Read our Minds, Consumer Debt and Complex Networks!

How often have you wondered what your spouse is really thinking? Or your boss? Or the guy sitting across from you on the bus? We all take as a given that we'll never really know for sure. The content of our thoughts is our own - private, secret, and unknowable by anyone else. Until now, that is. Neuroscience research into how we think and what we're thinking is advancing at a stunning rate, making it possible for the first time in human history to peer directly into the brain to read out the physical make-up of our thoughts, some would say to read our minds. So here's the million dollar question: if you can brain image me and get information directly from my brain, is that testimony? Or is that like DNA, blood, semen and other things that you could take from me?

The Bonn researchers used brain scanning to show how much we as humans take others' earnings as a measure of our own success. The study found that whether or not people made big paychecks, for example, was less of a motivating factor than whether they made more than their coworkers. In other words, winning the arbitrary competition appears to be more important than the reward itself. Which may be why Donald Trump is so fond of saying that money is not a motivation for him except as a way to keep score. It’s not as much what we have, as what we have in relation to others that appears to matter most. This may partially explain the unprecedented and ballooning levels of consumer debt in the westernized parts of the world. How we fit in and how we measure up are such an integral part of our financial well-being. We construct a fantasy world around those who have more money, and glorify their lives.

Complexity is a challenge by itself. Complex Networks are everywhere. It is a structural and organizational principle that reaches almost every field we can think of, from genes to power systems, from food webs to market shares. The mystery of life begins with the intricate web of interactions, integrating the millions of molecules within each organism. Humans, since their birth, experience the effect of networks every day, from large complex systems like transportation routes and communication networks, to less conscious interactions, common in social networks. Once we stumble across the right vision of complexity, it will take little to bring it to fruition. When that will happen is one of the mysteries that keeps many of us going

There is a degree of artificial controversy these days in the media and the scientific community on the respective benefits of physical or mental exercise. We obviously need both. Physical exercise keeps the body in a good shape but especially in older people also leads to cognitive benefits. Mental exercise, like the one we used, can enhance important abilities and is most likely the most efficient way to improve a specific cognitive process but also generalizes to a broader range of skills.

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