Order and Chaos: What’s Left, and What’s Right WORK IN PROGRESS
A talk for Dent and its community, October 2021
Hello all. I’ve made a practice cut of my talk to hold a place until Dent’s version is made available; view here:
Below please find a variety of resources to encourage your exploration of the right hemisphere / left hemisphere understanding, and much more.
Neuromyth 6: The Left / Right Brain Myth.
“The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1886), which explores the idea of a cultured left hemisphere in contrast to an emotional right hemisphere, that is primitive and easily out of control.
The transition from Mythos to Logos
VIDEOS
Michael Gazzaniga: Your Storytelling Brain (03:29)
Michael Gazzaniga, Word recognition and response, left and right hemispheres (01:40). Note the use of the word “is”—it’s very left-hemisphere to label with “is,” ultimately limiting curiosity about what might actually be happening. Also, try to use “right / left hemisphere” rather than “right / left brain.” We have one brain. One way to categorize and understand it is by exploring the hemispheres.
Short explainer on yin yang https://thewellnessproject.me/2018/07/17/balancing-the-yin-yang/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=134&v=ezmR9Attpyc&feature=emb_title
READING
Understanding Blindsight: The Strangest Form of Consciousness. The article (excellent) references a subject who has had bilateral strokes to his visual cortex, and who tests as visually “blind,” navigating a hallway filled with obstacles. Video here. Note that the subject “claimed that not only was he not aware of having seen anything; he was not even aware of having moved out of the way of the objects. He insisted he had just walked straight down the hallway.”
Have We Two Brains? Brain Learning By Hegel Salazar Herbozo. Good illustrations showing, rather than telling, what might be going on. Note the confirmation bias that shows up in so many articles about the hemispheres about the left being the dominant or more important hemisphere. What might the view of humans’ most dominant action being “language” possibly be overlooking?
a teenager born without a left hemisphere https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532693-800-teen-born-without-half-her-brain-has-above-average-reading-skills/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16321934-600-left-brain-right-brain/
Be Curious, Not Judgemental. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_FofLSherM They thought they had everything all figured out. They judged everything, they judged everyone. If they were curious they would have asked questions (you want to watch that part). Right hemi: curious. Left: judgemental. Bring them together and you get the bullseye.
The Guardian Review of The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik
Excellent challenge to the usual A/B testing outlook https://medium.com/@madsbuchstage/the-limits-of-a-b-testing-9f96691c9a0c
Exercises to invite more right/left hemisphere cooperation and integration:
