AvraShow
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Is the brain similar to computer hardware? The mind as software or operating system?
The brain is a physical organ with interconnected cells that somehow store memory (memories). We think of "the mind" or "consciousness" as our knowledge, skills, beliefs, identity. Things we do beyond the mere automatic functioning of the nervous system. Things we remember are stored more or less persistently much as computers store information on a disk. Maybe short-term memory, like a phone number we look up, is like info stored in RAM not persisted on computer shutdown.
Computer inputs have traditionally been keyboard and mouse, though speech, touch and vision are not uncommon. These inputs map nicely to our physical senses of hearing, touch, sight. It wouldn't surprise me that computer sensors have been developed that can smell food impurities or explosives.
But the problem with an analogy is that it's an approximation and in a sense, completely wrong.
As a kid, my science textbooks illustrated the atom's nucleus and electrons as a Sun with orbiting planets. That's so wrong I should end this post right here, but I can't resist asking "are there oceans on those orbiting electrons? Tiny people in tiny boats sailing those oceans?"
The reason I'm continuing this post is I've been thinking about another faulty analogy about the atom that's been updated recently.
The charge of an electron has traditionally been -1. The charge of a proton in the nucleus is +1. The charge of a neutron is 0 (what's it for, I used to wonder). These simple integers seemed as simple and demonstrably accurate as science could be to explain the fundamental concepts of matter and electricity. We were told that these particles were the fundamental indivisible building blocks of matter. But that statement turns out to be incorrect, or at best incomplete.
Those with more physics knowledge than my one semester at junior college (now known as community college) might find I summarize the info incorrectly, so for total accuracy and authority, be sure to consult Wikipedia (I'm being facetious, but there is a lot of information there under "atom").
Although almost all the weight of an atom is in its nucleus of protons and neutrons, the nucleus of an atom is not as "large" as we might imagine. Richard Feynmann said if an atom were the size of the auditorium where he was lecturing, the nucleus would be a speck barely visible.
According to Wikipedia, protons and neutrons are composed of quarks. each quark has a fractional electric charge of either +2/3 or -1/3. Protons are composed of two up quarks [ +2/3 ] and one down quark [ -1/3 ] giving it a charge of +1, while a neutron consists of one up quark [ +2/3 ] and two down quarks [ -1/3 ] giving it no charge.
So they could have counted the quark as having the charge of +1 or -1 and the proton as having charge of +3 with no change to the arithmetic involved. Are quarks composed of components that have smaller fractional charges? I can definitively, confidently say, I don't know.
The brain is a physical organ with interconnected cells that somehow store memory (memories). We think of "the mind" or "consciousness" as our knowledge, skills, beliefs, identity. Things we do beyond the mere automatic functioning of the nervous system. Things we remember are stored more or less persistently much as computers store information on a disk. Maybe short-term memory, like a phone number we look up, is like info stored in RAM not persisted on computer shutdown.
Computer inputs have traditionally been keyboard and mouse, though speech, touch and vision are not uncommon. These inputs map nicely to our physical senses of hearing, touch, sight. It wouldn't surprise me that computer sensors have been developed that can smell food impurities or explosives.
But the problem with an analogy is that it's an approximation and in a sense, completely wrong.
As a kid, my science textbooks illustrated the atom's nucleus and electrons as a Sun with orbiting planets. That's so wrong I should end this post right here, but I can't resist asking "are there oceans on those orbiting electrons? Tiny people in tiny boats sailing those oceans?"
The reason I'm continuing this post is I've been thinking about another faulty analogy about the atom that's been updated recently.
The charge of an electron has traditionally been -1. The charge of a proton in the nucleus is +1. The charge of a neutron is 0 (what's it for, I used to wonder). These simple integers seemed as simple and demonstrably accurate as science could be to explain the fundamental concepts of matter and electricity. We were told that these particles were the fundamental indivisible building blocks of matter. But that statement turns out to be incorrect, or at best incomplete.
Those with more physics knowledge than my one semester at junior college (now known as community college) might find I summarize the info incorrectly, so for total accuracy and authority, be sure to consult Wikipedia (I'm being facetious, but there is a lot of information there under "atom").
