The connectome: Into the brain and beyond

As you may know, I am not a fan of contemporary neuroscience that attributes to the brain the central processor function that you may encounter in a computer.

Of course, it must be there for a reason and it is probably not just there to cool blood as Aristotle believed

As you may also know, I am currently studying the brain (again) using a complex network approach. The video below is a very impressive talk I came across on TED. Although I would go much further and be more radical about what it is that is connected, or rather nested this talk very elegantly gives an insight in the overwhelming complexity that is involved. Yes, much more complex than a machine that obeys the algorithmic laws of computation.

http://youtu.be/HA7GwKXfJB0

http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_seung.html

Just ignore the technology fallacy at the end (i.e. if we wait for bigger, better, fancier technology, we'll know everything...). Where are the robots?

Music Clash: Lady Britannia vs. Lady Libertas

[caption id="attachment_430" align="alignnone" width="245" caption="Lady Britannia"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_431" align="alignright" width="190" caption="Lady Liberty"][/caption]

Ok...

(I'm just pretending there isn't a huge gap in between my last post and this one.)

...I came up with an interesting question while I was on the other side of the pond:

"Name a band (not an individual artist) from the USA that equals in terms of

(i) popularity,
(ii) impact on music history,
(iii) creative longevity (i.e. some core of the original group keeps performing for decades by reinventing itself, keeping up with/dictating trends in contemporary pop music),
(iv) legend status

with bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, U2, Genesis."

It's a tough one. In fact, you can probably name a whole range of individual artists from the US that do meet those requirements, but no other country has produced legendary groups like the UK did... and still does! I guess Radiohead will soon be in that list, maybe Depeche Mode and some of the triphoppers that are still around, some of the younger britpop bands. What about Autechre, Orbital, Underworld.

Of course record sales do not tell you everything... but when I arrange this list so that only bands are in there you get something like this. It's a list of everything better than the Village People... (or UB40):

RANK	USA	UK (and some non-USA)
300 million or more
1		The Beatles
2		ABBA
3		Led Zeppelin
4		Queen
200 million to 299 million
5		Pink Floyd
6		AC/DC
7		The Rolling Stones
8		Bee Gees
150 million to 199 million
9		U2
10	Aerosmith
11		Genesis
120 million to 149 million
12	Backstreet Boys
13	Bon Jovi
14	Chicago
15	Eagles
16		Dire Straits
100 million to 119 million
17	The Carpenters
18		Depeche Mode
19	Fleetwood Mac	Fleetwood Mac
20	Guns ‘n Roses
21	The Jackson 5
22	Kiss
23	Metallica
24		Scorpions
25		The Who
75 million 99 million
26		Boney M.
27		B'z
28	The Doors
29
30		Eurythmics
31		Iron Maiden
32	Journey
33
50 million to 74 million
34		Ace of Base
35		A-ha
36	The Black Eyed Peas
37		Black Sabbath
38	Boyz II Men
39		Coldplay
40	Def Leppard
41	Destiny's Child
42		Dreams Come True
43		Duran Duran
44		Electric Light Orchestra
45	Green Day
46		Jethro Tull
47	Linkin Park
48	Mötley Crüe
49	Mr.Children	Mr.Children
50	New Kids on the Block
51	Nirvana
52		Oasis
53	Pearl Jam
54		Pet Shop Boys
55		The Police
56	Red Hot Chili Peppers
57	R.E.M.
58		Roxette
59		Sade
60	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
61		UB40
62	Village People

So the US comes in at number 10 with Aerosmith...
Music sociologists eat your heart out!



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