home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
Text File | 1994-06-10 | 405.0 KB | 7,286 lines |
- John David Rohner, Milwaukee, WI August 1991
-
-
- Comments:
-
- The purpose of this document: to eliminate primitive
- beliefs, to offer solutions to unanswered questions, and
- to investigate or at least mention interesting
- discoveries and technologies.
- You will find this to be hard reading, disjoint, and
- disorganized. Remember that this is a compilation of
- many notes I have taken throughout my life. Also
- whatever new data I come across. Only through many
- revisions will this be complete and understandable.
-
- The scientific method for solving problems uses
- deduction. You observe data and then create theories to
- account for that data. Your theory is proven when you
- can correctly anticipate future data. The competing form
- of logic is that of induction. With induction you start
- with a theory and try to prove it. This method is out of
- favor because it usually introduces bias.
- Deductive methods attempt to form the universe into
- a pattern that can be easily predicted and understood.
- I feel that this prevents awareness of data. By working
- from the inductive method you can use more creativity and
- imagination to examine all possibilities. Then you can
- see what data is available, fill where you can, and
- investigate where you suspect.
- There are real problems in knowing the truth of what
- our senses and instruments tell us. The field of
- philosophy that deals with knowing and finding things
- that are true has found only one truth: that whenever
- you say "I think, therefore I am," then you can be sure
- that you, at least, exist.
- We attempt to order the universe in our own minds.
- Unfortunately there is much misunderstanding. Too many
- people are still "hoping" or "thinking" that the universe
- and its events are a certain way. I have written this
- continually on-going project in hopes that the whole
- human race can feel the same confidence I have concerning
- our future. All I ask is an open mind.
- Generally, two opposing theories are both right and
- wrong. In the end, the result/method/truth is usually a
- combination of both theories. The same is true of
- inductive logic. The more diverse the views, the more
- likely all the angles will be found. The Voyager
- spacecraft is one example of the limits of the scientific
- method. We sent it out to explore and investigate.
- Their goal was to fill some missing holes of data on our
- solar system and its origins. What we got were some
- answers and many more questions. If we had simply put
- down into a list everything we imagined we may see, we
- would have been less surprised. We could have, perhaps,
- better prepared the spacecraft for answers instead of a
- "go see what is there" approach. What we saw was the
- infamous, "Why did I not think of that?".
- I believe that to be truly successful with something
- like inductive logic you need to have many opinions
- viewed. Much like the ideas of a global village or
- distributed democracy. This will reduce the bias of the
- single person (into a bias of the group--still better
- than one view though). "None of that majority rules
- stuff." Computers allow us to merge views from many
- sources than was previously possible. As an example, I
- feel that I have read so many science fiction storylines
- that I can form what I think the universe is really like.
- Another good example is the Lottery. We do not know what
- the final numbers will be, but finding the correct
- numbers are inevitable with so many people guessing.
- This is stretching it a bit since other factors such as
- the definitions of the number system also come into
- account. The more diverse the opinions and views, the
- higher the probability that answers are among them.
- These views can be formed together to create the
- final picture. My views, I hope, are not totally your
- views. Where we differ I would like to hear from you.
-
- This document is not meant to be scientific. The
- references are sources of ideas--not necessarily hard
- scientific investigation (eg. various journals).
-
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Table of contents
-
- Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
-
- Terms and concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
-
- TRADITIONAL MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
- Mind Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
- Ghosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
- Witches/Warlocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
- UFO'S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
- Psychic Voyages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
-
- NEW MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
- Existence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
- Imagination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
-
- EVOLUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
- In The Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
- Death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
- Homo Sapiens: The Next Generation. . . . . . . 26
-
- Extraterrestrials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
-
- The Universe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
-
- Physics of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-
- Universe notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
-
- SPACE TRAVEL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
- Faster Than Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
- FTL possibility(?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
- Space Ships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
- Miscellaneous Space Travel Stuff . . . . . . . 70
-
- On Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
-
- Force shields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
-
- Teleportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
- Teleportation via dimensions . . . . . . . . . 74
-
- THE BRAIN AND THE BODY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
- Miscellaneous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
- The MultiTasking Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
- ThoughtProcess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
- ThoughtSpeech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
-
- The human soul. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
- Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
- Punctuated Gradualism. . . . . . . . . . . . 110
- Miscellaneous Technology . . . . . . . . . . 111
-
- Battle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
-
- Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
-
- I PREDICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
- Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
- Potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
- What you can see . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
-
- Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
-
- Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
-
- Final comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
-
- Ok, who am I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
-
- Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
-
- Additional references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
-
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Terms and concepts:
-
- A MOMENT OF TIME
- State of the universe, or of some local area, that
- once/had/could exist. "The present moment is
- eternity and contains all the mystery of the
- universe."
-
- CRYONICS
- The freezing of meat for later use. . .ah, well,
- the truth. The freezing of organic matter with the
- expectation of restoring or duplicating the tissue
- into living organic matter in the future.
-
- CYBERSPACE
- William Gibson's creation, in Neuromancer, of an
- interactive communications protocol. Using full
- graphics, direct brain sensors, and symbols for
- computers. If you're into computers you should
- have read it. If you're young and into computers
- you're required to read it.
-
- DETERMINISTIC
- Determinism and Free Will are interrelated. If you
- have determinism then you do not have Free Will.
- Words such as "fate" and "destiny" are
- deterministic. It is the belief that the future
- was planned and will be unchangeable.
- Environmental Determinism, the idea that the
- environment you grew up in will affect your future
- actions, is a common use of the term.
-
- FREE WILL
- The freedom to think what you want, without any
- external influences. Not having someone implant
- your next thoughts into your brain. Self-
- determinism of thought. Do not confuse the term
- with freedom or liberty. If you kill somebody,
- Free Will requires that you take the punishment
- since you did it. Whereas if things were
- deterministic you could say it was your destiny to
- kill them. That the future was unalterable.
- Therefore you lacked choice, no way not to do it,
- and should not have to take the punishment. If one
- allows only moments of free thought in your life,
- you do not have Free Will.
- INFINITY
- Infinity is essentially a level above the Real
- number system (0, 1, 2, 3, ...). It is more of a
- theoretical tool than something of practical value.
- After all, if you have a zillion apples you are not
- going to say you have an infinite number of apples.
- Infinity marks the point of "unknown many," when
- you have so many that you do not know how many. If
- the number can be estimated, than that number is
- not infinite. Example, we have an infinite number
- of atoms in the Universe. You also could say there
- are an infinite number of atoms in the solar
- system, except that we know the size of solar
- system and the number of atoms in a given unit of
- area. So while we may break the mathematical
- system trying to calculate the number we would
- eventually get a number, whereas the Universe lacks
- a size limit.
-
- INFINITY^
- Infinity raised to infinity raised to infinity,
- etc., etc., till infinity (forever). Infinity
- multiplied by any Real number will still equal
- infinity (for example, 10*Infinity=infinity, or
- 1,000,000,000*infinity=infinity,) since any number
- smaller than infinity is insignificant.
- Multiplying infinity by itself (infinity*infinity)
- yields values that are so large that they are only
- theoretical toys. Since all things in the universe
- together would only equal infinity, it can be said
- that Infinity^ represents nothing.
-
- INFINITESIMAL
- Does not represent anything. Even the smallest bit
- of matter is not infinitesimal, since it can be
- measured. The main use of the infinitesimal is to
- describe immeasurably small distances or times for
- theoretical purposes. Just as 5/1=5 and 1/5=.2,
- infinity/1=infinity, and 1/infinity=infinitesimal.
- The larger the number under the one, the smaller
- the resulting value. Example, if the distance
- between two points had an infinite number of points
- between them, then Zeno's argument would be true
- (that motion is impossible because it requires an
- object to pass through an infinite number of points
- in a finite amount of time).
-
- INFINITESIMAL^
- Infinitely^ small.
-
- LOCAL
- Structure of the local area at a current moment of
- time. The size of this local area can be anything
- from less than a single atom to whole clusters of
- galaxies--it depends on the total area considered.
-
- PROBABILITY OF THE UNIVERSE ITSELF
- As the Universe is infinite, the term "infinite"
- evokes a potential for duplication. Specifically,
- duplication of ourselves. Events are what the
- Universe is made of. At each moment of time there
- are an infinite^ number of potential states the
- Universe can change into. For example, if each
- atom in the universe could move in only one of four
- directions at each moment of time then; 1 atom
- could go in one of four directions (4 probable
- outcomes), 2 atoms - each capable of going in one
- of four directions - gives 4 probable outcomes for
- each, but together there would be 16 probable
- outcomes (4*4). An infinite number of atoms
- produces an unimaginable number with a limit of
- only two choices of directions for each atom. Toss
- in interactions and an infinite number of potential
- directions for each little bit of matter for the
- three-dimensional space it lives in (a sphere of
- potential movement directions) and even infinite^
- may be small. This extremely high number of
- potential states cumulatively eliminates any
- serious duplication problems. The more complex the
- required duplication, the less its possibility.
- What I have not really decided yet is whether the
- probability is cumulative or not. The universe is
- so vast that it simply may not matter.
-
- SCIENCE FICTION
- Parapsychology is not a part of Science Fiction.
- The majority of science fiction today is a
- Character Role Playing Game (CRPG) adventure. It
- is a great source of creative thinking.
-
- STATE
- Structure of the Universe at a current moment of
- time.
-
- UNIVERSE
- I had considered using something like "Multiverse"
- to describe the Universe but decided against it.
- Just think of the Universe as made up of an
- infinite number of what we now consider to be in
- the universe (not "Big Bang bubbles"). The term
- universe can be most anything (for example, the
- ecology of forest could be thought of a "local
- universe"). Each dimension should be called a
- universe. Within each of us, our imagination is a
- universe.
-
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- TRADITIONAL MYSTERIES
-
- Mind Reading
-
- No. While we are developing technology to read the
- electronic activity of brains through receivers attached
- to the skull, the current/voltage is extremely difficult
- to detect. The brain being 3-dimensional and very fast
- moving just exacerbates the challenge. Humans cannot
- read each others minds. There are no "links" between
- humans either to allow mind reading. In perhaps 30 years
- we will have the technology to put thoughts into pictures
- onto a screen - generated by computer using the same
- algorithms as we do to process the information.
-
- Ghosts
-
- No. By ghosts I mean ethereal former organic
- beings. We have no invisible souls, we are what we are.
- Incorporeal matter can hardly have very much intelligence
- (unless it has access to some form of database to provide
- the intelligence - but this may eliminate the very
- "being"/existence of the intelligence). A person is
- better off considering our spirit to be just that. The
- feeling of happiness, self confidence, etc. that you feel
- at times, in the long term this helps to reduce stress
- and by that give you a longer life.
- Bob Shaw wrote of life: "A personality is a
- structure of mental entities, existing in mental space,
- and it survives destruction of the brain though it
- required the brain's complex physical organization to
- develop." I suspect this is what many people currently
- think. Note the flaw, no growth after death. Static
- life-after-death, that is not life, merely existence.
- Notice the differences between an advanced race at
- the energy level and ghosts. Both exist in the same
- medium; energy. Except the race evolved into it, the
- ghosts became it when we died. The race would use a real
- form of energy, the ghosts use undetectable energy.
- Ghosts and spirits are things those who cannot accept
- death believe. My efforts will always be constructive
- and real, not imaginary and false.
-
- Witches/Warlocks
-
- People with some tricks up their sleeves. With an
- antigravity belt and a few other tricks I could easily be
- a warlock even in these times. This cult is now
- concentrating on worshipping nature.
-
- UFO'S
-
- Sure, maybe one or two in all history. Since any
- more would have serious implications: maybe there are
- many alien races nearby watching us, or that they simply
- do not share their data. A race that can fly through
- space can surely stop our primitive detection equipment,
- so there really is no reason for us to have noticed them
- at all.
-
- Psychic Voyages
-
- Definitely yes. Dreams and drugs now. Databases
- and interfaces tomorrow. Just read William Gibson's
- works.
-
-
- NEW MYSTERIES
-
- Existence
-
- Many things that people typically think may happen,
- such as; instantaneous travel, ghosts, true visions of
- the future, a single being who can do anything. These
- are all possible, if one accepts that we may be a great
- beings' memory - that we had existed, but no longer
- exist. Thus our essence and the world around us is
- subject to the beings thinking, as is anyone who can
- access/manipulate the storage area. By having lived we
- had Free Will, but as a memory we think we have Free Will
- because the events did occur with Free Will. The key to
- determining the truth involves time, and the "ticks of
- time." This is not thinking of time in the traditional
- sense, but as the state method. Since by its very nature
- each tick of time lasts both an infinitesimal amount of
- time and that this amount is always varying. Maybe some
- type of atomic-based system which only works during these
- ticks - thus if a jump in time occurs we would notice it.
- On the other hand, a jump might be caused by something
- else, or we might be forced to "see" it falsely.
-
- Imagination
-
- It seems to me that there is some significance in
- the following, although I am not really sure what: The
- universe in its purely natural state is raw energy, from
- this we get clumps of matter into inanimate objects.
- This inorganic matter can create organic matter under the
- right conditions, the organic matter then becomes plants
- and animals. Sentient beings evolve from these animals.
- These sentient beings then develop an imagination. The
- deal is: we start with infinity, we shrink it down to
- get humans, but we have an infinity within ourselves
- because our imaginations can imagine anything. What is
- this link with the universe? The Universe cannot imagine
- or create things beyond what are "natural," but our
- brains can do both. We cannot bring those objects we
- think up into this universe--though they do exist in this
- Universe in an encoded form (memory). We then use our
- bodies to construct the object into the Universe. There
- seems some logic here, but I cannot pinpoint it. Perhaps
- its just me making more of nothing. [The Universe is a
- platform on which life forms. Life is a platform on
- which intelligence forms. It took a variety of tiny
- modifications and reactions to produce an infinite
- potential.]
-
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- EVOLUTION:
-
- In The Beginning
-
- God by definition does not exist. Omniscience; the
- knowing of everything in the universe in the past,
- present and future, and omnipotence; the ability to do
- anything and everything, rule them out, especially if you
- want Free Will. Higher evolved beings do exist (for
- example, us). What type of race those higher than us are
- will decide how they treat us (benevolence, slavery,
- leave alone, etc.). Humans mistakenly pray to gods in
- hope that one of these higher evolved beings will hear
- their call, impressed by such reverence will constantly
- store their current body data so that they may be
- recreated should they die here on Earth. (See section on
- transportation beams for problem information.) A
- distinct lack of self confidence in one's own race is
- necessary to believe this stuff. Without the right
- technology, unknowns scare a species, death being the
- biggest unknown - add to this a desire to both obtain and
- legitimize power and these things catch on. We have the
- technology to change and evolve ourselves, we must do so.
- In the future evolution will prove to be too slow to
- advance the human race. Some thought should be given to
- what to change into and what other races have chosen to
- evolve into. Once we know what to expect, we can locate
- other races. Once a race evolves beyond the need for
- organic matter it will appear that the race has died out,
- it will look like it was only a flash-in-the-pan and that
- there are fewer races in the universe than there really
- are.
-
- ". . .For no powerful God would need miracles.
- He would set everything up properly in the
- beginning, and by virtue of His omnipotence He
- would have no need for stage tricks."
-
- If you desire a god to worship, use Brian Herbert's
- definition: "The Leader of the Universe."
-
- The only way to know the power of any being--
- including those claiming godhood--is to switch places
- with them.
- Space can apparently form complex molecules - some
- of which lead to life. These building blocks of life
- land on planets, trying to fashion life under the
- conditions given.
-
- We are animals. Animals are life. Life is the
- ability to think for yourself (plants are biological
- machines). We started out as little rat-like creatures
- during the dinosaur age. We then grew to be chimpanzee-
- like. Resulting finally in our present form.
-
- Ants, at least, are biological machines. Working
- from instinct with no self-determination/self-thought.
-
- DNA structure matching will eventually show the
- whole tree of life on earth. For now, a chimp's DNA
- matches to 98.4% of that of the human (a gorilla matches
- 97.9% to a human).
-
- It looks like evolution of major lines such as
- humans occur in spurts (punctuated equilibrium) and minor
- changes slowly (gradualism).
-
- We, for the most part, evolved in eastern Africa.
- Starting sometime between 6 and 10 million years ago we
- see the appearance of two groups who evolved from chimps:
- apes and upright hominid's--little more than monkeys who
- regularly walked upright. Around 3 million years ago,
- the lineage splits into Australopithecus robustus and
- Australopithecus africanus. A. robustus died off about
- 1.2 million years ago. Around 2 million years ago A.
- africanus became Homo habilis, the first real humans.
- Around 1.7 million years ago H. habilis became H.
- erectus, who, around 1 million years ago, left Africa and
- spread through most of the Old World (Europe, Asia,
- Africa), as did their descendants. Those descendants
- appeared around 500,000 years ago with the arrival of
- Homo sapiens. These last (H. habilis to H. sapiens) was
- straight evolution of a single species. Around 130,000
- years ago modern Homo sapiens appears and so did
- Neanderthal. Neanderthal died out about 32,000 years
- ago. This is too bad, as they were interesting people.
- In many ways more advanced than the Homo sapiens of the
- time, they used fire regularly and took care of their old
- and infirm. Current thought is that they did not evolve
- technologically like Homo sapiens had. No innovation,
- for their entire period they always used the same type of
- stone tools everywhere. They also did not live to be
- very old (not beyond 45). Homo sapiens evolved better
- weapons and boats during this period. Also about 35,000
- years modern humans appear (Cro-Magnon/Homo sapiens
- sapiens). It also thought that Neanderthal were impaired
- by a form of muteness--they could not articulate their
- sounds enough to distinguish them to form/learn a
- language (vocal tract problem, for instance chimps are
- known to have trouble forming most of the commonest
- vowels). Neanderthal was not stupid though, they had a
- brain case 10% larger than ours.
-
- "Teach a rat to run an obstacle course and there
- will be a jump in the number of communication links
- between cells in the cerebellum, a part of the
- brain that coordinates movement. That's been
- fairly easy to prove; researchers just count the
- links and compare them with the number of links in
- rats that haven't had to meet this challenge. But
- is has been much harder to figure out whether it's
- the physical activity or the mental
- gymnastics--learning the course--that triggers this
- increase. Neuroscientist William Greenough taught
- a group of rats to negotiate an elevated obstacle
- course of balance beams, seesaws, and rope bridges.
- At first the rats hesitated, but after a month of
- training and the proper reward ('Rats love
- chocolate,' Greenough says) they scampered eagerly
- over pencil-wide dowels and loosely suspended ropes
- and chains, no matter how the course was
- rearranged. These acrobatic rats got little
- aerobic exercise, however, compared with another
- group of rodents that ran in an exercise wheel
- every day. These long-distance runners covered an
- average of 12 miles during their monthlong workout.
- A third group spent a month trotting on a
- treadmill, covering seven miles on average. A
- final group of animals lounged in a cage without
- obstacle courses, exercise wheels, or any other
- chance to learn or get in shape. The researchers
- then examined slices of brain tissue from each rat.
- The acrobatic animals, it turned out, had more
- connections between cells in the cerebellum than
- did animals in any of the other groups. But the
- rats that did monotonous, vigorous exercise didn't
- lose out completely; they had the highest density
- of brain blood vessels. With a lot of exercise,
- Greenough says, their brain cells fired messages
- more frequently across existing cell connections,
- and blood vessels grew to bring the links and cells
- added nourishment. 'With exercise, you can change
- blood-vessel density,' says Greenough. 'You are
- changing the brain so that it is more capable of
- doing the task. But new connections only form when
- the animals learn new behavioral skills.'"
-
- "In 1987 biochemists at Berkeley declared that they
- had traced the genetic ancestry of all living
- people back to a single woman who had lived in
- Africa some 200,000 years ago. This...announcement
- was based on a comparison of the DNA found inside
- the mitochondria--rodlike structures within the
- cell--of 147 women from various racial and
- geographic backgrounds. Mitochondrial DNA is
- inherited only from one's mother, so any changes
- from one generation to the next are caused by
- random mutations, rather than by a mixing of genes
- from both parents. The Berkeley team
- claimed...that such mutations accumulate throughout
- the millennia at a steady rate and can be used as a
- molecular "clock." By identifying the number of
- mutations that separated several populations and
- then using the clock to figure out how many years
- it would have taken for those mutations that
- separated several populations and then using the
- clock to figure out how many years it would have
- taken for those mutations to occur, the researchers
- pinned a date on our last common maternal ancestor.
- And, they reasoned, the population with the most
- DNA diversity--the Africans--must be the oldest.
- 'Adam was an African Pygmy,' declares evolutionary
- geneticist Gérard Lucotte of the collège de France
- in Paris. 'Not maybe a Pygmy, not probably a
- Pygmy. He was definitely a Pygmy.' Lucotte's lab
- is one of several around the world using the male Y
- chromosome as a lever to dig out information on
- human origins. Most of the Y chromosome is passed
- intact from father to son (a small section of it
- does exchange genetic material with the female X
- chromosome, but Lucotte excludes this section from
- his analysis). Just as the changes in
- mitochondrial DNA led back to Eve, mutations on the
- Y chromosome can, in theory, provide a route
- leading back to a common paternal ancestor--not
- Eve's actual mate, but a male who probably lived
- about the same time. In 1985 Lucotte and his
- colleagues were able to sort a sample of 50
- Parisian men into 16 characteristic Y chromosome
- types. Using a computer algorithm that seeks out
- the 'master' type from which all the others could
- have derived with the least amount of fuss,
- Lucotte's lab landed on the type known as haplotype
- XIII. Then Lucotte tested Y chromosomes of ethnic
- groups around the world. In 1989 he announced that
- haplotype XIII was by far most common in one group:
- the 300,000 Aka Pygmies of the Central African
- Republic. 'The Pygmies are believed to be the
- first inhabitants of Africa,' says Lucotte, 'and
- they turn out to have the ancestral haplotype as
- the dominant one in their population.' He now
- thinks these genes must have spread throughout the
- world as the people that carried them left Africa.
- With a steady mutation rate, he figures, it would
- have taken about 200,000 years to derive all the
- modern variations from this one ancestral
- template."
- This should knock out those who suspected humans evolved
- where they lived. Leaving "we took this world" theories.
- Those being that the current generation of Homo Sapiens
- moved into the lands formerly controlled by earlier
- generations. Whether by force, or if previous
- generations died out earlier, or by mating isn't yet
- known--probably all three.
-
- "...Primate Report. The journal is the work of
- Richard Byrne and Andrew Whiten, two psychologists
- at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and
- it is devoted to cataloging the petty betrayals of
- monkeys and apes as witnessed by primatologists
- around the world. It is a testament to the
- evolutionary importance of what Byrne and Whiten
- call Machiavellian intelligence--a facility named
- for the famed sixteenth-century author of The
- Prince, the ultimate how-to guide to prevailing in
- a complex society through the judicious application
- of cleverness, deceit, and political acumen.
- Deception is life in the natural world. Stick bugs
- mimic sticks. Harmless snakes resemble deadly
- poisonous ones. When threatened, blowfish puff
- themselves up [like humans?] and cats arch their
- backs and bristle their hair [dogs do this] to seem
- bigger than they really are. All these animals
- could be said to practice deception because they
- fool other animals--usually members of other
- species--into thinking they are something that they
- patently are no. Even so, it would be overreading
- the situation to attribute Machiavellian cunning to
- a blowfish, or to accuse a stick bug of being a
- lying scoundrel. Their deceptions, whether in
- their looks or in their actions, are programmed
- genetic responses. Biology leaves them no choice
- but to dissemble: they are just being true to
- themselves. The kind of deception that interests
- Byrne and Whiten--what they call tactical
- deception--is a different kettle of blowfish
- altogether. Here an animal has the mental
- flexibility to take an 'honest' behavior and use it
- in such a way that another animal--usually a member
- of the deceiver's own social group--is misled,
- thinking that a normal, familiar state of affairs
- is under way, while, in fact, something quite
- different is happening. [example: baboons:]
- Whiten saw a member of Paul's group, an adult
- female named Mel, digging in the ground, trying to
- extract a nutritious plant bulb. Paul approached
- and looked around. There were no other baboons
- within sight. Suddenly he let out a yell, and
- within seconds his mother came running, chasing the
- startled Mel over a small cliff. Paul then took
- the bulb for himself. In this case the deceived
- party was Paul's mother, who was misled by his
- scream into believing that Paul was being attacked,
- when actually no such attack was taking place. As
- a result of her apparent misinterpretation Paul was
- left alone to eat the bulb that Mel had carefully
- extracted--a morsel, by the way, that he would not
- have had the strength to dig out on his own. If
- Paul's ruse had been an isolated case, Whiten might
- have gone on with his foraging studies and never
- given it a second thought. But when he compared
- his field notes with Byrne's, he noticed that both
- their notebooks were sprinkled with similar
- incidents and had been so all summer long. After
- they returned home to Scotland, they boasted about
- their 'dead smart' baboons to their colleagues in
- pubs after conferences, expecting them to be
- suitably impressed. Instead the other researchers
- countered with tales about their own shrewd vervets
- or machiavellian macaques. 'That's when we
- realized that a whole phenomenon might be slipping
- through a sieve,' says Whiten. Researchers had
- assumed that this sort of complex trickery was a
- product of the sophisticated human brain. After
- all, deceitful behavior seemed unique to humans,
- and the human brain is unusually large, even for
- primates--'three times as big as you would expect
- for a primate of our size,' notes Whiten, if you're
- plotting brain size against body weight. But if
- primates other than humans deceived one another on
- a regular basis, the two psychologists reasoned,
- then it raised the extremely provocative
- possibility that the primate brain, and ultimately
- the human brain, is an instrument crafted for
- social manipulation. Humans evolved from the same
- evolutionary stock as apes, and if tactical
- deception was an important part of the lives of our
- evolutionary ancestors, then the sneakiness and
- subterfuge that human beings are so manifestly
- capable of might not be simply a result of our
- great intelligence and oversize brain, but a
- driving force behind their development. [note:
- remember Farley's relationship between creativity
- and crime--type T stuff] In 1976 Humphrey had
- eloquently suggested that the evolution of primate
- intelligence might have been spurred not by the
- challenges of environment, as was generally
- thought, but rather by the complex cognitive
- demands of living with one's own companions.
- Deception, however, had rarely been reported. And
- no wonder: IF chimps, baboons, and higher primates
- generally are skilled deceivers, how could one ever
- know it? The best deceptions would by their very
- nature go undetected by the other members of the
- primate group, not to mention by a human stranger.
- Even those ruses that an observer could see through
- would have to be rare, for if used too often, they
- would lose their effectiveness. If Paul always
- cried wolf, for example, his mother would soon
- learn to ignore his ersatz distress. Byrne and
- Whiten's solution was to extend their pub-derived
- data base with a more formal survey. In 1985 [and
- again in '89] they sent a questionnaire to more
- than 100 primatologists working both in the field
- and in labs, asking them to report back any
- incidents in which they felt their subjects had
- perpetrated deception on one another. Only the
- relatively small-brained and socially simple lemur
- family, which includes bush babies and lorises,
- failed to elicit a single instance. This supported
- the notion that society, sneakiness, brain size,
- and intelligence are intimately bound up with one
- another. The sneakier the primate, it seemed, the
- bigger the brain. [see entry on rat's brain's
- becoming more complex only with mental stimulation]
- All the other species, however, represented a
- simian rogues' gallery of liars and frauds. Often
- deception was used to distract another animal's
- attention. Sometimes the deception was simply a
- matter of one animal hiding a choice bit of food
- from the awareness of those strong enough to take
- it away. Concealment was a common ruse in sexual
- situations as well. Baboons proved singularly
- adept at a form of deception that Byrne and Whiten
- call 'using a social tool.' The cases most
- resistant to such officious denials are the
- rarest--and the most compelling. In these
- interactions the primate involved not only employed
- tactical deception but clearly understood the
- concept. Such comprehension would depend upon one
- animal's ability to 'read the mind' of another: to
- attribute desires, intentions, or even beliefs to
- the other creature that do not necessarily
- correspond to its own view of the world. Such mind
- reading was clearly evident in only 16 out of 253
- cases in the 1989 survey, all of them involving
- great apes. [example:] One of these chimps was
- alone in a feeding area when a metal box containing
- food was opened electronically. At the same moment
- another chimp happened to approach. The first
- chimp quickly closed the metal box, walked away,
- and sat down, looking around as if nothing had
- happened. The second chimp departed, but after
- going some distance away he hid behind a tree and
- peeked back at the first chimp. When the first
- chimp though the coast was clear, he opened the
- box. The second chimp ran out, pushed the other
- aside, and at the bananas. Chimp One might be a
- clever rogue, but Chimp Two, who counters his
- deception with a ruse of his own, is the true mind
- reader. The success of his ploy is based on his
- insight that Chimp One was trying to deceive him
- and on his ability to adjust his behavior
- accordingly. He has in fact performed a prodigious
- cognitive leap--proving himself capable of
- projecting himself into another's mental space...
- It is certainly suggestive that only the great
- apes--our closest relatives--seem capable of
- deceits based on such mind reading, and chimpanzees
- most of all. [our closest dna relative] This does
- not necessarily mean that chimps are inherently
- more intelligent: the difference may be a matter of
- social organization. Orangutans live most of their
- lives alone, and thus they would not have much
- reason to develop such a complex social skill. and
- gorillas live in close family groups, whose members
- would be more likely to punish an attempted
- swindle. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, spend
- their lives in a shifting swirl of friends and
- relations, where small groups constantly form and
- break apart and reform with new members. Many
- anthropologists now believe that the social life of
- early hominids--our first non-ape ancestors--was
- much like that of chimps today, with similar
- opportunities to hone their cognitive skills on one
- another. [note: remember theory of Neanderthal
- speech disability] Consider too how much more
- important your social wits would be in a world
- where the targets of your deceptions were
- constantly trying to out-smart you. After
- millennia of intrigue and counterintrigue, a
- hominid species might well evolve a brain three
- times bigger than it 'should' be--and capable of
- far more than deceiving other hominids. 'The
- ability to attribute other intentions to other
- people could have been an enormous building block
- for many human achievements, including language,'
- says Whiten. 'That this leap seems to have been
- taken by chimps and possibly the other great apes
- puts that development in human mentality quite
- early.'" [dogs--understand some human speech,
- and were able to communicate enough to be able to
- form and utilize the advantages of packs] [this
- could mean that crime is good for society and we
- should lessen the punishment on criminals--they're
- just doing what comes naturally]
-
- Domestication of animals probably occurred with the
- old among primitive peoples. After all old people aren't
- likely to have wandered far from food, and had lots of
- boring time on their hands.
-
- We are developing technologically at the rate on the
- high slope of an exponential curve - super fast.
-
- What would have happened if we did not have all
- those setbacks: the downfall of the Greek and Turkish
- empires, or the decline of China? All who had knowledge
- only again learned in the Renaissance. The church too,
- responsible for the backward growth during that time, and
- the constant drain on resources (money to operate the
- churches and thoughts desirable toward returning us to
- the past - a simpler time, when they controlled things).
- Ethnocentrism also, not considering all humans equal.
-
- Evidence for each of us being gods: because nothing
- in the universe matters except our own lives. We should
- allow nothing to stand in our way. I am not saying that
- you should be self-centered, just watch out for yourself,
- and help others to help you.
-
- What if we had lived in a more active sector of
- space--where we would never think of space as merely a
- rotating sphere set up by a god? What if the people of
- the planet were all one race, and was of generally one
- mind (for example, a military like government). What if
- it is necessary to develop at an exponential rate to
- avoid some larger (well established) space empires?
- While living in a more active area of space probably
- would lead to a quicker understanding that they are not
- at the center of the universe, it still would require
- that they have a simple orbit on their planet. Since a
- complex planetary orbit would really screw up their minds
- ("the sky never repeats itself").
-
- Perhaps a thousand years one way or the other does
- not matter. There are many Science Fiction scenarios in
- which a planet is invaded and conquered because it was
- unaware of true nature of the universe. On the other
- hand all could be harmony.
-
- "In science, truth is a moving target. The
- knowledge of one generation is merely the
- jumping-off spot for the next generation's
- inquiries."
-
-
- Death
-
- It forms a basis for much of my thinking.
- Extinction of one self. If the money going to
- defense/war was going into medicine two things would
- happen: (1) the full knowledge of medicine would prove
- that there are no "souls" that gods can collect, etc.
- Essentially reducing the power of religion. (2) We could
- be living longer (hundreds of years at least). Just do
- CAT scans of brains of dying people/animals to see which
- part dies last to find the point to begin the necessary
- research toward longer life. This type of knowledge will
- not be around for about 20 years (computers need to
- advance). What of a race who is peoples did not die so
- quickly? What would physics be like today if all the
- great physics people (Einstein, Newton, etc.) were still
- alive today - playing their mind games on the universe?
- A race who lives a long time also develops at an
- increasingly faster rate (unless it is some race where
- the old power people get to stay in office for life - not
- allowing new ways to develop). Also, long life would
- allow the imaginative thinkers to develop the skills
- necessary to bring their dreams to fruition.
-
- We should also be investigating animals like lizards
- and worms--who regrow parts. Find out why they don't
- live forever.
-
- I had to be reminded about mummification.
- Preserving the body without freezing. The body is frozen
- just before death so that the brain doesn't suffer damage
- from lack of oxygen. Using a simple storage method, you
- preserve the body but have a period of oxygen deprivation
- if not done before the moment of death. Still, this is
- the way to go. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Lenin
- still sitting in a vacuum air-tight coffin in Russia,
- perfectly preserved.
- Summum Corporation (Salt Lake City): the only
- mummification company.
- "[One] gets dipped in secret sauce, covered
- with polyurethane, wound with linen, encased
- in resin, hermetically sealed for eternity in
- a mummiform of bronze or stainless steel.
- Mummification can easily cost $35,000. In all
- the tests. . .nothing has decomposed. [Still
- perfect after years.] You can still move the
- skin. . .and. . .eyes look [excellent]. [In
- normal funerals, the body still decomposes
- even when embalmed.] [They] began studying
- body-preservation techniques of the ancient
- Egyptians, whose afterlifestyle depended on an
- undecayed body in which the soul could dwell.