Although almost all the weight of an atom is in its nucleus of protons and neutrons, the nucleus of an atom is not as "large" as we might imagine. Richard Feynmann said if an atom were the size of the auditorium where he was lecturing, the nucleus would be a speck barely visible.
According to Wikipedia, protons and neutrons are composed of quarks. each quark has a fractional electric charge of either +2/3 or -1/3. Protons are composed of two up quarks [ +2/3 ] and one down quark [ -1/3 ] giving it a charge of +1, while a neutron consists of one up quark [ +2/3 ] and two down quarks [ -1/3 ] giving it no charge.
So they could have counted the quark as having the charge of +1 or -1 and the proton as having charge of +3 with no change to the arithmetic involved. Are quarks composed of components that have smaller fractional charges? I can definitively, confidently say, I don't know.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Death Penalty
A pardon has been granted to relatives of Tom Joyner, the radio host, who were electrocuted in 1913. What difference does it make now? A lot.
There's a famous quote that those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Unless we look at what happened and why, we will have learned nothing.
Right now, the governor of Texas has stopped an official inquiry into whether a person whose three young children died in a fire was guilty of intentionally starting the fire that killed his children. I don't know, of course, but evidence appears to show that several experts looking at the case with new scientific methods not available in the 1980s have concluded that the fire was not intentionally set.
If I could speak to the governor of Texas, I would say to let the investigation continue and let the findings be released to the public. Even if an innocent man was killed by the Texas legal system. Especially if an innocent man was killed by the Texas legal system (to paraphrase a line from the movie Gandhi).
He may fear that the committee's findings would be detrimental to his re-election campaign, specifically that he knew this new information before deciding not to stop the execution. I can't speak with certainty, but I wouldn't be surprised if overall, political expediency included, releasing all the information about the case is better than not releasing it.
A pardon has been granted to relatives of Tom Joyner, the radio host, who were electrocuted in 1913. What difference does it make now? A lot.
There's a famous quote that those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Unless we look at what happened and why, we will have learned nothing.
Right now, the governor of Texas has stopped an official inquiry into whether a person whose three young children died in a fire was guilty of intentionally starting the fire that killed his children. I don't know, of course, but evidence appears to show that several experts looking at the case with new scientific methods not available in the 1980s have concluded that the fire was not intentionally set.
If I could speak to the governor of Texas, I would say to let the investigation continue and let the findings be released to the public. Even if an innocent man was killed by the Texas legal system. Especially if an innocent man was killed by the Texas legal system (to paraphrase a line from the movie Gandhi).
He may fear that the committee's findings would be detrimental to his re-election campaign, specifically that he knew this new information before deciding not to stop the execution. I can't speak with certainty, but I wouldn't be surprised if overall, political expediency included, releasing all the information about the case is better than not releasing it.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at Video Music Awards ceremony.
I hadn't seen either video, but saw a YouTube video of a baby dancing to the "Single Ladies" video. There are several clips of kids 3 years or younger dancing to the song, but the clip with the baby is pretty incredible.
Babies are not affected by an artist's fame or popular acclaim. They like what they like. The babies don't understand every word, but many of them sing along when the song goes "Uh oh, oh OH OH OH oh." I guess that's one of the first meaningful sounds a baby utters (Uh oh).
I watched Taylor Swift's video for comparison and it was OK. Girl next door. But different people have different tastes in music, so it's hard to rate one song or video as better than another, especially from different genres.
The press coverage showed Kanye West before the ceremony holding a bottle of something or other. Alcohol can dampen one's inhibitions.
I don't know if the video is one of the best of all time, though the song is catchy and her dancing fetching. Being in black-and-white gives the video a directness and immediacy. Good choice by the director.
YouTube removed many repostings, but the original video is also at www.singlebabies.com
I hadn't seen either video, but saw a YouTube video of a baby dancing to the "Single Ladies" video. There are several clips of kids 3 years or younger dancing to the song, but the clip with the baby is pretty incredible.
Babies are not affected by an artist's fame or popular acclaim. They like what they like. The babies don't understand every word, but many of them sing along when the song goes "Uh oh, oh OH OH OH oh." I guess that's one of the first meaningful sounds a baby utters (Uh oh).
I watched Taylor Swift's video for comparison and it was OK. Girl next door. But different people have different tastes in music, so it's hard to rate one song or video as better than another, especially from different genres.
