TED Community » Vida Bee

More About Me

I'm passionate about

There are two things in life that I love: food & neuroscience!

An idea worth spreading

Every single person should have at least a high-level understanding of how his/her brain works. More specifically, cognitive neuroscience (or cognitive psychology at a minimum) should be a required course early in grade school. Similar to sex education. We are all better equipped by knowing how and why we feel the things we feel and believe the things we believe.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +1.90 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: Higgs Boson, Intelligent Design?

  Jul 6 2012: No.
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  A comment on Conversation: What advice would you give a younger you?

  Jul 6 2012: My advice to myself would be very very simple. "Everything is going to be okay. Just pay attention."
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  A comment on Talk: Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

  Jun 27 2012: Wonderful talk! Great perspective.

• A reply on Conversation: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

  Jun 27 2012: If we stop any exploration of evidence to ask "what is the real reality of what really is the realism of reality?" then we are forever handicapped. Also, how would we ever access a truth that is beyond our reality? Once we access it, doesn't that automatically make it our reality? Just because we may suspect that there are things beyond our understanding doesn't mean we should just start making things up. All opinions are not worthy opinions by sheer default.

• A reply on Conversation: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

  Jun 27 2012: Joy, there is evidence that you can succeed though persistence. And "hope" for the world is pretty ambiguous. It would need to be very clearly defined before you could look into evidence. World hunger? World Peace? Does hope mean that it can happen or that it will happen? I still stand by my point that we should not believe things without evidence. I think that's pretty fair.
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  A reply on Conversation: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

  Jun 27 2012: And morals still existed.

• A comment on Conversation: Can you make a memory if your dead ?

  Jun 26 2012: No. If they're having any type of conscious experience then they are not dead. That's why all these experiences are called "near" death. No one comes back from the dead. Even in the case of heart failure, that doesn't equal dead. Dead people don't have brains capable of forming new neuronal connections.
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  A comment on Conversation: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

  Jun 26 2012: I agree with you, Derek. I'm pretty sure the morals would still exist. Especially since there are so many non-religious people with morals. That's another great discussion in itself! Sam Harris' book, The Moral Landscape, has some interesting points about the emergence of morals.
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  A reply on Conversation: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

  Jun 26 2012: Well, because I think religion (very specifically religion and not the mere belief in god/gods) has become a tool to keep people from thinking logically. Especially when you look at indoctrination and the fact that most people don't make informed choices when it comes to such an important belief. Religion is also moving into a position where many of the religious view science as anti-god. Consequentially, millions of people are refusing to even learn about the world around them because it contradicts the religion that was handed to them.
  
  Then, I look at war and how much violence, intolerance, and outright hate has been justified by religion. I would never claim that all wars and violence would end without religion, but I'd love to see the difference that I know it would make. I'd love to see a world where believing in any single thing (without exception) for which there is no evidence is laughable. I'd love to see people given a much better chance at exploring and learning about the world around them and the wonderful things that would come from that.
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  A comment on Conversation: What happens after we die?

  Jun 26 2012: Yes, this is all there is. Yes, this is all you're good for. No, you don't vanish. You decompose (assuming you're not cremated). Now, if you are referring to your conscious self when you say "I", then the answer would be yes. You vanish. All the you-ness that makes you uniquely you disappears. That could be depressing from one angle but it could also be inspiring! You have right now. Every single day to make an impression on your world that will not vanish. An impression that in fact does have a purpose and that goes on for years and years beyond your mortal life. If your life's work is focused around that and you're successful in making that impact, you won't have to lay your head down and guess about what happens to your body. Carpe diem!