Optimal Brain Damage: Theorizing our Nervous Present–Johannes Bruder & Orit Halpern
The neural imaginary is the idea that populations of neurons can be aligned with the behavior of populations of humans, and that models which abstract from the nature of a population’s elements can explain such seemingly incomparable phenomena as learning, financial crises, and the spread of a virus during the current pandemic. As we hope to demonstrate, the seemingly dated and insignificant neural imaginary thus has enormous impact on the future management of planetary populations and life through technological means, for it suggests transferring knowledge about how the brain protects itself against the effects of information overload to neural networks and societies.