- Since 1979 [they've] done exhaustive
- laboratory and field tests, experimenting with
- how different types of salts reacted to
- cellular structures. The Egyptians dehydrated
- and thus preserved the body with natron, a
- naturally occurring mineral salt, but [they]
- use a wet method. If [they] dehydrated the
- body, it wouldn't be viewable at the
- traditional funeral. They body will be
- embalmed so there can be a funeral service,
- then shipped to [them], where [they'll] place
- it in a stainless steel vat of fluid that's a
- combination of salts, oils, alcohol, and other
- chemicals, as well as natural substances,
- similar to the aloe plant, that inactivate the
- tissues. The body breaks down through two
- processes--its own chemistry, powered by
- oxygen, and bacteria. By saturating and
- inactivating every cell, driving out the
- oxygen and replacing it with our formula,
- we've eliminated both processes. The Summum
- method preserves the internal organs in situ,
- [except] the brain, which is removed through
- an opening in the skull, embalmed, and then
- replaced." [There's more, but already I think
- this process is just as destructive as
- decomposition.] "[They] evacuate all the air,
- replace it with inert gas, and weld the
- mummiform shut. As long as no one opens it
- nothing can corrupt the body." [I think this
- is all that really needs to be done!]
-
- Probably suspended animation will be a form of
- death, preservation, and then being brought back to life.
-
- Perhaps the problems of death can be solved as so:
- when a species dies in it is natural habitat, a
- ready-scanned duplicate is created in a safe place of
- existence (electronic). Then, maybe, give it brains, and
- an environment where only the brain controls things.
- Thus the species has its own personality (its "self") and
- has equality with the other species (the environment is
- some place, somewhere). Perhaps. It could be self
- contained/self running. I do not immediately see the
- growth potential, and there are still ethical questions
- concerning whether it would be proper to interfere.
- However, all life really should be preserved. Perhaps a
- "reincarnation" in which the controllers bring you back
- as creature slightly higher on the evolutionary scale.
- A less advanced race would start at the most sentient
- beings (going from top to bottom you might say) and as
- their abilities grew stronger they would go to the next
- level. An intelligence incubator. Why is not the
- universe more obviously populated with all sorts of life
- if this has been going on for infinity?
-
- I have been assuming very powerful beings. Less
- powerful should at least encode the life-info until they
- decide what is correct and how to implement it. We
- should not be murdering our own people by allowing their
- brains to decay--since once destroyed it is very unlikely
- the mind exists. We must assume non-existence after
- brain destruction, since the cost of being wrong is
- everyone in the past. When we have the technology to
- create artificial human shells (that is, make skin,
- bones, muscles, etc. in mass production and put them
- together to form humans) there is going to be much blame
- about why we could not have preserved the important parts
- of those people. Einstein's brain is preserved (for
- study purposes). On this:
- "Some . . . slices were encased in celloidin,
- a plastic; then all the pieces were preserved
- in formaldehyde. Pickling brains in
- formaldehyde is still done, but few truly
- revealing investigations can be done on them
- after a certain period because the chemical
- nature of the brain changes."
- Note that brain damage occurs usually upon death
- just as it would if the brain suffered a lack of oxygen
- while alive. So besides total knowledge of the brain, we
- also will need to develop techniques for repairing them.
-
- Alcor Life Extension Foundation
- 12327 Doherty Street, Riverside, CA.
- A non-profit organization in which members pay
- $100,000 to have their bodies put in cryonic suspension.
- $35,000 for storage of the head only. An insurance
- policy may be taken out to cover the costs upon your
- death.
-
- Coming out of hibernation: after being dormant for
- 3 weeks, the arctic ground squirrel (a mammal) shivers a
- few hours to bring its temperature back to normal.
- During its dormant hibernation-like periods, its body
- temperature is near the outside temperature of the snow
- it burrows into (just below freezing of water). It
- doesn't get frostbite despite this. They don't have an
- "antifreeze" in their blood.
-
-
- Homo Sapiens: The Next Generation
-
- I'd be interesting to see which "model" of current
- human is the fast evolving one now. Based on the notion
- that "societal interaction" is what leads to brain
- development, would hint at the Japanese. However, their
- homogeneity would seem to be an inhibiting factor--at
- least in the short run. This leads back to when chimps
- became hominids. It had to be a tight group--crowded
- area--and a period of rapid growth--a punctuated
- (equilibrium) point--had to occur. So at some point,
- most likely, a variety of "proto-humans" must have
- existed--which, it is my guess, helped further to propel
- the process. Russians? Worlds best theoreticians--but
- this is due to their methodology (little experimental
- science). Americans: while Farley's type T suggests
- that we're the most creative nation, we're also a melting
- pot--too many types, one would have to further break up
- and divide the country to form/identify sub-groups. I
- would recommend a study of engineers and computer
- programmers--future thinking creative individuals.
- Interestingly, most countries suffer the homogeneity
- problem. Central Europe to the mediterranean looks best
- to me--right mixture of mixing while still maintaining
- areas of (stable) homogeneity. You see, too much
- instability leads to confusion: new improved models get
- sublimated by other models that can target their specific
- weaknesses. But areas of stability offer the model a
- chance to go somewhere and succeed. So I suggest that
- that is the trick to finding the next "version" of
- human--parse groups and sub-groups looking for
- differences, going by countries alone will most likely
- prove unreliable. I do have my suspicions--I think it's
- the Germans, but I wish to investigate their history more
- thoroughly to see how the Germanic tribes developed and
- spread--and yes, I am. The germans seem to have come out
- of the NW Europe area (Netherlands/etc.) and an old
- empire is only now being discovered that controlled the
- areas up and down the west european coast (including
- Britain I think)--which may be the impetuous--that is, an
- isolated society--after dying the "new models" it
- produced were able to set up shop and influence without
- much more competition. [prior to 4th cent AD]
- Interesting--it was they who created Odin and those Gods,
- and in a rarity among ancient religions--did not endow
- their Gods with immortality. Although they also believed
- in fate (for the gods also). But otherwise it was a
- "down-to-earth" very creative religion--one that probably
- helped keep rulers in line (versus providing legitimacy
- for whomever was strong enough to take the post). Look
- at Japan and China--china the age-old stable empire, and
- japan a people who adopted change. But japan only became
- modern recently--they were a better china but not a
- better western culture. Look at countries/regions that
- were taken over much by larger empires: egypt, ottoman,
- greek, roman, etc. Europe is best bet--look at some of
- the laws, which country/region passes "enlightened"
- laws. Demographics is the key--especially if you can it
- viewed over time. Now, this opinion is slightly
- biased--so until I hear from others we'll see what shakes
- out. And no, I don't shave my hair and haven't learned
- a particular salute. Perhaps I'm only a
- cheerleader...cheering on my genetic makeup.
- Demographics is the key. History, and now DNA testing,
- has shown us that new "models" of human spread out from
- a point. As we map these "points" and the pattern of
- spread, we ought to have a better idea of how evolution
- works. Indeed, the very homogeneity of various countries
- shows that the "point then expand" system is in effect.
- Previously this had solely been considered due to
- environmentally based changes--the "common human"
- changing according to environmental needs of the region.
-
- Since going from bio->electronics is tricky. I
- recommend the brain be connected then slowly convert all
- the functions to electronics (memory, speech, etc.) Must
- emphasize humanity over robots--feeling, touch, etc.
- until artificial biological bodies/robots can replace
- them. We should perhaps concentrate on improving
- humanity biologically and adding electronics.
-
- AI robots: problems of self realization and
- questioning. Creating a robot with the intention of it
- growing like a human requires that it have a good
- heuristic system.
-
- What are the status of space empires now? Few
- empires last, since there is so much room to expand that
- control eventually takes it toll and the large empire
- crumbles into smaller empires. Eventually dying out when
- they no longer grow (technologically, emotionally, power,
- etc.). Any good empire probably would only watch over
- us. We are approaching a time, though, when we will no
- longer be considered barbaric (after we put our own
- house/troubles in order). At this time races who are
- only at the level of technology where they travel through
- space learning and making contacts with other races
- (about the level of Star Trek). This type of empire will
- want to contact us. Of course, there probably are bad
- empires out there also, empires who need slave labor. We
- have some good options: (1) They may not know about us.
- Despite our transmissions we are still in a somewhat
- isolated corner of this galaxy. (2) We have no central
- government - nobody to take over, no control here. When
- a government falls apart or goes out of favor here - we
- are ready to become an anarchy (for example, Lebanon,
- many other recent situations when government loses
- legitimacy, causing riots and looting by every-day
- people). (3) We are militaristic. We will fight for
- this planet, leaving the enemy with many casualties. Our
- huge supply (which we must mostly eliminate to resolve
- our own troubles) could do serious damage to any attacker
- (we could even wipe out ourselves making all their work
- a waste). For what we could be up against read
- Battlefield Earth.
-
- As medical technology advances farther we start
- seeing (and using) drugs that will keep our brains
- active. This might allow us to have the same brain power
- as we did when we were in our prime (15-25 or so)(for
- example, Nimodipine.) This also might lead to an
- evolution expanded head/brain.
-
- A race can advance to no longer need mechanical
- devices to do various things. Doing things with their
- mind. This can be done via: genetic restructuring,
- device implant, etc. To do: find these "keys" and tap
- them. One key is, I suspect, a matter --> energy and
- vice-versa ability (small and powerful, where powerful =
- amount advanced).
-
- While we are not an extremely advanced race we can
- still consider ourselves far evolved from the rest of the
- life on this planet. That gives us the same
- responsibilities an advanced race would have. It is
- these responsibilities that keep human kind children for
- now. Some questions of an advanced race:
- 1) Do you make lower life forms comfortable, safe,
- secure, and happy (control their world), or do you
- just give them their natural habitat and leave them
- alone? I take the position that once you have
- domesticated them you should give them a happy
- comfortable life, but animals in the wild should
- stay wild since applying your will to them will
- only make them feel trapped, they are happy now.
- 2) Do you try to advance lower life forms? For
- example, give a monkey the knowledge of a human
- (with any necessary biological enhancement). If
- so, at what point do you stop. With what species
- do you draw the line (bugs?). If we gave cats
- human brains, how would they feel - they have the
- knowledge but cannot do much with their limited
- body, and to change the body is to change the
- species. I take the position of leave the species
- alone, let them develop themselves, and when they
- have invented genetics they can evolve themselves.
- 3) Do you give them a "good death." Provide a place
- to die happy. Would not this interfere with their
- rights to challenge death?
-
- Mixing of ideas reduces the value of individual
- society distinctions, therefore we should observe unless
- think alike and are similar technologically. Although
- duplication of research could be reduced. The mixing of
- ideas can lead to new ideas and solutions also. It
- probably isn't a good idea to have races who are
- biologically incompatible (one breathes air, the other
- nitrogen, etc.) try to live together--as the natural
- tensions of survival may become dominate.
-
- "Halfway to the center of the galaxy. The
- screen showed a scarcely-broken carpet of
- stars in all colors. The star-scene, like a
- hoard of jewels, thrice-ransom for an emperor,
- spread out before him. It was inevitable and
- necessary that they finally come here. But
- that did not lessen the dangers inherent in
- their coming. They were like the members of
- some primitive tribe, descending from their
- bare and starving mountaintop into the richer
- valley lands below. On the mountaintop they
- had gone hungry, but also they had gone
- unchallenged. Here, they should not go
- hungry, but no sensible man could believe they
- could go forever unchallenged--where there was
- so much richness to dispute."
-
- I imagine most races go through three stages; 1)
- those who think they're alone, 2) those who help, or get
- help from, other races, and 3) those who are smart enough
- to know not to help. While all three can occur in
- sequence, they may also occur individually. Space is so
- big that others may not be found by a particular race.
- At what point do you interfere and let a race know
- you are there (no matter your level of advancement)?
- Definitely when they are beyond their childhood. Do you
- help them? Probably. How? Depends on level of
- advancement - only way I can think of is
- "insights/revelations" we have--but this is iffy since it
- is very hard to do.
-
- A race (including this one) evolves to the point
- where it totally understands itself (biologically) - once
- done, it can defeat death through better repair (or
- replacement) of worn body parts.
-
- When the race has advanced technology to the point
- where the computing machines can model a simulated brain
- as well as a brain of the race (accuracy/fuzzy logic,
- etc.) that race has taken the next step. After
- successfully modeling a single brain, each individual can
- be modeled, so that when they die they live on in the
- computer. As the computers increase in speed so does
- the computer-beings.
-
- The next step is when the go through the energy
- spectrum; electronic, light, whatever. Eventually
- existing without their mechanisms (free energy) (perhaps
- "multi-dimensional"/interfaced with space itself).
-
- Purpose of life; to experience: feeling, touch,
- smell. These cannot be obtained after death (if you go
- electric).
-
- I can see no step after this, except expansion.
- Note that as a being expands in all areas it may
- eventually be possible to memorize every aspect of a
- section of the universe. If evolved so far, that can
- perfectly memorize the section of space - then things
- really can happen. A race in this section can be
- "recalled"/remembered repeatedly - each time the being
- "remembers" this section of space the ancient dwellers in
- this section will not realize it - thus thinking they
- have Free Will, when actually they HAD Free Will. Other
- things are also possible: time travel (since all events
- will be recalled as they had occurred nothing can be
- changed), instantaneous travel (since your (a dweller)
- time can be stop/started by the thinking being (or anyone
- who can resurrect these thoughts). Essentially all
- things are possible. When discussing such advanced
- beings it is useful to remember: infinite time -->
- infinite power, but only in certain areas. We need to
- think of these limitations, what they are not infinite
- in, also their ethics.
-
- On imaginative existence: [the brain's dreams] what
- happens when our brains are so finely tuned that we can
- produce an EXACT duplicate of ourselves in our
- imagination? [Or does probability/motion of atoms rule
- this out?]
-
- William Gibson's books are important reading. While
- ignoring the potential of preserving the brain, he does
- push both medical and technological developments. To
- construct his visions requires two things: full knowledge
- of our biology, and a method of integrating
- electronics/etc. with our bodies without rejection.
-
- There seems two paths available: internal growth and
- external growth. Internal growth is creating our own
- evolution - designing improved bodies. External growth
- is expansion into space. For us to survive requires
- both. Expansion into space will allow us to find other
- races and advance our own technology. Which in turn will
- allow us to advance ourselves. The real threat: ourselves
- - what I call "human entropy." When one thinks of living
- simpler times, one is thinking of death. When one is
- thinking of utopia, one is thinking of death. When one
- thinks of gods, one is thinking of death. The hope of a
- relaxed life, in which peace is everywhere, is nice.
- When that leads to no technology development ("we have it
- all why find more") then one is thinking of death. This
- can affect whole races. Without challenge, only death
- exists. The challenge: ourselves. The universe is so
- massive we cannot hope to explore it all. It makes one
- think of empires, thousands of planets big, that collapse
- in time (all do). For its individual challenge supported
- by the whole that will allow survival. One need not
- control the whole universe to obtain the abilities and
- eternal existence of a truly advanced race. The size of
- the universe provides infinite diversion for those
- without death.
-
- I suspect that higher evolved beings cannot change
- the fundamental structure of the universe.
-
- In the early days people lived in tribes. This can
- be imagined as a bunch of clustered circles. Nowadays we
- use networks both with people and information. These
- networks can be imagined as connected singular circles.
- What is the next step? Unconnected singular circles or
- maybe one clustered circle (totally interconnected).
-
- Something the Neuromancer series didn't mention: a
- microstuff bus--where you can load multiple programs into
- your brain. Also that these program and data modules
- interface with the short-term memory of the brain, this
- would provide faster access than long-term memory
- links.
-
-
- Extraterrestrials
-
- For lack of a better word. Essentially this section
- will try to merge and organize my thoughts about them.
-
- It doesn't matter whether we think of other races or
- ourselves in the future. We both face and must answer
- similar, if not identical, questions. To this end, in
- this document you can often find me substituting either
- when I discuss potential developments. It doesn't even
- matter if advanced races don't exist or we don't really
- have a future. What matters is that we can imagine it.
-
- What I think is that problems can be solved with
- reverse-engineered logic. That is, when faced with the
- problem: what actions/attempts/solutions did other races
- do. ID these, then we know what road to concentrate on.
- To facilitate this, I emphasize practical implementations
- to problems. For instance, assume that most races are
- neither coldly logical or deadly brutal.
-
- Examples of similar alien problems: travel in space
- without getting killed by micro-meteorites.
- Navigation/cartography of the universe, knowing where you
- are.
-
- I won't go into physical structure of races. All we
- need really concern ourselves with is societal makeup's.
-
- Some interesting races:
-
- Dweenlee [from StarFlight II] a race chronically
- depressed beings who are highly suicidal and don't mind
- being slaves--but make bad slaves. This type of scenario
- could develop with races that over produce and thus live
- in abhorrent conditions.
- Spemin [from StarFlight] a race who always talk war
- and threaten you, but are incredibly weak militarily. An
- unstable society.
- Thek [from Sassinak and The Death Of Sleep] a rock
- race. Perhaps silicon, but also perhaps another type of
- rock with an internal radioactive heater that keeps some
- of it fluid to provide change.
- NgKherArla [from StarFlight II] a race of
- personality changers. When in the Ng state, they war
- with all. In the Kher state they war easily. In the
- Arla state they are peaceable. What's interesting is
- that they believed they shouldn't travel too much into
- space for fear of being in someone else's space when they
- changed personalities. A cyclic race.
- A robot/machine race.
- A race of clones.
- A society where everyone conforms to a rigid
- standard. Considering any deviation bad. This society
- would not evolve--but may last a very long time if their
- belief structure isn't overly shaken. This would,
- perhaps, especially include a computer directed race.
- An engineered race. Designed to attack and destroy.
- Created to, perhaps, attack an enemy. Could be
- "programmed" to live without changing and last a long
- time. Or a created slave race. You know, biological
- robots of the type advanced races are likely to do when
- desperate and under the threat of attack when they've
- given up war ages earlier. A race genetically
- engineering a species of itself for space travel and then
- having them return as conquerors. Because the conquerors
- were built upon the races tech development and history
- and evolution, the race is instantly in decline and would
- die out.
-
- The earth can be imagined as a giant bowl of water
- with organic matter in it. The moon as the mixing stick.
- For it's the moon that causes tidal action, causing
- erosion. Causing a mixing up of organic matter, may even
- cause most of the weather.
- But what about earth-like planets without a moon.
- Then you've got a "steady state" planet. Organic matter
- grows and decays without mixing. What you've got is a
- hot, cloudy planet covered in swamps.
- I suggest that the moon makes us "less than common"
- in regards to how life evolves, and that on a dominant
- number of planets it evolves in the swamp-planet like
- atmosphere described. I therefore conclude that the most
- numerous type of organic sentient life is reptile.
- These beings probably take a long time to evolve,
- and then another long period to first discover, and then
- decide to try for, the stars--since the atmosphere would
- mostly be fog.
- So, next step, how does the universe, and others in
- the universe appear to these beings. And what can we
- expect by the way of technological growth and direction.
- What I was thinking: there is a range in the size of
- moons, from non-existent to very large. The larger the
- moon, the moon "activity" the planet goes through--the
- more stirring of water, more erosion. And that with
- smaller moons this is reduced--ultimately leading to a
- "greenhouse effect" (for wont of a better word). Since
- very large moons (like ours) are probably rare (eg.
- scientists still haven't figured out how we got one).
- I agree that they'll develop the same technologies,
- etc. But I think that they'll develop different ones at
- different speeds--as there is no reason to suppose their
- priorities would be the same as ours. Imagine living in
- the amazon, what would the priorities be? Dry land,
- clean water, who knows? But they wouldn't have the
- diversity of climate like we do, the whole planet would
- be varying degrees of hot swamp. Indeed, they may never
- develop into air-livers (stay aquatic) if there is too
- much water.
- We see too much of the "close encounters of the
- third kind" type of alien--white with big eyes and small
- body. The body is the type you could develop evolving in
- space. But certainly the brain cases are too small. I'd
- guess that space-based sentient life de-evolve first into
- massive heads with small bodies. I'm glad to see that
- the makers of MegaDeath's Hanger 18 video showed, what I
- thought to be, all highly probably aliens.
- I'd expect a planet with a larger moon (up to about
- half the size of the planet, anything more would tear
- them both into asteroids) would produce strong tectonic
- activity, leading to a violent planet with lots of land,
- crevasses, strong winds, etc. But the sky's would
- usually be cloudless, and if any lifeforms did develop,
- they're likely to be very tough.
- When I said reptiles earlier, I really mean "cold
- blooded". "Reptiles" brings up images of scales/etc.
- And while this is entirely likely, shells/water and air
- breathing/no claws/etc. are all possible. Another reason
- to suspect they may be the most prevalent: should their
- planet decay into desert, they would still be well
- adapted. Only when the planet became really cold would
- they run into trouble.
- Swamps, jungle, and rain forests all produce
- incredible amounts of life, and diversity among life.
- So, interestingly, while the planet may take longer to
- develop sentient life, it probably develops life a lot
- quicker than our planet did.
-
- Do we have an innate suspicion of artificial
- intelligence? Races without one would be more
- susceptible to domination, and/or prefer dictators to a
- democracy.
-
- Knowledge transference is also important. For
- instance, teaching is one way. Another is full instinct
- transference (like ants). Partial instinct while the
- rest is "normal" (like pets). Direct instinct-like
- transference of real knowledge [idea from The Death Of
- Sleep.] Such as a "race memory" in which if a member
- of a race learns medicine than all it's offspring could
- "inherit" that knowledge. Unless their brain sizes is
- ever-increasing, some knowledge will get filtered out.
- The whole race could store everything ever learned (taken
- as one-brain). A limitation of this, as noted in The
- Death Of Sleep is that it would be like an instinct, in
- that much of a similar situation would have to reoccur
- (you pass on medical knowledge, but if the diseases or
- tools change overmuch you'll need a refresher). The race
- could easily become robot/factory like; "We will have our
- next child when the council deems that another citizen
- with the skills our child will have is needed."
-
- Gordon R. Dickson solved the problem of
- communication with races who don't speak the same
- language. His book used a device that projected on a
- screen what the users expected. That is, if they wanted
- the other race representative to follow; the image would
- show them moving away with the representative following
- them. This can be done by simply manipulation of images.
- The image of the representative's actions can be modified
- versions of recent recordings. One would input the type
- of moves and whatever into a computer, the computer
- generates the animation and figures of the known race,
- and inserts the alien race appropriately. The
- representative understands through the pictures what they
- are trying to say and what is expected to happen. They
- would know, for example, to avoid following if the image
- shows them being court-martialed and put in front of a
- firing squad.
-
- ZZ Top's Rough Boy video has some interesting ideas.
- The group is shown as holograms appearing from flat TV-
- like devices. Interesting if you assume that they are
- stored within the devices and then can use the holograms
- to appear to the real world. A bit like living pictures.
- Also interesting was the space station, it was portrayed
- as a high-tech car wash. Nobody's really given much
- thought to the maintenance of space-only vehicles.
- Perhaps have a "car wash" in which all the little dinks
- from micro-meteorites are filled in.
-
- An interesting problem: discovering a race of
- backward humans. Typical of empires that rise and fall,
- isolated groups may regress. Or it may simply be the
- case of another human-like race. Either way the question
- arises: do you intervene to advance them to your level?
- On one hand this comes under the rules of non-
- intervention. On the other the humans may resent you for
- not doing it. Obviously we can go by history to aid us
- here. Slavery though shouldn't be an option.
-
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is
- indistinguishable from magic.
- --ARTHUR C. CLARKE
-
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- The Universe
-
- The Universe is infinite. A lot is automatically
- assumed when you mention infinite. Since the very word
- implies anything is possible. It says, for example, that
- there may be two identical people in this Universe and
- therefore we have no Free Will (which would lead to a
- potentially known future - which is impossible). One must
- remember what a Universe creates: events. At every
- infinitesimal point of time an infinite number of choices
- are available. As the amount of time increases the
- probability of events matching exactly goes so far beyond
- infinity itself (infinity^) that the size of the Universe
- is small in comparison with the Universe of events.
-
- The Universe is made-up of universe's. The big bang
- theory is a joke as it casually does not count what the
- matter expands into as also being space, it also has a
- chicken and egg problem with its initial particle.
- Imagine the expanding universal bubble as white (space
- would be mainly white if light was not being blocked by
- dust particles), imagine this on a black canvas (space).
- Reduce it to just a spot of light. What I see is a spot
- of light (like a star) on a black canvas - a very tiny
- spot on a very large black area. No matter how much the
- universe expands, one can always imagine it as just an
- infinitesimal spot of light in an infinity of darkness.
- The picture looks a lot better when there are lots of
- spots of light.
-
- The theory of creation (a super-advanced being/race
- creating/developing our Universe) probably would require
- too much energy, and would only be useful for studying
- how life evolves. There just are not any good arguments
- for this theory.
-
- The universe is probably steady-state, with changes
- occurring on what we consider the universal level still
- being local.
-
- Within the solar system other planets may exist if
- conditions are right. If other planets do exist, then
- one may be in an orbit allowing for life to come into
- existence and thrive. Probably there is a black hole in
- each galaxy (logically - since old big stars can become
- black holes). Black holes are of course not holes,
- merely matter so dense that the light cannot escape the
- force of gravity, massive bodies, such as suns, can warp
- light rays with their gravity. As you approach the
- center, the atoms become more densely packed. I suspect
- that there are other forces there besides
- pressure/heat/etc. that somehow ignite the whole thing
- causing it to explode into a giant cloud of gas. This
- exploded star would then form into either
- huge/medium/small stars depending upon how much available
- gas there is--perhaps the gas is attracted by a dead
- neutron star, or something (like many of them) causing a
- "rebirth."
-
- The universe is at 3 degrees kelvin. Kelvin is when
- molecular action ceases? Does this imply that 0 degrees
- kelvin the universe would stop? Is the 3 degrees kelvin
- temperature or radiation and is there a difference?
- Perhaps the uniform microwave background
- temperature/radiation is the base-level of natural matter
- in the universe (much like the speed of light being the
- highest speed of any natural thing in the universe).
- Perhaps there is something special in the extra cold 3
- degree area that could be useful.
-
- The theory that everything we see exists only for
- us, and that it does not exist when we do not see it, is
- garbage. Merely an extension of the question "how do we
- know we are not dreaming everything." Which is
- essentially an extension of the omniscient god. Point:
- someone or something is projecting the vision, I exist,
- if everything I do not see does not exist then that
- person/machine also does not exist, since I see the
- visions and I do not see the person/machine when I wish
- it, I conclude there is no person/machine and what I am
- seeing is not put into existence for me. This type of
- theory is merely an attempt to legitimatize a god.
-
- I am not espousing a steady state theory of the
- Universe. All I am saying is that it is a lot bigger
- than we think and that what we imagine as grandiose
- workings of the universe through big bangs/etc. is really
- just a local effect. A steady state universe may exist,
- as may many other types of universes (since changing only
- a few universal variables can have drastically different
- effects on the outcome).
-
- While the universe may be against life, it is a
- continuum of size from very small to very large. One
- could ask why it isn't mostly dust, or mostly
- galaxy-sized stars. Probably because, like fractals, no
- matter how you look at, no matter from which orientation,
- no matter from what size, it will always look the same.
- Little things forming into big things.
-
- Light. It shines from stars and reflects from
- planets. It permeates the universe. A ray of light
- could beam across the universe if it wasn't interrupted.
- Unfortunately they are interrupted. Thought history
- stars have been shinning and planets have been echoing
- light. Low level light must be doing all sorts of
- collisions in the universe. What are the effects? When
- light from planets x, y, z, ..., n constantly vie for the
- same piece of space surely the loser goes somewhere.
- Where?
-
- All energy flows within a continuum (the energy
- spectrum). All matter is just a different combination of
- atoms. Question: is matter energy at rest? If so, then
- all matter is energy, which makes sense since they are
- convertible. If matter and energy are the same. Then in
- the universe only force influences. This suggests a
- continuum of force. "Gravity"/magnetism and at a small
- level: electro weak/strong and nuclear. What I'm
- suggesting: "space" is forces, all in space is
- energy/matter and is influenced by space. Energy/matter
- do not influence each other, and do not influence space.
- No...that's wrong, matter does influence space at least
- on the atomic scale. Well, I need to think about this a
- little while. Basically picture the universe as two
- parts: the topography and the stuff on/in/around/within
- this topography.
-
-
- Nothing can come out of nothing, nothing can
- go back to nothing.
- --PERSIUS
-
- Only the fantastic has a chance of being real
- in the cosmos.
- --HAWKWIND
-
-
- Physics of the Universe
-
- When an atom decays (beta decay) the atomic number
- of the nucleus (the number of protons it contains)
- increases by one. Also the electron will fly off at
- different speeds sometimes fast, sometimes slow. The
- neutrino is responsible for the speed. A neutrino and an
- electron is emitted off a neutron when beta decay occurs,
- and the amount of energy each gets (the more energy the
- faster the speed of departure) is random. Neutrinos are
- particles that have no charge, and little or no mass.
- The nucleus of the atom recoils against the departing
- neutrino's motion. Neutrinos travel and rarely hit other
- particles (they easily pass through all matter). This
- neutrino is known as the electron neutrino. There are
- two other forms of neutrinos: the muon neutrino and the
- tau neutrino. Only the muon neutrino has been produced
- and detected in the laboratory. When a neutrino strikes
- an atom of chlorine it turns it into argon 37
- (radioactive), when it strikes a gallium atom it turns it
- into a form of radioactive germanium. Inverse beta decay
- is when a neutrino strikes a proton yielding a neutron
- and an antimatter electron (a positron). The positron
- flies off and should strike an electron quickly and
- annihilate each other.
-
-
- "[Antimatter is] just matter with its electric
- charge reversed--an anti-proton, for example,
- is merely a proton with a negative
- charge--it's unknown in the natural universe.
- And when created in a laboratory it has a
- tendency to vanish in a blaze of elementary
- particles as soon as it comes in contact with
- matter [its positive form, not some other type
- of matter]."
- Conceivably an anti-matter universe could develop.
- When this universe hits a matter universe what happens?
- Maybe matter and antimatter destroy each other--perhaps
- leaving a tiny repelling force or merely a lot of energy
- that can become a repelling force (through volume area
- filled?), building up, until large enough that both
- galaxies move away (not necessarily directly opposite
- courses?). This could go on forever until the universe
- shrink to nothing? - so what would be a universal
- building/expansion part of this?
-
- Perhaps black holes (or more appropriately, black
- stars) act like galactic signposts/nodes in a galactic
- map/net for traveling via some trans-light method. In
- which normal matter doesn't matter.
-
- Does a universe, by being anti-deterministic, allow
- things like tachyons to exist?
-
- Edwin P. Hubble found in 1929 that the more distant
- a galaxy the faster it recedes (from us). On space
- expanding causing all objects to fly apart from all other
- objects: Garbage. There would be all sorts of
- distortions on the quantum level, experiencing
- distortions of our own matter--which sensors would
- notice. The galaxies are probably moving, but by the
- laws of gravity. The galaxies are falling through curved
- space like all matter does. We should be looking for
- forces that distort space. If for some reason empty
- space expands while space with matter does not, this
- creates some intriguing ideas; including: crumpled space
- where empty space meets space dominated by matter, empty
- space pushing matter space, empty space containing all
- sorts of distortions providing quicker or slower matter
- travel (light apparently is not affected, but maybe
- matter is).
-
- In two billion years, the Milky Way galaxy will
- collide with the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest neighbor.
-
- Recent reports have it that the Milky Way galaxy is
- a bar-spiral galaxy (versus a full, more pure spiral,
- spiral galaxy). That is, it has a prominent axis.
-
- Note, breaking the speed barrier by changing the
- form of matter itself. For example, changing electrons
- to tachyons.
-
- Q: does anything ever disappear from existence
- totally? Or do they just become increasingly
- infinitesimal (energy/speed/mass/etc.)?
-
- Keep watch for information on Supernova 1987A. It
- has become a very fast and interesting pulsar in the last
- two years. The star released a ring-shaped puff of
- gas as much as 10,000 years before it exploded. The
- debris from the explosion itself will eventually overtake
- the gas ring.
-
- Space curves around everything (for example,
- planets, us) (space is curved by everything). While
- planets can move and tables stay still, only life can
- move where it wants. This ability also gives us
- minuscule control of space around us--as we warp space
- wherever we are. Q: can this be enhanced? The minute
- warping of space is enough to cause a slight pull on
- objects--but is vastly pulled toward earth so it is
- unnoticeable. What is space? How is it curving around
- me? Or through me? Does space curve around an object, or
- does the body absorb the space that is right on target,
- reflecting it back out like a barrier to deflect things?
- Note, non gravity space attracting gravity may lead to a
- collapsed universe, until encountering another universe's
- gravity zone?
-
- Momentum, it's the force of a moving object that was
- imparted to that object externally. When you hit a
- baseball with a bat, for instance, the bat imparted
- energy onto the ball (the bat lost the energy) and the
- ball was able to take off. Without forces of resistance
- the ball would go forever at the same speed. The ball
- acts as though it was constantly being pushed by the bat
- at a constant rate of speed. Each second the object (the
- ball) thinks it's being pushed, although nothing is
- pushed, it's just moving forward due to its momentum.
- The ball doesn't have this energy that is momentum. The
- energy was released with a bang at the moment it was
- imparted to the ball. It gave the ball direction and
- speed for its full amount of energy. The ball just
- continues due to lack of sufficient resistance (until
- gravity and air resistance takes over).
- Momentum doesn't warp space. It rely's on the
- object (eg. planet) to do that job. It's the actual
- warping of space that slows down speed (the effect of
- momentum)--since you're literally pushing away space to
- move through. This warping alters the two factors of
- momentum: speed and direction. If gravity curves and
- warps space then it must be short range because if a
- planet had curved-space to flow in for it's orbit,
- momentum wouldn't keep it straight--if gravity came off
- the warping would be gone too--and momentum would take it
- straight as it is warping. That is, each object in space
- warps space around it. The warping isn't like ripples in
- a pool, but a smooth pattern more like a crater. Space
- nearest the object is curved toward the object most, as
- you move farther away from the object space becomes less
- curved (diminishing returns). A planet rotating the sun.
