would turn out better.  If we’re able to reduce poverty, then these big companies can have more customers and end up richer than they would with only no-bid government contracts and lower taxes.

Anyway, I think the Democrats really need to emphasize this in the coming election this fall:

• If we all just sacrifice a little we can make the country a much better place.
• We need to think about everyone instead of just ourselves.
• We need to think about the future instead of just right now.

The body’s nervous system is entirely electrochemical. Chemicals are sent through the cells and between the cells in the synapses which also corresponds to a current flowing through the cells and between them because these chemicals have an electrical charge. So all the signals are effectively electrical and chemical. Currently for most health issues, we take medications, and these chemicals go to nearly all the cells, they are not specifically targetted. An electrical stimulation to the same cells would have a similar effect. We are already starting to see electrical stimulation used to provide more localized treatment in the brain with the deep brain stimulators being used for Parkinson’s Disease and depression. I think as we are able to develop better ways to stimulate specific parts of the brain non-invasively, we will find it is a much more effective and direct treatment than medications. While the medications spread all over and effect all the cells, an electrical stimulation could be targeted to specific areas that are responsible for the problem.

Along these same lines, I wonder if heart defibrillators are really the best tool for that problem. Instead of giving a huge electric shock to the entire chest, wouldn’t it be more effective to give a smaller shock to just the part of the heart that should start the contraction?

Here is a quote from Rick Trosch, an American physician, (from the book “The Singularity Is Near“):

“Rather than treat the brain like soup, adding chemicals that enhance or suppress certain neurotransmitters, we’re now treating it like circuitry.”

If there was no death, would the be religion?

And since we already have religion, if we somehow eliminate death in the future, will religion go away?

It seems like one of the main purposes of religion is provide an explanation for death and give more meaning to our short lives.  I wonder what would happen if we did not die.

I was walking down the street yesterday, staring at the bricks on the ground, wondering if other people see them the same way I see them. Certainly the bricks reflect the same wavelength of light for everyone and we all know it to be red. But who knows how it is represented in other people’s brains? What they think of as red may be what I think of as blue. Even if we both know red and blue and could pick them out, the way red looks in someone else’s brain could be different. I don’t know of any reason why it would have to be the same. I wonder if any research has been done on this.