Scott Adams has a thing where he considers humans (well, all animals, I guess) to be “moist robots,” in that we have no free will. I tend not to think about it too much, but here are some recent bits of research that strike me as interesting:
- Could some bacteria influence our emotional state and make us more cautious? They seem to affect mice that way.
- A parasite that lives in the guts of cats infects the brains of rats, making them less afraid of cats (and so more likely to be eaten). Humans are also infected with the same parasite, although we have no evidence of it’s effects on us.
- A genetic mutation in humans affects our ability to learn from our mistakes.
- The enjoyment you get out of watching a film is influenced by who you watch it with. Your emotional responses become syncronised over the course of the film.