Thank you, Santa Claus

It is said that a boy who did good in the past year will receive a gift from Santa Claus on the Christmas Eve, and it happens...

I was working in my lab as usual while suffering sore lip, and left for the rest room with my door open for two minutes around noon. A Carmex was sitting on my open book when I returned and no words were left accompanying it. After searching the hallway, it seemed all my colleagues gone somewhere for the holiday...Holiday, oh yeah, it is Christmas Eve today, so has "Santa Claus" come regardless my secular belief? I left my lab this afternoon with a note attached on my door, reading as "Thank you, Santa Claus, for the lip balm!"

We read and enjoyed fairy tales as little kids but abandoned them as growing up. Why do we keep the fairy tale live and pass on from generation to generation if we do not believe it? Yes, we do not expect "the Santa Claus", but instead, we have faith in "Santa Clauses". It is the other-regarding motives inside the deep minds of you and me. Let Homo Economicus go to trash can!

Chapter 08: Hitting the Wall

It is embarrassing that I've just got the news of the Chapter 08 from an American friend. The embarrassment on the other hand reveals another embarrassing fact that the trial has hit the wall again as the destiny we can foresee and the advocates can expect as well. Therefore, it should be taken as a symbolic signal rather than a battle because the seed cannot grow into a tree in sterile soil even though it was the seed of truth. But it could be worthwhile if anybody was awaken by the signal.

A wall can be knocked down only if there are a number large enough to hit it. "Come on, buddy!"

释梦

在清醒的状态下，人的思维是通常由理智所主导的，所以即便是我们自己也难以辨识理智掩盖下的情感状态，而只有在某些理智有所削弱而又没有完全丧失的“异常状态”之下才有机会近距离窥视情感层面的自我，比如梦境。

昨夜梦中还家，在厨房洗红枣，然后端起碗走进里屋卧室，祖父躺在床上看报纸，就像半年前分别的时候一样。我问祖父吃枣吗，他放下报纸告诉我没戴假牙。我一边转身要去取假牙，一边心里暗暗感到释然：还好，他老人家一切安好，此前的消息原来只是幻觉。然而就在这一刻，眼角余光突然留意到报纸上的日期——上个月的报纸！心头猛然一颤——原来，原来那一切是真的……于是我立即做出了一个决定，一个只有在半理智的梦境中才会做出的决定——我转回身来，躬下腰对祖父说：“爷，我给你剥开，不用戴假牙也能吃。”我把剥开的红枣递给祖父，看着他用干瘪的上下颌吃力地咀嚼，心中又一次暗暗感到释然：幸好我没有离开房间去取假牙，否则我可能再也没有机会与祖父相见了……

原来梦境并不只是纯粹的幻觉或是“日有所思，夜有所梦”那么简单，而更像是趁理智的力量有所削弱的时机由积蓄的情感发起的反抗。其结果是一种清醒状态下所不能出现的理智与情感达成的新的奇妙平衡，就如同电影中John Nash与幻觉中的伙伴们所保持的关系。我多希望我的世界能够永远定格在那一刻，然而泪水终于将我从梦中唤醒。

理智，即便在梦中也不甘屈服的理智，无法摆脱的烦恼的根源，然而也正是凭借它我们才得以在残酷的现实中生存，并在红皇后的旋转房间中为追逐“幸福”而不懈奔跑。

不只是四分之一

今早接到父亲打来的电话，家中应该还是午夜时分，得知祖父不在了。

回家奔丧已是断然来不及，不肖子孙唯有在打印出的遗像前跪拜。

室友后来看到老人的照片，问我：“这是你家老人吧？一看就知道。”印象中，但凡见过我祖父的人都这样说我与祖父神行皆似，却鲜有人说我像我的父母，即便有人偏要刻意往上靠，也只能在鼻子耳朵之类的局部做文章。有人说这是隔代遗传——如果单从基因上讲，这是很难说通的，毕竟子女与父母各有二分之一的相同基因，而与祖父母则只有四分之一的亲缘关系——但从表型上来讲，这是事实。我想更多的因素在基因之外。

中国人说：“龙生龙，凤生凤，老鼠的儿子会打洞。”中国人又说：“龙生九子，子子不同。”这很矛盾。更具“科学精神”的西方人在这个问题上也同样矛盾，nature vs nurture的争论一直未有停歇，即一个人身材高大魁梧或是小巧玲珑，性格粗犷豪放或是小心谨慎，究竟是生而如此，还是后天习得？就神经科学与行为科学共同的研究进展来看，nature vs nurture的论题并不合理，事实应该是nature and nurture，也就是先天因素与后天经历共同作用塑造一个人，而成长过程中较早的敏感期（critical period）又尤为重要。在脑达到最终成熟（大约在青春期结束）之前，不但学习能力较成年之后更为突出（文化遗传），而且脑内发生的外成性（epigenetic）基因表达变化也不可忽视，这一部分并非有意识的认知性学习所得，但会对终生的行为模式造成难以逆转的影响，正是中国人所谓“潜移默化”。

回顾童年，在院子里看祖父侍弄花草，在炕头上与祖父对弈象棋，坐在祖父自行车梁上去上坟，被祖父牵着手穿梭于菜市场、副食店、豆腐坊、点心铺和书店之间……十数年光景，那个瘦高的、沉稳的、细心的、倔强而又温文尔雅的形象已经在有意识与无意识之间投射到了我的模板之上。自进京求学离家八载，却渐渐发觉自己身上愈发显现出祖父的影子，一样的特立独行、格格不入。

四分之一不只是四分之一。

Still too short

Are punishment able to enhance socially beneficial cooperation? Yes, but the costs of punishment outweigh the gains from cooperation, according to recent experimental studies. So is it backfire? No, maybe just not long enough, Gächter et al. argued (1). The contrast between the results of 50-round public goods games and 10-round games showed that punishment that enhances cooperation could be beneficial in the long-run. The underlying reason is that the subjects can learn to evade the punishment gradually. Umm, clear enough, but is it the whole story of the evolution of cooperation? Probably not.

Again and again, some researchers confused the altruistic cooperation with the selfish cooperation. If the fear for punishment is the driving force of cooperation, we should not expect any charity and voluntary donation, but we did. All the economic experiments so far examined the learning process in the behavioral tier, leaving the evolutionary tier untouched. Fear for punishment may explain a trivial part of the cooperation, but the pro-sociality of human (and possibly other non-human animals) owes to the inside pro-social motivation that evolved during a long history that cannot be imitated with the experiment design used currently.

Another doubt is cast on the origin of the irrational motivation of punishment that results in the second-order "free rider" dilemma.

All in all, punishment itself is unlikely to solely enforce the pro-social cooperation.

1. Gachter, S., Renner, E. and Sefton, M., 2008. The Long-Run Benefits of Punishment. Science, 322:1510.

A Lifetime Without Memory

H. M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac, Dies at 82 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

And for those five decades, he was recognized as the most important patient in the history of brain science. As a participant in hundreds of studies, he helped scientists understand the biology of learning, memory and physical dexterity, as well as the fragile nature of human identity.

Henry Gustav Molaison, born on Feb. 26, 1926, left no survivors. He left a legacy in science that cannot be erased.

Farewell, Mr. H. M.!