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Hacking the Brain

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Hacking the Brain

#21

Post by bmoc »

manmal wrote: post #16

I haven’t found near infrared radiation referenced in the article - I‘m using near infrared as a brain hack, by shining a cheap 850nm LED light on my forehead. This has, over the last 2 years, enabled me to code for weeks on end, for 12+ hours a day, with only minor cognitive decline. It’s not something I really want to do, but sometimes it’s useful. Before I started the near infrared routine (~5 minutes every other…

Could you elaborate on this? What exactly LED bulb are you using, what is your exact current routine? 5 mins in the morning? The professional ones are very expensive, could you share your solution?

Re: Hacking the Brain

#22

Post by hybrids »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #13
idclip wrote: post #3

Talk about all these pharmaceuticals .. Shortcuts will fry the hardware. A dangerous game. Good luck to those who dare. Ill always propone meditation and developing attentive discipline.

Not a coffee drinker, eh?

Somehow I feel like the Age of Enlightenment occurring at around the same time as when coffee drinking was becoming increasingly widespread in Europe can't have been a coincidence

Re: Hacking the Brain

#24

Post by iikoolpp »

manmal wrote: post #16

I haven’t found near infrared radiation referenced in the article - I‘m using near infrared as a brain hack, by shining a cheap 850nm LED light on my forehead. This has, over the last 2 years, enabled me to code for weeks on end, for 12+ hours a day, with only minor cognitive decline. It’s not something I really want to do, but sometimes it’s useful. Before I started the near infrared routine (~5 minutes every other…

This is the funniest post I've ever read on this website

Either it's entirely the placebo effect, or it somehow actually does something and you're cooking your brain to wage slave even harder

Re: Hacking the Brain

#25

Post by AlecSchueler »

JaceLightning wrote: post #6
curo wrote: post #5

I have a tangential question around brain hacking. The Flynn effect says we're gaining an avg of 3 IQ pts every decade since the early 20th century. Meaning our great grandparents, on average, would be considered mentally handicapped compared to today's intellect. Now certain biochemical explanations for the Flynn effect explain raw neurophysiological gains (e.g., iodine fortification in the early 20th century added…

This started going back down in the 1970s: https://www.sciencealert.com/iq-scores-falling-in-worrying-r...

Super interesting to compare this to violent crime rates and the percentage of atmospheric lead!

Re: Hacking the Brain

#26

Post by hos234 »

manmal wrote: post #16

I haven’t found near infrared radiation referenced in the article - I‘m using near infrared as a brain hack, by shining a cheap 850nm LED light on my forehead. This has, over the last 2 years, enabled me to code for weeks on end, for 12+ hours a day, with only minor cognitive decline. It’s not something I really want to do, but sometimes it’s useful. Before I started the near infrared routine (~5 minutes every other…

[flagged]

Re: Hacking the Brain

#27

Post by not_tobe »

manmal wrote: post #16

I haven’t found near infrared radiation referenced in the article - I‘m using near infrared as a brain hack, by shining a cheap 850nm LED light on my forehead. This has, over the last 2 years, enabled me to code for weeks on end, for 12+ hours a day, with only minor cognitive decline. It’s not something I really want to do, but sometimes it’s useful. Before I started the near infrared routine (~5 minutes every other…

Imagining a bunch of hacker news readers heading to purchase LED lights to shine at their heads just made my day.

Re: Hacking the Brain

#28

Post by [deleted] »

throwawawathrow wrote: post #8

It really takes a special kind of mind to take something originally intended to be fun, subversive and/or spiritual (recreational drugs) that's existed for decades or even centuries, and turn it into yet another tool to boost your React productivity by 12.3% on Friday evenings, under the new brand of 'enhancement' or 'hacking'. Because to what other end would that 'performance' boost be put to use?

[deleted]

Re: Hacking the Brain

#29

Post by chiefalchemist »

curo wrote: post #5

I have a tangential question around brain hacking. The Flynn effect says we're gaining an avg of 3 IQ pts every decade since the early 20th century. Meaning our great grandparents, on average, would be considered mentally handicapped compared to today's intellect. Now certain biochemical explanations for the Flynn effect explain raw neurophysiological gains (e.g., iodine fortification in the early 20th century added…

The brain is like a muscle. But the info age isn't a gym workout. It's doing curls with cans of soda. The info age "workout" creates fatigue, not muscle.

While, it's not necessarily info age / distraction age centric, I suggest checking out the book "Your Brain at Work" by David Rock.

https://davidrock.net/books/

Re: Hacking the Brain

#30

Post by germanier »

Donald wrote: post #2

> This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, Germany. What an odd area of research for Volkswagen to fund.

The Volkswagen Foundation is completely independent of the company named Volkswagen. It was found with the proceeds from the sale of the company to private investors by the state of Lower Saxony and the Federal Republic in the 60s and receives the dividends of the still publicly held shares. It's not a company foundation and Volkswagen has no say in any form. It's just a large public science foundation.
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