Cognitive Labs

See, you are a hologram, body and all

As you're reading this you exist in 2D, like a crystalline character in one register of a comic book. Simultaneously the body called you is being projected halfway across the universe into its present position, relative to the sun, the nearby arm of the spiral Milky Way galaxy, and the Local Group of galaxies (let's say the spine and cover of this month's issue of said comic book).

What? This is all possible if you subscribe to one physicist's new theory.

Craig Hogan, a scientist at the high-energy particle physics' Fermilab | official site in Batavia, Illinois thinks he might have stumbledupon the limit of space time through his participation in the GEO 600 experiment designed to measure subtle gravitational waves, ripples in space-time and remnants of cataclysmic cosmic events tied to black holes and neutron stars. While the GEO600, an array of underground detectors in Germany that extends for some 600 meters, has not detected signs of gravitational waves, it's regular staff had been puzzled by the detection of a subtle, ambient background noise.


representation of spacetime curvature

No one had an explanation.

Into the void stepped Hogan, who has hypothesized that where the 'smooth' continuum of space-time ends a granular pixellation of space-time begins, representing microscopic quantum scale irruptions in the fabric of space and time itself. These convulsions theoretically are the source of the detectable emissions.

"If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram," Hogan shockingly declared.

The conception that humans (and everything in our world) are inside a hologram that's "out there [youtube]" probably sounds impossible, however, the possibility can be derived from our present understanding of black holes, which is something with a pretty firm theoretical footing.

Taking it further, the implication is that 'reality' is actually a projection originating in a 2D substrate on the edge of the universe - that is a flat dimension, not unlike what is known about holograms etched onto the surface of credit cards and smart cards. In the 1990's Susskind and Hooft (a Nobel prize winner in Physics) pioneered the concept. (Palo Alto-based Susskind, a one-time apprentice plumber, also was the first physicist to prepare an entire course on quantum mechanics for distribution via iTunes) One of the key constructs is the earlier work of researchers which has shown theoretically that the entropy (that is, the winding down of energy from a present state to absolute nonexistence) of a black hole is proportional to the surface area of its event horizon. Got that?

(The event horizon (Nasa) is the point of 'no escape' for light or other matter from the maw of the hole).


Pic from the film Event Horizon (c) Paramount Pictures

What Hogan is attempting to do is define the point of demarcation or smoothing between Einstein's cosmology and slightly more esoteric visions such as string theory, which has both advocates (like Michio Kaku here's his myspace page) and detractors.

It may in the future be possible to test the theory by measuring the degree of 'blurriness' seen in the universe at or above the scale of the Planck length, or 10^-35 meters.

Here's the notation, if you care to see:



For more background, read the whole article in New Scientist. The notation is not in the New Scientist, but is here thanks to Mr. Wales.



We need to find and ask the guy who was the product director of The Matrix about these features and see if we can do a usability study or focus group. (By the way, he's an acquaintance and colleague-John Billington, and a Facebook friend)

"So, how do you feel about being 2-dimensional? What if we made you a little taller, more colorful, more robust in the 3-D world? We can do all these things simply by tweaking our projector a little bit. Easy."

Labels: comic, entropy, eventhorizon, hogan, matrix, trinity

The World Beyond Alzheimer's - Cognitive Fitness reaches the boardroom.

Even business tomes such as Business Week in the piece below are targeting the cognitive revolution. Cognitive enhancement could indeed be a source of competitive advantage for companies that decide to make it so. While not necessarily common in the corporate world, various military information systems depend on operator cognitive sharpness - such as the latest iteration of sonar in the U.S. Navy, which scans the operator for signs of fatigue at the same time it sends sharp audio pulses across the seascape.

Our testimonials include many programmers who credit our exercises with boosting their ability to code at a much faster pace, real estate pros who close more trumpesque deals, and amateur and pro traders - whose avocation requires cognitive fitness and instantaneous reading of multiple data sources.

What of averting Alzheimer's through a combinatorial approach? (1)the right kind of speed-enhancing exercises (2) the right personal mix of memory compounds (3) partioning and uploading of memory into a digital substrate, then re-population of memory into new brain tissue or asynchronous storage unit - o.k., the latter is not possible yet...

That's just a few of the business examples. Welcome to the brave new world.


Boosting Our Gray Matter - Business Week, 8/20/07

Bright idea or not, brain enhancements may become as available—and compulsory—as software updates

There's a famous scene in the sci-fi film The Matrix where the heroine, Trinity, learns to fly a helicopter by uploading instructions straight to her brain. Neuroscientists would love to master that trick so they could help patients suffering from brain injuries and diseases.


In fact, in animal experiments, scientists are already tackling all aspects of brain repair and enhancement, using electronic implants and biological techniques to boost memory and other functions. A few labs have even given human test subjects the ability to control a computer cursor with their thoughts.

There's no telling how today's research will change the world of work in 10 or 20 years' time. But once the tools and techniques are perfected, there's little question competitive individuals will get swept up in a race to expand their brain capacity. As that gets under way, it's destined to overturn today's paradigm of cubicled executives laboring on laptops, palm devices, and cell phones, besieged by constant software updates.

Perhaps the electronically augmented executive in 2025 will be able to absorb whole new fields of information by beaming it, Matrix-style, straight to circuits in his modified cortex. But even this scenario probably understates the workplace revolution that lies ahead. If you think Wi-Fi, BlackBerries, blogs, social networks, and Second Life are changing the way we work, wait until you see what enhanced cognitive equipment can do.

Medical scientists today spend little time dreaming about enhanced humans. They're too busy aiding the ill or injured, trying to reverse the ravages of Parkinson's disease or struggling to help patients cope with anxiety or depression. But where demand exists, supply follows. "Anything for therapeutic purposes has the potential to be used for the improvement of normal people," says Arthur L. Caplan, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

This prospect raises some troublesome ethical issues. Many people are put off by the notion of physically bettering the brainthe root of thought, personality, individuality, and human nature itself. And some ethicists question the wisdom of handing new brain tools over to society so that privileged individuals can exploit them to get even further ahead of everyone else.

Other scientists don't see the harm. If the cost of advanced brain technologies drops quickly and the surgical risks become less dire, people may request brain chips as casually as they receive a shot of Botox. And if that enhances their performance, then customers and clients are bound to share in the benefits. "Don't we want our medical interns and pilots to have optimal brain function?" asks James J. Hughes, a professor of health policy at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. "Wouldn't that be an obligation of the job?" It's a good question for our grandchildren to ponder, with their medically enhanced minds.

Labels: blackberry, business week, cognitive fitness, learn to fly a helicopter, matrix, trinity