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Apple Causes Religious Reaction In Brains of Fans
satuon writes "In a recently screened BBC documentary called 'Secrets of the Superbrands', UK neuroscientists found that the brains of Apple fans are stimulated by images of Apple products in the same areas as those triggered by religious imagery in a person of faith. According to the scientists, this suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."
Not sure if I'm alone, but every time I walk past an Apple Store I'm terrified one of the staff is going to come out and offer me a free personality test.
Old news for anyone who's spent time around Apple users. Just saying. ;)
Agile Artisans
Steve Jobs, who art at Apple, awesome be thy name...
I think it would be interesting to compare brain scans of different factions of computer programmers. Any number of programmer religious wars: vi vs emacs, Unix vs Windows, GUI vs CLI, indenting with blanks vs tabs, C vs Perl vs Ruby vs .Net vs Python vs JavaScript.
âoeThis suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religionâ Interesting. Is there a good theory or evidence as to why processing religion is/was a selection pressure?
Hah, they should try that test with us GNU/Linux users on Slashdot.
We probably qualify directly as saints.
42.
So if it works for Macs, we need a similar study done on Emacs users. ;^P
(We apologize in advance for any resulting emacs vs. vi flame war.)
The idea that "Apple causes religious reaction in brains of fans" is absolute nonsense. Those pointy-headed intellectuals have it all wrong(probably because they are trying to do visualizations on an emachine or something).
The truth is, a number of dusty little abrahamic "deities" have hijacked the portions of the brain that evolved to appreciate Apple products in a fair number of unfortunate individuals. Hence the confusion.
Uh.. religion has been around a lot longer than that..
which is totally what she said
They should be a tax free religious organization now.
and making fun of an apple user is now a hate crime
I think it's simply human nature. An individual who doesn't have religion inevitably creates something to fill that space. So you get celebrity and idol worship and the adulation of lifestyle brands.
Having worked in design for well over a decade I've come across countless Apple fanatics. Although fervor has dampened a bit in recent years, the switch to Intel processors and Apple having becomes largely mainstream playing significant parts in that. Not to discount what Apple has been able to do, but routinely Apple gets all the credit for things others have been doing for years.
The way I've seen some people idolize Steve Jobs is downright embarrassing. I've seen people use his portrait as a desktop background. Every time a new product comes along the rumors start flying about how it works and how it's built. I've heard some outrageous claims over the years.
The thing that I never expected was that this level of fanaticism would infect the mainstream. The big irony is that for many people, particular college kids from what I've seen, continue to see Apple as representative of some kind of counter-culture. I wonder how these people would feel if they say who's on Apple's board of directors. It doesn't get more mainstream than Apple. I'm sure they'd find a way to rationalize it all.
I've always thought Apple has a great marketing machine. But really, their job is made unbelievably easy thanks to all the fanatics.
Nathan's blog
The reality seems to be that fandom lights up some of the same regions of the brain as religion. Note that they're not claiming this is a common trait of Apple users, but fans. It's not really surprising.
(And sure, they certainly had access to a large sample set.)
What do you think would light up in RMS's brain? Assuming he even let himself get hooked up to a medical scanner that wasn't 100% open software and hardware, that is.
Apple can file to become tax exempt!
FRA: STFU GTFO
There have been evolutionary pressures towards religion for a long time. Religion lets you accept things without needing to understand them. For example, a religion can say 'don't eat pork' and the followers will avoid pork without questioning. Since pigs and humans are biologically similar, it's very easy for diseases to jump the species barrier, so a population that avoids eating pig is more likely to survive than one that eats pig (especially with the uneven cooking you get from primitive fire-based cooking). Another religion says 'don't eat green plants', but we don't hear about that one because all of its followers died. Similarly, the religion talks about the divine right of kings, and so the society becomes more cohesive and people are willing to die to protect it - this society is capable of exterminating societies based on self interest, so there is a survival benefit for genes that encourage people to join such a society.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
No, he likely just lacks a belief there is god. Most atheists are agnostic atheists, not gnostic atheists.
Oh, I'm sorry, did you think you were trolling?
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
agnostic athiests?
Do they fight for peace, and fuck for chastity?
Trolling?
Moi?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Neuroscientists have found that religious fervour lights up the same parts of the brain as waiting in line for your devotions at the Apple Store.
The scientists were interviewed by a BBC programme exploring the fantastically lucrative and popular brands springing up around the supernatural. Religions such as "Christianity" parody the story of the semi-mythical Steve Jobs' virgin birth, adoption by a humble Silicon Valley family, founding of Apple, expulsion from the fold, decade in the wilderness and triumphant Second Coming, wherein devotees were led to enlightenment, glory and hipness.