The press coverage showed Kanye West before the ceremony holding a bottle of something or other. Alcohol can dampen one's inhibitions.
I don't know if the video is one of the best of all time, though the song is catchy and her dancing fetching. Being in black-and-white gives the video a directness and immediacy. Good choice by the director.
YouTube removed many repostings, but the original video is also at www.singlebabies.com
Sunday, August 16, 2009
I was about 6 years old when I saw a display of kids' licence plates for bikes or tricycles. I didn't ride a bike until years later, so it must've caught my eye for my tricycle. They had a floor-standing 4-sided rotating display of names--two displays--one of boy's names and one of girl's. I looked for "Austin" but couldn't find it. There were even variations of common names like David, Dave, Davy.
I looked at the girl's names, thinking they might've run out of room on the boy's names display. It wasn't there, but that display also had variations of names like Cathy, Kathy, etc.
The name Austin has recently become popular. When I recently saw this printed notepad I bought it. I bought two.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Speciesist?
Is there something special about us humans? Are we as a species unique and somehow different than the animals? The first time I heard that chimpanzees and gorillas are less similar (less common DNA) than humans and chimpanzees I felt shocked and affronted. (Don't know if it's true. Heard it on a TV documentary.)
There are lots of interesting people giving short talks on what drives them, what interests them at a conference of technology, entertainment and design (TED). Lots of sessions on a range of ideas at ted.com.
Among the talks rated jawdropping is one on bonobo apes. They are not as familiar to us because they were only recently discovered and they don't put them in zoos often because sex is not a separate part of their lives.
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_savage_rumbaugh_on_apes_that_write.html
It's 17min. Watch at 15:50 on for something amazing, unexpected, and yes, jaw-dropping.
I could tell you some of my favorites, but discovery is the essence of something or other.
I did stumble upon this clip about "Starting TED" which inspired me to do this post I'd been mulling about for a while.
http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=51547
Is there something special about us humans? Are we as a species unique and somehow different than the animals? The first time I heard that chimpanzees and gorillas are less similar (less common DNA) than humans and chimpanzees I felt shocked and affronted. (Don't know if it's true. Heard it on a TV documentary.)
There are lots of interesting people giving short talks on what drives them, what interests them at a conference of technology, entertainment and design (TED). Lots of sessions on a range of ideas at ted.com.
Among the talks rated jawdropping is one on bonobo apes. They are not as familiar to us because they were only recently discovered and they don't put them in zoos often because sex is not a separate part of their lives.
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_savage_rumbaugh_on_apes_that_write.html
It's 17min. Watch at 15:50 on for something amazing, unexpected, and yes, jaw-dropping.
I could tell you some of my favorites, but discovery is the essence of something or other.
I did stumble upon this clip about "Starting TED" which inspired me to do this post I'd been mulling about for a while.
http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=51547
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Insight into Iran, via Netflix
I've never been to Iran but I have some idea of what it's like thanks to Netflix. There is a large subset [not large enough, imo] of Netflix movies available to watch instantly. You can add any of those to your Instant queue. You have to opt in for the Silverlight experience.
I mentioned previously how I hooked up my new laptop to my HDTV via HDMI cable. I tried the Netflix "watch instantly" feature and found the picture quality good and the experience reasonably effortless.
Bill Scott, UI engineer for Netflix, gave a talk at the Mix 2009 conference on modern user interface conventions. They've tried to make the Netflix navigation experience effortless, although they don't quite succeed.
I'm enjoying his book on Web interaction design patterns. It categorizes and names the conventions you see everywhere on the net, such as drag and drop (he says you have to give users an "invitation to drag" to somehow let users know a thing can be dragged) and he favors direct in-place editing (rather than navigating to another page to change a photograph's title or description as an example).
Designing Web Interfaces
Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions.
It took a bit of thinking to guess why the wireless connection was sometimes not excellent. I have one of those netbooks I almost always keep on but with the lid closed in what I assumed was a sleep or hibernate mode. I have no technical expertise on this, just a guess, but I think the router is still aware of that wireless Internet connection when the netbook is asleep, so I shut down my netbook when I want to watch a streaming Netflix movie.
