Feeling a bit slow? Having writer's block, artist's slump, designer's cramp, scholar's gout (some or all expressions pulled out of my ass, op.ed.)? Just zap your brain with waves, and off you go! The Thinking Cap (now more than just a phrase) uses tiny electromagnetic impulses to confuse the left side of your brain (which usually dominates our consciousness) and allows the processes of the right side of the brain (responsible for unconscious data filtering) to "shine through". This allows the data and subconscious processes that would usually be subconsciously suppressed and discarded (things we perceive but don't notice), to reach our consciousness. As a result, you get a short period of heightened awareness and recollection of details, and literally kicks your mind out of the box (the "box" being the patterns and parameters in data filtering that you've learned or are used to) and makes you think outside of it for a while. Neat. The cap development is still in the experimental stages, but one day... For further explanation (or further confusion), go here. And now, the spinning lady. Turns out it has nothing to do with using different sides of your brain, but it's still fun to look at.
is this a joke? I can't really tell... the pseudo-scientific explanation is far from convincing. Either way I don't want my brain manipulated by a machine
That's because I wrote it, and jumbled it up it to the point of saying "it's pixie dust". Anyway, it's not a joke. There are tons of treatises on the subject (general agreement being "the brain is weird"). It ties into the research on how cell phones affect our brain on one side, and the research into autism and savant autistic people on the other. See link.
