I have started writing up the first draft of my thesis and so my time over the next while will be limited. Actually, that is a lie. I find the prospect of joining the real world frightening and procrastination will be the likely course of action. So, in that spirit, here are some interesting videos.
This is a 6 part uncut interview with Darren Brown conducted by the king of the atheists Richard Dawkins. Brown is a British magician and mentalist and his shows, Trick of the Mind and Trick or Treat are great. One of my favorite tricks involves convincing an unsuspecting pub patron into believing they were in a full on zombie shoot em up game
. (Since it was done on TV you can never be sure of how much was staged and how much was legitimate. But the illusion is nice.)
I also find it cool that a lot of the mental trickery that Brown employs are similar to the methods used by members of the pick-up artist community. The human brain appears to have evolved in such a way that it has very predictable responses to whole categories of stimuli.
