I don’t know what to make of this story. Is it more scientific hubris? A good idea that must be handled with extreme care, lest it turn out to be a very bad idea? Or just irresponsible twits in lab coats messing around with the brain.
Scientists at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences, in San Diego, are experimenting with the levels of the chemical dopamine in the brains of mice, to see if changing the level of dopamine can change whatever decision the mouse might make ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4297698/Dopamine-brain-shape-decisions-make.html ). Dopamine is a “neurotransmitter”: it facilitates the passage of information within the brain.
Perhaps it ought to be pointed out that any decisions mice are called upon to make are not likely to be very consequential.
Researchers say they may be on track to really help patients suffering from OCD or Parkinson’s Disease–which would indeed be a great blessing, devoutly to be wished. Like, what if OCD sufferers didn’t get hung up on details? Wouldn’t that be great?
If only we could trust our scientists!
No problem–they’ll find a way to get inside our brains and make us trust ’em.
Man without God’s guidance is no safer than a runaway train.
Hi Lee — this caught my eye because one of my pals used to work for Intelligence and is retired. He tells me stuff most mortals can’t accept — you can imagine the kind of things he may have shared regarding what’s “really” going on behind the veil of what we see. He’s a born again Christian and I enjoy talking to him. Anyway, he told me once that this technology you brought up is already out and perfected, and he postulated that *maybe* this is how folks will “Take the mark of the beast” and not be able to change their minds after.
I always wondered HOW can you “take a mark” and be damned, because what if you change your mind and cut it out or chop off your hand, etc??? Anyway, just curious — if folks accept this mark and it is a smart chip, it could literally change a person’s mind about God, control them, make them pretty much brainwashed.
Just a thought.
Not paranoid, just watchful, because my God is KING <3 <3 <3
Hi, Ellen. Two things to remember–
Controlling other people is the one and only thing that makes liberals tick.
Anything labeled by a liberal as “smart” is a really good thing to walk away from.
You are a zillion percent correct, sir!!
Here is another reason to pray always for the protection of the Holy Spirit of God over our minds, spirits and flesh. He is able to do this as we submit to Him. These are the days to be diligent in this regard.
May God protect our totally confused nation, and deliver us from sin and folly. May He open our eyes and make us sane again.
Amen. In my daily prayers, I always include this prayer: “Lord, come to the aid of America. Save us from those who would destroy us in body or soul.” And then I add the verse from Psalm 80: “God of Hosts, bring us back; let your face shine forth and we shall be saved.”
I pray from that Psalm, too!
Every technology seems to be a mixed blessing. The computer made life better in many ways, but it’s also brought us an over-complicated world of needless complexity and frustration. Mobile telephony is a wonderful tool, but it is misused by terrorists and other criminals. The smartphones and the tablet computer (iPad, etc.) are perhaps the greatest thing since the wheel but they’ve also given us a world of personal disengagement and tsunamis of text messages.
Dopamine is really important stuff. It helps us to control our movements and it makes us seek. Seeking is why animals wander in search of food, water, mates, etc. Seeking is why we might decide that a piece of cake would be nice right about now and why we continue to watch when something interesting is going on around us.
Dopamine is also why the last bite of cake doesn’t taste as good as the first. Each bite of cake reduces the number of D2 dopamine receptors, so each subsequent bite has less impact than the one before it. In this respect, dopamine is why we stop at one piece, instead of consuming the entire cake.
They’ve been manipulating dopamine levels for decades with levodopa in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. For even longer, people have manipulated their dopamine levels via the illicit use of cocaine.
While the headline is disturbing, to say the least, the article strikes me as poorly conceived and misleading. If you could monitor dopamine in real time you could predict whether a person was going to say yes or no, I agree. By monitoring my right arm, you could predict when I was about to strike a nail with a hammer. It’s the same thing, really, and the information of these predictions is probably about equal in usefulness, which is to say virtually none.
The body is magnificently designed. Every good feeling you ever feel was designed by God Himself. People abuse this with drugs, over-indulgence in alcohol, etc. but the systems are part of an incredibly complex brain/body design that allows us to function as free-will characters. One can be influenced, compelled, or physically forced into all sorts of things, but our intentions come from our God-given free will and are ours alone. I think that they proved this point in Nuremberg.
With regard to the Mark of the Beast, my personal opinion is that it comes down to our intent. Some will want to support the Beast and will take on that mark, whether literal of figurative. Once we support the Beast, there’s no going back.
It is my valued opinion that when the Beast arises, people will make a free-will choice as to whether they are governed by the kingdom of that Beast, or the Kingdom of God. At that point in time, the issues will be visible in stark relief. In a sense, I see it as voting for human/Satanic rulership, or the rulership of the True God. One we cast that vote, there is no going back.
Frankly, I see it around me, at least on one level. People proudly display their defiance in the form of, shall we say, body art, the various decals and stickers I see all around me and even their manner of dress and grooming. I see a lot of defiance. At some point, they will make choices that absolutely align them with the Beast, unless they change their ways. Just my opinion.
We are entering a technological revolution, much like the Industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th century. As Jesus foretold, knowledge would be increased in the latter days. But so much technology and knowledge in the hands of fallen man is a recipe for disaster.