(no subject)

[vicarz]

Work is slow, and I'm reading one of my favorite books: Satan: His psychotherapy and cure by the unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S.. This is a warning - many quotes, mostly crudely paraphrased, some quite long, will be following.

In other news, I've discovered a whole new level of bathroom weird. In the old office I left the old man with the waxed mustache who never washed his hands, wall or stall, his hands kept it all. Made me wonder what he waxed with. Well, in the spirit of one-upmanship, a wacko in this building wears white gloves. ALL the time. He goes into a stall, then exits, wearing the white gloves. He does not approach the sink, just carries on his white-gloved way. This dude is so insane he might be German. Oh yes, yes! Yes, my little Dutch boy...

The brain is a collection of highly specialized cells that function according to the same laws that govern any other cell. Input cells that receive information and transform it into electrical energy. Our eyes, for example. Output cells that react to what's coming in. Muscle cells. And between input and output? Everything else - thought, emotion, memory, dreams, love, and whatever makes us human. Perception? Rod cells, cone cells, retinal cells, optic chiasma, lateral geniculate, superior colliculus, occipital cortex. Emotion? Limbic system, hippocampus, amygdale, septal nuclei, reticular activating system. Thought and memory? Cerebral cortex, dentate gyrus. Dreams? Thalamus. Love? Lyrus cinguli, fornix. Anxiety? Hypothalamus. Morality and humor? Frontal cortex. Pain? Spinothalamic tract. Pleasure? Dorsal medial bundle...A brain cell. A neuron. These branches are dendrites. They lead to the cell body. On the other end is a long axon with a terminal button which almost, but not quite, touches the dentrites and axons of other neurons. The space between where the two cells connect is a synapse. Inside the terminal buttons at the end of the axons are neurotransmitters - dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, we know about twenty so far - which are packed into little spheres called vesicles. When an electrical charge of the cell changes, little openings form in the membrane wall that surrounds the axon terminal, and packets of neurotransmitters are released. The neurotransmitter is inserted, like a key fitting into a lock, into receptor sites on the walls of the dentrites. If the transmitter is supposed to excited the cell, it opens channels in the dentrite wall, and the electrical charge changes rapidly as sodium ions flow in and potassium ions flow out. The cell's charge jumps from seventy negative microvolts to forth positive microvolts. An action potential travels up the dentrite, through the cell body, and down the axon, where the terminal releases whatever neurotransmitters it stores. Of course, some transmitters plug into dentrites and prevent the neuron from firing. The transmitter plugs in, and the Gates open. The charge goes up the dentrite and down the axon, the transmitter is released, and the Gates close. Then it starts all over again. Open, close, excite, inhibit, membranes, neurotransmitters, and synapses. That's it. Not random, but connections that are highly structured and specific, probably capable of being understood in relatively simple terms, no more complex, say, than understanding DNA. Eventually everything will be explainable in terms of physics. Genius and humanity will be reduced to cell chemistry.

Comments

[kelowna.livejournal.com]

Eventually everything will be explainable in terms of physics. Genius and humanity will be reduced to cell chemistry.


Of course. Now you know why I get the "weird energy sensations".

:p

--kelowna

[vicar.livejournal.com]

This will probably be one of the few times I quote people from the book other than Satan.

That, and this:
His brain screamed silently in pain, and then he fell forward in the chair and curied his head in his hands. "What did I do to deserve this?" he kept asking himself. "Why me? Why me?"

You're never satisfied with what you get. I wish just once you'd accept me for waht I am, take what I can give, and stop trying to change me. You're so needy. Now, I said that I thought your getting your degree was very good. That's the way I congratulate people. Take it or leave it. It's up to you.

[kelowna.livejournal.com]

neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedy.

--kelowna

[shesquint.livejournal.com]

I'm so going to Borders today to spend my gift card on this book.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I'll warn you - unless you have a gutterish sense of humor, it starts a little slow. By 100 pages you'll be reeling though.

[shesquint.livejournal.com]

I thrive on gutterish and irreverent. Want that book now. Fuck you, Work That Gets in the Way.