Wednesday, February 11, 2009

MindBlog's third Podcast - Mindstuff: A user's guide

This podcast (here is the mp3, 30 min., 13.8 MB download) builds on the description of the nature and evolutionary history of our "I" that is developed in the first two Podcasts, "The I-Illusion" and "The Beast Within." In this podcast, which I am calling Mindstuff: A user's guide, I address a not-so-hidden agenda for many of us trying to understand our minds and brains: wanting to find insights or tools that bring more ease to the living of our daily lives, tools that might also enhance our effectiveness in tasks we wish to accomplish. I am adding some material to, and abstracting from, writing on my website, dericbownds.net. This is as close as I will get to offering my own version of a self-help manual that is based on our limited knowledge of how our minds actually work.

2 comments:

  1. Deric,

    Great topic you are on! I love the emphasis in all 3 podcasts on the construction of self and the way we may bootstrap it to 'our' advantage. I'd be very happy to hear you continue talking about the constructed and adaptive multi-self. Perhaps you could do something explicitly related to embodied cognition which would extend your discussion of Demasio's feeling-of-what-happens. Maybe you could bridge Demasio over to Lakoff/Johnson or Gibbs with embodied cognition? Just a thought...

    Anyway, great stuff! I really like the applied emphasis. This makes it more real and meaningful for me. Including the Buddhist references is good.

    It might be cool to insert intro and exit music of your choosing - definitely one of your own recordings.

    30 minutes is a good length too. Keep up the good work!

    TW

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  2. Thanks for your comments, I almost put some entry and exit music in this podcast, because it is very easy to do with the Apple Garage Band program I am using for the recordings. I'll try it in the next one.

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