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Analects

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Filter by anthology: All · Betterment · Gratification · Connection · Somatic Architecture · Spiritual Architecture · Thought Architecture · Wealth Architecture · Digital Architecture · Collective Architecture

[marginalium] Should corporations save the ivory tower — 17 Feb 2025
[marginalium] How the System Works — 14 Feb 2025
[article] Not brain regions, brain networks — 14 Feb 2025
Brain networks are groups of brain regions that work together. There are only a handful of interesting ones, but you can actually use them to understand human behaviour.
[marginalium] Breakfast for Eight Billion — 14 Feb 2025
[marginalium] A different way of reading — 14 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Bird Flu Spread Between Cats and People — 14 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Fertility slowdown not due to higher female incomes — 14 Feb 2025
[article] Mini-brains inside the brain — 7 Feb 2025
If you look closely, you’ll see that our ability to speak just hides the fact that other processes are running the show. Find a way to cut the language regions out, and you see other little consciousnesses start to take over.
[marginalium] Rationalist 'death cult' — 7 Feb 2025
[marginalium] When Ockam's Razor doesn't work — 7 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Quantum entangled time — 7 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Fun critique of rationalists — 6 Feb 2025
[marginalium] The Mediterranean diet is a lie — 5 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Time to drop the 'cargo-cult' — 4 Feb 2025
[article] Anticipation beats reward — 31 Jan 2025
Basically, reward and ancipation both use the same system, but differently. Anticipation seems to come in through the senses and get sent throughout the brain, but pleasure seems to come in from more evaluatey bits—maybe to help us learn what’s rewarding.

btrmt. (text-only version)

The full site with interactive features is available at btr.mt.

btrmt. (betterment) examines ideologies worth choosing. Created by Dorian Minors—Cambridge PhD in cognitive neuroscience, Associate Professor at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Core philosophy: humans are animals first, with automatic patterns shaped for us, not by us. Better to examine and choose.

Core concepts. Animals First: automatic patterns of thought and action, but our greatest capacity is nurture. Half Awake: deadened by systems that narrow rather than expand potential. Karstica: unexamined ideologies (hidden sinkholes beneath). Credenda: belief systems we should choose deliberately.

The manifesto. Cynosure (focus): betterment, gratification, connection. Architecture (support): inner (somatic, spiritual, thought) and outer (digital, collective, wealth).

Mission. Not answers but examination. Break academic gatekeeping. Make sciences of mind accessible. Question rather than prescribe.

Writing style. Scholarly without jargon barriers. Philosophical yet practical—grounded in neuroscience and lived experience. Reflective, discovery-oriented. Literary references and metaphor. Critical of systems that narrow human potential. Rejects "humans are flawed"—we're half awake, not broken.

Copyright. BTRMT LIMITED (England/Wales no. 13755561) 2026. Dorian Minors 2026.

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About Dorian Minors. Started btrmt. in 2013 to share sciences of mind with people who weren't studying them. Background: six years Australian Defence Force (Platoon Commander, Infantry); Gates Cambridge Scholar; PhD cognitive neuroscience, University of Cambridge (2018-2024); currently Associate Professor, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Research interests: neural basis of intelligent behaviour, decision intelligence, ritual formation/breakdown, ethical leadership, wellbeing.

External projects (links also available via Analects):

Lectures: Podcasts exploring ideologies

Neurotypica: Brain science guide for non-scientists

Black Cortex: Leadership consulting

Analects

btrmt. (text-only version)

Resources

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