"The scans of 'religion' appear remarkably similar," said one scientist whose name is being withheld for protection from outraged Apple devotees. "The adrenal glands are stimulated and the same areas of the visual regions light up. Somewhat in the shape of an apple. No, really! Shaped like an apple!"
Cupertino's response was frosty. "To have the sacred enlightenment of the products of our saviour Steve maligned by comparison to mere witchdoctor cultist mumbo-jumbo is no less than a calculated insult. One important difference is that our stuff works. ... If you hold it right." The spokesman then compared the neuroscientists' mothers to a PC.
"The comparison is ridiculous," said "religious" leader Joe "Happy Heil" Ratzinger. "We're just out to make an honest buck like anyone. Well, fairly honest."
Photo: His Stevianity ministering to a devoted soul..
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Amen
Let me fix that for you...
All praise to our blessed Jobs.
iMen! (c)
Ask me about my sig!
Like Politics and religion, computing has degenerated into one of those dangerous topics that can damage carreers and friendships. You just dont want to bring it up in real life conversation.
Well, for a start, I don't keep hot grits anywhere near my graphics rig...
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
The same can probably said for politics.
In Woz We Trust.
That's the Steve you were referring to, right?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Oh please, I have friend who drools like pavlov's dog every time he sees the android robot. He is overlook any flaw, any shortcoming and lack of functionality and simply declare whatever the device is as perfect just like it is....its reached a point of absolute delusion. Many Sony fans are the same way, look at any PS3 fan forum and look at the excuses and apologies their fans make for the whole PSN fiasco. Even here there was at one time a rather overwhelming contingent that seemed to think the only reason Linux didn't rule the desktop was because everyone else was stupid...nothing else mattered. I think people get rabid passion for certain things because they fear "loosing" i.e. picking the wrong or least popular product, or fear of the perception their choice has on their peers. In reality there are far more people that buy things based on what they want to do and the products ability to do it, but the voice of logic and reason is usually low key because they are busy actually using their stuff rather than wasting time defending it.
Apple fanboys are as irrational as religious folks. Who woulda thunk?
No, they are not. At least they believe in something that actually exists unlike the billions of nutjobs who believe in an imaginary deity.
Whatever stimulates this area of your brain is your god, and it could be anything.
Relates to the Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me." and "You shall not make for yourself an idol."
Maybe this tells us more about that so-called test for religious experience than it tells us about Apple.
Religion lets you accept things without needing to understand them.
It Just Works?
Do you believe there are giant purple space bunnies who live in caves on the far side of the moon?
Sure, technically speaking there might be, but there is nothing in our experience of the real world that would give us any reason to give such an absurd proposition a moment's thought.
When most atheists assert a lack of belief in "God", this is what they mean -- that the probability of a "God" existing is infinitesimal, and it's best to go about life not worrying about "God" any more than one would worry about gigantic purple space bunnies.
So why do atheists spend so much time talking about something they don't believe in? Because the influence of religion in our society (particularly Christianity in the U.S.) is so pervasive that it seems normal. In spite of the alleged benefit of religions, they have caused a lot of evil in the world, so why should we accept the massive brainwashing of children to believe in these ancient myths as something "normal"? So atheists must be the ones who appear to make noise, but they're up against the deafening silence of a monolithic status quo which is horribly broken and must be fixed.
Here, listen to a real atheist, and find out what they're actually talking about, instead of just trying to imagine what they must think.
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html
-- Only unbalanced people can tip the scales.
There has been a lot of debate about the reasons for biblical mandates among Jewish rabbis, and the kosher laws are no exception.
If you look at the kosher laws and compare them to the rituals practiced by the other religions in Egypt around the time of the exodus, you'll see an interesting relationship: Following the kosher laws means you can't participate in some important ritual of each of the other religions, and nearly all the kosher laws have at least one known religious ritual they block.
Example: One had a ritual feast with a main dish consisting of a young goat cooked in its mother's milk. Not kosher to eat a mix of meat and milk, so can't participate.
= = = =
Regarding pork: In addition to the issue of disease transmission due to similar biochemistry, pigs were also something of an ecological disaster for some of the enfironments in the area. Other religions than Judaism have (unexplained and apparently arbitrary) prohibitions on them.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I've never met a windows fanboy defending their faith in person (have met plenty of Mac fanboys at work though!). Most Windows users are normal people just doing stuff with their computers.
http://www.istartedsomething.com/
http://www.neowin.net/
http://www.winsupersite.com/
http://www.zunescene.com/
http://www.zuneluv.com/
I could go on and even mention the rabid Xbox 360 fanboys that ignore the flaws and after market costs of their console of choice while attacking anyone who buys a PS3 for any purpose.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.