- Each has space curved toward itself, each is drawing the
- other closer. What keeps them apart? Momentum. The
- planet's momentum wants it move straight (tangent to the
- sun), the sun want's the planet to collide, you end up
- with an orbit.
- Q: shouldn't this mean that space in solar systems
- and especially close to the sun and first few planets is
- thinner than "normal" (empty) space because the area is
- so constantly used? Wouldn't this then mean that speeds
- of travel would be slower, take longer, in normal space?
- If they did, then objects would appear farther away,
- proportional to their distance, than they do now. On the
- other hand, most used space (eg. that occupied by things
- like: planets, tables, chairs, us) have highest rate of
- active use, but are "thicker" space. More compressed,
- more compact. Relation: compact space = active space.
- Relation: spacial density : spacial activity. Empty
- space = no activity. Full space = lots of atomic
- activity. As a light (ray, beam) atom goes through
- space: 1) space where that atom is at contracts, 2) then
- atom is forced onward into empty space, 3) repeat 1. At
- a point of max compression (for this atom) the atom's
- center is just past the point of maximum influence (or
- perhaps atom is warped/squashed) so that it is forced
- through the next infinitesimal point on and on--movement
- through space. Movement through momentum. Logically the
- process of warping space should either draw energy from
- the planet or draw energy from speed (momentum). This
- may reduce speed and suggest a denser space. Perhaps:
- imagine/picture visualize: a round atom in empty space,
- with a decreasing halo of light around it. The light
- represents the density of space near this atom, as space
- was drawn to and warped by the atom. Remember space
- itself had to move to allow this atom to be put there.
- Space isn't like water where you add objects and watch
- the level rise. It's like an enclosed box of sand, pump
- air into a balloon that is in the sand, and the sand
- immediately around the balloon compresses. This is an
- object at rest. Add in motion and the effect looks more
- like that of a comet. The increased compression of space
- in front of a moving adds more compression potential to
- the object. This makes the space farther in front of the
- object the direction of choice because while the
- influence of the object is the same in all directions the
- influence of the warped space is mostly toward the front
- (the direction of travel). Perhaps the initial extra
- frontal spatial warping is what is imparted to the ball
- when the bat hits it. This would give it both speed and
- direction simultaneously, by simply adding to it's normal
- warping of space a "cornea" which warps space in a
- specific direction with a "cornea size/effect" to cause
- the speed.
-
- If an atom exists in empty space, and another exists
- in crowded space than each of these have a different
- effect. The lone atom's effects won't be felt. The atom
- that is part of a group will interact with other atoms
- until the group as a whole has an effect that all the
- atoms, if isolated, couldn't produce. More of a
- universal truth than anything else.
-
- "Modern physicists are accustomed to seeing
- new particles materialize out of energy in
- particle accelerators. Near a black hole a
- similar process should happen; gas falling
- toward a black hole should heat up to such a
- high temperature that particles colliding with
- each other would create other particles. In
- fact, so great is the gravity around a black
- hole and so high the density of light that two
- light rays could behave the same way: photons
- could collide with each other just as gas
- particles do, each collision producing an
- electron and its antiparticle, the positron.
- Eventually the electron and positron would
- annihilate each other, releasing a burst of
- energy that could, in theory, be detected from
- Earth. An interesting consequence might
- follow from this exotic reaction: the creation
- of new matter could deflate the envelope of
- hot gas surrounding the black hole. If the
- intensity of light were to exceed a critical
- level, the photon collisions would run rampant
- and the creation of new electrons and
- positrons would ultimately drain all
- available energy reserves. The gas, having
- spent all its heat and pressure, would
- collapse. Once collapsed into a thin disk,
- the gas closest to the black hole could
- receive new gravitational energy from other,
- more remote gas being drawn in. This infusion
- of new energy could cause the disk to
- reinflate and start the process anew. The
- accompanying changes in radiation from the gas
- as it deflates and inflates would help
- astronomers locate the black hole and measure
- its mass. Predicted only in the past couple
- of years, this "matter-creation catastrophe"
- has not yet been observed. Astronomers are
- searching for evidence of such events mostly
- in the high end of the spectrum--X-rays and
- gamma rays--since only these rays have enough
- energy to create particles."
- This may support a steady-state universe. As the
- black holes wouldn't be getting ever-larger. They reach
- a certain point, and then matter approaching gets
- converted into energy and sent back out into space, to
- re-coalesce into solar-systems/etc.
-
-
- Universe notes:
-
- These are quoted from articles. They have some
- bearing but I have not had time to incorporate their
- substance into the document yet. They are not
- necessarily my opinion.
-
- "This is radiation left over from the
- primordial fireball, which was ten billion
- degrees Kelvin at one second after the Big
- Bang. Today, after ten billion years of
- expansion and cooling, it's only 2.7°.
- Astronomers can't actually measure the age of
- the universe directly, but they can measure a
- quantity called the Hubble constant (denoted
- by H), which is the current expansion rate of
- the universe. In the Big Bang theory, the age
- of the universe is approximately the inverse
- of the Hubble constant (1/H), so H isn't
- really constant but is always getting smaller.
- Numbers happen to be dimensionless--this is,
- they lack units of measurement. (Plane 5 is
- dimensionless; 5 m.p.h. is not.) Why is our
- universe so isotropic and why is it so flay?
- (A flat universe is one that lies just at the
- borderline between "closed" and "open," the
- former indicating a universe that will
- eventually stop expanding and recollapse, the
- latter a universe that will expand forever.)
- The standard Big Bang model doesn't answer
- these questions other than to assume the
- universe started that way--isotropic and
- flat--which strikes many cosmologists as
- highly improbable." [Note:
- isotropic=ordered, non-isotropic = chaotic]
-
- "To drive chemical reactions you need some
- form of energy, usually heat, and in
- interstellar space there's not much heat: the
- temperature there is typically around -440 to
- -425 degrees Fahrenheit, or 20 to 35 degrees
- above absolute zero. One possible source of
- energy, though, is cosmic rays. If a cosmic
- ray were to knock an electron off, say, a
- carbon atom (thereby converting it into a
- positively charged ion), the carbon would be
- much more prone to react with, say, a hydrogen
- molecule. Such ion-molecule reactions are
- thought to explain much of the chemistry in
- interstellar clouds." [Note: as may
- ultraviolet light.]
-
- "Every astronomer know how stars form: from
- collapsing clouds of interstellar gas and
- dust. They've found what appears to be a ring
- of massive young stars, surrounded by gas
- rushing into the ring at a speed of roughly
- 45,000 miles per hour. The cloud, called
- W49a, lies 45,000 light-years away, on the far
- side of the galaxy. The ring of a dozen or so
- stars at the center of W49A was extraordinary:
- it was large (about six light-years across),
- massive (including the gas inside it, about
- 50,000 times as massive as the sun), and
- spinning madly (at about 30,000 miles per
- hour). The sheer size and brilliance of the
- ring enabled Welch and his colleagues to
- observe gas motions in W49A by means of the
- familiar Doppler effect. As a tracer the
- researchers used the molecule HCO+, which
- emits and absorbs radio waves at a frequency
- of precisely 89.1 gigahertz. In the bright
- radiation coming from the ring, the absorption
- by HCO+ gas in front of the ring was plain to
- see--but not at 89.1 gigahertz. Instead the
- absorption was Doppler-shifted to a slightly
- lower frequency, indicating that the gas is
- falling away from Earth and into the ring.
- Conversely, the radiation emitted by excited
- molecules behind the ring was shifted to a
- higher frequency, because the gas there is
- flowing toward the Earth and, again, into the
- ring. Since gas seems to be flowing into the
- central ring from all sides, Welch and his
- colleagues conclude, W49A must be collapsing
- under its own gravity. Actually, gravity may
- not be the only force at work in W49A; the
- cloud's magnetic field may also have played a
- crucial role. The collapse, say the
- researchers, is proceeding from the inside out
- and has been going on for only about half a
- million years--not nearly enough time for
- gravity to suck 50,000 suns' worth of material
- into the center of an unmagnetized cloud. But
- if the cloud were stiffened and supported by a
- magnetic field, a lot of gas could have
- collected at the center before the
- gravitational collapse even began.
- Furthermore, within the cloud, the "news" of
- the collapse would travel at the speed of
- sound, and it would be transmitted faster
- through a magnetically stiffened cloud (just
- as sound moves faster through water than
- through air, because water is stiffer). That
- would allow gas to be drawn into the center
- faster. Yet even with a magnetic field, says
- Dreher, the outside of W49A probably still
- doesn't know that the inside has caved in
- underneath it."
-
- "Three astronomers at the University of
- Arizona say they have found a couple of
- galaxies that are at least 17 billion
- light-years away--well beyond the farthest
- quasar. Because their light has been en route
- for 17 billion years, we are seeing them
- during the era when all galaxies were born,
- shortly after the Big Bang. The only things
- that existed before galaxies formed--and thus
- the only things that might be farther
- away--are dim and probably unobservable clouds
- of gas. The newly detected "primeval"
- galaxies may therefore mark the edge of the
- observable universe. The reason primeval
- galaxies have not been found is simple. As
- the universe expands, the most distant objects
- move away from Earth at nearly the speed of
- light--a motion that stretches out and
- therefore reddens their light, shifting most
- of it into the infrared range. The
- sophisticated infrared detector chips needed
- to observe such faint radiation were
- originally developed for the military, and
- have only recently become available to
- astronomers. "We had an array of 4,096 such
- detectors," said Elston, "which meant we could
- gather in one night what would have taken
- 4,096 nights as recently as 1985, when
- single-chip detectors were state of the art.
- Elston and his colleagues started using their
- array last spring, before anyone else. They
- found the two primeval-galaxy candidates
- almost immediately, in the same swath of
- southern sky. Unless they were incredibly
- lucky, that means the heavens must be peppered
- with similar objects--just on would expect, if
- they really are primeval galaxies. The size
- and apparent brightness of the objects are
- also in line with what theorists have
- predicted."
-
- "He was particularly interested in the
- conditions 10^-35 second after the Big Bang,
- when temperatures in the embryonic cosmos were
- dropping below 1,000 trillion trillion
- degrees. That was the moment when grand
- unification came to an end; when forces and
- particles, formerly indistinguishable, assumed
- their separate identities. New observations
- have shattered the old doctrine that the
- universe is homogeneous, with galaxies and
- clusters of galaxies scattered uniformly
- through space like a mist. Today's
- astronomers are discovering that galaxies are
- distributed in a curious pattern: they seem
- to sit on the surface of huge, nested bubbles.
- Inside the bubbles are enormous voids, as much
- as 250 million light-years across, where few
- if any galaxies are found."
- [note: what we really should be studying is why those
- few stars/galaxies left in the darkness are still there
- - perhaps an advanced race?]
-
- ". . .the [big bang] model is based on general
- relativity, Einstein's tremendously successful
- theory of gravity. Relativity positively
- requires an expanding universe to have started
- off with a pointlike bang--provide certain
- assumptions are true. One crucial assumption
- is that gravity is the dominant force in
- shaping the cosmos. Another is that the
- universe today is smooth; that is, that the
- distribution of matter of the large scale is
- everywhere the same. That second assumption
- has always been problematic. At most levels
- the universe is clearly not smooth; it is
- clumpy. Matter is clumped in stars, stars in
- galaxies, galaxies in superclusters as much as
- 100 million light-years long. Even though
- such clumps have long been troublesome for the
- Big Bang theory--it cannot yet fully explain
- how they formed--they are not a fatal flaw.
- The theory requires only that the universe be
- smooth at the largest scale, over distances of
- billions rather than millions of light-years.
- Now, however, it appears that even that
- assumption may be wrong. In the past few years
- astronomers have discovered still larger
- clumps: huge aggregates of matter that span a
- billion light-years or more, stretching across
- a substantial fraction of the observable
- universe. If such clumps exist, Einstein's
- equations do not require the universe to have
- once been confined to the head of a pin. But
- there is an alternative to the Big Bang, one
- that isn't well known. It is an entirely
- different view of the nature and evolution of
- the universe. It is not based on general
- relativity because, unlike conventional
- astrophysics, it does not see gravity as the
- dominant force in the cosmos. Starting from
- the observed fact that the universe, stars and
- all, is 99 percent plasma-- ionized gas that
- can conduct electricity--the alternative
- cosmology holds that the universe is
- criss-crossed and sculpted by titanic electric
- currents and vast magnetic fields. In this
- electrically engineered plasma universe, the
- Big Bang never happened; instead the universe
- has existed for infinite time, without a
- beginning and with no end in sight. The
- plasma universe is a vision created not by
- cosmologists or astrophysicists but by plasma
- physicists. Its intellectual progenitor is
- Hannes Alfvén, an 80-year-old Swedish Nobel
- laureate. Trained as an experimenter in
- electrical phenomena, Alfvén began in the
- 1930s to apply his work to astronomy--in
- particular, to the problem of why the universe
- is clumpy. In photographs of the Veil and
- Orion nebulas he noticed that glowing
- astronomical clumps often take the form of
- delicate, lacy filaments. He saw similar
- filaments in the sky over his Swedish home: in
- the aurora borealis, or northern lights. Most
- important of all, Alfvén saw the same luminous
- threads in laboratory plasmas. 'Whenever a
- piece of vacuum equipment started to
- misbehave,' he recalls, 'these filaments would
- be there.' Many investigators had analyzed
- the laboratory filaments before, and so Alfvén
- knew what they were: tiny electromagnetic
- vortices (Alfvén calls them ropes) that snake
- through a plasma, carrying electric currents.
- The vortices are produced by a phenomenon
- known as the pinch effect. A straight thread
- of electric current flowing through a plasma
- surrounds itself with a cylindrical magnetic
- field. This field attracts other currents
- flowing the same direction. Thus the tiny
- current threads tend to 'pinch' together,
- drawing the plasma with them. The converging
- threads are twined into a plasma rope, much as
- water converging toward a drain generates a
- swirling vortex. The plasma rope, or
- filament, then gets pinched further by its own
- magnetic field. [Alfvén] proposed that
- gravity alone was not responsible for the
- clumpiness of the cosmos. Instead, vast
- magnetic vortices, operating through the pinch
- effect, drew plasma together in space--forming
- planets, stars, galaxies, and galaxy
- clusters--just as small vortices do in the
- lab. Indeed, according to Alfvén, magnetic
- pinching, working with gravity, is much better
- at concentrating matter than gravity alone.
- Unlike gravity, the magnetic force on a plasma
- thread increases with the velocity of the
- plasma. That leads to a positive feedback: as
- threads get drawn into a vortex, the plasma
- moves faster, which increases the force on the
- threads and pinches them even tighter. In
- addition, a contracting mass tends to spin
- faster and faster, and the spin generates a
- centrifugal force that resists the
- contraction. Magnetic filaments can carry
- away this excess spin, or angular momentum.
- Thus they allow a much greater contraction.
- For a long time Alfvén didn't get far with
- these ideas: astronomers just didn't believe
- the tenuous plasma of space could carry giant
- electric currents. But things began to change
- in the late 1960's, as space probes explored
- the solar system. The probes showed that
- Alfvén was right: electric currents and
- magnetic filaments are present in space. They
- were first detected near Earth, where currents
- flow along the lines of the geomagnetic field.
- (The aurora is light given off by atmospheric
- atoms that have been struck by particles in
- these currents.) Later the Pioneer and Voyager
- spacecraft detected currents and filaments
- around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The space
- probes "completely changed the preexisting
- theories about the magnetic fields and
- surroundings of all three planets," says Alex
- Desler, a Rice University space physicist who
- was the first person to recognize the currents
- near Earth. Currents and filaments are now
- known to exist throughout the solar system--a
- point that even vocal critics of plasma
- cosmology don't dispute. "No on today denies
- the importance of magnetic fields and currents
- in the solar systems and in its formation,"
- says Peebles. "This is now completely
- accepted." For example, everyone agrees that
- Alfvén's filaments explain why the sun is a
- slowly rotating sphere, rather than a rapidly
- rotating disk (as it would be if gravity alone
- had shaped it). Filaments connected to the
- young sun slowed it down by transferring spin
- to the planets and thereby allowed it to
- contract into a sphere. For Alfvén the
- acceptance of his ideas about the solar system
- is only the first step. "If we can
- extrapolate from the laboratory to the solar
- system, which is a hundred trillion times
- larger in extent," he asks, "then why
- shouldn't plasma still behave the same way for
- the entire observable universe--another
- hundred trillion times larger? Why should
- gravity alone dominate the largest scale?"
- Indeed, there is already good reason to
- believe that electromagnetic filaments are
- important at the next scale up from the solar
- system: the scale of a galaxy."
-
- "When Albert Einstein completed his general
- theory of relativity 65 years ago, he made an
- intriguing prediction: experimenters would
- discover that time passes more slowly on earth
- than in outer space, where gravity is weaker.
- The stronger a gravitational field, Einstein
- said, the slower a clock would run. This
- aspect of relativity has since been proved
- many times in the lab. Now researchers from
- the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
- Astrophysics in Massachusetts and NASA's
- Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama have
- tested Einstein's prediction by timing a clock
- in space. They did it by lofting a 90-pound
- atomic clock 6,200 miles above the earth
- aboard a Scout rocket. After lengthy analysis
- of the data radioed back to earth, they report
- in Physical Review Letters, they were able to
- measure the relativistic effect to within .007
- per cent, almost 200 times as accurate as any
- previous measurement. Their conclusion:
- operating in a weaker gravitational field, the
- clock speeded up. Had it stayed in space, it
- would have gained one second every 73 years,
- just as Einstein's theory predicts."
-
- "Released during the fusion process are fast
- neutrons that can induce radioactivity in the
- walls of the plant by a process known as
- neutron activation. After a relatively short
- exposure to energetic neutrons, many materials
- weaken and fracture. But a Fusion Materials
- Test Facility is being Built at Hanford,
- Washington, to find materials that will stand
- up to neutron onslaught."
-
- "A magnetic field does not pass through a
- superconductor, but instead flows around
- it."
-
- "[The microwave beams, called masers, that are
- emitted start] with the birth of massive blue
- stars that are 100,000 times as bright as the
- sun and dozens of times as big. As the star
- fires up its thermonuclear furnace for the
- first time and its surface temperature reaches
- 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, atomic particles
- are driven off the star into space, becoming
- an intense stellar "wind" that drives away the
- surrounding dust and gas left over from the
- star's birth. This placental cloud speeds
- outward at hundreds of miles a second, but not
- smoothly. some of the gaseous molecules in
- that violent flow begin to form clumps. It is
- those clumps, each of them bigger than the
- earth's orbit around the sun, that absorb the
- star's energy and re-radiate it as intense
- microwave beams. At any one time, a hundred
- of these giant masers can surround the newly
- born star, like fireworks heralding its birth.
- Because it takes up to a million years for the
- dust to blow completely away and reveal the
- stellar glow itself, a cosmic maser is often
- the first announcement of a newborn star."
- The masers themselves last for just a couple
- of years or at most tens of thousands of
- years, as they gas slows down respectively.
- Useful for determining distances to stars.
- Masers have also been found in the twilight
- (death) of red giants.
-
- "Within a volume about the size of the solar
- system, a typical quasar produces the energy
- of 1000 galaxies, or 10 trillion stars. Some
- are more than 10 billion light-years away . .
- . many of them have tiny bright cores from
- which long jets of matter stream in opposite
- directions--a feature characteristic of radio
- galaxies (so called because they emit
- prodigious amounts of energy at frequencies
- that radio telescopes can detect). Radio
- galaxies are less energetic than quasars, but
- most of them are not nearly so distant . . .
- theory that quasars are actually galaxies in
- their violent infancy. Says [Jeffrey Puschell
- of U. of CA at San Diego] 'My own feeling is
- that the largest galaxies start up quietly, go
- through a quasar stage, and then die off.'
- Astronomers think that the quasar's radio jets
- could be produced by hot gas squeezed out of
- the top and bottom of a thick doughnut of
- material that is swirling around a
- supermassive black hole at the center of a
- young galaxy. As this material is swallowed
- into the black hole, the galaxy's energy
- output gradually declines from quasar levels
- to that of a more ordinary radio galaxy, or
- shuts off entirely. Still, the centers of
- many galaxies, including the Milky Way, are
- believed to retain bizarre traces of their
- quasar ancestry--black holes."
-
- "Conducts experiments that take only one ten-
- millionth of a second to run:. . .fires
- electron beams into high-energy plasmas and
- studies the radiation that emerges. Plasmas
- are gases in which the electrons have been
- liberated from the atoms; the type [of plasma
- used] are so hot that the freed electrons zing
- through the gas at nearly the speed of light.
- Plasmas make up about ninety-nine per cent of
- the matter in the universe. The work helps
- astrophysicists understand how plasmas
- function in nature, as in pulsars and quasars.
- For applied physics, we have to find ways of
- producing high-power electromagnetic waves in
- the high-frequency ranges of the spectrum [one
- use would be for better radars]."
-
- "The recipe for [life] is simple: Take a flask
- of methane gas, add water vapor, nitrogen,
- ammonia, carbon dioxide, perhaps a pinch of
- sulfur, a hunk of clay, liquid water--all
- thought to have been abundant on the primitive
- earth--and stir with lightning, or ultraviolet
- light. The result is a brownish sludge, full
- of organic compounds often including amino
- acids--the building blocks of proteins.
- Nature has spread organic molecules through
- comets, the clouds of Titan, Jupiter, and
- Saturn, the frosty dust clouds of space, and
- earth itself. Life began on earth, biologists
- think, when the first self-replicating strand
- of DNA formed out of those materials in the
- primordial soup. [When] the earth was a
- billion years old, blue-green algae were
- already flourishing, and scientists believe
- that it and all the forms of life that
- followed descended from that first DNA
- molecule."
-
- "Shrouded by clouds of dust, the center of the
- Milky Way has long been a mystery. Now the
- veil is lifting. Using the world's largest
- radio astronomy facility, scientists have
- discovered a huge plume of ionized hot gas
- escaping from the heart of the galaxy. The
- fiery arc is unlike anything observed before
- in the Milky Way. It rises from the galactic
- plane and curls around for perhaps 600 light-
- years, or 3,500 trillion miles. Each of its
- filaments of gas is a few light-years wide.
- The whiplike shape of the filaments suggests
- that they may be formed by an incredibly
- intense magnetic field at the galactic core.
- The question now is: What giant dynamo lies
- hidden there?"
-
- Measuring the Doppler shifts of light from different
- parts of the galaxy determines the velocities of stars.
- "If a rotating galaxy is edge-on to our line of sight,
- for example, stars on one side will be coming toward us
- and their light will be shifted to shorter, bluer
- wavelengths; on the other side, stars going away will be
- red-shifted. Most galaxies are found in groups, large or
- small, called clusters. The clusters in turn seem to
- form associations with each other called superclusters.
- On the large scale, these form a distinct pattern. The
- galaxies, that is, the luminous objects in the universe,
- are ganged up, it seems, in clumps and chains, with dark
- deserts of night--voids--in between." Largest clump
- found by 1983 went on for 700 million light-years. The
- Milky Way galaxy seems to be about 15 billion years
- old.
-
- Globular galaxy M-87 (spherical).
- "Emissions extend over many frequencies--from
- radio to x-ray--and most of them derive from a
- compact source embedded in the core of the
- galaxy. One of the best candidates for a
- galaxy with a supermassive black hole in its
- nucleus (or if not a black hole, some other
- prodigious engine worth decoding). Moreover,
- its location at the center of a nearby rich
- cluster of galaxies makes it an excellent
- study for astronomers trying to fathom the
- dynamics of galaxy formation and interaction.
- Significant amount of M-87's radio emission
- comes from the jet. The jet's optical
- emission was strongly polarized. This
- polarization was thought to be caused by
- 'synchrotron radiation,' in which high-energy
- electrons spiral along magnetic field lines in
- the jet at relativistic velocities. As the
- electrons are accelerated, they emit
- radiation. The wavelengths at which this
- radiation occurs depends on the energies of
- the spiraling particles. The jet is emerging
- from the 'north' polar axis. In contrast to
- the amber glow of M-87, the jet shines with
- the bluish-white light of synchrotron
- radiation: its total luminosity is that of 10
- million suns. Lumpy filament approximately 20
- arcseconds in apparent length. At an
- estimated distance 17 megaparsecs the apparent
- length of the jet corresponds to a projected
- length of about 2 kiloparsecs (6,500 light-
- years) from the outer tip to the nucleus of M-
- 87. Astronomers estimate that the jet is only
- about 15,000 years old, and yet it has already
- reached a length of 2 kiloparsecs. It must be
- moving at near relativistic velocities, but
- because the dynamics of the jet are not yet
- fully understood, astronomers cannot be
- certain what that velocity is. Many of the
- estimates of the jet's velocity stem from
- models, which place the velocity somewhere
- between 10,000 and 30,000 kilometers per
- second (although given the length and age of
- the jet, at a distance of 17 megaparsecs the
- velocity works out to about 129,000 kilometers
- per second--43 percent the velocity of light).
- However, even this may be too slow. Some
- astronomers point out that many radio galaxies
- exhibit 'lobes' of strong radio emission on
- both sides of visible object. They suggest
- that M-87's jet is visible to us because it is
- moving more or less in our direction at speeds
- close to that of light. Relativistic effects
- cause the emissions from the jet to be
- preferentially beamed toward us. If there is
- a jet on the opposite side, it would be
- invisible to us because it is beaming its
- emission away from us in the same manner.
- Almost without exception astronomers agree
- synchrotron radiation produces the jet's light
- and radio emissions. Unlike thermal
- radiation, in which electrons in interstellar
- gas are energized by hot incident radiation,
- the synchrotron process energizes electrons by
- accelerating them through a magnetic field.
- Because synchrotron emission is not dependent
- on the temperature of the gas medium but on
- the energy of the particles and the strength
- of the magnetic field, synchrotron radiation
- is said to be nonthermal. In M-87 the
- synchrotron process begins when electrons are
- captured in the powerful magnetic field
- created in the core of the galaxy. The
- magnetic field accelerates these electrons to
- relativistic velocities in a spiral path
- around the magnetic field lines parallel to
- the polar axis of M-87. As the electrons are
- accelerated, they emit electromagnetic energy.
- Because the electrons are moving in a
- direction perpendicular to the field lines,
- the radiation is polarized. Through
- [synchrotron radiation] answers our questions
- about the kind of radiation we are detecting,
- it presents us with another problem: How can
- electrons continue emitting energy as they
- travel the length of the jet? As energetic
- electrons emit radiation, they lose energy,
- and the more energetic they are, the quicker
- they lose that energy. Typical lifetimes of
- electrons producing radio energy are a few
- hundred years, while those generating optical
- radiation may last twenty or thirty years.
- Electrons so energetic they emit x-rays last
- only a few days. The lifetimes of these
- electrons are far too short for the electrons
- to survive the journey out from the nucleus to
- the end of the jet, even if they travel near
- the speed of light. What, then, is re-
- energizing the electrons? Suggestions range
- from shock waves generated when newer plasma
- collides with older, slower-moving plasma to
- turbulence forming between the plasma and the
- interstellar medium surrounding it.
- Astronomers are fairly certain, however, that
- the same regenerating process probably occurs
- throughout the jet because structures evident
- in radio maps made of M-87 coincide with those
- in optical and x-ray emissions. Photographs
- of the jet made with large optical telescopes
- reveal a lumpy protuberance that resembles a
- bowling pin. These are only areas that are
- brighter and fainter, observations suggest the
- jet emissions may be coming from the surface
- of the jet rather than from inside. The jet
- may be a flow of hot gas out from the nucleus,
- but the part that is lit up may be a thin
- layer on the boundary of the jet between the
- hot gas and the external interstellar medium.
- And one hypothesis is that the zone of
- interaction [that is, the boundary between the
- jet and external medium] is what's actually
- producing the particles that are lighting up
- the flow. Most jets in active galaxies,
- astronomers agree, lead to their sources, and
- the source at M-87's core is bright, too
- bright to be a typical nucleus. In any
- telescope the galaxy's starlike nucleus
- appears to burn right through the haze of the
- surrounding disk. In that locus of light
- resides the secret of M-87's incredible power.
- Astronomers want to know what that secret is.
- The brightest x-ray emitting region
- corresponds to a diameter of about 200
- kiloparsecs, it gets fainter and fainter, and
- the edge has never been seen. It smoothly
- falls off. Spectra of the cluster's gas
- consists of excessive amounts of heavy metals
- like iron, neon, and oxygen (besides helium
- and hydrogen). And what about the center of
- the center of the galaxy cluster--M-87's
- mysterious core? Something is relentlessly
- drawing the gas into the very middle of M-87.
- It is believed that in the inner 10
- kiloparsecs of M-87, the gas is cooling. If
- the center is cooling and it has less pressure
- and a lot of gas on top of it, that means gas
- is flowing inward. But it is flowing in very
- slowly, over billions of years. The estimated
- rate is between 1 and 100 solar masses a year.
- It's conceivable that a small amount of it
- might power and feed a black hole in the
- middle. But one shouldn't give the idea that
- all of the gas goes in the black hole
- [speculative] because there's no way to get so
- much mass into such a small area. As you look
- farther and farther in toward the core of M-87
- along the jet, it's like looking at a thin
- cone. It ends up being opaque out to some
- distance along the jet at any given frequency.
- At higher frequencies you can see farther into
- the core."
-
- "Tachyons' most obvious transgression is that
- they go faster than the speed of light. On
- the face of it, that would seem to disqualify
- them from existing. But even tachyon-hating
- physicists know there is a loophole in the
- theory of relativity. Einstein showed that no
- material object can reach the speed of light.
- Nothing in his equations says that the object
- can't go faster. But since no object can get
- to the speed of light in the first place, it
- certainly cannot exceed it. But what if an
- object were already moving faster than light
- from the moment of its creation? Then it
- would never have to cross the forbidden
- barrier at all. And that is just the idea
- behind tachyons. Of course, since tachyons
- have to follow the same rules as everything
- else, they could never reach the speed of
- light, either. It's just that for them light
- speed would be impossibly slow. The second
- problem with tachyons is that they have what
- physicists call imaginary mass. That means
- that when the number representing the mass of
- a tachyon is squared, the result is a negative
- number. That's an acceptable state of being
- in higher mathematics, but it isn't supposed
- to turn up in real life. Worst of all,
- tachyons can violate time order, so that two
- observers might disagree on which of two
- tachyonic events came first. That can lead to
- so-called causality problems. If, for
- example, one observer sees a tachyon fired
- from a hand-held tachyon gun at point A and
- disintegrate at a target at point B, another
- might see it leave in reverse, with the
- tachyon leaving point B and entering the gun
- at point A. How, ask physicists, could the
- observer explain such a nonsensical chain of
- events. No one has ever found any evidence of
- a tachyon's existence. In the late 1920s the
- British physicist Paul Dirac created the Dirac
- equation, which predicted with uncanny
- accuracy how electrons should behave.
- Unfortunately, it also pointed to the
- existence of particles with negative energy.
- Then, in 1932, Carl Anderson discovered the
- positron--identical to the electron in every
- way, except that it carries an opposite
- electric charge. Tachyons keep popping up in
- the mathematics that are at the heart of the
- theories that physicists do take very
- seriously. When that happens, theorists tend
- to roll up their sleeves and hack away at the
- equations until the last of the tachyons is
- banished, at whatever cost to the theory. On
- theory holds that all the elementary particles
- we know of in our three-dimensional universe
- become tachyons when they are examined from a
- four-dimensional point of view. He proposes
- that even the slowest of elementary particles
- whip through this extra spatial dimension at
- faster-than-light speeds. Unlike classical
- tachyon theory, Davidson's ideas don't require
- a tremendous leap of faith into forbidden
- territory; rather, the equations that describe
- these higher-dimensional tachyons fall out
- neatly from the much-loved theory of general
- relativity. Even better, Davidson has found
- that higher-dimensional tachyons provide a
- sway of deducing certain properties of the
- fourth dimension that physicists are normally
- forced to just assume. Einstein's theory of
- general relativity predicted an expanding
- universe, and he, horrified at the thought,
- reworked the equations until that prediction
- had been expunged--an exercise he later
- referred to as the greatest mistake of his
- life. Part of the causality problem is how
- could observers tell whether a tachyon gun was
- hooting or swallowing tachyons."
-
- "According to quantum theory, empty space is
- not empty at all; it is suffused with
- fluctuating fields of energy. And although
- physicists can't decide whether the total
- energy in the vacuum should be positive or
- negative, they agree on one thing: the energy
- out to be huge--80 figures to the left of the
- decimal point, in the units in which such
- things are measured. Since energy is
- equivalent to mass, the energetic vacuum
- should be exerting a gravitational force. If
- the cosmological constant is large and
- negative, it should be supplementing the
- gravitational attraction of ordinary matter;
- and the universe, instead of continuing to
- expand in the aftermath of the Big Bang,
- should be collapsing toward a Big Crunch. On
- the other hand, if the cosmological constant
- is large and positive, it should be generating
- a kind of antigravity, a repulsive force that
- would cause matter to fly apart so fast that
- it could never clump together to form
- galaxies, including our own. Clearly neither
- of these cases is true, and thus the
- cosmological constant, be it positive or
- negative, is not large. In fact, measurements
- of the expansion rate of distant galaxies
- suggest that it is exactly zero, and that
- quantum theory--the most successful theory in
- physics--is in this instance, at least,
- spectacularly wrong. What's more, even a
- relatively small constant would noticeably
- slow or speed the rate at which distant
- galaxies move away from us. Apparently
- physicists have missed something fundamental
- about the universe, some process that ensures
- that all the different components of the
- cosmological constant, positive and negative,
- add up precisely to zero. [Einstein]
- described gravity as a curvature of space-time
- induced by mass-energy. But when he tried to
- apply his theory to cosmology, he ran into the
- same problem that had bedeviled Isaac Newton:
- the gravitational attraction of matter should
- cause the universe to collapse. Although
- Einstein's equation also allowed. . .for the
- universe to be expanding. Hubble discovered
- that the universe really is expanding:
- galaxies at the farthest reaches of the
- universe are receding from our own at
- near-light speeds. [See stuff about spaceship
- and light elsewhere is this document.]
