Neurosphere

The Human-Human Interface

Regulating Archetypes


Wholeness and Virtual Communities

Ursula King and other theologians influenced by Teilhard speak of “noospheric institutions” – Doctors Without Borders is one example. I don’t think Television Without Frontiers is the best example, but it’s interesting that the Internet was transborder from the get-go. Telecommunications technology is by nature more effective and capable without geographic constraints – but politics right now governs television technology because it is the battleground of our most sacred archetypes – from holy warriors to Janet Jackson’s breast. But the calls for control of the latter ring hollow – the genie is so far out of the bottle that proposed controls function solely as political litmus tests.

The “Television without Frontiers” directive (89/552/EEC), adopted on 3 October 1989 by the Council and amended on 30 June 1997 by the European Parliament and the Council Directive 97/36/EC, establishes the legal frame of reference for the free movement of television broadcasting services in the Union in order to promote the development of a European market in broadcasting and related activities, such as television advertising and the production of audiovisual programmes.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/avpolicy/regul/regul_en.htm#4

Baby Steps


Network Infrastructure for the Neurosphere

Drops in the bucket – note this “grant” is actually dependent on “donation of bandwidth”. There has to be a better way to attract capital to the developing world.

“This SGER proposes to develop a plan to extend international high bandwidth Internet connectivity to a group of up to four countries in sub-saharan Africa. The lack of such connectivity has been a major impediment to the development of the Internet in Africa. To accomplish this, it will investigate a unique opportunity to obtain a donation of bandwidth on fiber optic submarine cables that are currently being installed…Linkages will be developed with scientific and health/medical communities that have research projects involving US/African collaborations. Partnerships will also be explored with US agencies that fund research in the target countries.”

http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/servlet/showaward?award=0451384

The Universe Right Now


The World Right Now

“Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.”

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Subconscious of the Blogosphere


The World Right Now

Another glimpse of the global train of thought. A little skewed by the source being bloggers only – the number one ranking as I type this is a site about technical solutions for RSS feeds used by many blogs – but I suppose true for Google zeitgeist as much as any other – all of them a subset of a global mind, until one gets used by 100% of all the 6.5 billion users…

http://www.bloglines.com/toplinks

Tip of the NeuroHat to Ben Houston

Biometrics Today


Personal Infrastructure

Biometrics caught my attention years ago as a means for individuals to interface with machines without using a keyboard, mouse or touchpad. This was before 9-11 though, and since then all manner of homeland security funding has inundated the industry. Here’s a government (National Security Agency) founded consortium devoted to the subject. Look at the recent Biometric conference to get a sense of the government and industry interests involved – I will be investigating each as I suspect the advances in the field, like all Defense Department funding targets, will be huge and have interesting and unexpected civilian benefits. These advances may contribute to a better interface to the World Right Now.

“The Biometric Consortium serves as a focal point for research, development, testing,?evaluation, and application of biometric-based personal identification/verification technology.”

http://www.biometrics.org/

There’s also a corresponding industry trade association.

http://www.ibia.org/

The Neural Interface Moves Deeper


Personal Infrastructure

As neuroscience identifies more and more neural correlates of movement and thought, prosthetic interconnection seems to follow on more closely.

“For years, researchers have dreamed of devising prosthetic devices that paralyzed people could operate by brain signals alone. So far, patients’ brain waves (electroencephalogram recordings) have controlled simple computer programs, and robots and cursors have moved under the guidance of brain cells that dictate motion (Science, 24 January 2003, p. 496). Until now, however, nobody has succeeded in tapping the messages of higher-order neurons involved in planning and motivation for potential use in prosthetics. On page 258, neurophysiologists Richard Andersen and Sam Musallam of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and their colleagues report eavesdropping on neurons in a cognitive brain area involved in planning–but not executing–future arm movements.”

