[ExI] 'The Other Brain'

[William Flynn Wallace]

If I knew that I had even close to the background to read such a book I
would.  But I do not know what background I need and probably one of those
books is a text and highly expensive.  I do read a lot of popular books on
neuroscience by scientists and sometimes science writers.

A small minority of people study glia, according to the author, and may be
somewhat defensive, I would agree.  But it looks like solid science to me.

Sometimes, though I really think it's often, something revolutionary is
rejected by the majority for quite some time and is believed by only a few,
sometimes even one person.

Notice that I started this discussion by asking if anyone else had read
this book or one like it.  I wanted help evaluating his claims, but
apparently no one on our list has gotten into this area.

You should know as well as anyone the bias theorists create in their
field.  It is present in everything I have ever studied.  Only their group
has the truth, just like religion in many ways.

You, in fact, seem to be criticizing a book you have not read and are
recommending a standard book which, according to what The Other Brain's
author, will not address a more complicated role for glia than the
'accepted view' recognizes.

I certainly cannot take sides in a neuroscience debate or evaluation of
research, which is why I asked the group.

Bill Wallace

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 3:07 PM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

> William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> , 26/2/2015 5:37 PM:
>
> But I think that, according to the author, a sort of denial situation
> exists, wherein those in the field tend to put all the emphasis on neurons
> and actually deny the roles of glia, assigning them only support services.
> If the book is correct it enormously complicates understanding the brain
> and doing research on it because glia do not emit nice recordable
> electrical impulses.
>
>
> Have you read any modern neuroscience textbook like Kandel, Schwarz,
> Jessop?
>
> Remember, you are basing your judgement on a somewhat partisan book.
>
>
> Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford
> University
>
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