- Uncertainty principle. In its most familiar
- form, the principle states that the position
- and velocity of a particle cannot be measured
- simultaneously with unlimited precision; the
- more precisely you determine one, the more
- indeterminate the other becomes. Significant
- only at the subatomic scale. But the
- principle also applies to other pairs of
- variables--in particular, to energy and time.
- What it says in this case is that the
- precision with which you can measure the
- energy of any system, such as a piece of empty
- space, is limited by the duration of the
- measurements; the shorter the time, the
- greater the imprecision. And this
- indeterminacy can never be resolved simply by
- more accurate measuring instruments; it is
- inherent in the system itself. Over a short
- enough time the system can assume just about
- any energy--and it does. In a world ruled by
- quantum mechanics, the energy of the system in
- any fleeting instant can be seen only as a
- wavelike fluctuation. As a consequence, the
- vacuum of empty space is not empty; it is
- pervaded by fluctuating fields of energy that,
- when large enough, manifest themselves as
- particles--individual photons, for example, or
- particle pairs consisting of an ordinary
- electron or quark and its antimatter twin,
- which burst into existence and then
- annihilate. The vacuum is thick with these
- short-lived 'virtual' particles. It looks
- empty only because each particle's visit to
- existence, according to the uncertainty
- principle, is so infinitesimally brief as to
- be undetectable. But the effects of these
- virtual particles en masse may be detectable.
- Virtual particles ought to have one effect in
- particular: their energy ought to warp space.
- [Perhaps large tracts of empty space provide
- FTL travel?] Depends on how often virtual
- particles appear in a given volume of space,
- and it also depends on the types of particles.
- Virtual quarks and electrons have much the
- same effect their 'real' counterparts: they
- cause space to contract. But virtual photons,
- or any other force-transmitting particles,
- have the opposite effect: they cause space to
- expand. The [wormhole] concept emerged from
- mathematical tinkering with the equations of
- quantum cosmology, which represent modern
- physics' tortured attempt to apply the
- uncertainty of quantum mechanics to gravity
- and to the universe as a whole. [To me, this
- is another indication that gravity does not
- rule the universe.] Just as quantum mechanics
- says there is a certain probability that
- particles can appear from nowhere in a vacuum,
- quantum cosmology says there may be a certain
- probability that a small chuck of space and
- time will suddenly pop into existence. [No
- doubt inversely proportional to the odds that
- this part of the theory is wrong.]"
-
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- SPACE TRAVEL
-
- Faster Than Light:
-
- Faster than light is possible. How I do not know.
- Such a big universe makes the mere light speed seem
- extremely slow - it is not pretty, so I suspect there is
- a way. Possibly though, this does not occur naturally.
- Possibilities: cracks in the structure of space (the
- curving of space is what causes the appearance of gravity
- - we ourselves curve space, but it is so small few things
- attract to us (maybe just a little on their way to the
- ground). The key seems "what is space itself?" I suspect
- it is some form of radiation layers (like magnetism). Or
- perhaps it is considered multilayered like including
- gamma rays, magnetism, gravity, etc. "What was the
- material that the universe expanded into?" is not a
- question since the big bang theory has been eliminated.
- A possibility is that what appears to us as space and
- distance may be changed dramatically if can change our
- dimensionality.
-
- If you had a space ship of the type:
- -----------------------
- | |/|
- |-] <-=| | engine
- | |\|
- -----------------------
- ^detector ^emitter
- |----- X ------|
-
- If the ship wasn't moving, and you sent a beam of
- light from the emitter to the detector, the distance
- traveled by the beam would be X, and the speed would be
- 300,000 kilometers per second (the speed of light). If
- the ship was moving forward, the speed of the beam
- remains the same. The distance traveled by the beam has
- increased. It increased by the distance the whole ship
- moved in the time it took the beam to get from the
- emitter to the detector. The real space the beam covered
- was greater than X, but the actual space the traveled was
- the same, after all, it had only to go from the emitter
- to the detector. If the ship was going the speed of
- light it would move ahead X, the light beam went X
- distance in the ship. In reference to the ship's space
- the beam of light traveled 1.5X. If the ship was going
- in reverse at the speed of light, the beam would get to
- the half-way point (in ship space) when the detector
- arrived. This assumes the inside of the ship isn't
- affected by the speed of the ship. If the beam is
- affected you need to consider such things like light
- leaving the emitter at light speed won't go anywhere with
- a ship moving forward at light speed.
-
- Isn't the solar system, and Milky Way galaxy, moving
- spaceships in space? Is the speed of light as we know
- it, the same outside the solar system, or outside the
- galaxy?
-
- Imagine, if you will. You are the captain of an
- interstellar space ship. Your technology level has not
- advanced to the point where you can convert yourself and
- your ship to energy and still maintain coherence. The
- old trick of scooping hydrogen (or whatever) from large
- tracks of space in front of you never supplied the energy
- you need for FTL. The scientists have discovered that
- they can use the fabric of space for energy (not the
- fabric itself - but what the fabric is made of). This
- frees up energy and makes an envelop of truly empty space
- (possible?). Possibilities: either the ship whisks it's
- way through this null space because it is null and in
- front of it, or the ship uses the energy to move itself.
-
- Possibilities: The null space behind the ship closes
- up, or it is necessary to recreate the space (consider it
- borrowed and that the ship probably requires no energy to
- move).
-
- Logical growth relations: larger engines to produce
- more speed - logical under normal circumstances, perhaps
- bigger null envelope = more speed. Smaller ships yield
- more speed - logical since would provide logical
- transport growth with technology (ie. you would have
- trouble sending a large army unless you could shrink the
- ships, use single-man engines, etc.), this also allows
- for growth when energy conversion and coherence is
- discovered - it provides a reward since a single beam (of
- first direct energy conversion, then compressed energy
- conversion later) probably is the maximum speed with this
- type of technology. Then the technology moves onto using
- the fabric of space itself--which is wholly energy based.
-
- Options also point to potential 1d single point type
- transfer methods.
-
-
- FTL possibility(?):
-
- I suspect three items that make up the universe:
- energy, force, and space. Energy produces force that
- alters space, and space produces forces that move (and in
- the process mold/contain) energy. Energy follows "space"
- (force) and bends space.
- Although "space" may just be force, leaving only
- two. Matter is probably energy at rest. Rest being
- contained by force.
- I've dubbed this the "B B Bomb" theory. Since to
- imagine it: picture a space ship, out a front launch bay
- it shoots little (1 foot round or so) nuclear bombs.
- It launches a bomb. As the bomb travels through
- space, it's momentum provides energy to move through
- space. It's mass causes space to move towards it. It
- travels from the launch bay at the speed it's designers
- wanted.
- It reaches a point in space. Nothings changed, the
- balance of forces to provide movement keep it going.
- Boom. It's ordered to explode. Suddenly space that
- was being brushed aside by momentum and pulled inward by
- mass no longer finds mass pulling it in--but forces
- shoving it away. And so, for a short time (as long as
- the energy lasts), space is pulling away from the
- exploding bomb. Space at the point of explosion is a
- little more stretched out than it normally would be.
- Boom. The ship's been launching these bombs every
- second. With each explosion space in that area is
- stretching out--the key is to cause continual explosions
- to stretch this space further and further out--timing
- such that the space doesn't have time to contract. Like
- a balloon as you blow it up, or a slab of metal as the
- blacksmiths hammer hits it. Thinner and Thinner the area
- of space becomes.
- What happens then? I've no idea. I suspect that in
- that little area you've created a zone of very thin
- space. Should you run a beam of light through it, it'll
- go faster than usual. I'm not saying you're "tearing"
- space and will get some magical door to an area 100 light
- years away. I'm saying a little are of space is now much
- more devoid of the forces of cohesion.
- I suspect that a ship using this process could move
- faster than light. Except you don't want to do it this
- way.
- It's not the bombs that move space. It's the
- timing. You're pushing space back before it has time to
- regroup. Therefore, any oscillator should work. My
- guess: something like a high speed proton beam projector
- that causes the beams to exit with maximum impact just at
- the tip of the front of the moving ships, as well as some
- farther away to make the "hole" big enough for the rest
- of ship. It's not a hole--but a bubble--that the ship
- moves through. See the section of medical uses of proton
- beams for their workings. What's tricky is that you
- don't want the effects effecting the space that makes up
- your ship, but unlike a bomb which has no source, a
- proton beam would, which just might make all the
- difference needed. One emitter at the point of the ship,
- and several smaller ones to help keep space from
- collapsing along important points.
- I further suspect that if you use this trick in a
- directional manner, space on the other side of the
- created bubble falls toward the source of the beam. That
- is, since the space in the bubble is so thin, and the
- force causing the effect is highly directional, that
- space opposite it (other side of bubble) is drawn towards
- it. I suspect this because then you could build a
- stationary transmitter. It's one thing to keep moving
- through bubbles, it's another to transmit. Just as radio
- transmitters can be unidirectional (outputing in all
- directions) or directional (producing a cone-like signal
- along the direction), so should these beams. The reason
- I suspect space along the line of the beam ahead of the
- bubble would comes toward the beam is because space
- outside the bubble will have more mass than usual (it's
- getting compacted) and this should have the effect of
- forming a "tunnel" (along the edges of the bubble in the
- direction of the beam) that tugs on the space at which
- they all meet. I mentioned I suspected a similar effect
- elsewhere in this document.
- This is important, because as space is drawn, it is
- pulled apart, as it is pulled apart more is drawn in. At
- some point you reach whatever you're aiming at--
- preferably a receiving antenna. Since you need only send
- a tight laser communication beam. Probably not that much
- energy is needed.
- The beauty of this method: it's technology based.
- The better you're technology, the better the systems you
- can build. You start by only being able to produce tight
- beam-based communication, then you advance to small hard
- material objects, then to bigger and bigger objects.
- To test this: since any oscillating device should
- produce spatial distortion effects. We need to look at
- oscillating devices. Strobe lights, fans, propellers,
- (although with the last two best effects may be if the
- prop's weren't attached and only the generator's bar was
- spinning), electricity perhaps. Actually another key may
- be high speed switching. Any way, effects should always
- be there, extremely tiny for "klutzy" implementations
- like fans, and much better as the power and cycles
- increases. Actually pulsating is a better word for the
- methods to use to get the desired effects.
- After all, this method has to have some effect on
- space. Space that doesn't give depending on energy
- provided would be a universe of constants (eg. nothing
- ever moving).
- Perhaps this stretching produces thin areas of space
- and the key is to always follow the path of least
- resistance.
- Potential problems: maybe at some point energy and
- cycles don't produce enough force to keep pushing apart
- that area of space (Einstein's energy approaches infinity
- problem/diminishing returns)--but then again, we've got
- Zeno's "no infinite distance between points" as a
- potential solution.
- Maybe this will answer some of the questions about
- pulsars as well. It's "natural", after all, everything
- in the universe is based on rotating--either spinning in
- place or rotating around something. Wouldn't it be wild
- if in order to travel really long distances or with
- really large forces you needed a setup producing power
- like a pulsar--thereby announcing to the universe what
- you're doing.
- I view space as a rubber ball, push on it and it
- compresses, release it and it bounces back.
-
-
- Space Ships:
-
- NASA is working on ion engines. They work by
- striping the electrons off of a substance (like fuel) and
- then sending the positive and negative electrons down
- different paths. They meet alternately in the engine
- nozzle. The ship is pushed at a slow constant speed,
- that is always building upon the old speed. Versus
- chemical engines that burn until they run out of fuel and
- then continue at a constant speed. Ion engines are
- considered electricity based engines.
-
- "It looks like a shovel turned upside down, and it
- has a name befitting a surfboard. Yet a waverider
- is in fact an experimental design for a space
- vehicle, and the waves it catches are acoustic, not
- aquatic. The conventional solution has been to
- take advantage of another planet's gravitational
- pull. Using a slingshot maneuver called a gravity
- assist, a spacecraft approaches a planet and is
- held by its gravity long enough to absorb some of
- the planet's orbital momentum. Then the craft is
- hurled off into space again. Unfortunately, such
- maneuvers provide only limited control over the
- angle of deflection. So mission planners trying to
- bounce a craft in the right direction are, to their
- chagrin rather like astrologers--waiting for the
- proper alignment of the planets before acting. And
- their ricochet shots often require tortuous routes
- that add years to the travel time. Life would be
- much simpler if engineers could only control the
- degree of bend in a gravity assist. The waverider
- would come much closer to the planet than would a
- conventional craft, close enough to dip into the
- atmosphere. Like any craft traveling though the
- atmosphere faster than the speed of sound, it would
- create a shock wave, which is a buildup of pressure
- in the surrounding air. But unlike other
- hypersonic craft, waveriders keeps this wave
- attached to the bottom of the vehicle. Lewis and
- other enthusiasts have come up with waverider
- models that could fly upside down in orbit so the
- force of the wave would press down on the craft,
- holding it in the atmosphere in the same way that
- an airfoil holds a car against the road. the craft
- could stay in orbit until it pointed in the desired
- direction; then it could beat a hast exit via
- rocket thrusters. The concept may seem like
- pie-in-the-sky stuff, but James Randolph of NASA's
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory is willing to stake one
- of NASA's space probes on it. Randolph is the
- manager of the Solar Probe program, which aims to
- launch an observational outpost in 2010 that would
- be placed 1.3 million miles from the sun's surface.
- The trip would take six years using plain old
- gravity assists. But with aerogravity assists at
- Venus and Mars, Randolph says, a waverider could
- make the journey in nine months. The usefulness of
- the wave rider design could go even further. With
- similar help from Venus and Mars, Randolph says, a
- planetary probe could get to Pluto in 5 years
- instead of 15, or to Saturn in 2 years instead of
- 4. A Mars-bound waverider whipping around Venus
- could cut the travel time to the Red Planet from a
- year or more to 130 days. [4 months] That is, of
- course, if waveriders work as promised.
- Atmospheric friction will make the leading edges of
- the craft hotter than the surface of the sun, and
- materials that can withstand that heat for long
- periods haven't been made yet. In addition,
- far-flung missions will require speeds ranging from
- 25 to 80 times the speed of sound, and that's more
- than Lewis and other engineers can coax out of wind
- tunnels now used to test waverider models. What
- Lewis and Randolph would like to see is an actual
- waverider test flight at those speeds in Earth's
- atmosphere. McDonnell Douglas may be able to
- squeeze a model waverider onto a delta or Pegasus
- rocket launch within the next three years."
-
-
- Miscellaneous Space Travel Stuff:
-
- Moon water:
-
- Just heat up moon rocks and one can make water (you
- can get a pint of hydrogen from each pound of moon dirt).
- Since the moon has much oxygen already, you get water.
-
- Navigation:
-
- Travel through space probably requires a similar
- system to what we have now. That is, you program a
- system with what you know, and it does the work of
- getting you from one point to another. This needs a
- reference system, gravity/space warping provides the
- system. Logical, as it allows finer tuning via
- determining smaller and smaller disturbances. Question
- is, whether this fine tuning can be done as you go along
- or whether you need to do it first - like mapping. Can
- a ship jump from x to y without any information about y?
- Can it navigate a course through the universe without
- having prior knowledge of the area to pass though. We
- can, maybe, assume that sensors would be too slow - but
- perhaps all could be done using computer models of
- predictability.
- Whatever; the system: low race relies on massive
- clusters and black holes (massive gravitational
- disturbances). Only able to travel between galaxies with
- this method. Then over time, refine it down to massive
- stars, then all stars, then planets, then asteroids, etc.
- A system of progressive improvements.
- If land somewhere you didn't expect, you would need
- to have the computer generate all possible locations,
- etc. to figure out where you are - must be a better way.
-
- Space engines larger for more speed?
-
- Engines that are extremely powerful but can't be
- used in atmosphere/solar system/etc. will need protective
- system for the engines' power. Ie. a shield around the
- engine to reduce it's power in atmosphere/etc. That way,
- need only on powerful "engine that can be always used
- instead of specific task-oriented engines.
- Logical to look for ships coated in
- reflective/silver/mirror surface if their main concern is
- laser weapons? Telling a race's technology by the ships
- they drive.
-
- Secret of long-term space life is the ability to
- synthesize food and materials. Both in usable forms, for
- parts; something like the new "growing" technique
- recently developed to make plastic parts from CAD files.
- This means an advanced race would send a small probe and
- use these abilities to form whatever larger things it's
- users may have wanted it to create. Such as: probes,
- miners, battleships, bases, and people (alien people).
- Maybe an alternative to teleportation? A necessary trick
- would be to avoid consuming life forms for construction
- material.
-
-
- On Time:
-
- Time is merely a reference tool. A yardstick by
- which we measure other things. Einstein understood this
- also:
- In a famous letter after the death of his
- oldest friend, Michele Besso, Einstein wrote
- to Besso's sister: "Michele has left this
- strange world just before me, This is of no
- importance. For us convinced physicists the
- distinction between past, present, and future
- is an illusion, although a persistent one."
-
- Time is measured in infinitesimal^ states. An
- infinitesimal^ state is when something changes somewhere
- in the Universe (say an electron on an atom somewhere in
- the Universe moved slightly). When the Universe has moved
- from one state to another time has changed. By
- definition, if nothing changes time has stopped -
- presumably for only an infinitesimal^ second. Therefore,
- one can say that time has stopped, but it carries no
- meaning as it is just the same as the present
- [time/state]. Also nothing can be done in this period as
- any change would lead to the next state [of time].
- The present is the current state.
- The past was a previous state and no longer exists,
- there is no past-time (as it had existed but no longer
- exists). In sum, there is no past because the past no
- longer exists.
- The future is the next state the Universe is about
- to enter. Once the universe enters that state, it is in
- the present. Since the future is not yet in existence,
- it does not exist. In sum, there is no future because
- the future is not yet in existence.
- Therefore, there is no past or future, only NOW, the
- present [state].
-
- The Universe can never repeat a cycle of states
- without leading to a known future and to no Free Will.
- To prevent cycles one must call upon the probability of
- the Universe itself. A cycle of states are possible on
- an extremely local level (like having your computer scan
- the keyboard until you type a character). Much
- higher/larger things (such as a single human) become
- harder and as the size/complexity increases the
- probability of determining the future reduces quickly.
- Lets say a highly evolved being/race stored a cycle of
- states of some Universe. If they could recreate the
- initial state, and prevent outside interference, they
- could run these events/states repeatedly. Anything
- within that universe has lost all existence of self - it
- is not free, since it cannot change anything about its
- future. If a being cannot change its own future it is
- not free (lacks Free Will), and is merely a slave or
- machine - an object in the universe, not a self. This
- is, of course, on the arguments against any omniscient
- God.
-
- Time is usually measured using some oscillating
- event--such as a pendulum did. It was confirmed that the
- farther from gravity you are, the faster time is.
- Probably because atoms and other atomic interactions
- happen faster with less gravity, or maybe the wave just
- propagates faster (speeds up in weaker gravity--the
- signal changes, but not the Universe).
-
-
- Force shields:
-
- Magnetic shields, or barriers, probably can be made
- by using multiple electromagnets aligned along the same
- way as an electromagnetic-gun. (nsnsnsnsns etc.)
- Rapidly reversing the polarity should produce a strong
- magnetic repelling field along the magnet. More power =
- more field --> more shield. Perhaps done with some sort
- of rotating/spinning nsnsns system, or just computer
- controlled electromagnets. Q: can magnetic fields repel
- anything? Even non magnetic objects? Also examine other
- forces (electroweak, etc.) to see if can enhance it. You
- also could put such a system inside metal, providing
- protection for such things as shocks (from bumps,
- weapons, etc.) without loosing advantages of skin (for
- example, armor). Maybe levitating fields for air cars.
- It is based on speed changes, outward magnetic field is
- getting n/s layers changing faster than the previous n/s
- layer has a chance to expand too far out. Note that it
- seems this will need extremely fast RPM's.
- Force screens:
- Mag = primitive
- Spacewarp (ship size) = middle
- Spacewarp (implanted or just hand held) = advanced
- Spacewarp (bio) = highly advanced
-
-
- Teleportation:
-
- I consider this possible using the concept of
- transportation beams. Transportation beams are
- teleportation--except teleportation carries with it the
- connotation of instantaneous transportation. To teleport
- you need to encode the object, transmit the object, and
- decode the object. Exactly what we do with data
- communications today.
-
- Encoding: a x-ray laser should be able analyze each
- atom (?) and tell what it is. Problem: moving things
- (like blood) [all things are moving at the atomic level].
- If done fast enough, the encoding process need not be
- concerned with moving things. So expect to be
- transmitting only unmoving objects long before can
- transmit moving objects. Use a laser mixed with x-ray to
- encode three-dimensional space occupied by object. Use
- laser beams to define locations of particles (like with
- holography now).
-
- Transmitting: easy, just send the encoding along an
- energy beam.
-
- Decoding: based on the transmitted data,
- reconstruct the object (using e=mc^2). Problem: life,
- life at encoding stage could still exist. Problem:
- energy, massive amounts to create an object. Solution:
- create object and destroy the atom as created, so
- transmit encoding and energy from conversion
- simultaneously, rebuilding the object particle by
- particle.
-
- Now, should energy be abundant, you can use a
- recorder and start creating duplicates of the people you
- send. Is this philosophically possible?
-
- Note: Battlefield Earth used teleportation devices
- to drop bombs suddenly into other peoples laps. Since
- this does not seem to happen very much I suspect there is
- a natural solution:
- 1) For long distances, knowledge is so complex race
- becomes so intelligent that such a thing would be
- beneath them and they would never do it.
- 2) Such distance that only normal radiation (such as
- light beams) can be used. Making long distance
- "High there!" bombs impractical. This would
- suggest a non-energy method to travel faster than
- light.
- 3) A receiving station is needed.
-
- Teleportation via dimensions and space tearing:
-
- Note: a hologram is three-dimensional in two-
- dimensional in three-dimensional (our world), can a
- hologram be broken into smaller and smaller pieces until
- it is infinitesimal and therefore 1 dimension (and
- retains its three-dimensional thus having three-
- dimensional in one-dimensional in three-dimensional)?
- Can one-dimensional exist in three-dimensional? Since
- you cannot move in one-dimensional space (it is a point
- only.) Once you enter the point you must come out the
- same way, right. Wrong. By entering at an angle you can
- figure out where you will come out. Note that 1
- dimension must be interconnected to all space--thus
- allowing transport via dimensions. Also note that if can
- create a way to convert matter into energy you can beam
- the energy smaller and smaller thus reaching
- infinitesimal (picture an oscillating string that gets
- longer and longer cycles until it is a straight line).
- Also note, the space/frame of reference created by
- imagination, could this be used? What dimension is
- imagination--in what space do we create. What is
- infinite dimensions? If we imagine a n-dimension space,
- is it created? (Since everything we imagine comes into
- existence.) Yes, perhaps black holes and their very core
- are one-dimensional points--this would allow the
- matter/energy to be transported. The immense gravity
- strings the energy out so it can go through the one-
- dimensional "door."
-
- Instead of bringing space toward you--compress space
- in front of you (and do it along a very thin line--lest
- you disrupt space too much). Then you stop, move a bit,
- and let space (along that line) snap back to where it
- was. Better on energy than pulling space toward you, and
- letting it snap to get to your destination.
-
- What is the one-dimension? Seems an ideal method of
- travel. I know it cannot be represented in three or two-
- dimensional space (sphere, circle) but as we approach
- infinitesimal sizes do we cross a barrier to the one-d?
- Perhaps a black hole at its core can breach this barrier
- and send through some energy?
-
- To get from one place to another w/o speed
- limitations one must "tear" three-dimensional space.
- This cannot be done (and move you), therefore, "space" is
- actually the form of a different dimension. I assume
- infinite dimensions. Is it possible infinite dimensions
- is the same as zero dimensions? Maybe math 0=infinity,
- since on either side is nothing (think
- oscillations/cycles/circles)? Infinite dimensions:
- therefore, from any point you can instantly (or near
- enough) get to any other point (it can be done at a
- constant rate not matter the three-dimensional structured
- distances). What about movement of the points? Is a
- case of squeeze the moved ones into the new location, or
- some form of space-swapping? Maybe one has to convert to
- infinite dimension from three-dimensional (fractal like).
- Einstein: space (in three-dimensional) bends around
- everything. Therefore: you must "tear" into space to take
- advantages. Space is like a fabric. Center of black
- hole = point singularity = 1 point of space? What
- happens when you create a solid box? Is the inner space
- cut off from the outer space, or does three-dimensional
- not matter to space?
-
- We live in three-dimensional space. If we could
- convert our spatial molecules to four-dimensional, we
- would be living in four-dimensional space (with its
- advantages of shrunken distances?) Take this out onto
- near infinity - being able to move to any other point in
- the universe. There probably is a smaller dimensionality
- that will do the job.
-
- Can this be used to make the case of an infinite
- universe? What are the implications?
-
- An object can only consider to be in a n-dimension
- within a frame of reference (for example, a line on a
- two-dimensional surface).
-
- A point in three-dimensional space will always be a
- sphere. So points do not exist in three-dimensional. A
- line in three-dimensional space will appear as a point
- from its ends--from this perspective it is no longer a
- line. So lines cannot exist in three-dimensional space
- but they can exist on a two-dimensional photo (frame of
- reference) that is in three-dimensional space.
-
- Since anything we imagine will come into existence
- (in our imagination) it should then be possible to
- imagine the necessary frames of reference, perhaps as
- higher numbered dimensions are created something will
- happen?
-
- "The field around the ship would be like an
- object in a transporter room, converted to
- transmissible energy. It would slide away
- from the pattern of the ordinary universe, and
- only dimensionless hyperspace would be left.
- The ship would go with it."
-
- As light approaches an object with gravity; it
- speeds up in proportion to the amount of gravity
- influenced on the light. In proper terms; the mass of
- the planet warped space such that light could cross
- distances at higher speeds. This implies that if we were
- to define a set distance (x) and say this is uninfluenced
- (no energy/no mass affectations). We then create a
- universal grid made using this coordinate system. We
- would see the nodes compress toward gravitic sources. If
- we set x to be the minimum distance possible (don't know
- what, but we know there is one--see note on Zeno's
- theory). Since x is finite (not infinitesimal), would we
- still see compression around masses? I think yes, after
- all, there is an infinity of space between any two
- points, but limits probably exist due to maximum mass of
- the source. This would suggest that masses are energy
- stores--as energy is awaiting as the compressed x lengths
- are waiting to expand. It probably takes an equal amount
- of energy to hold the structure together, although it
- also could be that when surrounded by a similar shell of
- compressed space no additional energy is required to
- maintain the store within (which seems likely).
-
- "The spark that drives the system is a single,
- powerful laser pulse. The flash of light
- originates in a projector at the front of the
- room as a pair of different laser frequencies
- combined into a single beam. At first, the
- beam is a weak one, about as big as a pinpoint
- and barely strong enough to scorch a piece of
- paper. Mirrors then bounce the beam through
- an array of amplifiers that boost it to 10,000
- times its original power. At this stage the
- laser packs a considerable energy wallop, but
- it is dispersed energy, spread across a beam
- with the circumference of a volleyball. The
- laser gets down to scientific business only
- after it is bounced through a maze of six
- mirrors and focused back down to one-fiftieth
- of an inch. Now, intense and dangerous, the
- beam is fired through two centimeters of
- hydrogen gas confined in a sealed chamber.
- Plowing through the gas, the laser pulse rips
- the hydrogen's electrons right off its atoms,
- creating what is known as a plasma-gaseous
- nuclei with no orbiting electrons. Because
- the two laser frequencies alternately magnify
- and cancel each other, they create a repeating
- wavelike pattern of very high and very low
- light intensity. These areas, which can be
- thought of as a passing series of peaks and
- valleys, segregate the oppositely charged
- particles: As the high-intensity peak passes
- through the gas, it pushes away some of the
- lightweight, negatively charged electrons.
- Left behind in the low-intensity valleys is a
- higher concentration of heavier, positively
- charged nuclei. As the peak passes, the
- electrons start rushing back toward the
- positively charged nuclei. Because they are
- moving so fast, they actually overshoot the
- nuclei, but they are soon met by the next
- high-intensity peak and given another shove.
- With each successive peak the electrons are,
- in effect, set vibrating back and forth like a
- plucked guitar string. Thus the laser begins
- to create band after band of electrons and
- nuclei, alternating down the entire length of
- the pulse. As the thousands of peaks and
- valleys in a single laser pulse [billionth's
- of a second] pass through any given region in
- the plasma, more and more electrons in that
- region are recruited into this back-and-forth
- movement, and the more completely the
- electrons and nuclei are separated. Thus, the
- farther back the band is from the leading edge
- of the laser pulse, the greater the overall
- magnitude of the vibration, and the greater
- the charge of the band--the effect is that of
- a steadily increasing wave of charge, moving
- through the plasma along with the laser. At
- nearly the same instant the beam enters the
- gas, an injection gun fires a cluster of
- high-speed electrons into the wake of charged
- bands that follows. The electrons are aimed
- to land directly behind a band of protons and
- directly in front of a band of electrons.
- Attracted by the protons and repelled by the
- other electrons, they ride along on the wave,
- following the laser at near-light speed,
- picking up energy." [[picture: p. 80]]
- "A dielectric is simply an insulating material
- like glass or plastic or ceramic. What makes
- dielectrics useful to particle physicists is
- that in the presence of a rapidly moving
- charged particle, the material will radiate
- electromagnetic energy. [Jim] Simpson and his
- colleagues use dielectric materials in the
- shape of a long, thin tube. When they fire a
- short pulse of electrons--known as the drive
- beam--down the tube at near-light speed, the
- particles cause the atoms in the tube walls to
- become polarized and radiate electromagnetic
- energy. The energy converges in the center of
- the tube as an electric field, which follows
- along after the drive beam, matching its
- velocity. The physicists then inject a
- smaller bunch of electrons--called the witness
- beam--into the moving field; these particles
- ride along with the field, also following the
- drive beam and also attaining near-light
- speed. As they go they pick up energy from
- the drive beam and from the dielectric
- material and convert it into mass."
-
- A hurricane can shove a piece of paper into a tree
- edge on. Perhaps a similar event happens when mass (how
- much?) moves at or faster than the speed of light.
-
- Multi-state existence. Existing in reality, virtual
- reality, and as energy can be done by constantly
- teleporting you. That is, you exist in reality for a
- second. Then the scanners read you into memory and
- convert you to energy. Then you get read from memory and
- converted to matter again. Thus you spend time in
- reality, in virtual reality (memory), and as energy. You
- could then use algorithms on your "memory self." Use
- transmission methods on your energy self (the energy from
- your matter transmitted with the information about who
- you are and how it should all be put back together - your
- memory self). The only real question is that of growth.
- The process must allow for intellectual development.
-
- What if made a ship of electricity. I don't know
- how, but this is an alternative to conversion to
- electrons and then transmitting as a signal. I suppose
- what I'm thinking about is a material that acts like
- electricity, or another form of energy. Perhaps
- superconducting materials could be useful? Although if
- we could find a way in electricity itself forms a wall
- this too could be used. Perhaps with magnetic fields?
-
- Removing a 3d chunk of space. Effects? <-logical
- growth->single pt (1d)?
-
- Maybe need engines only large enough to
- remove/process 3d area, then ships zips through area and
- space (eventually?) reseals that area.
-
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- THE BRAIN AND THE BODY
-
- Miscellaneous
-
- "Why do animals grow old and die? Molecular
- biologists have an answer: they say that
- gradual deterioration and death is an
- intrinsic (although still mysterious) property
- of cells."
-
- Possible theory on how memory works: when an action
- occurs--the brain has a "wave" of stimulation. Our memory
- does not remember the event, but the points that are
- stimulated. Recall probably just SIMULATES stimulation
- of these points. This would allow our memory to save
- stuff with just on/off signals.
-
- Data in the brain may be stored in chunks and
- clusters (with boundaries and borders the same as those
- read initially into the brain). Output can be pulled off
- the brain in the same way as you pull printed pages off
- a tractor-feed printer. It feels like a rubber-type of
- paper that had been laid down. Moving and then pulling
- it (and everything that makes you up) goes - you feel
- yourself moving as if both part of the material, and
- seeing the material pass you by - as if a confirmation
- process about what is being processed - note that you see
- this "close up" as well as the whole image (the "rubber
- paper" being pulled from the distance [toward me? When
- I shifted angle I then saw the close up? Yes I think so.
- - saw nothing of where I going, but It just looks gray
- and brown of where myself and my memories were coming
- from. This was part of a dream in which a being could
- suck "yourself" out of you and make you one of their
- zombies, I had just been caught by their zombies, I
- figure I tried to simulate the transference process. I
- really did see borders, such as a word heading like
- "science" bracketed by black lines across the top of the
- page to
- mark the subject (for example, "...======== science
- =======..."). I really did see black lines of the same
- width around small blocks of text also, for example:
- ____
- |text|
- |text|
- ____|text|
- |texttextt|
- |texttextt|
- -----------
-
- The text did not originally have these blocks when
- I read it in, I suspect that this is a form of emphasis
- the brain assigns text - perhaps the border represents an
- increased resistance to erasure.
-
- After a little more thinking, which probably less
- resembles memory than analysis of the few images I have
- left of the experience: I have decided that the borders
- were like road bumps--that you could go over, but you
- would have literally to climb over (road slow-down bumps
- seen from ground level), whereas you could rover around
- the enclosed area examining the information in the area
- for whatever you had been looking for.
-
- It is interesting that plenty of science fiction
- novels and other literature suggest that we (or aliens)
- would want to colonize other planets. That we must
- colonize for population purposes. Obviously the
- declining populations of the developed western countries
- shows that this need not be so. It is possible a race
- would still produce like rabbits and need to expand--this
- would most likely be a warring species.
-
- Q: Why is there more positive matter than negative
- matter (which is immediately annihilated with a positive
- brethren)? Is it just our number system, that our
- positive matter may really be negative matter, that we
- just cannot tell? Presumably somewhere there is much
- negative matter, where is it and what is protecting it?
-
- The nervous system. Myelin, a fatty substance that
- insulates (sheaths) healthy nerve fibers. When a virus
- attacks this sheath and replaced with scar tissue, that
- nerve fiber can often cause spurious problems, such as
- numbness, weakness, prickling, paralysis, or uncontrolled
- movements. HLA antigens, protein molecules on the
- surface of a cell that identify it to the immune system
- as friend or foe.
-
- More thanks to Battlefield Earth: thinking about
- repairing ageing skin I thought of how it is just an
- overlay and under was just blood/etc. and bone. If you
- could hold it in place--then you could do wholesale
- operations. Merely pressurize the area around the body
- at the same pressure as in the body and one can remove
- skin and do surgery (etc.) without loss of blood. See
- Battlefield Earth's section on repairing auto consoles.
-
- Death is when the brain is no more. Not when your
- body dies. If you duplicate your brain into a machine,
- and destroy the body, you are still alive, in the
- machine.
-
- Note: thanks to William Gibson: Do not create
- humans via "clones w/o brains"--too slow, too many
- problems. Instead build the bodies from parts grown and
- created. Build a body and put the brain in it.
-
- Asimov's race of long-lived humans for some reason
- only lived 400 years or so. He goes into great detail
- about some problems of long life; boredom, extended
- feuds, overpopulation, old power guard, lack of
- communication within fields of study, slow progress,
- emphasis on enjoyment, etc.
- If one is immortal they are likely to get bored
- after a while. When bored they may become violent, just
- to stimulate themselves. The time may come when they
- always bored and always violent. The only way to stop
- someone like this is to lock them up. That would be
- cruel in itself.
- If a race of immortals know all there is to know,
- and are starting to get bored. A solution will need to
- be found. Possible solutions: erase memories, find a way
- to excise the part of the brain that has to do with
- boredom, implant addictions in the brain (a lock-up
- technique), give them a "universe" (virtual) to run, and
- no doubt others I can't think of. Using reverse-logic I
- therefore conclude that the universe cannot be boring
- because there is no acceptable solution to an immortal
- becoming bored. We may not know what the universe is,
- but we know it will never be boring.
- These are probably likely to occur when we ourselves
- extend our life-spans. Being aware of the dangers is
- probably not enough, we will need a system in which
- progress continues. A constant goal of making a life-
- span both longer and with fewer accidents is a good
- general goal. It should help avoid some traps (the
- danger of death gives fear and drives to the living). To
- keep progress truly progressing can only come by
- exploring space.
-
- On Dianetics:
-
- Hubbard came up with an interesting idea; he felt
- that the brain equated everything with everything else.
- That is, he felt that A=B=C=D=E=F... in the memory, that
- all memory's were equal. After reading this, I
- recognized something important; that this was how the
- immune system's attacking cells worked to identify
- counter measures for its enemy. It checks for an
- identical pattern, then attacks. That's why AID's is
- such a problem, it changes.
- A little more thought: The brain gets inputs:
- sensory system (eyes, ears, feel, taste, etc.) and neural
- (self generated, autonomous). These can be thought of as
- data lines. What does the brain do with the data
- received? It stores it molecularly. How does it store
- it? How about one molecule on top of another? Yes, A
- STACK. Maybe to search the stacks you must first create
- a facsimile of what you wish, then the search system
- compares the facsimile's structure with what's along the
- stacks, if a match is found then it sends the data to the
- intelligence. Or maybe: IF match THEN operate muscles as
- stored instructions say to. Also, short term memory acts
- like a cache.
- The short term memory is a cache/filter. After all
- the human brain does not have an infinite capacity for
- expansion. Most of its "learning" is done using a
- variety of neurotransmitters and new connections. If
- anything the access channels are more like that of a bus.
- Since you access using a combination of the various
- neurotransmitters. Perhaps the amount of determination
- about getting at a certain memory enhances the effects of
- the search order by spreading it further throughout the
- brain and using a higher dosage of whichever combination
- of transmitters is needed (the coded facsimile?).
- Brings up question of when memory is analyzed by the
- brain (to "learn"). Does the data first go through a
- filter (as seems probably)--but doesn't this distort
- memory? Or is it read after it is stored? Or does it
- get sent down two (both) paths?
- The main thing I'm searching for by reading this
- book is the promise of full perfect memory recall. When
- you think about it, maybe you need to just "tune up" the
- search system to not avoid a certain level "neural
- thickness." That is, now the search skips over the less
- used neurons to speed the search. A threshold level.
- "Stoic: a member of a Greek school of
- philosophy, founded by Zeno about 308 B.C.,
- holding that human beings should be free from
- passion and calmly accept all occurrences as
- the unavoidable result of divine will."[p. 44]
- "The analytical mind is that portion of the
- mind which perceives and retains experience
- data to compose and resolve problems and
- direct the organism along the four dynamics.
- It thinks in differences and similarities."[p.
- 55]
- "The reactive mind is that portion of the mind
- which files and retains physical pain and
- painful emotion and seeks to direct the
- organism solely on a stimulus-response basis.
- It thinks only in identities."[p. 56]
- "The somatic mind is that mind which, directed
- by the analytical or reactive mind, places
- solutions into effect on the physical
- level."[p. 56]
- "Interesting part of the standard memory banks
- is that they apparently file the original and
- hand forward exact copies to the analyzer.
- They will hand out as many exact copies as are
- demanded without diminishing the actual file
- original."[p. 65]
- "The amount of material which is retained in
- the average standard memory banks would fill
- several libraries. But the method of
- retention is invariable. And the potentiality
- of recall is perfect."[p. 65]
- "Inductive: of or using induction, logical
- reasoning that a general law exists because
- particular cases that seem to be examples of
- it exist."[p. 70]
- "Only things which are poorly known become
- more complex the longer one works upon
- them."[p. 4]
- "Thalamus: the interior region of the brain
- where sensory nerves originate."[p. 20]
- "Present time: the time which is now and
- becomes the past as rapidly as it is
- observed."[p. 21]
- "Man is to be regarded as a sentient being.
- His sentience depends upon his ability to
- resolve problems by perceiving or creating and
- understanding situations. This rationality is
- the primary, high-echelon function of that
- part of the mind which makes him a man, not
- just another animal. Remembering, perceiving,
- imagining, he has the signal ability of
- resolving conclusions and of using conclusions
- resolved to resolve further conclusions. This
- is rational man."[p. 24]
- "Self-determinism: is the state wherein the
- individual can or cannot be controlled by his
- environment according to his own choice."[p.
- 26]
-
- What I've found is that the human mind generally
- thinks in two forms, I've labeled these 2D and 3D. 2D is
- analytical thinking; when you worry, when you analyze,
- general day to day thinking. 3D is a dream type
- thinking; it takes place in dreams, its so spatial you
- can feel like you're there, etc. The difference is
- spatial, 2D is like a piece of paper, 3D is like a room.
- Example, if you don't listen to music for a couple of
- months (or just don't pay attention/enjoy it) you find
- that you lose the feel for music when you try to recall
- it. You can get the words and the beat but not the full
- stereo sound. When you put on a walkman for a few hours
- (submersion) you find that you can recall music in
- stereo/3D again--not just the songs you just heard but
- most. This suggests a recognition based memory recall
- system. Which is logical considering most if not all
- basic memory is built upon stimulus/response patterns
- which is recognition. Recognition is being able to
- recall a fact only after given a related fact, the other
- type of memory is simple recall--you recall it without
- needing the relational "reminder." Besides music the
- same seems true for general memory. That it is usually
- recalled in 2D until some stimulus sets it into 3D. So
- best memory recall is probably done by physically
- returning to the place of the memory rather than simply
- going back through the mind's time track. There may be
- potential here though. Such as instead of actually
- returning to the house of your childhood you could form
- the house in your mind and then, perhaps, that would
- stimulate the more intensive 3D memory of that time. For
- instance, I've found that thinking spatially will put me
- to sleep faster at night. I doubt whether mentally
- returning will ever be better than physically returning.
- After all, this is how skills work, you forget something
- after a long period of not doing it, then you return and
- the skill returns--because you've immersed yourself again
- bringing back the old memories.
- I've also noticed that "reheard" music (in the mind) is
- from the same source as dreams are. Both "distant"--not
- in the fore-conscious of thought, deeper.
-
- I remember a report where some tests were done on
- college basketball players. They were broken into three
- groups. One group told to practice free throws, a second
- group to imagine practicing free throws repeatedly, the
- third group told not to practice. The results: the first
- group improved it's accuracy, the second group improved
- it's accuracy almost as much, the third group didn't
- improve. Proving to me the significance of spatial
- understanding when learning or improving something. Also
- the value of image rehearsal.
-
- I've also noticed that I can improve seeing of
- visual detail by paying attention to colors. When
- driving, constantly notice the colors ("the sign is green
- with white letters, that car is blue, etc. (to
- yourself)") and you'll see things sharper.
-
- The brain's internal clock: It ticks. It's a lot
- like a dog's stimuli/response. system. Events that are
- random, the brain is constantly expecting (so as not to
- be shocked). This includes such things as the phone
- ringing, or an alarm clock going off. Thus, when a brain
- "tick" or "clock cycle" is executed, part of the brain
- power is dedicated to preparing for these "expected
- unexpected's." These known, and to be reacted to,
- events. This may include such things as avoiding
- tripping or bumping into objects.
-
- Hubbard also suggests that your memory works better
- when someone does the asking of questions. This is both
- interesting and frightening. I don't know whether it's
- true or not, unfortunately I think it is. After all, it
- explains peer pressure. There are control and abuse
- possibilities if this is true. External speech
- influence.
-
- "Flu victims succumb, at least in part, to
- [their] overreacting immune systems. Normally
- certain immune cells engulf and destroy
- invaders. Among their weapons is a negatively
- charged molecule of oxygen known as
- superoxide, one of a class of highly reactive
- substances called free radicals. In fluids,
- free oxygen radicals break down and oxidize
- proteins. This process, which can be though
- of as the biological equivalent of burning, is
- a good means of combat in close quarters.
- When the body is attacked by flu, immune cells
- start to mass-produce superoxide. Soon other
- sources kick in as well, bringing on a flood
- of the lethal substance. These immune
- responses are concentrated in the lungs, the
- seat of infection from airborne droplets. The
- general conflagration destroys the virus, but
- in delicate tissues, such as mucous membranes,
- oxygen radicals can cause bleeding, excessive
- swelling, and lesions that open the way to
- bacterial infection--all events that get
- described under the collective label
- pneumonia. Researchers. . .have come up with
- an antidote using superoxide dismutase, an
- enzyme that sops up and destroys superoxide.
- Mammals routinely produce this enzyme, but it
- breaks down rapidly in living tissue; it seems
- designed for spot-cleaning rather than massive
- spills. So the researchers shackled their
- enzyme to a sturdier organic polymer. In
- tests on mice they found that the synthetic
- combination remained active in the circulatory
- system for more than five hours; without its
- polymer protector the enzyme disappeared
- within 30 minutes. The new therapy did not
- help the mice get rid of the actual [flu]
- virus and was in fact not designed to attack
- the bug. What it did. . .was restore normal
- body chemistry after the victim's own immune
- system threw it off balance. Free radicals
- are thought to play a harmful role in many
- other diseases, including cancer."
-
- "In response to stress the body produces high
- levels of natural opiates call endorphins. A
- closely related opiate, morphine, might act on
- a certain region of the brain to temper the
- immune response. The researchers found that
- when they injected morphine into this region
- of the brain in rats, the drug triggered a
- dramatic drop in the activity of natural
- killer cells, the immune-system agents that
- kill cancer cells and cells infected by
- viruses. In fact, the killer cells' power
- against cancer cells was reduced by more than
- half. [Injecting morphine in other parts of
- the brain did not cause the dramatic drop in
- protection.][The damn article goes to lengths
- to avoid saying what region of the brain got
- the morphine.] Now that they've located a
- brain region where opiates act to depress the
- immune system, the researchers hope to begin
- tracing the lines of communication between the
- two. [A link between brain and the immune
- system.] [They're] trying to see what nerve
- circuits and chemical messengers do the
- talking."
-
- "Experiments. . .demonstrate that the brain
- sorts out the noises it hears by grouping
- together sounds that appear to come from the
- same direction, and that it accomplishes this
- by listening for high-pitched notes. Because
- high notes don't travel as far as low
- ones--which is why the bass drum of an
- oncoming marching band can be heard long
- before the piccolos--the brain assumes that
- the ear hearing the highest notes is closest
- to the musical source. Yet studies of music
- from around the world suggest that despite the
- ear's ability to make minute discriminations
- of sounds, most cultures divide the vast range
- of audible sounds into musical scales of only
- about five to seven notes. As with many
- mental processes involved in music, the
- brain's willingness to trade precision for
- generalization may help people adapt in other
- arenas: It explains, for example, why people
- can understand a person's speech even though
- it is heavily accented or recognize the aged
- face of a long-lost acquaintance. The brain's
- willingness to choose generalizations over
- precision is largely responsible for its
- uncanny ability to remember melodies. While
- few can rival Mozart, who is said to have been
- able to remember an entire symphony after
- hearing it only once, most everyone carries
- around dozens of tunes that have been learned
- effortlessly. Studies by Jay Dowling of the
- University of Texas at Dallas show that one
- key to remembering a melody is that instead of
- learning the exact sounds that make up a tune,
- the brain remembers only the relationship
- between the notes. The brain's quest to find
- overall patterns in the seemingly random world
- is evident in experiments by Deutsch that show
- that the mind will rearrange a jumble of notes
- it hears into familiar patterns. The brain's
- effort to tease out general patterns often
- takes place without a person even being aware
- of it. Psychologists have long known that as
- children develop they gradually construct a
- 'great chain of being' by which they divide
- objects in the world into such categories as
- inanimate and alive, mythic and real.
- Similarly, people learn their native tongue
- without explicitly learning the rules that
- govern that language."
-
- "In rats it's been shown that even if 85
- percent of the liver is removed, the remainder
- can completely replenish itself. Humans have
- an equal potential."
- "Smell is the most evocative of the senses,
- because it's so intricately connected to the
- brain's limbic system, the area associated
- with emotion. Experiments in Japan with 13
- keypunch operators, monitored eight hours a
- day for 30 days, showed that the average
- number of errors per hour dropped by 21
- percent when office air was scented with
- lavender (it reduces stress) and by 33 percent
- when laced with jasmine (it induces
- relaxation); a stimulating lemon scent reduced
- errors by 54 percent. Even when the scent was
- below conscious levels, they reported feeling
- better than they did without it. You don't
- have to deliver fragrance all the time.
- Further research has shown chamomile, Japanese
- cypress, orange, peppermint, and eucalyptus to
- be soothing, while scarlet sage and rosemary
- are stimulating. The trigeminal nerve, one of
- two nerves in the nose that receive signals
- from smells. The olfactory nerve is the one
- that allows you to tell the difference between
- oranges and roses. The trigeminal nerve
- detects irritations, like smelling salts, or
- temperature, like the cooling effect of
- menthol. There's a tendency for aromas with a
- low trigeminal component to calm people and
- odors with a high trigeminal component to
- serve as pick-me-ups. That's because
- trigeminal stimulants. . .increase blood
- levels of adrenaline. Odor is. . .mediated by
- the area of the brain that also mediates
- sexual behavior, survival, and appetite."
-
- "A certain type of nerve cell--the neurons
- that produce luteinizing hormone-releasing
- hormone, or LHRH. This hormone, among other
- things, sets puberty in motion: it stimulates
- the pituitary gland at the base of the brain
- to release gonadotropins, which in turn
- trigger the maturation and function of the
- testicles and ovaries. The cells [originated
- in the nose] and. . .then traveled along nerve
- pathways to the brain during embryological
- development. Found that in the area known as
- the olfactory pit, which is the precursor of
- the nose, LHRH cells begin to appear 11 and a
- half days after conception [in mouse embryos].
- By the thirteenth day the calls, now numbering
- in the hundreds, have begun to creep along the
- arching pathway of the terminal nerve and its
- neighbor, the vomeronasal nerve, heading out
- of the nose toward the brain. By the
- sixteenth day, at the end of gestation, all
- but a few stragglers in the nose have
- completed their trek to the forebrain. [When
- this doesn't happen, all the nerves from the
- nose to the brain are blocked (including
- olfactory nerves, so no smell).] Pheromones
- are one of the major forms of sexual
- communication in such lowly creatures as
- insects. Researchers believe, pheromones
- latch onto receptors in the nose and transmit
- their. . .signals to the brain via the
- vomeronasal nerve. That's one of the nerves.
- . .that helps to steer the LHRH cells so
- crucial for sexual development on their trip
- to the embryonic brain."
-
- Eating foods/drugs with Serotonin in them reduce
- compulsions. This study done for people with compulsive
- disorders. It may have potential for reducing peoples
- will as well however. Since the drug (a product of the
- brain) naturally reduces the brains desire to repeat (do)
- an act.
-
- Neurologists have been able to grow a form of the
- brain's nerve cells.
- "[Brain] nerve cells cannot divide or
- regenerate. After about six months of
- gestation in the womb, the brain's 10 billion
- neurons, or nerve cells, cease growing. It
- was. . .finicky, slow-growing cells that [they
- were] able to cultivate. Eventually, the new
- cell line will be made widely available,
- allowing investigators to answer a host of
- biochemical questions about the brain. The
- neurons appear normal except for the growth
- abnormality that allows them to proliferate in
- the lab. [Neurologists] can coax them into
- developing the elongated, branched shape of
- mature nerves."
-
- "[Umbilical] cord blood, which is usually
- discarded after a baby is delivered, is a rich
- source of blood cells. It was long suspected
- to contain stem cells, the immature cells that
- after birth reside only in bone marrow and
- give rise to all blood cells. Finally the
- blood from his sister's cord was slowly
- dripped into his veins. Her stem cells did
- the rest; they found their way to the marrow
- cavities inside his bones and gradually
- multiplied into a new blood-cell population.
- A year later [the patient] had a new,
- functioning blood system."
-
- The all crucial blood-brain barrier seems about to
- open up to drugs. The potentials are outrageous, as
- we've been able to get few chemicals into the brain.
- It's a necessary development and it looks to be
- progressing. The barrier is made up of endothelial
- cells, whose job it is to sort out blood and prevent
- unwanted materials from getting through. However, many
- drugs already breach this barrier: narcotics, nicotine,
- alcohol, etc.
- "At a few spots in the brain the barrier does
- loosen up a bit, allowing the nerve fibers in
- those places to sample the bloodstream
- directly. Robert Katzman, a neurologist at
- the University of California at San Diego,
- points out that capillaries are permeable
- right atop the brain stem region called the
- area postrema--right where the vomiting center
- is located. 'The nerve cells there must be
- able to monitor the blood for the presence of
- deadly poisons,' he explains, 'in which case
- it would induce the body to start vomiting.'
- Still, as researchers now know, even an intact
- barrier can be penetrated. Because
- endothelial cells have membranes made of
- lipids, or fat molecules, there is one class
- of compounds--fat-soluble ones--that will
- skate through the endothelium every time.
- That's why nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, and the
- like get into the brain so quickly: these
- fat-soluble substances just dissolve through
- the endothelium's fatty membranes. Drugs that
- have turned out to be useful for mental
- illness, such as tricyclic antidepressants and
- the sedatives Thorazine and Valium, are also
- lipid-soluble. [The brain] demands a steady
- infusion of glucose--the brain's sole source
- of energy--and will lapse into unconsciousness
- if completely deprived of the sugar for more
- than a few seconds. It also needs amino acids
- to build proteins within neurons, and small,
- carefully controlled amounts of iron to aid
- cell metabolism."
-
- "The mind-driven controls, developed over the
- past three years, are 'almost embarrassingly
- simple,' says [a pilot]. Two fluorescent
- lights flanking the screen flicker 13 times a
- second, causing nerve cells in [the] visual
- cortex to fire at the same frequency.
- Electrodes attached to his head feed his brain
- waves into an amplifier and a filter. The
- system easily picks out the
- 13-cycle-per-second waves, measures their
- power, and displays this information below the
- screen on a bar scale. To maneuver, [the
- pilot] consciously changes the strength of his
- light-evoked brain waves. If he enhances
- them, his cab banks right, up to 45 degrees;
- if he suppresses them, it banks left. [Only
- two steps available?] If his mind remains
- alert but unengaged, the cab stays level.
- [The pilot] can't explain how people change
- their brain waves. He just knows that they
- watch the bar scale as it registers changes,
- and that the biofeedback works. 'The subjects
- figure out their own ways to do it,' he says.
- 'Some say that singing in your head raises the
- power.' Although other researchers have
- attempted such mind-links, they've had little
- success. But they were trying to program a
- computer to decode a jumble of brain waves.
- [The] research team is the first to evoke a
- simple brain wave with a steady signal, then
- train that response through biofeedback.
-
- Statistics of a study show that there is a dramatic
- drop in death rates just before an anticipated date and
- a dramatic rise (both with regard to the average death
- rate) after the day. This suggests that those on or near
- their deathbed hold off death until after the anticipated
- day (or event). Whether through sheer force of will or
- an adrenalin rush or something else isn't known. But
- this does look like proof of a link between ones
- conscious desires and the body's various systems
- (subconscious, immune, etc.) Where you're invoking will
- and desire to overcome impending death, then dying when
- you relinquish the desire (completed the task, celebrated
- the event, etc.)
-
- The rostral ventromedial medulla is the area of the
- brain known to govern pain perception. Pain perception
- is relative to individuals (eg. when is warm water too
- hot, etc.) Researchers found two cells, those that fired
- when there was pain, those that fired when there was
- none. They also found that morphine turned the Pain
- cells off and turned the No-Pain cells on. These Pain
- cells are being called On-Cells. The No-Pain cells seem
- to turn off when there is pain, and On-Cells seem to be
- used to hurry (to booster) the message about the pain
- down the thought path. In both cases it was a group of
- cells that are represented - so we don't have just one
- pain cell for each part of the body, we have a group
- (probably overlapping in functionality) for each little
- part. In times of stress, endorphines suppress pain -
- probably by suppressing the on-cells or keeping the
- No-Pain cells on. Naloxone reverses morphine's effects.
- Lidocaine is a local anesthetic.
-
- "When a pathogen--an infectious bug such as a
- virus or bacterium--invades the body, it is
- the immune system that first sounds the alarm:
- the invader is promptly grabbed by a large
- scavenger cell called a macrophage. The
- macrophage in turn presents the bug to a
- helper T cell, which signals that the noxious
- foreigner is indeed worth getting excited
- about. The macrophage then sets off a chain
- of events culminating in the activation of
- killer T cells that attack the intruder. This
- cascade is referred to as cell-mediated
- immunity. Meanwhile, a second form of
- defense, known as humoral immunity, is also
- set in motion: they help T cells stimulate yet
- another type of white blood cell--B cells--to
- divide, differentiate, and ultimately produce
- antibodies to the intruder. These in turn
- will grab hold of the infectious organism and
- immobilize it. To communicate with far-flung
- members, the immune system uses cytokines,
- chemical messengers that travel in the
- bloodstream and lymph fluid. Among the best
- known of these messengers are the interferons,
- which activate a type of white blood cell that
- fights viruses and cancer, and the
- interleukins, which are central to the T cell
- cascade. The interleukin of greatest interest
- to us here is called IL-1; its principal job
- is to carry the alarm message from the
- macrophage (where it is made) to the T cells.
- But we begin to feel crummy because that is
- not all that IL-1 can do; it can also
- influence the brain. Most dramatically, this
- interleukin alters temperature regulation.
- [causes fevers] A part of our brain called
- the hypothalamus functions much like a
- thermostat. Normally it is set for 98.6
- degrees. If body temperature drops below
- that, you shiver to generate heat, divert
- blood from the periphery of your body to vital
- organs, and pile on the blankets.
- Temperatures above 98.6 cause you to sweat and
- breathe faster to dissipate heat. What IL-1
- does is cause the set point to shift upward.
- In other words, you begin to feel cold at
- 98.6, the various warming responses kick in
- and a new equilibrium is reached at a higher
- temperature. You are now running a fever.
- [corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)] This
- substance runs the body's hormonal response to
- stress by initiating a cascade of signals
- going from the hypothalamus to the pituitary
- gland, and from there to the adrenal glands,
- which prepare you for an emergency. CRF
- blocks energy storage: it inhibits the process
- by which the body stores fat as triglycerides
- and sugar as glycogen. Dampens appetite,
- sexual drive, and reproductive processes.
- There are nerve pathways coming from various
- outposts in your body--from the surface of
- your skin to deep within your muscles and
- tendons--that carry pain messages to your
- spinal cord; these messages are then relayed
- to the brain, which interprets them as
- painful. Subtle stimuli will not cross a
- pathway's activation threshold. They will not
- be perceived as pain unless the threshold is
- lowered. And that's exactly what IL-1 does;
- it makes the neurons along the pathway more
- excitable, inclined to react to things they
- would normally ignore. Suddenly, your joints
- hurt, old injuries ache again, your eyeballs
- throb. Biologists have learned a bit about
- just how IL-1 triggers these crummy symptoms.
- The chemical binds to receptors on the
- surfaces of those neurons that play a role in
- perceiving pain, regulating temperature, and
- releasing CRF. That, in turn, switches on the
- synthesis of prostaglandins, compounds that
- act as signals inside the cell to change
- temperature set points and sensitivity to pain
- messages. As it happens, one of the most
- effective drugs for blocking prostaglandin
- synthesis is aspirin. CRF also causes stored
- energy to be released, returning fuel in the
- form of fat and sugar to the bloodstream.
- When a noxious agent is first spotted in the
- body, macrophages secrete a second cytokine
- along with IL-1. In addition to its role as
- an immune system messenger, this cytokine
- blocks the ability of fat cells to store fat.
- This chemical has been dubbed cachectin. The
- immune system works better when you are
- running a fever. Studies show that T cells
- multiply more readily and antibody production
- is stepped up. A fever puts many pathogens at
- a disadvantage. A wide variety of viruses and
- bacteria multiply most efficiently at
- temperatures below 98.6 degrees. But as a
- fever is induced, their doubling time slows.
- In some cases the pathogens stop dividing
- entirely."
- I've noticed that the immune system seems weakest during
- change in temperatures. Example, you are most likely to
- get colds at the start and end of winter. As if the
- immune system is in the process of shifting gears and is
- reorganizing itself. Although most likely it's just a
- case of readjusting to the virus's that appear in the
- different seasons.
-
- Brain physiological development. Does all life have
- the same type of basic brain building blocks. Are our
- brain cells more efficient, ie. has then been any
- evolution of the basic structures of the brain (neurons,
- etc.) If so, we can probably predict future development
- and anticipate how that type of brain would think.
-
- Brain tissue regeneration with chemicals or
- biologicals are not serious. Little machines doing
- repairs may also not be serious. Serious: growth of
- duplicate, or growth of standard and molded to duplicate.
- Brain cell replacements. - again the question of "human
- soul".
-
- Brain is not effected by growth hormones.
-
- "The Mind knows how the mind operates."
-
- Perhaps repeating a thought over and over allows
- access to forgotten memory on that thought subject. Like
- blowing up one of those long thin balloons.
-
- "Every cell in a plant, unlike the cells of humans
- or other mammals, retains the ability to produce
- anything that the rest of the plant can produce. A
- vanilla plant cell doesn't have to be in a bean to
- produce vanilla; it just has to receive the right
- chemical signals to tell it to do so."
-
- "At the end of 1982 a team of Japanese researchers
- had reported that a toxin in the venom of a spider
- native to Japan--the Joro spider--blocked the
- effects of the chemical glutamate in squid nerve
- cells. Glutamate is an amino acid and an important
- excitatory neurotransmitter. These transmitters
- are fired from one cell to another in the central
- nervous system. The second cell receives the
- glutamate signal with molecular receptors, and as
- it does so channels in the cell wall at these
- receptor sites are prompted to open. The channels
- are like canals, and when they open, electrically
- charged atoms, or ions, flow in, causing the second
- cell to fire its own chemical signal. Glutamate is
- quite abundant in the brain, so researchers have
- been extremely interested in how it works.
- ...researchers know that glutamate plays a major
- role in causing cell death after stroke. A stroke
- occurs when a blood clot blocks oxygen from getting
- to a part of the brain. Immediately after a stroke
- the cells that have been deprived of oxygen are
- weakened. Then they are overwhelmed by a cascade
- of biochemical events, including a flood of
- glutamate. The glutamate opens up a bunch of
- channels, admitting ions that send the weakened
- cell into a frenzy of activity. The stress on the
- already-damaged cell is too much; it exhausts
- itself and then dies. If response to this
- glutamate flood could be blocked, however, weakened
- cells would have a chance to recuperate before
- being bullied by the neurotransmitters' demands
- they get back to work. A similar excess of
- glutamate seems to cause certain hard-to-control
- epileptic seizures. Again, these seizures are
- produced by overactive cells. some experimental
- drugs that block glutamate receptors have proved
- effective in reducing these seizures in lab
- animals. Several years ago, with the help of a
- funnel-web spider's toxin, neuroscientist Rodolfo
- Llinas of New York University medical Center was
- able to identify a new type of calcium channel.
- Llinas has spent 20 years studying the Purkinje
- cell, a key nerve cell found in the cerebellum.
- The cerebellum is the part of the brain responsible
- for coordinating muscle movements; it keeps the
- swing of a tennis racket or the glide of a dancer's
- step smooth and fluid. In the mid-1970s Llinas and
- his colleague Mutsuyuki Sugimori discovered that
- calcium is essential for a Purkinje cell to
- function normally. They also found that calcium
- entered the Purkinje cell through dendrites, the
- spiny filaments that fan up and out like tree
- branches from the Purkinje cell's body. But the
- researchers couldn't say precisely how the calcium
- entered or exactly where in the dendrites it
- slipped though. Jackson discovered almost
- accidentally that certain funnel-web spider venoms
- contained toxins that block calcium channels.
- Llinas heard about Jackson's work and decided to
- test one of these venoms on Purkinje cells. First
- Llinas placed guinea pig Purkinje cells in a bath
- of calcium ions. As he expected, calcium ions
- rushed into the cells. The he introduced a
- fragment of the venom to the bath. Suddenly
- calcium could no longer enter. The fragment did
- exactly what Llinas hoped--it blocked the new
- Purkinje calcium channel like a stopper plugging a
- bathtub drain. In 1987 Llinas named the new
- channel the P-channel. After running the venom
- fragment through a chemical sorting system and
- dividing it into its component toxins, Llinas and
- his colleagues were able to zero in on the toxin
- that blocked the calcium channel and then identify
- the toxin's chemical composition. Such drugs could
- help prevent the kind of cell death that follows
- injury to the cerebellum and leads to loss of
- muscle control in accident victims."
-
- "Enzymes are the mob enforcers of the biochemical
- world. They are big, brutish protein molecules
- that grab hold of other molecules and give them a
- chemical beating to loosen up their components.
- Like all proteins, enzymes are composed of various
- arrangements of molecular building blocks called
- amino acids, which are themselves composed of
- various arrangements of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
- sulfur, and oxygen atoms. Every enzyme is designed
- to fit snugly around a particular molecule, which
- may be another protein, a carbohydrate, a nucleic
- acid, or any other type of molecule that's found in
- living organisms. When an enzyme encounters its
- target molecule, it partially engulfs it, then
- bends and twists it in an electrostatic bear hug
- that weakens its bonds enough that it can form new
- bonds with yet another molecule and create
- something new in the process. Sometimes the target
- is more than twisted--it's shattered, and its
- components give rise to two or more new molecules.
- The enzyme, having little affinity for these new
- molecules, then drifts off in search of another
- victim."
-
- "'Retinoic acid is well known to have striking
- effects on cell differentiation,' says Degos. It
- is the active ingredient in acne treatments such as
- Retin-A, which work in part by speeding up the
- maturation of skin cells, thus encouraging the
- replacement of inflamed cells with healthy ones.
- When Degos added a synthetic retinoic acid called
- all-trans to leukemic cells in test tubes, he found
- that it did indeed cause some cancerous cells to
- differentiate and die. The most striking results
- were with acute promyelocytic leukemia, so-called
- because it attacks young white blood cells called
- promyelocytes. Impressed by the test-tube results,
- Wang returned to Shanghai, obtained all-trans pills
- from a local pharmaceutical factory, and began
- giving them to his promyelocytic leukemia patients.
- part of his motivation may well have been hope: in
- a country where medical resources are limited, such
- a treatment is appealing in its modesty. Not even
- Wang, though, could have dared hope for such
- results. This type of leukemia is usually
- devastating: in the United States 1,500 people are
- afflicted each year, and only one in three
- survives. But according to Wang's first report, 23
- out of 24 patients getting all-trans enjoyed
- complete remission. 'Wang called and told me the
- news,' Degos recalls. 'So in 1987 I went to China.
- He gave me some of his pills, and i returned home
- to treat my own patients.' (The pills were easier
- to get in China than in the West; because all-trans
- pills are not patentable, drug companies here were
- reluctant to make them.) Dego's results were
- hardly less astonishing: 75 percent of his patients
- on all-trans showed no signs of cancer within three
- months. Some patients who seemed cancer-free have
- relapsed after 2 to 18 months. For unknown
- reasons, Degos says, 'cells seem to develop a
- resistance to retinoic acid.' What's more, it's
- still not clear why the drug works only with
- promyelocytic leukemia, or even precisely how it
- works in the body, although Degos is convinced that
- it forces the cells to grow up, just as in his test
- tubes. 'We can clearly see the diseased cells
- mature,' he says. 'Once that happens, they die and
- the cells are replaced by normal cells.'"
-
- "Human brains must dream to reorganize, to get rid,
- periodically, of knots and snarls."
-
-
- The MultiTasking Brain:
-
- L. Ron Hubbard suggested that various detrimental
- emotional stimuli reduced the brains' functioning. This
- was the point on which his entire belief structure was
- based. It was the seed for the ideas of this section.
-
- The human brain. Actually, the human mind. What
- Hubbard didn't know about was multitasking--a computer's
- ability to do multiple tasks concurrently. It is how our
- brain works. This multitasking as I like to call it has
- also been called parallel processing. I don't like the
- term parallel processing because it suggests that all
- processes get the same amount of execution resources.
