Growing up Jewish in a small Quebec town at a time when an ultramontane clergy dominated social and religious life, I experienced my share of anti-Semitic hatred. Restricted from visiting certain beaches and playgrounds, regularly ambushed on the way to school by kids screaming anti-Jewish taunts and slurs (the obscenity of choice was maudit juif, “damned Jew”), arrested once for defending myself against a gang of attackers, thus contributing, no doubt, to what is now known as the “cycle of violence” …
Israel, we know, is on the cutting edge of brain science, providing key elements in terms of staff, resources, and infrastructure for the ongoing Blue Brain Project. The Jerusalem center for neural computation is the most advanced such institute in the world. Speaking metaphorically, it is rather ironic that discoveries in the field of neurocomputation do not necessarily carry over into daily practice, down-to-earth reasonableness, and, let’s say, survival acumen.