I watched the animated movie Persepolis which is a kind of autobiography of a girl growing up during the transition from the Shah to the Islamic Republic. Although I cringe at the amount of smoking (I have a respiratory problem that causes me discomfort at the presence of cigarette smoke), I understood a lot of the family and cultural dynamics of the girl growing up in Iran and sent away to a bittersweet life in France as a young adult before returning home to Iran.
With so many of their citizens under the age of 30, Iran has a generation gap as America did during the 1960s. You get a real sense of the everyday repression of youthful casualness and the ominous presence of the moral guardians patrolling the streets looking for women not dressed modestly enough but also intruding behind closed doors looking for alcohol or responding to pop music.
It shouldn't have come as a total surprise that the election there was fraudulent. I remember watching the Chris Matthews show when he said his catchphrase "tell me something I don't know" to his panel of guests right before the Iranian election. One guest said that despite a recent increase in popularity of the reform candidate, it had already been decided that Achmedinijad (sp?) would be named as the winner. Actually, that show was four years ago, a few weeks before the previous election. You can look it up, Chris.
I've never been to Iran but I have some idea of what it's like thanks to Netflix. There is a large subset [not large enough, imo] of Netflix movies available to watch instantly. You can add any of those to your Instant queue. You have to opt in for the Silverlight experience.
I mentioned previously how I hooked up my new laptop to my HDTV via HDMI cable. I tried the Netflix "watch instantly" feature and found the picture quality good and the experience reasonably effortless.
Bill Scott, UI engineer for Netflix, gave a talk at the Mix 2009 conference on modern user interface conventions. They've tried to make the Netflix navigation experience effortless, although they don't quite succeed.
I'm enjoying his book on Web interaction design patterns. It categorizes and names the conventions you see everywhere on the net, such as drag and drop (he says you have to give users an "invitation to drag" to somehow let users know a thing can be dragged) and he favors direct in-place editing (rather than navigating to another page to change a photograph's title or description as an example).
Designing Web Interfaces
Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions.
It took a bit of thinking to guess why the wireless connection was sometimes not excellent. I have one of those netbooks I almost always keep on but with the lid closed in what I assumed was a sleep or hibernate mode. I have no technical expertise on this, just a guess, but I think the router is still aware of that wireless Internet connection when the netbook is asleep, so I shut down my netbook when I want to watch a streaming Netflix movie.
I watched the animated movie Persepolis which is a kind of autobiography of a girl growing up during the transition from the Shah to the Islamic Republic. Although I cringe at the amount of smoking (I have a respiratory problem that causes me discomfort at the presence of cigarette smoke), I understood a lot of the family and cultural dynamics of the girl growing up in Iran and sent away to a bittersweet life in France as a young adult before returning home to Iran.
With so many of their citizens under the age of 30, Iran has a generation gap as America did during the 1960s. You get a real sense of the everyday repression of youthful casualness and the ominous presence of the moral guardians patrolling the streets looking for women not dressed modestly enough but also intruding behind closed doors looking for alcohol or responding to pop music.
It shouldn't have come as a total surprise that the election there was fraudulent. I remember watching the Chris Matthews show when he said his catchphrase "tell me something I don't know" to his panel of guests right before the Iranian election. One guest said that despite a recent increase in popularity of the reform candidate, it had already been decided that Achmedinijad (sp?) would be named as the winner. Actually, that show was four years ago, a few weeks before the previous election. You can look it up, Chris.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Highly recommended documentaries
Next Thursday or so, today being July 3, there are two nature documentaries on Animal Planet cable channel worth watching.
I have no pets. I had a dog at five years old they tell me, and I saw a picture once of me and that German Shepherd, but I don't remember it. Our family had a cat once and I like cats.
Have you heard of Christian the lion? Seen the youtube video? Well they did a one-hour documentary film about Christian called "A Lion Called Christian."
If you don't want to wait, or are curious, or have seen the brief clip on youtube, visit this link then click the video to watch lengthy excerpts from the documentary:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/christian-the-lion/
You really get a sense of his personality and incredible playfulness. What you don't see are some important missing details that explain the full story of the reunion.
Coincidentally, on the same day and repeated the following Friday (these programs air regularly, so check your local listings as they say if you miss them), is a documentary about Jessica the hippo. It's interesting to watch her open the door and walk around the house. Enough said.