- Why do I think the human brain is multitasking? Yes
- we have many thoughts, but the brain could just be
- breaking up it's time between thoughts (ie. thinking
- about A for a second, then about B for a second, then
- about A for a second, etc.). My belief is based on the
- evidence we have so far concerning such things as the
- autonomous system (controls the hum-drum aspects of the
- body) and the various illnesses that lead to lack of
- control of various body and/or thought processes, that
- is, total control isn't lost.
- We think of things, but mostly one thought is
- dominant, but always the others are there. Some of these
- other "waiting" thoughts we are aware of, some we aren't.
- Simple examples include worrying/planning about the near
- future while doing some current task. The way I picture
- it is as a "tunnel of thought." In which all input
- (senses/conclusions/etc.) goes through the entire tunnel.
- The conscious is only aware of the major "holes" in this
- tunnel. Smaller thoughts are laced along the sides--
- ready to expand to fill a large portion of the tunnel
- should the conscious suddenly demand it's attention.
- Example, the brain is thinking about X, Y, and Z, and the
- conscious is thinking about A. The tunnel of thought
- would have something like a 90% sub-tunnel for A and 3%
- each of X, Y, and Z. X, Y, and Z can be many things
- (covered later) including the autonomous functions. This
- cross-width of these sub-tunnels (eg. 90%) should be
- thought of as percentage of brain processing power and
- resources dedicated to the thought.
- Pattern recognition is a fundamental part of the
- brain. I believe one's spatial abilities (ability to
- view objects in space) account for the strength of one's
- pattern recognition. Note that I am saying nothing about
- memory here.
- The eye sees an object, the brain analyzes the
- object, identifies it, and if the conscious or
- subconscious requests the information, provides
- information about the object. We don't consciously name
- every object we see, it just "pops into our brain." Only
- if it involves wonderment or curiosity do we do an
- analysis of what we are seeing ("trying to figure it
- out"). Whether it be a type of car or the controls of a
- VCR, it's all spatial analysis. The same skills are used
- in problem solving, like figuring out what an object is
- we also consciously create objects in our mind that we
- call problems. Just like rotating a chair in "mind
- space," we rotate problems to work out their solutions.
- Problems "hover" before us, begging for our attention.
- What happens when we can't solve problems? They get
- shoved off to the side, BUT ARE STILL THERE! What
- happens is that they get a greatly reduced percentage of
- processing capabilities, but they still get all the input
- (as do all of the sub-processes ("sub-tunnels" from
- before). Lay back and relax. . .notice how thoughts
- slowly crowd each other out for the conscious' attention,
- with little or no conscious effort on your part to do so.
- The solving of problems involves pattern
- recognition. As input comes in, each sub-process is
- examining it looking for a fuzzy match. When it finds
- one, it announces itself to the conscious. At that
- point, you "suddenly realize" or "had an insight" about
- the problem.
- It's not a subconscious that solved the problem
- using the brains' resources. Just a simple pattern that
- happened to meet some old thought requirements. An
- example: remembering a previous thought you had about a
- place or a person that you suddenly recall when you see
- the place or person. Until that moment, you lacked
- realization about a question or note (questions and notes
- are both unmet desires) about the subject. While you
- could say that the brain had stored the thought
- previously in that person or place's "memory file" and
- that the subconscious drew it out because the object was
- recognized and prepared to give the conscious the data
- and that since it was an unmet desire it had the highest
- buildup "connect tissue" (whatever the brain uses to
- emphasize thoughts and connections, that speed up
- chemical mentioned elsewhere). The fault with this is
- the problem solving. Just as a person's or place's data
- suddenly announces itself, so does solutions to problems.
- Memory doesn't work independently on problems, it's a
- storage only area.
- Advertisers use this. They don't hope you'll rush
- out and buy their product when you see the ad. They hope
- that next time you're shopping you'll think about their
- products and perhaps buy it. That is, the goal of
- advertising is to keep a tiny fraction of your brain
- thinking about their product--which it does. The same
- applies to desires, "gee I would like a stadium-type
- hotdog" long after you forgot the desire your brain is
- still pattern matching--looking for either the hotdog or
- an alternative.
- An analogy: A large company in which the dedicated
- employees are all in sync with the boss. When he wants
- something done, they all work on it. At the same time
- each employee is also trying to please the boss. So one
- hot day, while everyone is working on a major project,
- the boss announces on the loud speaker, "it sure is hot,
- wish I had a soda." Immediately everyone is thinking
- about pleasing the boss by getting a soda. The boss
- notices the work slowdown, and announces "get back to
- work." So they return to work--except [perhaps] a few
- [0...n] already made it out the door and are looking for
- a soda for the boss. Repeatedly/recursively.
- One of the secrets, I think, of doing the type of
- analyzing and guessing I do is related to spatial
- ability. For instance, when I'm trying to solve a
- problem I imagine myself in the situation. Then a small
- fraction of my brain continues to imagine itself there as
- I go through life--this small fraction of the brain is
- comparing and looking at what I see and refitting it into
- the imaginary I created. Looking for familiarities and
- things that "belong." It's one of those bothersome
- things, answers to questions popping in my head long
- after I forget [to think about consciously] the question.
- Like remembering what you did on an exam question long
- after you've graduated and forgotten the course.
- These unsolved patterns build up. They wear on the
- brains' resources. They probably go away after a while,
- but I don't know what would be the "after a while"
- factors, perhaps simply because they aren't looked at
- (the brain decays brain cells that aren't used, just like
- RAM or magnetic media--but not in the sense that the more
- you use it the more it's quality declines, quite the
- opposite). Getting rid of this was Hubbard called
- "clearing." You got rid of old worry's that wore on the
- resources.
- The way to excise these excess users is to solve
- them. Note-takers, notice that feeling of
- accomplishment/etc. when you can crumple up a note, the
- brain feels it's the same for any conclusion that has
- been sitting around, including those waiting in the
- brain. For things like commercial riffs or sayings that
- just seem to keep popping up, I've found that Hubbard's
- idea of thinking it repeatedly seems to work. As if that
- satisfy's the brains desire for it. We seem to "get our
- fill" of things after a while that this suggests some
- sort of basic design feature (to protect against getting
- into a rut/depression?). Or perhaps part of the
- multitasking time is needed to memorize and this is what
- is going on. Yet this also doesn't satisfactorily
- explain why song riff's from songs (new and old) seem to
- just pop-up. They aren't problems that needed solution
- (although if an emotional factor does play a part this
- might be where it comes in. This may suggest a spatial
- music link?)
- Concentration is probably the ability to expand the
- conscious thought of something to use more of resources
- ("expand the cross-section").
- What's interesting is that it seems one can't recall
- some puzzles the brain is also working on. Perhaps the
- conscious has priority during the day, and the
- subconscious reviews and passes though the unanswered
- questions the days input while the conscious sleeps. I
- doubt it. More likely the conscious (when sleeping) gets
- squashed down into a smaller cross-sections and the
- others expanded. Then all is mixed and the brain's
- imagination creates things that are run though as input
- to see what happens. When a close match appears, a dream
- is born. This doesn't explain why some dreams repeat
- themselves though. This document tosses everything
- together and waits for patterns to match also. When a
- match is found, a tiny paragraph can expand into a dozen
- pages.
- We are parallel processing beings. While the
- cognitive part of our brain is worrying about something,
- another part of our brain is concentrating on walking.
- There is yet a third part--the subconscious brain; I
- suspect that this is the part that gives entertainment
- while we sleep. This part of the brain has the same
- access to everything just as the cognitive part does. It
- thinks, solving problems/etc., while our consciousness
- works on another thought. As evidence it often makes
- itself known by a sudden rejection. For example, once
- while watching tv, a person on tv says something about
- something, instantly I KNOW they are wrong. A gut
- feeling of major order, the information about why they
- are wrong is not yet in the cognitive part of my brain.
- In these situations I have trouble calling up the proof
- of why the remark was wrong (so perhaps data is not
- parallel accessible). The feeling is both strong that I
- am correct in my response and that the reasoning behind
- it is also sound--that there simply is not any doubt.
- With realization I also can analyze the periphery of the
- argument (that is, it would be true, if this and that
- conditions were met). Usually I do not care to review
- why its wrong (rechecking whether anything conflicts with
- it), the feeling is strong and usually pointing in the
- direction (for example, philosophy) to which both their
- argument applies and solution found. A little complex,
- a closer example. When told that a governor can rewrite
- laws sent to him into anything he wants. Instantly I
- realize that he can become a dictator. I then realize
- that he can become a dangerous dictator if he is evil.
- Then the brain kicks in with the logic: no matter what
- the present governor is like, a future governor will
- undoubtedly be evil, therefore he must be stopped now,
- his new-found powers must be eliminated.
- At this point let's review my belief's in the mind's
- functioning: I believe in the subconscious (it solve's
- problems that I have and "pop's" the answer at me when it
- comes to a conclusion). Neural connector's are made
- "thicker"/"stronger" with use. That is, the more you use
- a neural link the faster and more durable it is. Such as
- skills, athletics, etc. After all, muscles get finer
- tuned by doing an action repetitively, but still requires
- the increasingly better coordination the brain gives with
- practice.
-
-
- ThoughtProcess:
-
- This section will try to figure out the methodology
- the brain uses in thinking, and how to improve it.
-
- "Fuzzy Windows." A term used to describe how the AI
- program Cyc sees and analyzes information. Each window
- is a descriptor block of data describing some
- object/concept/etc. The article I got this from was
- about Doug Lenat's Cyc project. What I thought of
- when I read Fuzzy Windows was your standard advertisement
- of a program, with windows all over it (like desqview
- ad's). And said, "Aha", fuzzy = % of overlay between 2+
- windows. These windows aren't picture windows, they're
- data windows - so what is actually overlaid (and
- contained in the "windows") are the data structures of
- the objects (the descriptor fields). Sticking with the
- visual image; when you put up LOTS of windows of various
- sizes you get a mess. Visualize it in 3D, instead of
- windows use 2D boxes in 3D space (imagine depth on your
- computer screen). Routes of commonality or analogic when
- connected by a line would appear (could appear)
- remarkably like lines in space of a galactic trader's
- trade route (the path their ship needs to take). What
- I'm talking about is how to view commonality of
- knowledge. We have all this information, and we link it
- with "threads" when looking for connections. At each
- node (data area) is a vector that points to the next
- thread - via fuzzy logic probably. Example, you own a
- Ford Taurus, you think "car"; your brain locates the data
- area that contains "car," from there are links (vectors)
- to Ford, GM, etc. as well as brand names, and probably
- much more. The strongest link will be to something like
- Ford Taurus, Taurus, or My Car--it will be the first
- thing that comes to your consciousness. It's the
- turning/spinning/rotating of this 3D space, with all it's
- boxes, that help us find new or existing connections.
- All part of the brain's pattern recognition heuristics.
- Another interesting point this article made is that all
- objects are events. They have a start time, an existence
- length, and a leave time. It also suggests that rather
- than working holistically on information, the brain has
- hundreds of specialized areas where data and specific
- (task related) functions are stored (perhaps to reduce
- number of "ticks" conscious and subconscious need at
- every moment?) This document for instance is for the
- most part holistic--bits of related data are scattered
- all about. It's a trade-off. The more compartmentalized
- the easier to read. The more holistic, the easier to
- find interrelations.
-
- The brain polls the rest of the brain via a wave of
- question. This "wave of question" is a pattern of
- neurotransmitters, in which a match is sought. Each
- neuron is asked, "what do you know of/about/relating to
- this." They send back a fuzzy response. The polling
- results are prioritized according to their fuzzy level.
- Then the consciousness is sent info about those neurons.
- From which we make the selection about which neuron to
- follow. As the wave washes over the brains receptors,
- those receptors do a similar fuzzy scan of their data
- areas (the scan is a pattern--the fuzzy response is a
- percentage of match).
-
- Perhaps better access to memories is due to the
- concentration your brain uses while talking to others.
-
- The brain's pattern recognition abilities are based on
- the templates you've built up through experience. New
- studies and questions create their own templates to be
- compared against in the future.
-
-
- ThoughtSpeech:
-
- For lack of a better word, I've merged two. This
- section deals with understanding how the brain
- communicates with itself--it's language. The purpose is
- to eventually use your brain to understand itself and to
- improve your conscious level processing speed.
- Or at least better eavesdrop on what's happening. Eg. if
- code is binary and think binary?
-
- Jack Womack has an interesting book, Terraplane, he
- uses a writing style that could be a good basis for what
- "thought-speech" might sound like. [[examples]]
-
- Running words together like German.
-
-
- Robots and Artificial Beings:
-
- Robots are devices such as factory arms and the
- Voyager series. Artificial beings are made also, but are
- more sentient and can be made of either metals,
- silicates, or synthetic organic-like structures.
-
- The questions are: When is a robot a human? Should
- we put controls on human-like robots?
-
- Since artificial beings probably will have a longer
- life span, its possible races abandon their organic form
- for their newly created one.
-
- Robot evolution is simple to predict. The basic
- robot design will continue to improve in smarts and
- ability. At some point we will want them to look like
- humans. At some further point we will give them emotion-
- like responses, since a robot without a face is, as a
- Doctor Who episode put it, "you never know what they are
- thinking behind that face." Robots probably should not
- be given control of their facial expressions when it
- comes to reactions. They should exhibit surprise,
- curiosity, fear, etc. After a time we will start to ask
- about their rights. Then those rights will be granted.
-
- A problem in this is that we would never tolerate a
- superior race (let alone one created by us). We would
- want to be at least equal.
-
- So, at what point should we stop and say no to
- robots? As I stated though, an artificial body is
- greatly desirable if yours is failing. This alone may
- promote the growth of robots.
-
- The direction to the robot race may not be as such
- though. It is possible that we
- "cyberneticize"/"cyborgnetize" ourselves until we are
- essentially like robots would be.
-
- The best solution I can see is the obvious one, we
- limit robot technology to the level of the
- biological/electronic limits of the time. If we develop
- a super smart "phase-tronic" brain (or something), then
- that brain must have no self-awareness and no imagination
- until we can enhance our own brains to the same
- computational level. In an increasing communication and
- computer operated society, super smart electronic beings
- that can undermine it all cannot be allowed.
-
- Remember RoboCop.
-
- Isaac Asimov came up with these four laws that
- robots were to obey:
- 0) A robot may not injure humanity or,
- through inaction, allow humanity to
- come to harm.
- 1) A robot may not injure a human
- being, or, through inaction, allow a
- human being to come to harm, except
- where that would conflict with the
- Zeroth Law.
- 2) A robot must obey the orders given
- it by human beings except where such
- orders would conflict with the
- Zeroth or First Law.
- 3) A robot must protect its own
- existence, as long as such
- protection does not conflict with
- the Zeroth, First or Second Law.
- I have my doubts about these laws. You would really
- need a being with intelligence to interpret these laws.
- They may provide a basic symbolic pattern to begin what
- will surely be the difficult task of creating an
- intelligent being.
-
- I can never think of intelligent robots as anything
- other than another being (much like animals). Either we
- make "things" with computers to make them smart or we
- make human-like robots with smarts. To make an
- intelligent robot for nothing more than servitude is
- essentially slavery. [And what about a TV set with an
- incredible AI? Similar to problem of human brain in
- dog?]
-
- Asimov's books go into great depth concerning
- robots, unfortunately he puts these robots in ideal
- situations. They are an excellent place to start when
- considering what a life of an intelligent robot
- could/should be like.
-
- AI's not in robot form, but in portable form, are
- explained well in The War Machine In the book, AIDs
- (Artificial Intelligence Devices), contain a personality
- and are mainly used as a portable telephone to access
- information--but also as recorders, etc. They are
- programmed to inform the police when the user attempts
- something illegal. They also have programming concerning
- their survival. Since each unit contains a 'scram'
- button that 'kills' the AID when pressed, the AID must
- take this into account when deciding whether to be a
- blabbermouth. The cheap ones always complained to the
- police (much to the disgust of the overworked police).
- The more expensive ones realized the police tended to
- ignore the AID squealing and decided survival was more
- important.
-
- Does the no-two-clones at once rule apply for these
- AI devices or intelligent robots? They will no doubt
- have questions about themselves, but since they can't do
- anything without us maybe we shouldn't consider them an
- intelligence. Of course, on the other hand, people will
- become attached to them like they do their pets.
- [Technological parasites.]
-
-
- The human soul:
-
- We have a soul. You cannot make a perfect duplicate
- robot body and then transfer your mind, kill your body,
- and call the robot you in a new form. Since you both
- were alive. This goes all the way. You can create an
- artificial body with memory, autonomous system,
- language/math/skill sections, etc. But you will always
- need one crucial part from the original body. I don't
- know what that part is, but some part of the brain is
- absolutely necessary. This part can't be subdivided to
- create multiple robots. Cloning should be avoided. You
- don't want a duplicate, you want a true new body. Just
- because you've created another you, doesn't mean you'll
- exist after the true body is dead. You're still just as
- dead.
-
- If cloned, you may ask, what does it matter if the
- original body died? After all, your personality, goals,
- beliefs, feelings, etc. survive in the new body. In
- which you still think you're you. So, cloning will
- continue "you" in others eyes. The original "you" died.
- Example: If you draw a line on a paper, you have a line.
- You erase the line, and redraw the line so it is
- identical. If a viewer doesn't know that the original
- line was erased, they think the new line was the original
- line. In fact it isn't. It's a new line.
-
- It's a point of imperfection. It is almost
- impossible to make a truly exact duplicate. If you die,
- or are destroyed, and some hyper-advanced being comes
- along and reproduces you to exact perfection. You are
- again. If some hack comes along and clones you, you
- might just as well accept the new life, but realize that
- you aren't the person you were before.
-
- [Note, need to cross this with teleportation.]
- Yes, brain matter must first be installed in robots
- to extend life this way. What about when we can so
- thoroughly understand the underlying structure that we
- duplicate it perfectly? Then it becomes a philosophical
- matter and the rule still applies. The main part of the
- brain must be kept with a new structure, therefore there
- is a soul.
-
- What about transference of robotic intelligences?
- On one hand it could be considered an upgrade or the
- transference of a file. On the other, there may be a
- form of rejection. I guess it's just a matter of how
- they're programmed, and whether their brains evolve
- physically or "software-ally."
-
- Death should be thought of as the extinction of a
- unique being.
-
- Problem with this soul: If a person is frozen when
- they die, and their original brain cannot be restored
- (via micromachines or biological machines), but their
- brain can be cloned to produce a living, perfect,
- replica.
-
- Technology:
-
- Punctuated Gradualism:
-
- It's interesting that previously mostly my thinking
- was built around common sense, logic, and philosophy.
- Lately, it's becoming evolutionary, incremental, and
- developmental based. That is, "That in all systems there
- exists a logical path to growth, and that at various
- points along that path extreme modifications are
- necessary to continue development." A punctuated
- equilibrium of systems. Problems with this include
- implied determinism, and perhaps a confusion with the
- ideas of development on my part. Examples include my
- expectations of human development: natural evolution
- dead, gene/bio-electronic/robotic development next, then
- energy. Look at output systems: LED's/LCD's to CRT's and
- back to LCD's again (flat screen). LED's/LCD's led to
- computers that led to improved CRT's that led to advanced
- LCD development. Same goal, varying between two
- technologies, each show evolutionary change, but the
- swapping between the two is punctuated. Categories with
- full evolutionary-type developments within them, but
- complete shifts to obtain the next level.
-
- Example: Holograms created using a single fiber
- optic wire--works because light comes out at same angle
- goes in (therefore know how it will come out), number of
- beams is technology based (a beam for each pixel, an
- evolutionary development for the future: more beams=>more
- pixels), output relies on light fade (after a certain
- distance (probably based on power input, but possibly on
- next arriving light pushing) the ray dissolves into a
- fuzzy ball (a pixel), logically and expectedly (for a
- hologram) the center (closest to source) will be clearest
- and the farthest will be fuzziest (dispersion you know).
-
- Simulated Future History/Virtual Technology: One
- reason for this document is to encourage skipping
- intermediary steps in technologic development. If we can
- "virtually" investigate technology's and their effects
- through modelling we can go beyond that point. The real
- sticking point is confidence of the model and
- conclusions. Like automobile modeling, we know what
- future cars will be like, but we can't build them
- cheaply--because the necessary technique's are either
- unknown or too expensive. So I advocate taking the next
- step, model the techniques' development until the whole
- system is understood. Then build the future car, rather
- then building all the intermediary cars (eg. one brand
- has 4-wheel drive, another 4-wheel steering, another...).
- To some extent the US does this with jet fighters, while
- USSR evolves fighters, we prefer to make risky
- technological leaps. The key is to reduce the risks
- though computational power--in itself something that is
- evolving. Part of the solution is to be able to envision
- what a "future" version will look like. Anyone can
- design a car that looks like a rocket, but what about a
- car that looks like a sphere? Another example, a peace
- treaty. While being prepared someone notices that, "if
- events x, y, and z occur then something bad could happen
- some day." So they add a special clause to fix x. Then
- someone notices events y, z, and w leading to risk. So
- they fix that, and so on. Until finally they have
- something to sign. It's mostly experience that has made
- agreements more than simple "I promise not to invade
- everybody." Future history is the thing to hurdle.
-
-
- Miscellaneous Technology:
-
- It seems Optoelectronics will be the next stage of
- electronics. They are circuits and chips that use light
- instead of wires to transmit information. Much like the
- fiber optic telephone connections that are replacing the
- old copper wire. IBM has come up with 8,000 transistor-
- like opto-based devices on a Gallium-arsenide based chip.
- The chips have miniature lasers, photodetectors, and
- optical pathways.
-
- New advanced materials?
- "A computer program that predicts the
- properties of proposed designer molecules
- before they are created. After testing the
- program with known materials, Cohen and his
- graduate students are searching for materials
- with valuable new properties. Two that are
- particularly interesting": A new
- superconductor made from hydrogen, and a
- carbon-nitrogen material that may be harder
- than a diamond. "Manufacturing the hydrogen
- superconductor would require pressures beyond
- what is now practical, but they may be
- possible in a few years. Superdiamonds,
- though, could theoretically be made now with
- so-called diamond anvils--squeezing the raw
- materials between two diamonds while a laser
- is fired through them. The program also
- predicts that it should be possible to harden
- diamonds. Next, Cohen hopes to prove his
- theory by making the superhard material, and
- three research laboratories, including
- Berkeley's, are interested in pursuing the
- project."?
-
- Kodak has a 14 inch optical disk that can hold 6.8
- Gb.
-
- "Discovered that laser beams can. . .be
- 'photon glue' to hold tiny objects together.
- The scientists speculate that the process may
- be used to create materials with new
- properties for optical communications devices
- and even drugs. [Physicists] exposed tiny
- plastic beads to an intense laser beam. To
- their surprise, they saw that the light energy
- caused the spheres to suddenly reorganize and
- stick together in a layer a scat 1.5 microns
- thick. 'I don't think anyone suspected that
- you could organize random matter into material
- structures using only light,' says [a
- physicist]. The strength of the bonds between
- the atoms is controlled by the intensity and
- wavelength of the laser light. Even though
- the assembled material falls apart once the
- light is turned off, the scientists speculate
- that the technique might be developed to align
- molecules in novel ways, then apply chemistry
- to bind the molecules permanently."
-
- "Worn like a second skin, life suits were
- designed to be powered by the electrical
- charge inherent in the human body. In order
- to most effectively capture this current and
- use it to power the life-support systems, the
- entire suit was lined with a fine mesh made of
- gold wires no thicker than a human hair,
- separated by a space of one tenth of a
- millimeter."
-
- Eric Kotani and John Maddox Roberts Delta Pavonis
- has an interesting idea: building with foam. They talk
- of "extruded foam construction" for buildings. You would
- have to take advantage of trapped air for rooms--and
- drill between the rooms for hallways. But other than
- looking exceeding ugly it is very practical. Extremely
- fast construction time. And naturally air-tight--making
- it ideal for space-based structures.
-
- "The key to physical attraction on its most basic
- level, claims physicist Arthur Freeman, is dancing.
- 'The dancers are spinning electrons that travel
- around atoms,' he says. 'Ordinarily they dance in
- pairs, spinning in opposite directions, one up and
- one down. But sometimes you get an electron
- spinning by itself, without a partner. Just like a
- guy or a girl on a dance floor dancing along, the
- oddball electron is very attractive to another one.
- And that attraction is magnetism. He has proved
- that a one-atom-thin layer of iron--a metal with a
- lot of lonely electrons--can have a more powerful
- magnetic pull than a piece of iron four times
- thicker. Freeman had developed a way to simulate a
- thin film of iron on a subatomic level. To do it
- he'd had to rely on the enormous power of a Cray
- supercomputer: every iron atom is surrounded by 26
- electrons, and simulating their interactions--the
- dance--required solving several of what Freeman
- calls 'horribly, horribly complex equations' that
- describe the movement of electrons through a solid.
- These equations had to be solved over and over
- again for each electron on a multitude of atoms.
- But in the end the calculations told Freeman that a
- thin layer of iron actually had more magnetism than
- a thicker one. The strength of iron's magnetic
- field depends on how many of its unpaired electrons
- are spinning in the same direction. If there are
- five unpaired electrons spinning up and four
- spinning down, for example, the electrons spinning
- up create a small magnetic field that pulls on the
- fewer number of electrons spinning down. The field
- has to flip these electrons over so they too spin
- up, or they will generate their own field pointing
- in the opposite direction and the two fields will
- cancel each other out." [perhaps use electron
- guns for "magnetic" force shields?]
-
- "Polarizing is an optical trick that takes
- advantage of the peculiar anatomy of a light beam.
- Light moving through space is made up of countless
- individual waves; although all the waves move at
- the same speed and in the same general direction,
- they do not normally move in the same plane. One
- wave may speed ahead oriented parallel to the
- horizon--essentially lying on its side--while
- another racing alongside may be perpendicular to
- it. Other waves moving with them may assume a
- limitless number of angles in between. As light is
- concentrated to create a laser beam, however, all
- the waves end up squeezed into the same
- orientation; this is known as polarized light. One
- of the things that can change the polarity of light
- is magnetism. The new disks are made of a metal
- allow that, when heated, becomes especially easy to
- magnetize. Ordinarily the atoms in the alloy are
- arranged in one direction--say, with their north
- magnetic poles facing up. To record information on
- the disk, a laser beam heats a tiny spot on the
- alloy to about 360 degrees. While the beam is on,
- a nearby magnet reverses the orientation of the
- heated spot, pointing its north pole downward.
- When the laser is shut off, the alloy cools and the
- new orientation is frozen in place. The laser then
- moves to the next tiny spot, then the next, either
- heating it and flipping its pole down or skipping
- it and leaving its pole pointing up. Ultimately
- the entire disk is covered with these up and down
- spots, which can information just like the pitted
- and unpitted on an ordinary disk. [CD music/laser
- video disk] To play back this information, the
- laser is turned to a cooler setting and scanned
- back over the disk. When the beam hits a spot
- magnetized in one direction, it reflects back at a
- slightly clockwise angle; when it strikes a spot
- magnetized the other way, it reflects back
- counterclockwise. Detectors then read these shifts
- in polarity the same way they read the on-off
- binary code of an ordinary disk. 'It sounds like a
- lot of work to program information this way,' says
- Alan Bell, a physicist at IBM's Almaden Research
- Center in San Jose, California, 'but each spot on
- the disk takes only a few ten-billionths of a
- second to record.' To erase the disk and record
- new information, all you have to do is reheat the
- alloy and reorient its atoms in the same direction.
- It's then ready to be reprogrammed with a new
- pattern of up and down spots. So far,
- magneto-optical disks (MOs for short) aren't
- available in stereo shops, but they do exist--at
- hefty prices. Pioneer has developed an MO video
- disk system that sells for $38,500. Ediflex, a
- California company, offers an audio model for
- recording studios for $99,000. [note: this is
- video and audio systems--not data] The
- technological obstacles to making these products
- affordable for a mass market would not be difficult
- to overcome..."
-
- Virtual reality: first "extensions" (guns, suits) then
- electro-detect of muscles then electro-detect of brain.
- Culminating w/computer like creative/design functions.
-
- Battle:
-
- I've come across some interesting battle techniques
- and would just like to note them here.
-
- To fight a computer: swarm it. The more objects
- attacking a computer, computer based defense, or AI, the
- slower these systems work. Basic ideas of multitasking.
-
- Nuclear dampers: Idea from Hammer's Slammer's
- series by David Drake. Emit some pulse that either
- damages the triggering mechanism or the process of a
- nuclear bomb.
-
- To fight logic (eg. computers) use confusion. Non-
- logical acts ruin calculated plans and force
- unpredictability to be considered (which isn't logical).
-
- Walter Jon Williams book Hardwired has convinced me
- that planetary life may be extraordinary hazardous. It
- seems that a single spaceship with a rail gun, and good
- sized projectiles, could easily devastate the target
- planet. The position of being in space also offers the
- advantage of more space for maneuverability and wait
- defensively for attackers from the planet to arrive. The
- advantages seem so staggering high that I doubt even a
- space base of interceptors offer much improvement. So,
- until a defensive parity can be found I must conclude
- that all really advanced races live in space and use
- planets only for supplies. By not packing a planet, a
- race that is scattered throughout the solar system has a
- much better chance of survival, simply by the number of
- places to hide or the extra time to detect and flee any
- attackers. The current popular theory for the
- destruction of dinosaurs is...
-
- I seem to recall that the best way to break down a
- material is to send the force/beam/whatever at it in
- oscillations (eg. launch a rocket every 30 seconds)
- versus random attack. The oscillating actions of the
- attack causes internal oscillations in the structure
- which has a detrimental effect (like hitting it from two
- sides at once.) I guess you try to set it up so that as
- each new wave hits, the internal waves should return at
- the same time.
-
- When two sides have similar technologies, the
- defense will have the advantage weapon-wise. That is,
- defense will have shorter supply lines. The attacker
- must come mostly prepared while defense can strengthen
- spots that weaken. Another example, if both sides have
- a laser weapon that can shoot x shots per charge. Then
- defense could re-rig it to produce x/2 double strength
- shots per charge (or somesuch). They can afford to do
- more bang with each charge, whereas the attacker must
- worry about supplies and limit their wasteful usage.
- Simply because defense can resupply so much faster. This
- is effective for planetary bases--but not for distributed
- space bases (unless at mining/manufacturing facility for
- weapons ingredients). This planetary advantage does not
- overcome the disadvantages of being on a planet.
-
- While not really battle, computers losing or corrupting
- data is always a possibility. Therefore, never entrust
- your life to a computer that's been running a long time.
- Since the longer it runs, the higher the accumulation of
- bad data, as well as faulty parts. It seems logical, but
- many SF stories have been done about computers that run
- everything.
-
- Geodesic spheres may be a perfect defense if they
- can work like the C60:
- "They found that the C60s were hard to damage:
- only one small C2 molecule broke off at a time.
- C60 would become C58 and a little C2 molecule
- would go bugging off into space. If you
- pumped more light at it, that C58 would spit
- out C2 and become C56 and so forth. This C2-
- popping, however, continued only as far down
- as C32, at which point the molecule inevitably
- shattered. Concluded that the laser was just
- managing to evaporate a C2 molecule from the
- surface of the fullerene, which would then
- reseal itself to make the next smaller
- fullerene cage. When it got down to 32 atoms,
- the fullerene was under too much strain."
- The key is that when the geodesic sphere lost 2 carbon
- atoms (a molecule), it restructured itself to create a
- smaller geodesic sphere--maintaining complete coverage
- and maximum strength. The molecular sphere would break
- earlier if an atom was inside the sphere (depended on the
- atom).
-
- There is a device under development to study comets.
- It is called the Comet Penetrator. It both looks and is
- the first space missile. It is launched from a
- spacecraft. Once the Penetrator does its job the defense
- department can just retrieve the plans and specs and
- declare that it has the first space missile.
-
- "Rather than blocking or conducting current,
- the mirrors could absorb or reflect light.
- The binary code would remain the same, but the
- information would be carried by photons, not
- electrons. The problem was designing a mirror
- that would either reflect or absorb light on
- command. Discovered that if you hit very thin
- layers of semiconducting materials like
- gallium arsenide with an electric charge or
- with laser beams of specific energies, they
- become briefly transparent. [about S-SEED
- transistors (Symmetric Self-Electro-optic
- Effect Device)--basically micro-laser based
- electronics.]"
-
- "...when the first missile reached the edge of
- the dense mesh that surrounded Rama. At the
- moment the missile made contact, the impacted
- part of the mesh yielded, cushioning the blow
- but allowing the missile to penetrate deeper
- into the netting. Simultaneously, other
- pieces of the mesh wrapped themselves rapidly
- about the missile, spinning a thick cocoon
- with amazing speed. It was all over in a
- fraction of a second. the missile was about
- two hundred meters from the outer shell of
- Rama, already enclosed in a thick wrapping,
- when its nuclear warhead detonated." This
- to protect a ship.
-
- Miscellaneous:
-
- The authors of the Robotech books have some
- interesting ideas concerning a "machine mind". At first
- I thought this was a cyberspace copy but it is both
- original and interesting. It has to do with linking
- brains with computers which intern enter "electronic
- space"--not just the simulated cyberspace. You travel
- the paths of electronics/communications/energy. What you
- are in is essentially a real alternate universe. In
- which you're conscious energy/electricity/etc. Sort of
- like a "machine space". It's also interesting because
- it's one of those things we couldn't have imagined
- without progressing this far technological-wise. After
- all, being surrounded by electronics could one day make
- us wonder if we hadn't fallen into a machine space.
-
- Laser boring system--like idea on how atoms travel
- through space. But laser bore makes ship act like atom.
- Uses space itself to pull you along, therefore no need to
- buildup energy to infinity. Perhaps a laser (bore)
- diffuses through space and causes something behind the
- atoms of space it just went through--causing an
- attraction. Thus clearing space for a ship (or with a
- tight laser beam, a atom).
-
- If non-space was all vacuum then you would have Big
- Bangs all over the place--since space itself causes
- matter to be pulled apart in vacuum.
