[extropy-chat] H+, autism, selection effects, biases

Amara Graps amara at amara.com
Fri Jun 30 08:19:35 UTC 2006


spike:

For myself, it is not the best idea to spend all my free time among
techies/scientists, because I need the balance to the other side of my
brain. Arts are a nourishment for me that is as crucial as breakfast.
I appreciate most spending as much time as I can with musicians, but also
writers, photographers, etc. My wide range of hobbies can accommodate
such activities since I'm a generalist and 'dabble' in music/arts, which
is not true of many of the scientists that I know. If you go to any web
site where scientists are 'profiled' to give the public views onto their
lives, then you will find very narrow ranges of off-science activities.
Scientists generally look pretty boring to the outside world, and it's
no wonder that a misunderstanding exists between them and their typical
sources of financial support (the public/taxes).

Those brilliant science/techie types (not me) might be brilliant
because their brain activity is focused into such narrow activities,
but I know well how much of the rest of the world they miss when
they are in that mode. So then they therefore have little experience
in social situations and you have your mathematician or maybe the
extropian scenario that you described.

Can one re-wire one's brain to be more sociable and develop more
empathic wiring? I'm sure I have the empathy and sensitivity I have
from some very early childhood events and an exposure to a wide life
when I was young, but in general, I would say yes. If one wants to,
that is.

Amara



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