One regular program on the National Geographic Channel that always amazes me is The Dog Whisperer. He is called out to visit people with troubled pets ranging from aggression to fear to quirky idiosyncrasies. I hate to admit it, but my first thought when I started watching the show on each visit was that dog is toast. And the people often say they were sure their dog was going to be the one that Cesar could not help.
For dogs that are frustrated and not getting enough exercise, Cesar often uses his rollerblades to take the dog for a brisk walk and run and to bond with him. Not only does it wear the dog out a little bit, but, Cesar said, it surprises them that he's faster than them.
I thought to myself skeptically, how does he know they are "surprised"? Then I remembered how easy it is for us to know when a dog is happy by its facial expressions and body movement. And there may be nobody in the world who understands dogs better than Cesar Milan.
But I shouldn't be so amazed at the sociability and bonding between people and animals, especially animals that live in social groups. I once saw a program about dogs that described how the family pet was running alongside their pickup truck and barking furiously during a dust storm along the farm's road. They wondered what was wrong with him. Finally, in desperation, the dog ran ahead of the truck and threw himself in front of it so that they hit him and had to stop. It turned out there was some obstacle in the road or crevice just a few yards ahead that they would have encountered had not old Rusty (I'm just making up a name here) forced them to stop.
So I briefly thought that was an example of a higher intelligence and altruism shown in animals as is often seen when people jump into rivers to save strangers in trouble. But then I realized that we as a species probably favored people who helped their family and neighbors, and this trait could easily be favored over time until it became a common reaction in social species such as people. Compare the way a mama bird will appear to have a broken wing when a predator threatens her young. That behavior must have taken some time to work out until it became instinctive.
Those birds that flew away lived to fly another day. But they didn't have as many offspring.
Next Thursday or so, today being July 3, there are two nature documentaries on Animal Planet cable channel worth watching.
I have no pets. I had a dog at five years old they tell me, and I saw a picture once of me and that German Shepherd, but I don't remember it. Our family had a cat once and I like cats.
Have you heard of Christian the lion? Seen the youtube video? Well they did a one-hour documentary film about Christian called "A Lion Called Christian."
If you don't want to wait, or are curious, or have seen the brief clip on youtube, visit this link then click the video to watch lengthy excerpts from the documentary:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/christian-the-lion/
You really get a sense of his personality and incredible playfulness. What you don't see are some important missing details that explain the full story of the reunion.
Coincidentally, on the same day and repeated the following Friday (these programs air regularly, so check your local listings as they say if you miss them), is a documentary about Jessica the hippo. It's interesting to watch her open the door and walk around the house. Enough said.
One regular program on the National Geographic Channel that always amazes me is The Dog Whisperer. He is called out to visit people with troubled pets ranging from aggression to fear to quirky idiosyncrasies. I hate to admit it, but my first thought when I started watching the show on each visit was that dog is toast. And the people often say they were sure their dog was going to be the one that Cesar could not help.
For dogs that are frustrated and not getting enough exercise, Cesar often uses his rollerblades to take the dog for a brisk walk and run and to bond with him. Not only does it wear the dog out a little bit, but, Cesar said, it surprises them that he's faster than them.
I thought to myself skeptically, how does he know they are "surprised"? Then I remembered how easy it is for us to know when a dog is happy by its facial expressions and body movement. And there may be nobody in the world who understands dogs better than Cesar Milan.
But I shouldn't be so amazed at the sociability and bonding between people and animals, especially animals that live in social groups. I once saw a program about dogs that described how the family pet was running alongside their pickup truck and barking furiously during a dust storm along the farm's road. They wondered what was wrong with him. Finally, in desperation, the dog ran ahead of the truck and threw himself in front of it so that they hit him and had to stop. It turned out there was some obstacle in the road or crevice just a few yards ahead that they would have encountered had not old Rusty (I'm just making up a name here) forced them to stop.
So I briefly thought that was an example of a higher intelligence and altruism shown in animals as is often seen when people jump into rivers to save strangers in trouble. But then I realized that we as a species probably favored people who helped their family and neighbors, and this trait could easily be favored over time until it became a common reaction in social species such as people. Compare the way a mama bird will appear to have a broken wing when a predator threatens her young. That behavior must have taken some time to work out until it became instinctive.
Those birds that flew away lived to fly another day. But they didn't have as many offspring.