-
- Mass and volume displaces space, whereas only volume
- displaces water.
-
- Could an FTL ship drop out of FTL, release a bomb
- going 99% of light, then go back into FTL? It seems that
- there must be some natural barrier against this kind of
- destruction. Probably anything falling below the speed
- of light drops down to a "normal" speed extremely
- quickly. How I don't know, perhaps near light warps
- space really bad. But should this be true, then the
- reverse is also true--that at some point you get to and
- past the speed of light rather rapidly. Or maybe you
- just exit FTL near masses, and that after a short while
- it drops down to something more "natural".
-
- FK-506 (anti-rejection drug), cuts rejection rates
- by 90%, fewer complications, works better than the
- others.
- "All NASA armor designs are based on something
- known as a Whipple shield. At present the
- [satellite(s)] shield is a two-layer swathe of
- aluminum that completely covers a spacecraft.
- Between the outer and inner layers is a space
- ranging from four to 12 inches. When a piece
- of debris strikes the bumper, the impact
- causes the projectile to shatter. The
- shrapnel generally retains enough oomph to
- break through the outer layer, but when it
- enters the space beyond, it disperses, then
- bounces off the inner layer. Studies suggest
- that future Whipple shields may be improved by
- using as many as five thin layers rather than
- two thicker ones. Experiments show that if a
- projectile is made to blast through four
- separate layers, the repeated shocks often
- cause it not only to shatter but to
- liquefy."
-
- We're starting to see a lot of "body input devices".
- Such as Nintendo's glove. Gloves and body suits that
- detect movements. Various devices for projecting 3D or
- "in-space" computer images. What we will see in the
- future is people spending lots of time in these things.
- It'll be an addiction, just like a drug. We get addicted
- to games now, when we become part of the game we'll be
- even more "into it". To the world we'll look like
- vegetables; hidden in a body suit, perhaps moving around
- a room, more likely jerking on a chair. It'll be an ugly
- sight. We should prepare, they'll suffer the same
- malady's drug addicts do (emaciation/etc.). This, of
- course, was "simstim" in Neuromancer. Another name being
- bantered around is "virtual reality". A book ends, a
- computer game has an end, but increasingly games are
- becoming universes, where you could literally play
- forever. Some recent games include StarFlight II and
- Ultima VI--both of which allow you to set up a business
- and just keep operating it. People in "Happy Machines"
- as well, in which they're constantly fed their addiction.
-
- Can something be random if it contains a path to it,
- any path? Eg. I want to kill a person. But that person
- escaped to another city via the airport. He chose his
- destination (city) randomly. But because there are a
- finite number of routes (paths), one of which was his, I
- could eventually locate him without randomness.
-
- What's wrong with the word Hacker? It seems to be
- changing. You pick; Cyberpunks, Cybernauts, Comic-
- crazed Compjockeys.
-
- In the future DNA criminal analysis may be able to
- ID a person by his DNA if his parents DNA are on file (if
- person is unknown). And vice-versa, know DNA of an old
- crime, might be able to study other's DNA and find
- descendants DNA, leading to who the original criminal
- was.
-
- Aerogel's. Neat cloud like material that hold
- hundreds of times their own weight. [[picture to get]]
- Been around for 60 years.
- "They look like patches of thick fog that have
- been frozen for easy handling." Some uses
- include insulation in refrigerators and
- double-pane windows, and possibly to catch
- micro-meteoroids in space.
-
- Note: DO NOT sign over rights to use body
- parts/blood/etc. for use in medical research while you're
- still alive unless compensated.
-
- Powerful electronic gadgets are what watches will
- become. They just came out with the watch pager.
-
- With technology will come people who always look the
- same through the many years.
-
- Parallel universe = refection of the universe in
- each of our minds?
-
- "Copper deficiency [may be] to blame for
- cholesterol accumulation and heart disease. .
- .[by raising] levels of high density
- lipoprotein, or "good" cholesterol, in the
- blood--which in turn prevents low density
- lipoprotein, or "bad" cholesterol, from
- clogging up your arteries. Americans, who get
- a lot of heart disease, typically don't ingest
- enough copper (found in foods such as beef
- liver and nuts). Rats fed a low-copper diet
- are unusually prone to heart disease. Fed
- rats a copper-poor diet and gave them either
- [water, beer (not low alcohol), or pure
- alcohol.] The beer-drinking rats lived nearly
- six times longer--nine months instead of a
- month and a half--than their. . .counterparts.
- They also had lower blood cholesterol and
- fewer enlarged hearts. The small traces of
- copper found in beer were by no means enough
- to counteract the rat's dietary deficit. Some
- other ingredient in beer enhanced [the] rats'
- ability to absorb more copper from food.
- Their livers, where the mineral is normally
- deposited,. . .found that the beer-drinkers
- had three times more copper than the water-
- drinkers."
- [Note: compare heart disease rates and ages of death
- between Americans and West Germans, and Milwaukeean's vs.
- general US population over time.]
-
- Two books: Blood Music, and Down The Stream Of
- Stars produce a good idea. Down The Stream Of Stars
- talked about "specks", micromachines (sand size) that
- built structures as well as did medical modifications.
- The interesting thing was that these machines would work
- together to produce macro structures such as space ships.
- Blood Music, while using bio-logic molecules, did a great
- job of pointing out how massive groups of miniature
- workers would work together. Down The Stream Of Stars
- also did (I thought) an excellent job of presenting the
- "evil aliens", it was done through the eyes of an
- innocent dog-like being--very well done. Blood Music
- might be Neuromancer for the microbiologists.
-
- Don't think I mentioned it before, but math is just
- a model of the universe. A potential predictor, but by
- no means something you rely on as facts. What results
- would "fuzzy math" yield? Such as: 1+1=3 to 5, 1+2=3 to
- 6, etc. In which the "to's" themselves would be fuzzy
- (and perhaps fractal/random based). Make the "to" range
- a normal random curve--which depends on the factors
- producing it. Maybe instead of 1..infinity which the
- right-of-decimal numbers getting smaller by degrees, we
- used an absolute minimum--width of an electron, quark,
- etc. I recommend whatever is smallest, after all, the
- goal is to model the universe. It also "fits;" without
- computers we wouldn't have been able to try something
- like this. I think it's time to computerize mathematics.
-
- As far as the laws of mathematics refer to
- reality, they are not certain; and as far as
- they are certain, they do not refer to
- reality.
- --ALBERT EINSTEIN
-
- It seems IBM has created the world's smallest
- advertisement. Using their scanning-tunneling
- microscope, they wrote "IBM" using 35 xenon atoms onto a
- nickel crystal. It's the first structure built one
- atom at a time. It measures 660 billionths of an inch in
- width.
-
- The C60 carbon molecule is thought to be a geodesic
- sphere with the ability to hold other atoms within this
- stable structure. Perhaps without interacting at all
- with the carbon atoms.
-
- "DIBs--diffuse interstellar bands. Since the
- 1930s astronomers have noted the existence of
- unusual features in the light spectra from
- distant stars: up to 50 dark lines indicating
- that something is absorbing certain
- frequencies of light as it passes from the
- star to Earth. This something, however, does
- not correspond to the spectral lines of any
- known element or molecule. Whatever it is,
- there's a lot of it, all over the place. It's
- an all-pervading material in the space between
- the stars, and we've never been able to figure
- out what it is."
-
- Idea of stimulating the brain to regrow the body.
-
- "Hearing specialists have long stressed the
- dangers of rock concerts, but it's not the
- moral fiber of America's youth they're worried
- about. What concerns them are the fine,
- upstanding tufts of hair that stick up from
- the sensory cells of the inner ear. When
- exposed to prolonged, intense sound, these
- hairs can flop over like stalks of wheat
- pummeled by hail. Until recently, however, no
- one knew exactly why they collapsed. Using an
- electron microscope, Harvard physiologist
- Charles Liberman examined the sensory hairs of
- cats that had sustained mild but potentially
- reversible hearing loss, then compared them
- with the sensory hairs of cats with permanent
- hearing loss. 'With temporary loss, you can't
- see a heck of lot wrong with the hair cells,'
- Liberman says. but in the permanently deaf
- cats the hairs had keeled over. The hairs'
- rootlets--the small, narrow structures
- connecting them to the rest of the cell--were
- broken. Liberman thinks of the damage to the
- rootlets much like a stress fracture. When
- sound enters the ear, he explains, the hairs
- rock back and forth in response to the
- resultant vibrations. The rocking causes the
- sensory cells to release a neurotransmitter
- that stimulates auditory nerves, leading to
- the sensation of sound in the brain. The
- hairs themselves, however, are rigid; they can
- bend only at the flexible rootlet. If the
- rootlet is overstressed, forced to rock too
- hard and too long, it can eventually break.
- With the collapse of the sensory hairs, the
- whole cell becomes useless, as does its
- associated nerve, and some hearing is lost
- forever."
-
- "The cream-colored flesh of his cerebellum,
- criss-crossed by bright red capillaries, rises
- out of a clear pool of cerebrospinal fluid.
- The cerebellum is a baseball-size object that
- sits at the base of the brain toward the back
- of the head. It plays a vital role in
- coordinating voluntary movements such as
- walking and speaking. Jannetta is looking at
- the front edge of the cerebellum's left side.
- beneath it, hidden from view, is the part of
- the brain he needs to get to: the stem, where
- the 12 pairs of cranial nerves emerge and
- branch out through the body. All the
- autonomic functions of the body (breathing,
- the senses, the workings of the major organs)
- are regulated the brain stem. So, of course,
- is the heart. And in the medulla, the lower
- part of the stem, are groups of neurons that
- regulate blood pressure by telling the heart
- how hard to beat and blood vessels how much to
- constrict. The neurons in the medulla get
- signals from nerve cells in the walls of the
- aorta and the carotid artery, the great
- vessels leading from the heart. These nerve
- cells use the stretching of vessel walls as an
- indication of blood pressure. Their signals
- travel up to the medulla along the ninth and
- tenth cranial nerve pairs, called the
- glossopharyngeal and the vagus, respectively.
- Neurons in the medulla respond by sending
- signals back down to the heart along the
- vagus. Other neurons send signals along
- sympathetic nerves to blood vessels throughout
- the body."
- The article goes on about how blood vessels impinging on
- nerves cause medical problems. Wouldn't it be weird if
- a cure is to route these vessels through a plastic tube--
- just think of all those science fiction movies where the
- villain lackey's have tubes of liquid coming out from one
- part of the head and going into another.
-
- Another Zeno story:
- "...no matter how close a runner is to his
- destination, he must always run half the
- remaining distance first, then half the
- remaining half, and so on; because there are
- an infinite number of half distances, the
- runner never arrives at the finish line." "In
- 1989 physicist Wayne Itano and his colleagues
- at the National Institute of Standards and
- Technology in Boulder became the first to
- unambiguously observe the quantum Zeno effect.
- The group trapped 5,000 beryllium atoms in a
- magnetic field and exposed them to radio
- waves, which, from a quantum mechanical point
- of view, gradually transform the atoms until
- they are in an excited state. To determine
- how many atoms had actually made it to the new
- state at any particular time, Itano's team
- looked at them with a short pulse of laser
- light. The pulse had no effect on excited
- atoms, but those atoms still making the
- transition instantly absorbed and re-emitted a
- small amount of the light. Thus, by measuring
- the amount of light re-emitted, Itano's group
- could calculate how many atoms had made the
- transition. As it turned out, when the team
- waited a quarter second before turning on the
- laser, they found that nearly all the atoms
- had made it to the excited state. If,
- however, the researchers preceded that
- quarter-second pulse by a pulse sent in
- halfway through, after one-eighth second, they
- found that by the end of the quarter second
- only half the atoms had made the transition.
- If they sent in four pulses over the quarter-
- second interval, the final proportion of
- excited atoms dropped to a little more than
- one-third. With 64 pulses, scarcely a single
- atom made the transition."
- Answering these Zeno questions just might solve
- Einstein's "not enough energy to go faster than light"
- problem. It appears that a contradiction exists:
- normally you could solve the problem by saying that math
- deals with infinitesimal distances but in the real world
- there is a limit--that of the smallest particle that
- makes up the universe. In actuality we are dealing with
- distance--and the universe isn't made of tiny particles--
- it's made up of empty space with tiny particles. This
- suggests that space itself is not continuous.
-
- "The ultraviolet spectrometer [still working
- on Voyagers 1 and 2] is sensitive to
- wavelengths between 500 and 1,200 angstroms,
- which are absorbed by the earth's atmosphere
- and are not being observed by any other
- currently operating instrument. Although
- these wavelengths also tend to be absorbed by
- interstellar gas, the spectrometer has
- detected radiation from very hot white dwarf
- stars, like 'light coming through the fog'...
- The implication is that there are holes in the
- tenuous clouds of hydrogen that lie between
- the stars. Perhaps the biggest surprise has
- been the discovery of strong ultraviolet
- emissions from globular clusters, indicating
- that these ancient objects somehow maintain a
- population of young, hot stars. A continuous
- stream of charged particles, the solar wind,
- creates a huge, bubblelike structure known as
- the heliosphere. The solar wind carries the
- sun's magnetic field with it, keeping the
- solar system relatively free of interstellar
- matter and hindering the entry of cosmic rays.
- At some point, the solar wind bumps into
- denser but slower moving currents of material
- in interstellar space, forming a boundary
- called the heliopause. The Voyagers have also
- detected an unanticipated fourth component of
- medium-energy particles. ...These probably
- are atoms from interstellar space energized by
- turbulent processes occurring near the
- heliopause. These atoms constitute the first
- direct samples of the interstellar medium."
-
- On destroying tumors:
- "Like X rays, protons can destroy tissue by
- splitting apart DNA molecules or forming
- reactive oxygen free radicals from water
- molecules. But X rays, on entering the body,
- deposit most of their ionizing radiation in
- the first few centimeters--and do not stop
- once the reach the tumor site. Protons, in
- contrast, give up most of their energy only
- when they slow to a stop, allowing higher-
- radiation doses while leaving nearby tissue
- intact."
-
- "Some species avoid freezing through
- biochemical changes in their bodies. But,
- remarkably, the answer for many other animals
- is that they freeze solid and survive. While
- frozen, all these animals [various reptiles]
- show no movement, respiration, heart beat or
- blood circulation, and our latest experiments
- show barely detectable neurological activity.
- Ice accumulates in all extracellular fluid
- compartments and fills the abdominal cavity
- and the bladder; crystals run under the skin
- and in between muscles. These animals have
- mastered the tricks of organ cryopreservation-
- -the freezing of live tissue for storage and
- subsequent use... ...Freezing is lethal for
- most cells. Ice crystals rip through cell
- membranes and damage subcellular organelles;
- cell contents spill out, and the discrete
- localization of individual metabolic processes
- within the cell becomes scrambled. [If can't
- control ice formations] ...two alternatives
- exist. The first--and most familiar--strategy
- is to avoid exposure to temperatures below the
- freezing point of body fluids. Animals simply
- 'choose' relatively warm hibernation sites
- under water or deep underground. Numerous
- insect species overwinter as aquatic larvae,
- and many types of frogs and turtles hibernate
- at the bottom of ponds, where they are safe
- unless the body of water freezes completely.
- On land, toads may dig into the earth to
- remain below the frost line, and snakes may
- congregate in underground communal dens. The
- second alternative to freezing is to use
- specific adaptations that stabilize the liquid
- state at subzero temperatures. All water
- solutions, including body fluids, have an
- equilibrium freezing point, or the temperature
- at which an ice crystal placed in the solution
- will begin to grow. But all water solutions
- can also be supercooled--that is, they can be
- chilled will below the equilibrium freezing
- point before the water crystallizes
- spontaneously into ice [not spontaneous--need
- to move it slightly first]. Human plasma, for
- example, has a freezing point of -.8 degree C
- but, if chilled in a controlled manner, can be
- supercooled to -16 degrees C. The presence of
- nucleators, however, limits the extent of
- supercooling. Nucleators are compounds that
- seed ice growth by providing binding sites
- that can order water molecules into the ice-
- lattice structure. Ice itself is the best
- nucleator, but plasma proteins, foreign
- bacteria and food particles also act as
- effective nucleators. To stabilize the liquid
- state, then, animals must eliminate nucleators
- or prevent the nucleators from triggering
- widespread crystallization--in effect, animals
- must lower the supercooling point of their
- body fluids. ...The same molecular actions
- that enabled anti-freeze proteins to block the
- growth of embryo ice crystals were equally
- effective in blocking the recrystallization of
- existing crystals. Together, then, the two
- proteins control ice structure: ice-nucleating
- proteins seed the formation of extracellular
- ice, and antifreeze proteins stabilize the ice
- crystals at a small, harmless size [keeping
- ice out of the cell--by promoting the growth
- of small individual ice crystals around the
- cell, but far enough away as to not damage the
- cell--using an anti-freeze and cryoprotectant
- (such as sugars, salts, or alcohols) to act as
- separator of the crystals and an internal
- preservative, Trehalose and proline is used to
- preserve the cell's borders against collapse].
- Key enzymes involved in the synthesis of these
- compounds respond uniquely to low
- temperatures. Whereas the activity of most
- enzymes and other metabolic processes lessens
- with decreasing temperature, temperatures
- between zero and five degrees C actually raise
- the activity of an enzyme called glycogen
- phosphorylase by stimulating it to convert
- from its inactive to its active form (the
- enzyme chops hexose sugar units off glycogen
- to begin synthesis). In addition, low
- temperatures inactivate other enzymes,
- resulting in a redirection of the flow of
- carbon from the normal routes of carbohydrate
- catabolism (used to produce cellular energy)
- to special pathways that lead to
- cryoprotectant synthesis. Cyroprotectants
- persist throughout the winter, and then as
- spring begins they are converted back into
- sugars to fuel the continued development of
- the insects through the pupal and adult
- stages. glycerol, sorbitol and related
- compounds represent excellent choices of
- cryoprotectant in biochemical terms. Not only
- do these compounds provide the osmotic actions
- needed to regulate cell volume during
- freezing, but they also remain nontoxic to
- cells even at very high concentrations. They
- do not crystallize spontaneously from aqueous
- solutions at low temperature, and they pass
- freely across membranes. In addition, these
- polyhydroxy alcohols stabilize the structure
- of proteins and enzymes and protect them from
- the denaturing effects of low or freezing
- temperatures."
-
- "Researchers at Bellcore have developed a new
- laser-based system that represents a
- breakthrough in using holograms as computer
- memory and holds promise for dramatically
- faster information access. The researchers
- have built a laser semiconductor array for
- retrieving holographic images, stored on a
- glass crystal, at speeds up to 1 gigahertz.
- Bellcore's research, aimed at changing the way
- holograms--recordings of light patterns that
- represent an image--are retrieved, has yielded
- a chip the size of a thumbnail that contains
- an array of over 1000 semiconductor lasers.
- The laser array replaces the single scanning
- laser beam currently used for retrieving
- holographic images. Single scanning laser
- beams require large and expensive optical
- equipment such as lenses, beam deflectors, and
- optical tables [the typical lab laser set-up].
- Bellcore has tested its laser array by
- retrieving holographic images from a
- photorefractive crystal made from lithium
- niobate and gallium arsenide. A single
- crystal, measuring 1 centimeter on a side, can
- store [1 trillion bits]. Each 'micro-laser'
- in the array is associated with a single page
- of information and can retrieve it in less
- than a nanosecond. The information is
- recorded by dividing the light emitted from
- the laser into two beams of light and
- recording the phase and amplitude at their
- intersection in the photorefractive crystal.
- Only one beam from the laser, called the
- 'reference beam,' is needed to retrieve the
- information from the crystal. Each laser
- measures 40-millionths of an inch across,
- allowing arrays to contain thousands of
- lasers. Although the researchers have
- demonstrated the retrieval of several images
- with high fidelity, they have not been able to
- retrieve more than a few. They hope to
- retrieve 500 to 1000 images from a single
- crystal while maintaining high fidelity.
- Bellcore has not developed a way to store
- these images, but Microelectronics and
- Computer Technology...is using crystallite
- arrays rather than single crystals for storing
- holographic data. These crystallites
- eliminate crosstalk and signal weakening
- problems associated with large photorefractive
- crystals."
-
- "The formula was for the first synthetic
- organic molecule that reproduces itself--a
- molecule that [may be] a primitive form of
- life. [The] molecule is made from building
- blocks different from the amino acids, sugars,
- and phosphates we're used to. What's more, it
- reproduces in a chloroform solution, whereas
- life on Earth evolved in water. As a result
- researchers are expanding their concept of
- what raw materials might be needed for an
- organic primal soup elsewhere in the cosmos.
- [The] replicator is a two-part, J-shaped
- molecule dubbed amino adenosine triacid ester,
- or AATE. The J's long stem is an amine, a
- compound containing nitrogen. The molecule's
- shorter tail is an ester, a compound made from
- an acid and an alcohol. Placed in a solution
- of like esters and amines, the synthetic
- molecule's ester will seize a free-floating
- amine. Meanwhile the molecule's amine will
- grasp a free ester. The loose ends of the two
- captured compounds will then fuse, forming a
- J-shaped copy of the parent molecule that
- brought them together. Because the copied
- molecule is held to the original only by
- hydrogen bonds--the same weak bonds that unite
- the two long, helical strands of a DNA
- molecule--the parent and its offspring are
- easily parted by...normal thermal jostling.
- The two J's then proceed to make two more;
- those four make four more; and so on. In a
- solution with optimum concentrations [the]
- molecules can copy themselves up to a dizzying
- million times per second."
-
- Alan Dean Foster had an interesting idea in Cyber
- Way. He postulated a temporal computer, that was always
- there and everywhere. It responded to a combination of
- voice and body motions to activate it. If you can
- manage to manipulate the actions of individual atoms over
- a distance you can create this computer--just have it use
- ever other millionth atom to do it's work. If quantum
- physics' uncertainty work proves true, then so may this
- idea. It may also be possible to do it with a part of
- DNA--again, linking us all [to each other or something
- else]. Hologram techniques might also prove to be useful
- for ideas for this area.
-
- I think we ought to re-work mathematics. Throw out
- everything except the real number system (things like
- fractions, negatives, imaginary numbers, etc.). Convert
- everything to base units: such as the know weight, the
- shortest known length. If we had 1 apple we could say "1
- apple" or "it weights 10 trillion atoms" or whatever. If
- we had 1 and 1/2 apples, rather than say we have "1.5
- apples" we would say "we have 1500000123134 atoms of
- apple". Similarly for length. Then when use shorter
- notation (such as 1 thousand instead of 1023) we will be
- actually working with a fuzzy number system. Computers
- can handle the number crunching. There is no need for us
- to be using inexact numbers when we don't need to. For
- daily "people" stuff, fuzzy numbers are fine. For
- computers and records always use the large numbers. Part
- of the reason computers have such trouble with numbers
- now is their inability to fractions correctly. As a
- solution they are now leaning towards representing the
- numbers as "1/2" rather than "1.5". But really, all that
- extra processing this requires--just multiply it by a
- million or so and then do the math.
-
- The brain stores data in two forms: single image and
- script. It stores a detailed image in high res of as
- much of an object as it, well, remembers. Script is
- events, what happened when. When recalling motion
- events, the brain, using the images and following the
- scripts, literally draws/designs the memory recalled
- event. This is also how imagination works--you design
- the script (sometimes as you go), then the brain takes
- the images it can supply and plugs them in, it does a
- fuzzy "can supply" so that everything gets something if
- possible. I suspect this script generated design may
- also be lower res than the actual memorized images. Very
- simple, yet very flexible--memory is words or images, but
- not film. One part makes the scripts and images, another
- reads and plays them. Might also explain why designed
- imagination can be hard to recall after it leaves short
- term memory.
-
- "The universe around us consists of three
- fundamental particles. They are the 'up'
- quark, the 'down' quark and electron. The
- known particles can be classified either as
- fermions or as guage bosons. Fermions are
- particles of spin 1/2, that is, they have an
- intrinsic angular momentum of 1/2h, where h is
- the Planck unit of action, 10^-27 ergsecond.
- Fermions may be thought of as the constituents
- of matter. Guage bosons are particles of spin
- 1, or angular momentum 1h. They can be
- visualized as the mediators of the forces
- between the fermions. In addition to their
- spins, these particles are characterized by
- their masses and by their various couplings
- with one another, such as electric charges.
- All known couplings, or interactions, can be
- classified into three types: electromagnetic,
- weak and strong. (A fourth interaction,
- gravity, is negligible at the level of
- elementary particles, so it need not be
- considered here.) Although the three
- interactions appear to be different, their
- mathematical formulation is quite similar.
- They are all described by theories in which
- fermions interact by exchanging gauge bosons.
- The electromagnetic interaction, as seen in
- the binding of electrons and nuclei to form
- atoms, is mediated by the exchange of photons-
- -the electromagnetic gauge bosons. The weak
- interaction is mediated by the heavy W+, W-
- and Z bosons, whereas the strong interaction
- is mediated by the eight massless 'gluons.'
- The proton, for instance, is composed of three
- fermion quarks that are bound together by the
- exchange of gluons."
-
- "For years it has been known that when an
- animal or a person sniffs an odorant,
- molecules carrying the scent are captured by a
- few of the immense number of receptor neurons
- in the nasal passages; the receptors are
- somewhat specialized in the kinds of odorants
- to which they respond. Cells that become
- excited fire action potentials, or pulses,
- which propagate through projections called
- axons to a part of the cortex known as the
- olfactory bulb. The number of activated
- receptors indicates the intensity of the
- stimulus, and their location in the nose
- conveys the nature of the scent. That is,
- each scent is expressed by a spatial pattern
- of receptor activity, which in turn is
- transmitted to the bulb. The bulb analyzes
- each input pattern and then synthesizes its
- own message, which it transmits via axons to
- another part of the olfactory system, the
- olfactory cortex. From there, new signals are
- sent to many parts of the brain--not the least
- of which is an area called the entorhinal
- cortex, where the signals are combined with
- those from other sensory systems. The result
- is a meaning-laden perception, a gestalt, that
- is unique to each individual. For a dog, the
- recognition of the scent of a fox may carry
- the memory of food and expectation of a meal.
- For a rabbit, the same scent may arouse
- memories of chase and fear of attack.
- [Cortical neurons] continuously receive
- pulses--usually at projections known as
- dendrites--from thousands of other neurons.
- the pulses are conveyed at specialized
- junctions called synapses. Certain incoming
- pulses generate excitatory waves of electric
- current in the recipients; others generate
- inhibitory waves. These currents--'dendritic
- currents'--are fed through the cell body
- (which contains the nucleus) to a region
- called the trigger zone, at the start of the
- axon. There the currents cross the cell
- membrane into the extracellular space. As
- they do, the cell calculates the overall
- strength of the currents (reflected in changes
- in voltage across the membrane), essentially
- by adding excitatory currents and subtracting
- inhibitory ones. If the sum is above a
- threshold level of excitation, the neuron
- fires."
-
- "Thrombin, a substance essential for clotting.
- Thrombin is a protease, an enzyme that eats
- away at other proteins; it transforms the
- large protein fibrinogen into threads of
- fibrin, which mesh together to make a
- clot."
-
- "Nerve terminals--the ends of the nerve cells,
- which release chemical messengers called
- neurotransmitters--were swollen to more than
- 30 times their normal size. [effects of old
- age.] The autonomic nervous system controls
- basic bodily functions such as blood pressure,
- heart rate, and the movement of food through
- the intestinal tract. Old age can bring on a
- wide rage of autonomic malfunctions; some
- elderly people faint when they stand up too
- quickly, others lose bladder control. The
- nerve clusters...--known as ganglia--are
- important relay stations involved in many
- basic digestive functions. Nerves feed into
- them from many locations and pass messages on
- to [nerve] cells that are embedded in
- abdominal organs. The damage appeared in the
- terminals of the incoming nerves.
- ...Determined that these bloated terminals
- were packed with huge numbers of
- neurofilaments, a type of internal scaffolding
- that gives normal nerve cells their shape.
- Ordinarily neurofilaments are broken down and
- recycled in the terminals, but these terminals
- weren't doing the job. ...People younger than
- 60 had very few swollen terminals, but in
- people aged 60 and up the number of damaged
- terminals increased dramatically. Not all the
- nerve terminals in each ganglion were swollen.
- The majority, in fact, were unaffected. Each
- ganglion has roughly a dozen different types
- of terminals, and each type releases a
- different neurotransmitter or combination of
- neurotransmitters. To see which terminal
- types were most susceptible to aging damage
- [they] stained them with ten molecular probes
- that bind to different neurotransmitters. To
- their surprise the damage affected only one
- terminal type--the terminals containing a
- neurotransmitter called neuropeptide Y.
- Elsewhere in the body, neuropeptide Y
- stimulates the contraction of blood vessel
- walls."
-
- COBE is finding uniform 2.7535 degrees kelvin
- radiation background. Has anybody every asked if nature
- simply can't go below this point. That in nature 0
- degrees kelvin might be our 2.7535. And if this is true,
- what is the significance of the "unnatural" 0 - 2.7535
- degree zone. What happens to space or matter at 2.7535
- that is different from 0 degrees?
-
- A neat address extension I've seen: after name,
- address, city, state, zip; "U.S.A., Earth, etc." Very
- cute, think I'll use it too.
-
- "Mitochondria are, essentially, tiny
- powerhouses, designed to take oxygen and
- nutrients and transform them into usable
- energy. A cell with large energy
- requirements, such as a heart-muscle cell, can
- be packed with hundreds of these little
- sausage-shaped packages. Inside each
- individual mitochondrion is a complicated maze
- of tightly folded inner membranes. Oxygen and
- nutrients brought to the cell by the
- circulatory system shuttle back and forth
- across these membranes and are processed by
- teams of enzymes in a complex, multistage
- operation known as the respiratory chain. The
- importance of this oxidation process is
- abundantly clear. It produces the chemical
- adenosine triphosphate, the fuel that powers
- all the activities of the body's cells.
- Twenty-five years ago...several
- researchers...discovered that mitochondria had
- their own DNA. All other parts of the
- cell...are orchestrated by the DNA inside the
- cell's nucleus. Mitochondria, however, by
- carrying some of their own genes, evidently
- maintain a measure of control over their
- destiny. Mitochondrial DNA has several other
- idiosyncrasies. First of all, it is passed to
- a child by the mother's egg only, and not by
- the father's sperm. A sperm carries its
- mitochondria wrapped around its tail, which is
- jettisoned at the time of fertilization.
- Second, although like nuclear DNA, it isn't
- bundled into rod-shaped chromosomes but rather
- forms a small looping chain, like bacterial
- DNA. Third, mitochondrial DNA is
- comparatively tiny, comprising 16,000 chemical
- building blocks instead of the 3 billion
- contained in its nuclear counterpart. But
- whereas a cell has only one copy of nuclear
- DNA, it can have from tens to hundreds of
- mitochondria, each equipped with its own DNA.
- Finally, in another show of independence,
- mitochondria reproduce on their own. But
- their DNA can be slipshod when it makes copies
- of itself. if a mistake is made, the flawed
- copies are handed down along with the good DNA
- through ensuing generations as part of a
- family's total mitochondrial inheritance."
- [DNA is a lot like a collection of files compressed into
- an archive. Mitochondrial is an additional archive file
- within the DNA archive of files.]
-
- "A patch of dried mud near Clarkia, Idaho,
- preserved this leaf for 17 million years; in
- fact, when the mud was cracked open, the leaf
- was still green. Researchers were then able
- to extract and analyze the leaf's DNA."
-
- "A lot of the decline in function that old
- people experience in our society is due not to
- aging but to physical inactivity. In the long
- run researchers expect to find genetic bases
- for most of the specific plagues of old age,
- from bone loss to an impaired immune system.
- There may even be genes responsible for the
- whole process--genes for just plain getting
- old. 'Senescence genes' have already been
- identified in cultures of human skin cells;
- they seem to hinder the proliferation of the
- cells."
-
- Asimov's Isaac's Universe Volume One hints at
- creation via near collisions of black holes. I thought
- this was indeed interesting. What happens when two black
- holes come near each other? Could the cause the creation
- of a galaxy? Could they be the cause of new galaxy
- creation? Two supermassive bodies each trying to pull
- each other toward itself. I imagine all sorts of
- potentials exist here. I saw a show recently (April
- 1991) on PBS called The Astronomers that concluded with
- them guessing that a small black hole was orbiting a
- larger one at the center of some galaxy.
-
- "And there had been epidemics of this sort of
- thing on other worlds, sudden and
- unaccountable die-offs, when beleaguered
- portions of the general population suddenly
- gave it up. We have seen the future and it is
- not us."
- This is an interesting threat. To my knowledge nobody's
- really studied why tribes die out.
-
- "Handed over a pair of decoded flimsies.
- ...Laid the first of the shimmering, gauzy
- message films over my head. Immediately, the
- gossamer fabric wrapped over my face, covering
- eyes and ears and leaving only my nostrils
- free. At once it began vibrating, and after a
- momentary blurriness, sight and sound
- enveloped me."
- An interesting communication medium, an invention I hope
- won't come about.
-
- I'd like to take a few minutes here and review
- "probability of the universe itself" again. Lets start
- off with an infinite number of stars. Of these stars,
- lets say half have planets (.5*infinity). And lets say
- 10% of the planets are earth-like (.1*.5*infinity). Then
- lets say 100% of them have sentient human life
- (.1*.5*infinity). Continuing: 1 in 6 billion is
- identical in looks, and further the same 1 in 6 billion
- is also identical genetically
- (.000000001*.1*.5*infinity). Another 1% probability (for
- we are dealing with probabilities here) that the age is
- the same (.01*.0000000001*.1*.5*infinity). So we've got
- a probability of .01*.000000001*.1*.5*infinity that
- another identical person exists as yourself does. The
- really low probabilities come now: at every instant
- since you were first formed there were a variety of
- different things that could have happened to each and
- every one of your atoms (or cells if it helps). So, we
- need to multiply time of existence times atoms in the
- body. Divide this number by 1 and then add it in.
