What Should We Do with Our Brain?

Malabou, Catherine

doi:10.1515/9780823293520

Cited by 30 publications

(58 citation statements)

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“…In her 2008 book What Should We Do with Our Brain?, French philosopher Catherine Malabou writes that 'the word plasticity has two basic senses: it can mean the capacity to receive form (clay is called ''plastic,'' for example) and the capacity to give form (as in the plastic arts or in plastic surgery).' 1 She then adds a third sense -the 'explosion' of form (as with reference to the French words plastiquage and plastiquer), which she calls 'destructive plasticity', such as in the neurodegenerative disorder of Alzheimer's disease. However, it is only more than a decade later with the publication of her book Morphing Intelligence: From IQ Measurement to Artifi cial Brains (2021) that she begins to assert this same 'plasticity' as the key in establishing a 'mirroring' relationship between the brain and the computer.…”

Section: Architectural Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Architectural Plasticity: The Aesthetics of Neural Sampling

Koh¹

2022

Architectural Design

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Section: Architectural Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Architectural Plasticity: The Aesthetics of Neural Sampling

Koh¹

2022

Architectural Design

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“…Today, we cannot help but pose questions about the brain and how it works. Alftberg and Bentsen (2018) say that “any vision of the human brain is necessarily shaped by our historical background and social and cultural context.” During the course of our lives, the brain has gone from being a central telephone switchboard to a relay station with switches that go on or off, to a machine, to a command center governing the body, to a computer (Malabou 2008), to a dynamic and decentralized series of functional networks, each of which can take advantage of the same brain areas but for completely different purposes (Altermark 2014). Neuroplasticity, along with neurogenesis, has completely transformed our view of the brain, to one in which functions of damaged parts can be retrained by other parts and nerve cells continue to appear and grow throughout adult life.…”

Section: Neurosciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Neuroscience and Narrative

Mehl‐Madrona

Mainguy

2021

Anthropol of Consciousness

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The narrative template is the form into which consciousness populates its memories and assembles a coherent self. A specific brain circuit exists to create and comprehend story. This circuit generates simulations or small stories, mostly about the important people in our lives and about ourselves. A salience network helps us switch between story brain and central-executive function or task mode, in which we get things done. Memory is not stored accurately but more as a skeletal framework with gaps to which we add generic detail upon recall. At each recall, the memory changes in accordance with the demands of the situation in which we find ourselves and is re-stored in that modification. A simple narrative structure characterizes the activity of the default mode in which characters interact sequentially with beliefs and intents (theory of mind) to produce outcomes that are more or less desirable to us. People are fundamentally narrative, whether or not they are conscious of the stories they generate. Memory is fundamentally flawed with gaps that are filled at recall to fit the needs of the situation for which our story is being told. Life may be

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“…The idea of living being propounded by molecular biology which opened the century of the genome (Kay, 2000) is being criticised by 'organismal' biology in the light of the inherent 'historicity' and variability of the organism (Soto et al, 2016). Against the hardware/software model that has dominated neurosciences for a few decades, a tendency of studying the brain and neurosynaptic structures through the concept of plasticity is gaining pace (Malabou, 2008). In mathematics, a rethinking of modelling practices is being elaborated that shifts the focus from 'dynamical structuralism' (Thom, 1972(Thom, /1975 to the 'heterogenous virtual' (Sarti et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing progress: From cybernetic homeostasis to Simondon’s politics of metastability

Bardin

Ferrari

2022

The Sociological Review

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In this article we analyse the idea of progress and show that, since its early-modern inception, it has relied on a twofold commitment. On the one hand, it rests on a project of mathematical modelisation of natural and social reality, deterministically conceived. On the other hand, it requires the production of a stable social order capable of implementing that model. This stance, we argue, is still dominant and defines the ‘(hyper-)modern condition’. Following Gilbert Simondon, we take the cybernetic notion of dynamic stability (‘homeostasis’) as paradigmatic of the hyper-modern condition. As we explain, this core notion has covered multiple epistemic domains, including the social sciences, and contributed to reformulate the modern idea of progress within the terms dictated by neoliberal governmentality. The connection we establish between cybernetics and neoliberalism will eventually allow us to use Simondon’s theory against both. In our view, Simondon’s concept of ‘metastability’ supports an alternative understanding of progress based on the ideas of social change and the government of normative invention, which includes the opening of social systems to a future beyond their own preservation.

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What Should We Do with Our Brain?

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

Architectural Plasticity: The Aesthetics of Neural Sampling

Architectural Plasticity: The Aesthetics of Neural Sampling

Neuroscience and Narrative

Governing progress: From cybernetic homeostasis to Simondon’s politics of metastability

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