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This article seems to me somewhat a rebuttal to the recent Scientific American article posted here a couple days ago supporting the popular notion that physical

This article seems to me somewhat a rebuttal to the recent Scientific American article posted here a couple days ago supporting the popular notion that physical fitness and exercise go hand-in-hand with "brain health". https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-your-brain-needs-exercise/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-your-brain-ne... Some people have brilliant souls. Our bodies are just vessels that our souls drive around for a while. They wear out eventually no matter what. Stephen Hawking. Kim Peek. Silas Warner.

pugio 7y ago
It's more than a "popular notion", it's a scientific theory with quite a bit of evidence behind it. 1. You're equating "brain health" with "brilliance", which aren't the same thing. 2. There's no reason to think that the above folks wouldn't have had even better brains if they had been able to move more. 3. Pretty much all modern biology contests the notion that our bodies are "just" vessels for our minds. Our gut alone has a significant impact on all sorts of mental states. Don't confuse an outlier with a norm, or make claims without first trying to disprove a counterfactual.
- chrismmay 7y ago
  Modern science cannot explain consciousness. I didn’t say the body was a vessel for the mind. I said it was a vessel for the soul. Time spent “moving” is time not spent solving the mental problems that those great minds are known for. Football players, fashion models, actors are always so smart because they exercise so much. /s
  - wtetzner 7y ago
    Again, brain health isn’t the same as brilliance.
0xBA5ED 7y ago
Being intelligent does not mean your brain is healthy. See Terry Davis for a tragic counterexample.
- Chris_Chambers 7y ago
  There was nothing wrong with Terry Davis. It was easy to completely understand everything he said once you absorbed his personal memetic lexicon by watching his streams for one week. Everyone in his family was a dimwitted cunt. His sister is responsible for his death because she falsely claimed to be protecting and housing him, then suddenly he was homeless again and dead immediately afterwards. I was closely following him when he lived in his van and was donating thousands per month. I was planning to buy a house and drumkit for him. I have over ten million dollars, it would have been easy. But his cunt of a lying sister removed my concern for him so I stopped paying attention. He didn’t kill himself due to mental illness, he killed himself because the humiliation and misery of homelessness was no longer tolerable.
- chrismmay 7y ago
  And conversely, being healthy doesn't mean you're intelligent, or that you will make better "executive decisions" than someone who doesn't get up at 5am and do crossfit for 3 hours before they arrive at work.
SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
I know a few people who smoke and haven't got lung cancer. Does that disprove the mountain of scientific evidence for the causal link between the two? Or does it prove that outliers exist? > Our bodies are just vessels that our souls drive around for a while. They wear out eventually no matter what. He was 54 when he died. That's no age by anyone's standards. Look after your health.
gameswithgo 7y ago
his vessel went about 20 years early and it sounds like he stopped being mentally productive by his 40s, when many of us peak around then as tons of experience combines with only mildly declined cognitive ability at that point. but if you let yourself go physically you are just tired all the time by then.
asveikau 7y ago
I read it kind of differently from you. It sounds like a real shame Silas Warner couldn't have enjoyed better health and consequently more time on this earth. If he was still so capable with those burdens, imagine how it would be without them. In addition to all the great work he must have been dealing with a lot of physical stress and pain. I myself used to be obese, but not at Silas Warner levels. I found a way out of it and have a low-side-of-normal BMI now. But among many factors, the sedentary tech work culture fed this problem for me. There was a lot of stress driving it too. I know others in tech who have that issue or are in a similar situation. I am sad for them. I wish I could help them out of it.

pugio 7y ago

It's more than a "popular notion", it's a scientific theory with quite a bit of evidence behind it. 1. You're equating "brain health" with "brilliance", which aren't the same thing. 2. There's no reason to think that the above folks wouldn't have had even better brains if they had been able to move more. 3. Pretty much all modern biology contests the notion that our bodies are "just" vessels for our minds. Our gut alone has a significant impact on all sorts of mental states. Don't confuse an outlier with a norm, or make claims without first trying to disprove a counterfactual.

chrismmay 7y ago
Modern science cannot explain consciousness. I didn’t say the body was a vessel for the mind. I said it was a vessel for the soul. Time spent “moving” is time not spent solving the mental problems that those great minds are known for. Football players, fashion models, actors are always so smart because they exercise so much. /s
- wtetzner 7y ago
  Again, brain health isn’t the same as brilliance.

0xBA5ED 7y ago

Being intelligent does not mean your brain is healthy. See Terry Davis for a tragic counterexample.

Chris_Chambers 7y ago
There was nothing wrong with Terry Davis. It was easy to completely understand everything he said once you absorbed his personal memetic lexicon by watching his streams for one week. Everyone in his family was a dimwitted cunt. His sister is responsible for his death because she falsely claimed to be protecting and housing him, then suddenly he was homeless again and dead immediately afterwards. I was closely following him when he lived in his van and was donating thousands per month. I was planning to buy a house and drumkit for him. I have over ten million dollars, it would have been easy. But his cunt of a lying sister removed my concern for him so I stopped paying attention. He didn’t kill himself due to mental illness, he killed himself because the humiliation and misery of homelessness was no longer tolerable.
chrismmay 7y ago
And conversely, being healthy doesn't mean you're intelligent, or that you will make better "executive decisions" than someone who doesn't get up at 5am and do crossfit for 3 hours before they arrive at work.

SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago

I know a few people who smoke and haven't got lung cancer. Does that disprove the mountain of scientific evidence for the causal link between the two? Or does it prove that outliers exist? > Our bodies are just vessels that our souls drive around for a while. They wear out eventually no matter what. He was 54 when he died. That's no age by anyone's standards. Look after your health.

gameswithgo 7y ago

his vessel went about 20 years early and it sounds like he stopped being mentally productive by his 40s, when many of us peak around then as tons of experience combines with only mildly declined cognitive ability at that point. but if you let yourself go physically you are just tired all the time by then.

asveikau 7y ago

I read it kind of differently from you. It sounds like a real shame Silas Warner couldn't have enjoyed better health and consequently more time on this earth. If he was still so capable with those burdens, imagine how it would be without them. In addition to all the great work he must have been dealing with a lot of physical stress and pain. I myself used to be obese, but not at Silas Warner levels. I found a way out of it and have a low-side-of-normal BMI now. But among many factors, the sedentary tech work culture fed this problem for me. There was a lot of stress driving it too. I know others in tech who have that issue or are in a similar situation. I am sad for them. I wish I could help them out of it.