- .00000...01*.01*.000000001*.1*.5*infinity. Raw math
- would break down into infinity/infinity or 1. But this
- isn't math, it's probabilities. The resulting numbers
- are incredibly (impossibly?) small. And remember, that
- number of atoms and their probabilities gets multiplied
- in at each moment of time. And that's the key, that so
- many events happen each moment of time, that it is
- unduplicatable.
- I don't think the human body will be allowed to
- change much from it's present shape. Some of the
- "evolutionary" changes mentioned are much larger heads,
- much smaller bodies, six fingers, etc. Bigger brains
- supposedly because we'd use our brains more--yeah, right.
- With computers and databanks we run more risk of losing
- intelligence. Six fingers stems from keyboards--
- hopefully we'll see the elimination of these limb-
- destroying devices over the next 10 years. Body changes
- to artificial stuff would probably only be as people get
- older, and even then they'll probably prefer organic-
- based materials. While competition could drive a few
- into making changes to enhance their competitiveness,
- this would be rare. We don't see much difference in the
- really driven versus the average joe now. Although job-
- specific enhancements could easily become popular (eg.
- butchers would probably enjoy knife-proof skin on their
- fingers).
-
- "...the probes are coated with chemicals that
- adapt to the local chemistry at the
- implantation site. In other words, once the
- probe arrives at its destination, it
- noninvasively samples its ambient biochemical
- environment and then exudes a thin coating for
- itself that is designed to be consistent with
- the chemistry of the host and thereby avoid
- rejection."
- Described an idea for an internal medical sensor, but the
- technique can be universal for lots of things.
-
- "...much of your future is already programmed
- by your genes."
-
- [Clarke quoting Pascal]
- "There may or may not be a God; I may or may
- not believe in Him. The only way I can lose
- is if there is a God and I do not believe in
- HIm. Therefore I shall believe in Him to
- minimize my downside risk."
-
- "Your skeleton is undergoing constant
- remodeling. Every week you recycle 5 to 7
- percent of the bone in your body. This
- remarkable feat is made possible by a
- reservoir of stem cells in the bone's
- gelatinous marrow. When needed, these cells
- mature into specialized bone-making cells
- called osteoblasts."
-
- "For two weeks this past summer two African
- green monkeys sat rigid in a lab at Johns
- Hopkins, unable to feed or groom themselves.
- The monkeys were afflicted with the symptoms
- of Parkinson's disease, a degenerative brain
- disorder. On the fifteenth day neurologist
- Mahlon DeLong and his colleagues injected a
- minute amount of acid into each of the
- animals' brains, forming a tiny lesion in a
- corn-kernel-size structure known as the
- subthalamic nucleus. Then the researchers
- watched. And waited. DeLong had a hunch that
- this procedure would reverse the symptoms in
- these monkeys and eventually help the millions
- of people who suffer from Parkinson's disease.
- Parkinson's victims are missing the
- neurotransmitter dopamine, a crucial chemical
- that carries messages between nerve cells in
- the brain. For years researchers had thought
- that this loss led directly to the
- underactivity in the brain that made it nearly
- impossible for advanced Parkinson's sufferers
- to move their muscles. DeLong, however, was
- basing his study on a new theory: that
- Parkinson's symptoms are triggered by
- overactivity in the brain. DeLong's idea was
- that the subthalamic nucleus, a part of the
- brain involved in controlling movement, is one
- of the biggest neurological dominoes tipped
- over by Parkinson's in a complex series of
- events. The first dominoes to fall are the
- cells that produce dopamine. Dopamine can
- either stimulate nerve cells or inhibit them;
- that is, it can either increase or decrease
- nerve-cell activity. In a normal brain
- dopamine appears to inhibit cells in the
- subthalamic nucleus. But in a Parkinson's
- brain the dopamine-producing cells die off;
- without enough dopamine the subthalamic
- nucleus becomes hyperactive and starts firing
- off signals wildly. These signals, in turn,
- overstimulate another brain region, one that's
- responsible for curtailing voluntary muscle
- movements. As a result, people with
- Parkinson's are often frozen in their tracks.
- By destroying part of the subthalamic nucleus
- in a monkey, DeLong hoped to see if he could
- set the dominoes that come after it upright
- again. His first step had been to inject the
- monkeys with MPTP, a neurotoxin that produces
- symptoms very much like those of the human
- disease. After animals had developed the
- unmistakable signs of Parkinson's, the
- researchers injected the acid into the
- subthalamic nucleus on the right side of each
- monkey's brain. Every brain has two
- subthalamic nuclei, one on each side. Since
- the right brain controls the left side of the
- body, a right-side lesion allowed DeLong's
- team to compare any movement on the left side
- of the body with movement on the unaffected
- right side. The researchers' vigil was a
- short one. DeLong was astonished to find that
- the monkeys regained their ability to move
- less than a minute after the injection. 'The
- first movement we saw was in the left arm,' he
- recalls. 'One monkey brought its hand up to
- its face. At first, we thought it was
- involuntary movement. But soon it began
- reaching for objects, such as bits of fruit.
- It became clear that a single small lesion had
- almost immediately reversed the symptoms. I
- thought there would be an effect, but somehow
- I wasn't prepared for its being so dramatic.'
- DeLong's work points to a new way to treat
- this crippling disease. For many years, the
- standard treatment for Parkinson's has been a
- drug called L-dopa, which replaces dopamine in
- the brain and reverses many of the Parkinson's
- symptoms. Unfortunately, the beneficial
- effects of L-dopa tend to diminish after a few
- years on the drug, and its side effects, such
- as jerking movements and hallucinations,
- become worse. 'Now we have shown that you can
- achieve a great deal of recovery, even without
- replacing the dopamine, by canceling out the
- effect of the deficiency further downstream,'
- says DeLong. He wouldn't recommend making
- these lesions in a human brain, however, for
- the subthalamic nucleus is in a delicate area.
- but it might be possible to find a drug that
- simply inhibits the subthalamic nucleus's
- activity."
-
- "Astronomers have long known that when a very
- large cloud of interstellar gas collapses it
- may spawn an entire generation of stars. As a
- result, massive stars are often not scattered
- randomly across a galaxy but almost always
- born in litters called associations. A single
- galaxy can contain hundreds of associations;
- any single association can contain hundreds of
- supergiants. Although the stars are all born
- together, they don't all die together. The
- most massive ones can go supernovas in as
- little as a few million years; the longest-
- lived can last perhaps 30 to 50 million. As
- each star detonates it sends shock waves
- outward, pushing the surrounding gas and dust
- into an ever-expanding shell of matter, Heiles
- and other radio astronomers reported that they
- had detected such enormous shells, with
- diameters of 1,000 light-years, in our own
- galaxy. They called them superbubbles.
- Heiles also mentioned a phenomenon related to
- superbubbles called galactic chimneys... In
- Ikeuchi's scenario a superbubble expands until
- it breaches the galactic disk, then bursts
- outward. Without the surrounding galactic
- material to restrain it, the bubble erupts
- violently, sending a fountain of 1.8-million-
- degree gas jetting hundreds of light-years
- away. No one has ever directly observed a
- galactic chimney: the gas flowing from its
- mouth would be so hot that most of its
- radiation would be in the form of X-rays,
- which are blocked by both interstellar gas and
- Earth's atmosphere. However, Heiles remarked
- that other astronomers had observed what
- appeared to be gaping holes in the disks of
- face-on spiral galaxies. They had also
- detected hints of vast streamers extending
- from edge-on spirals, perhaps the cooler
- material at the periphery of a chimney. The
- curious formations would be like tunnels into
- the heart of a galaxy; supernovas shining from
- deep within such a cavity would be visible
- only when the chimney was pointed toward
- Earth. ...Chimney theories are already adding
- to astronomers' suspicions that they are
- seeing only a small fraction of the supernovas
- that occur. McClure and Van den Bergh
- themselves believe that supernovas may be up
- to three times more common than previously
- thought. If this is true, our entire
- understanding about the intergalactic
- environment might have to be re-thought.
- Supernovas act as forges in which heavy
- elements are formed, and thus if more stars
- are detonating, more heavy elements are being
- manufactured."
-
- An article on cancer developments in Discover,
- has convinced me that cancer is about to undergo
- tremendous advances and may be something to not worry
- about. So until the current "cancer curve of discover"
- ceases or leads to interesting stuff, I'll be curbing/not
- covering any of the new cancer developments.
-
- "...Thrombolytics, or clot-busting drugs,
- break down newly formed blood clots anywhere
- in the body. Most heart attacks, it's
- believed, are precipitated by tiny clots that
- lodge in the narrowed arteries of the heart,
- cutting off blood flow to a part of the organ.
- by eliminating such clots, doctors can now
- restore oxygen-bearing blood to otherwise-
- doomed regions of the heart before the cells
- there have quite died--thus aborting a
- disaster in the making. Chest pain is a
- signal that heart tissue is starved for blood
- and the oxygen it brings; it is a cry for help
- from cells that are dying but still
- salvageable. Once the heart attack is
- completed and the muscle has died, the pain
- vanishes. But that portion of the heart is
- then forever scarred, unable to contract, and
- useless for propelling blood through the body.
- The pumping capacity of the heart drops
- accordingly, resulting in a range of symptoms
- from fatigue at the smallest exertion to life-
- threatening shortness of breath.
- ...Nitroglycerin tablets...improves blood flow
- in the coronary arteries by slightly
- increasing their diameter. If a blood vessel
- is narrowed but not entirely blocked, the drug
- may succeed in opening the passage a bit, thus
- bolstering the trickle of blood flow to the
- region it feeds. ...Beta-blocker, which
- slowed her heart from 80 beats a minute to 70
- beats and finally down to 55. If we couldn't
- improve the blood flow to the region under
- attack, then we could perhaps reduce the
- heart's overall energy demands by chemically
- reining in the work it attempts. The
- thrombolytic most commonly used in the United
- States--called TPA for 'tissue plasminogen
- activator'... [usually needs to be given
- within the first 24 hours of a heart
- attack]"
-
- Two possibilities for non-standard gravity-based
- flight: 1) stop the effects of gravity/control the
- percentage of effect. Problem: won't allow you to rise?
- 2) turn the force acting on the ship against itself.
- This can be done via a device that first stores the
- force, and then rotates and releases the force (maybe
- needing to merely slow it down).
-
- "The powerful magnetic fields that confined
- the singularity opened a small but carefully
- calculated pathway." [a method for FTL]
-
- To confirm/start communications with aliens:
- transmit a signal and see if part of the return signal
- was what you sent. Or, from their view, after receiving
- their signal, send it back with something like "hello"
- and a copy of what they originally sent. That way you
- both know you're at least communicating correctly--even
- though neither understands what the other said.
-
- I've said previously, "insects and plants are
- machines". Think of it's significance. We're a mote of
- dirt, floating in the universe, and waited on by little
- robots. It is, therefore, not improbable that these
- creatures were created elsewhere, deposited here to
- terraform the planet, and then "life" set down to
- grow--not being able to eat rock, they could nonetheless
- eat the 'robots'. I consider microbes to be too small to
- be machines, like virus's, you can make them, you can
- make them do stuff, but they really just building blocks.
- Without these 'robots' we would revert to 'moonbase' type
- conditions.
-
-
- --FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ACTUALLY READ THIS, I'VE BEEN VERY
- BUSY. THE ONLY CHANGES FROM 0691 ARE LISTED BELOW, TO BE
- FULLY (AND PROPERLY) INTEGRATED IN THE NEXT VERSION.
- --THANKS.
-
- For many years I've had a fan going next to me when
- I sleep. I've always known it gave me a better, deeper,
- sleep. A few years ago I learned that what I really had
- was a white noise device--which provides a filter
- blocking out numerous minor noises. Recently, I was "in
- between" sleep and wake. The fan sounded like the roar
- of a propeller-driven plane. My conscious felt it had a
- direct link with the ear also. This suggests to me that
- a direct link is 1) possible, and 2) probably the norm
- when we sleep. Probably nothing new here, I just now
- believe the "barriers/filters" we use when hearing can be
- bi-passed consciously. One question this does raise:
- does the subconscious act as a filter (as seems probable
- when the conscious is sleeping (since the subconscious is
- active then)), or whether the conscious multi-tasks the
- filter at night. And either way, it raises the question
- of how the filtering is done during waking periods.
- Filters are necessary, since without them a person using
- "super" hearing could be stunned helpless with a loud
- sudden noise, or lose concentration due to numerous minor
- "don't care about" sounds.
-
- I've been thinking more about how the brain stores
- images. It's almost impossible for it to store "raster"
- images (like photographs). While I do think it uses
- vector techniques to store animation, I now suspect it
- uses similar techniques to store single images. Not
- ordinary vector images, but more like 16 or 32 bit--where
- each "node" can have a variety of data depending on the
- "bits" set (each bit, also, may not be 0/1
- on/off--probably has a whole range of values (including
- on/off for some, perhaps 64 for others (depends on how
- many chemicals make up a "bit" and what it can do)). But
- the number doesn't vary depending on the type of image
- (part of animation or solid picture)--rather those extra
- bits that are needed for animation can't be used for
- higher resolution/better color--at least 50% of the bits
- (although I suspect it's more like 90%) of each "node"
- can either be used for animation or better color--not
- both(?--the brain is analog, not digital).
-
- So, you've just captured a picture of an alien
- spaceship. What to do next? Well, obviously the goal is
- to reverse engineer the ship. Step 1: build a mock-up of
- the ship--to as exact parameters as you can get. Step 2:
- gather whatever information you can about the
- capabilities of that ship. Step 3: tell your engineers:
- "here are the specs, squeeze this capability into that
- frame, and it can be done". Eventually, it will be.
- After all, the ship was designed to meet it's parameters
- by experts--providing a guide for all others.
-
- Of course, if aliens wanted to protect themselves,
- then deception would be best--and they'd probably use a
- solid sphere--can't tell much about it. (Except that
- whatever it uses can either be unleashed inside the ship
- and let out through an opening, or can be set to effect
- an area beyond where it's stationed (since it needs to
- effect the area outside the ship, but not the ship
- itself(?)).
-
- We have a tendency to think all writing must be
- situtated such that it can be read "across the line".
- Yet, written text is merely a bunch of small images.
- There is no reason, for instance when wishing to enhance
- a display, that text can't be set to be "read sideways
- and down" or "read sideways and up" or even in reverse or
- any other numerous positions. All it takes is a little
- practice with the interface--and the advantages may be
- much greater. For instance, given the right 10 columns
- to display text, a lot of interfaces would be forced to
- put one word on each line (well, two at most). Leaving
- a lot of unused space. By taking 10 lines of text and
- "rotating" it 90 degrees, you can fit far more data into
- the same space (240 characters max with method one,
- 800 characters with method two)--however, method two does
- require graphics.
-
- After the optical drives, I expect the next
- revolution to occur with devices that (unobtrusively)
- detect your movements. It's another cross-market
- product, not just useful in computers, but in lots of
- industries.
-
- In some cases (in space) couplings may be superior
- to welding. Since they'd be easier to put together and
- take apart--while providing the same holding strength.
- I am not talking about large modules, but simple stuff
- like walls. Using a sealent--that lasts, say 5 years,
- would be just as effective as welding, and a lot cheaper
- in the inital construction. The parts can be welded
- together (before the sealant's life is up) slowly--using
- energy from the sun, etc. The people in space will have
- lots of time--this will give them something to do, as
- well as provide a sense of security in what can be a
- dangerous environment (they'll know they can fix the
- "house" if it cracks/etc.).
-
- Starting motivation differs from continuing
- motivation. Compulsion = Addiction
-
- What language (human) can best get across the
- "future concepts" as well as "conceptualization" of the
- concepts (eg. spatial abilities)? This would offer an
- evolutionary advantage or at least a chance for change.
- After more thought, and an understanding of how we
- can thank ice ages for any drastic evoltionary changes,
- I now think women are the most likely to change. They
- have the pressure and the need. Nowadays, they are under
- tremendous pressure from such things as: being a wife, a
- mother, a worker, managing the house, and many other
- stuff. Yet, as a whole, they are "realistic" thinkers--
- caring overmuch about the here and now, not utilizing
- imagination or spatial capabilities.
-
- ---
- A Summary of my primary beliefs:
- 1. Concept of self.
- a) Start off by saying: I am <state your name>!
- Say it a few times. Now say: I am <state your
- first name>!
- Get used to saying this. Eventually you'll be able
- to say: I am!
- And eventually you'll just "feel it".
- b) "I am the most important being in the universe."
- Who is more important than you? Nobody. When
- you're gone--what does the rest of the universe
- matter. You can't do anything in it, you can't
- enjoy it, it's worthless. A person holding a gun
- at you, holding your life in his hands, is not more
- important than you. Sure, he's in a better
- position than you, but given time, you to will
- obtain that position (please extrapolate this
- example as far as you are able).
- 2. Purpose of life.
- a) The purpose of life is to survive. Simple as that.
- There is nothing after your body decays, so it's
- best you do your best to survive. Nothing else
- matters. If need be, sacrifice the rest of the
- universe to keep yourself alive. If another being
- threatens your existence, it is your moral duty to
- eliminate the threat.
- b) What are you. You are a single being in the
- universe. A dot smaller than an atom. There are
- unlimited numbers of other beings, of all shapes
- and designs, thoughout the universe, and throughout
- time. You're just another one. Nothing at all
- special about you. Nothing at all special about
- any of the others. All beings, given time, can do,
- be, or have, whatever any other being does, is, or
- has.
- 3. Concept of others.
- a) The purpose and reason for the existence of other
- beings: to aid you in your struggle to survive.
- Yes, all others are worthless in comparison to you,
- to be sacrificed should they be endangering your
- existence. But you should be sure to know that
- they're efforts at survival can aid your own.
- Therefore, a cooperative effort is usually
- best--but never forget you are the most important.
- b) Aliens share the same purpose and drives you do.
- They of course exist, assume it. Having said this,
- I can only recommend a prolonged and careful
- "dance" to develop proper relations. In first
- meeting, you will have more success running and
- hiding behind a fort, rather than confronting and
- trying to make friends (which, without
- preparations, understanding, and knowledge, could
- easily backfire and find the two cultures at war).
- But they may contain the secrets as well to your
- survival.
- ---
-
- It really is like some damn game. Planets towards
- middle of galaxy get to space faster, and have shorter
- distances to go to other planets. Planets on the rim
- take longer to get to space. And because other planets
- are so far away, they need to develop long distance
- technology first--whereas the near planet could evolve
- into it (or not develop it at all). The near planet
- would therefore be more likely to have war's with it's
- neighbors. (Leading to decay or faster advancing
- technology--need to think about these implicatations).
-
- Definition of sentient: given time you could learn
- all there is to know. The decision will be technology
- based. Something along the line "this species has
- no capactity to learn'. Also there will be a need to
- find ways to communicate (effectively), if you wish to
- teach that species.
-
- The next evolution, I've seen two names: Homo Supierior
- and Hyper Sapien. Homo Supierior (sp?) comes from Marvel
- Comics--it's what mutants called themselves. Hyper
- Sapien is what I saw as a name on a Disney channel show.
- It, probably, refers to an advanced, but human, race
- living on another planet.
-
- The brain isn't really meant to memorize movies.
- It's not a naturally evolved feature. Over time you
- forget most of all movies (the older the time, the more
- you forget). Now we have "refreshers" known as
- VCR's--this could provide brain growth.
- Also, Stimulation by rediscovery -> less growth/stagnant
- Or, Stimulation by frustration to remember -> more
- growth. Think about. On one hand there is pressure for
- the brain to evolve better animation handling (to recall
- movies) on the other we're developing technology to
- better refresh whatever brain cells do remember the
- movie.
-
- The mere fact that there are "universal constants"
- suggests a steady-state universe.
-
- From The Beserker Throne, Fred Saberhagen: Notes that
- for large "doors" in space, a forcefield is best. Idea
- of creating an escape plan. Even you think you'll never
- want to, try to, or be able to, it would still be useful
- in an emergency. The book says this from a prisoner's
- point of view--but that needn't always be the case.
-
- Quark, etc. testing may be not be concrete--as they
- aren't taking into account the "space" at that point.
- That is, we don't have an accurate view of what "space"
- really is--especially when there's no matter in it.
-
- Idea from Fred Saberhagen's Beserker Attack (Smasher
- story): besides computer time, fight computers by
- occuping their sensors--keeping it busy chasing
- ghosts/etc.
-
- Dogs can't take alchol--they know not how to make
- it, therefore are not at fault when they do. (same
- w/humans?)
-
- From space, a single planet looks extremely small in
- the universe. Perhaps there aren't any protects from FTL
- stuff.
-
- Use last memories to determine if two people are
- clones or not. More recent memories = older version.
- From the movie: The Clone Master
-
- The 750,000 - 100,000 (?) years ago european ice age
- caused a draught in the desert areas of (now) africa
- (sahara, etc.). Thus the old ("first" human evolved) who
- followed to the north to withe regress of the glaciers,
- were separted from the original homeland of where man
- first formed, by a vast desert. And the cold may have
- utimately killed them. Left to isolation, those in
- africa again evolved, and moved north, again, when the
- ice age left. Eventually the race that was trapped
- became Neanderthal's--only to be wiped out again when the
- ice age ended, and the "current" model of human swept out
- of southern africa. During the ice ages, those in the
- south had no where to expand in africa. The clustering
- and limited domains forces civilization and thought,
- which led to isolated devlopment. They also cooperated,
- which, along with better technology, were deciding
- factors in wiping out the "primative" models who evolved
- (also, but more slowly) on the other side of the ice-age-
- formed desert barrier.
- --A&E Journey's "The Birth Of Europe"
-
- Black holes/etc. "lock down" space at that point.
- Fits w/my mapping view of space. Then two rotating black
- holes must really produce some interesting effects. If
- they're revolving around each other--say one smaller and
- one larger, like planets. Could really stretch and
- deform space.
-
- Yonda N. McIntyre's Transition, 1990, NY, Bantam
- Doubleday Dell Publishing Group:
- Idea that maybe our "neighbors" in the galaxy would
- prepare earth like planets and leave them near us.
- Saying, "here, this is for you, lets be friends."
- Dividing up areas of the galaxy, giving each inhabited
- planet a "zone" of uninhabited planets/solar systems they
- can call their own. (Actually a really good idea for
- peace).
- Idea that if our region of space was more active (or the
- moon spinned) then the first civilization to develop
- printing would go on and develop space ideas and
- literally dominate the planet through technology.
- "Sentience always evolves. it just needs time. Someday
- human beings will terraform some other lifeless world for
- some other people. For beings who have not yet come into
- existence." Using "Meercat's" to represent that any
- intelligent life should be saved (a Meercat was a weasel
- like creature--representing our cat's no doubt).
- Idea of making ships out of rock. Like asteroids/etc.
- Sure, I've seen it everywhere, but I never really thought
- of them as ships--bases, yes, but not ships.
- If animals and stars "bloom" like punctuated eq. then so
- should civilizations (especially in that "blooming"
- sector).
-
- One's current body position influences the spatial
- imagination system. For instance, when you're sleeping
- and you decide to dream about driving--"driving" while
- sitting is rather hard--you keep wanting to lie down.
- It's also been well known that you have better recall if
- you can duplicate the environment in which you learned
- (whatever) in the first place.
-
- A movie, "Message From Space", had humans floating around
- in space and on planets with no apparent protection.
- Now, imagination says I should their technology had some
- of protective field about them at all times. However, it
- raised an interesting thought; how hard would it be to
- bring an entire solar system to "earth normal" oxygen
- levels? Also, from this movie, they had an invasion
- force attacking Earth. To set an example of their power,
- they blew up the moon. I would expect other conquering
- races to think along similar lines. Therefore, we have
- an important delaying "example" in the form of the moon.
- Without it, they may choose a continent instead.
-
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- I PREDICT
-
- Trends:
-
- The 1990's will be the decade of the loss of the
- traditional office. Thanks to scanners, optical drives,
- faster computers, most everything stored in file cabinets
- will be scanned and stored. The key: store the data in
- two forms; a complete image of a paper, and a note-file
- containing the text on that paper. Those who have set up
- systems already are using terms like "can do more things
- with the data than before" (American(?) Airlines), and "I
- don't know how we did without it" (a talent agency).
- That's the exact thing they said about spreadsheets.
- When portable computers can record sound, it will be
- an excellent recorder for notes--then you later run it
- through a voice convert to get text of the talk.
- Voice computer interfaces will become popular. It
- will save on keyboard wrist injures and allow the hiring
- of people who can't type for Data Entry jobs.
- Ultrasonic testing of machines (like aircraft, cars)
- will become popular. Eventually for quality control on
- things like home electronics.
- I saw the team Battletech/Robotech simulator story
- on Beyond Tomorrow. For $6/30 min. you and others (4
- total?) get to play against another team. Each person
- has their sit-down working arcade-like simulator. It
- looks great and if they decide to allow us to access it
- over the phone it could really become something. The
- simulator is somewhere in Chicago. It really would solve
- a problem of computer games--we can't usually play
- against humans, since the really good games take too
- long. Current BBS games just don't have good enough
- graphics.
- "Derms" will be greatly used. Especially by the
- drug addicts.
- TV walls will become popular.
- Around 2000 we'll see credit card optical drives.
- In which a little optical disk is contained in a plastic
- credit card like package.
- Future w/digital TV: end of news: "we now take a
- minute to 'download' the newscast at high speed so you
- may record it to optical disk (versus analog now)."
- The twenty-first century will be the century of
- medicine. Gibson got it right when he said body parts
- will be grown in vats. The only thing keeping us from
- doing this is that we do not know how a baby develops
- given only the genetic code. Once we break this code,
- and understand the biomechanics's of the process, it will
- be simple to duplicate. It is, after all, just a
- biological device.
- Fetal tissue will also be greatly used.
- Evolution for the human race is dead. Genetic
- engineering and biomedicine will create/modify us.
- Evolution is just too slow now. Mutation may still occur
- (evolution on a single person). Only in a regressed
- society from where we are now will it occur.
- Holographic will become a way of life. Want a
- meeting: send your holograph to the theater then receive
- the holograph of what your holograph would see. 3D real
- life gaming. All sorts of problems with handling
- reality. Although wall TV's could cause similar
- problems.
-
- Potentials:
-
- If somehow either a higher baud could be handled by
- the phone lines, or a better compression technique is
- found, then Gibson's Cyberspace will become a reality.
- Although it can be imitated now.
- If a color scanner can be created and sold at a low
- price, then images to will follow the path of regular
- office files. We can already print out onto film with
- the computer, we just cannot read it in right now.
- If we ever do develop faster than light travel,
- there will be a short(?) period in which everyone will be
- greedy wanting their own world--to create their own
- utopia's.
-
- What you can see:
-
- Movies often touch on a part of the future, while
- getting other parts wrong. They are still an excellent
- source for visualization, some of the best are:
-
- Max Headroom Story. The hypermedia, computer
- hackers, cartographic displays, and scanned brain -
- -> AI is correct. The nuclear war part is false.
-
- Runaway. Life with little robots running around.
-
- THX 1138. Life in institutions will be similar to
- the life in general seen here.
-
- Aliens. All but the terraforming is possible. The
- terraforming takes too much time for their level of
- technology and would not be worth it.
-
- Dark Star. The day-to-day life of people stuck
- with each other in space is accurate (without
- discipline).
-
- 2010. Again, the day-to-day life, and the work
- environment in space.
-
- A Boy and His Dog. A robots life.
-
- Terminator. Through the eyes of a robot.
-
- Blade Runner. Mostly true. Only the regular
- people and the appalling living conditions were
- probably false.
-
- Predator. The defense system of the alien is
- nearly perfect. The visual distorter, the eye-
- following blaster, the suit itself. Only the idea
- of a miniature nuclear reactor was way off (too
- advanced for that level of technology).
-
- Total Recall. The good and the bad of implanted
- memories. As well as the technological
- implementation of the process.
-
- ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Questions:
-
- (1) To any doctors reading this: What is the policy
- regarding highly dangerous drugs and dying people?
- If a person is on their deathbed and a drug comes
- along that will cure them. This drug will then
- give them intense pain, paralysis, and probable
- death in six months. Is this drug given?
-
- (2) Can CD-ROM data be transferred off the ROM disk?
- Erasable CD's will have an impact on us perhaps
- greater than that of the microcomputer. Since it
- will quickly become the media storage standard of
- all forms of data. We know it will supplant the
- current magnetic storage systems, what seems to be
- getting ignored is the effect on the traditional
- filing systems. It takes about one MB to store a
- perfect color duplicate of a sheet of paper. Even
- the current erasable drives can do 600 MB--a file
- drawer's worth of storage. What I'm curious about
- is the current storage methods. Do they use a DOS
- standard method or some unique proprietary system?
-
- (3) Intel is in an admirable position with its super
- risc and the image compression technology. Do any
- other companies, such as Sony, have plans to
- develop similar image compression electronics for
- erasable optical drives?
-
- (4) When chess computers finally destroy all human
- opponents should we modify/expand the game or
- abandon it as obsolete? Personally I prefer to
- abandon it and have the chess masters create a
- similar but much larger and harder game. It should
- involve spatial strategy, combatants, and generally
- be hard for computers to play using only brute
- force. Or maybe three-dimensional chess? I have
- never tried it. Fist tic-tac-toe, then othello,
- and now. . .
-
- (5) Asimov had an interesting weapon in one of his
- books: a microwave gun. It spewed microwaves at a
- living object and would literally cook it to death.
- If I took apart and modified my microwave oven
- could it be so dangerous?
-
- (6) What are some examples of conversion of energy to
- matter?
-
- (7) Would civilization collapse without radio and
- Television?
-
- ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Conclusion
-
- What I really want the reader to get out of this
- paper is the following:
- 1) Gravity does not exist.
- 2) Time does not exist.
- 3) Math does not exist.
- 4) One God does not exist. All gods should not
- exist.
- 5) One's own life is the most important.
- 6) Convergent evolution among advanced races is
- probably the norm.
- 7) While not strongly pointed out here. Both
- science fiction and computer games provide
- vivid truths about the rise and fall of life.
- All life (like empires and governments) go
- through a long struggle to survive, and then
- at some future point go into a state of decay.
-
- Too many things are created by us and then thought
- to exist. Our perceptions become tainted by our
- expectations. Little thought has been directed to the
- fact that we control our own destiny's. It is the denial
- of this single thought that causes the fear of death,
- leading to hope that something must save us from death.
- We all choose to live or die, each moment opportunities
- exist for us to kill ourselves should we really want to.
- Many people are members of the living dead, longing for
- the past, or some better life--too scared to kill
- themselves, but still thinking that they are alive. If
- you are not going to change and help change then when you
- die you will have had X years of no change, once dead you
- cannot change anything, therefore you had died X years
- earlier. On the other hand, while you are alive the hope
- that you will experience change and growth is always a
- possibility.
-
- Final comments
-
- My immediate plans are to release a new version of
- this document every two-months or so.
- I also would like to see William Gibson's ideas of
- Cyberspace begun. It can start with a simple autodialer
- that looks like a three-dimensional grid with boxes on
- it--in which each box represents some BBS (the grid
- should be overlaid on a state and LATA map). Then you
- just "fly" to the box you want--hit it, and the
- autodialer dials it. Eventually we can extend this to
- some BBS and a communication programs.
- I also would be interested in finding about
- companies that are preserving organic matter.
- This document was not meant to challenge your
- reading skills, but to challenge your imagination. I
- want you to find flaws in my arguments and tell me.
- Constructive comments, any "I liked it" or "I hated it"
- will just get thrown out.
-
- I can be reached via:
-
- IMMORTALITY, modem: 414-643-1576
- -my BBS, one of the best.
-
- Exec-PC, modem: 414-789-4210
- -national archive, the best.
-
- Mail: PO Box 15218, Milw., WI 53215
-
-
- John Rohner
-
-
- Death is murder.
-
- . . .how do you establish a possibility? By
- finding it impossible to eliminate a
- possibility, a beginning is made at
- establishing one.
-
- When you have eliminated the impossible,
- whatever remains, however improbable, must be
- the truth.
- --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
- The Sign of Four
-
- Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to
- be known.
- --CARL SAGAN
-
- Ok, who am I.
-
- 26 years old. Attended Walker Junior High and
- Washington High here in Milwaukee. I am currently living
- in Milwaukee.
- I've a BS from the University of Wisconsin
- (Madison). My major was Cartography. I consider myself
- a Cartographer/Programmer. I enjoy, and hope to
- specialize in, Geographical Information Systems.
- I am a hacker. I own five computers: a 12.5 AT
- w/SVGA, three turbo XT's, and a TRS-80 Model I. I've
- been programming since 1979. A dozen languages and a
- dozen systems and I'm quite bored by it all.
- I am a collector. An elite as well. I find
- "conquer the universe" strategy games to be most
- interesting, including CRPG's.
- I believe in direct action. Earth First!,
- Greenpeace, animal rights, the anti-fur people, freedom
- of all forms of information, full space
- exploration/development, etc. If it's good I support it.
- I loath religion and those who believe anything is
- more important than themselves--your religion should be
- the sum of YOUR beliefs. My goal is immortality.
- I have complete faith in my own conclusions, but I
- am not so concrete that I wouldn't change them given
- sufficient counter-arguments.
- This document started out, and continues to be, an
- external memory source for me.
-
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Index:
-
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Additional references:
-
-
- William Gibson, Burning Chrome, (Ace Books/The
- Berkley Publishing Group/Charter Communications:
- New York, 1986).
-
- William Gibson, Neuromancer, (Ace Books/The Berkley
- Publishing Group/Charter Communications: New York,
- 1984).
-
- William Gibson, Count Zero, (Ace Books/The Berkley
- Publishing Group/Charter Communications: New York,
- 1986).
-
- William Gibson, Mona Lisa Overdrive, (Bantam
- Doubleday Dell Publishing Group: New York, 1988)
-
- L. Ron Hubbard, Battlefield Earth, (St. Martin's
- Press: New York, 1982).
-
- Isaac Asimov, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and
- Empire, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second
- Foundation, Foundation's Edge, Foundation and
- Earth, (in the order I think they should be read)
-
- Doctor Who, Star Trek, Space: 1999, Battlestar
- Galactica, Blakes 7, etc. television series and
- movies.
-
- Marvel comics.
-