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/305/5681/162a?maxtoshow=&HITS=20&hits=20&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=Wickelgren&andorexacttitle=or&andorexacttitleabs=or&andorexactfulltext=or&searchid=1133974269596_11257&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&fdate=10/1/1995&tdate=12/31/2005

Meanwhile, the Center for Consciousness Studies coordinates the ongoing attempts to nail down the neural correlates of consciousness, assuming that is they can define what consciousness is. The contention of some is that neural prosthetics tackly the “easy problem” – what neurons are associated with what activities. The “hard problem” is, where in the brain is located “the feeling of what happens”.

http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/index.htm

Neural Prosthetics Update


Personal Infrastructure

A selection of prosthetics sites. These prosthetics are controlled entirely by connection to the residual limb muscles of individuals who have undergone amputation. The prosthetic limbs use a combination of hydraulics, processors, and sensors to transmit information back up through the limb muscles to enable walking, running and other activities. (I love the applet on the Hanger site showing a man dancing, quite stylishly thank you, with a prosthetic leg.) These individuals in turn are the most likely to explore the frontier of neural prosthetics when that technology is ready to, if you will, take the next step.

Liberating Technologies:

http://www.liberatingtech.com/products/LTI_Boston_Arm_Systems.asp

Hanger Orthopedic Group

http://www.hanger.com/

C-Leg microprocessor-controlled knee

http://www.ottobockus.com/products/lower_limb_prosthetics/c-leg.asp

For the human element, here’s the personal site of Cameron Clapp, a triple-amputee after being hit by a train. I challenge you not to be inspired.

http://cameronclapp.com/home.asp

the Neurophere Subconscious


The World Right Now

I always liked this feature from the Webcrawler web site. It used to be called the Webcrawler Subsconscious, which fits the Neurosphere profile more precisely. (If you look at the “unfiltered” version, it’s even more primal.)

“Ever wonder what the rest of the world is searching for?”

http://msxml.webcrawler.com/info.wbcrwl/searchspy/results.htm?filter=1

United Nations Discovers the Neurosphere


Wholeness and Virtual Communities

In my day job, I work periodically with the International Telecommunications Union, a standards-setting body under the United Nations umbrella. Their new report, The Internet of Things, describes the kind of trends and challenges I’ve been covering in my book and in this Blog – “ubiquitous network society” may or may not be a synonym for neurosphere. Like the European Union, they are struggling to adapt old legal and regulatory structures to rapidly evolving technologies.

“We are heading towards what can be termed a “ubiquitous network society”, one in which networks and networked devices are omnipresent. …Technological standardization in most areas is still in its infancy, or remains fragmented. But perhaps one of the most important challenges is convincing users to adopt emerging technologies like RFID. Concerns over privacy and data protection are widespread, particularly as sensors and smart tags can track a user’s movements, habits and preferences on a perpetual basis. But whatever the concern, one thing remains clear: scientific and technological advances in these fields continue to move ahead at breakneck speed. It is only through awareness of such advances, and the challenges they present, that we can reap the future benefits of a fair, user-centric and global Internet of Things.”

http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/internetofthings/

BigAppleSphere


The World Right Now

At the other end of the demographic spectrum from Wyoming, New York City’s 311 government information hotline is not only a disseminator of information, but has learning feedback built in. Checkout the performance statistics for types of inquiries – the government affairs equivalent of Google Zeitgeist.

“Third, the government learns as much as the callers do. That’s the radical idea at the heart of the service: Every question or problem carries its own kind of data. Menchini’s system tracks all that information; just as the heralded CompStat system mapped problem crime areas with new precision, 311 automatically records the location of each incoming service request in a huge database that feeds info throughout New York City’s government. Think of 311 as a kind of massively distributed extension of the city’s perceptual systems, harnessing millions of ordinary eyes on the street to detect emerging problems or report unmet needs – like those worries about unrefrigerated insulin. (Bloomberg himself is notorious for calling in to report potholes.)”

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/start.html?pg=2

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/html/about/about_311.shtml