| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather...
Warning: I'm down to 2% of space, gang. I may not be posting tomorrow! Best, ~Rayne 10:12:51 PM  comment []
All that blather = Aha! Or, Interhemispheric brain activity mediation through networked communication Some of you were brave enough to plow through my meandering, rambling blather about communication and brain hemispheres the other day. Thank you for being so tenacious. <smooch> There was something missing at the end of it all, an unsolved-for-X that’s been hanging open-ended since I blabbered and posted. Aha! I reached a rather amusing theory after reading Tom Coates’ post today about Friendster as a neocortical prosthetic and his previous post from May about social software. Unfortunately, my conclusion is inductive and not deductive; I’ll have to hope somebody can solve-for-X independently. Humans seek rapid adoption of specific communication channels, to overcome shortcomings in their own local neural network. Specifically, the human brain is hop scotched, with language residing in one hemisphere, processing of speech in the other hemisphere; pattern recognition resides in another spot and relationship management in yet another sector of the brain. It’s something that evolved over time in an opportunistic fashion, literally moving with the wind if William Calvin’s work on brain size and climatological conditions holds water. It’s not the most efficient of mechanisms; it’s prone to numerous breaches due to congenital defects and injury as well as developmental retardation during key periods of brain growth (ex. the first three years of infancy and childhood). Perhaps it is the issue of brain growth over the last handful of centuries that drives us now; humans in western cultures have grown substantially even in the last two hundred years due to improvements in nutrition and the availability of food. The current rate of C-section births could be related to larger-brained children resulting from this wealth of nutrition. Could it be that recent advances in human brain growth have increased the patchiness of our language and communication processing? We are continually tasked with trying to increase the level of throughput between brain hemispheres, to mediate the conversations between the different portions of the brain. We are using networked external media to facilitate that conversation between brain halves, while facilitating the conversations between others and ourselves. Engelbart’s work on augmentation to which Coates refers hints at this process; Coates appears to be working on and around the topic when he mentions “compensating for human inadequacies in processing…general appropriate filtering mechanisms…”. Unfortunately, both are looking largely at communications between individual and independent brains – between unique individuals – versus the on-going communications we have between the two brains we as humans possess. The primary shortfall that we are augmenting is the communication between our right- and left-brains; the secondary shortfall augmented is communication between humans. Is it possible that the lesser version of autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, is mediated through the use of networked communications? Are those of us whose left-brains do not communicate well with the right-brain (or are left-brain dominant), cannot process human relationships adequate because of diminished or obstructed right-brain function, are using the internet and other networked methodologies to facilitate communication? (Does this explain why so many persons who work in the technical industry supporting the internet have a higher occurrence of Asperger’s Syndrome?) Is it possible that those of us who are challenged by language processing facilitate communication by using a methodology that may operate at slower speeds? Spoken word, for example, is processed at 12-15 phonemes per second (and is processed in the right-brain), where visual cues are processed at 8-9 phonemes per second; a substantive portion of speech is not visual, perhaps as much as 50%. This means that at least a third of information is lost if a recipient cannot process spoken speech, relying on visual cues instead. Is it possible that written word in combination with symbols may be processed much faster by users who are so impaired? Can the medium that allows them to consume information at their own pace offer them a chance to play on an even field with those who can process spoken speech normally? Is it possible that using networked communication/social software allows for a narrowing of bandwidth, a filtering of information to a manageable rate of flow and processing, which users who are challenged by limited interhemispheric processing will find easier to manage? Because communication is essential to the welfare of the human as individual and genome, it is a prime directive to seek improvements to communication. We are innately hardwired, hard-coded, drive to seek improvements; if there is an obstruction, we seek to augment or by-pass it in order to fulfill this prime directive. The extensive use of language in communication may be the single greatest differentiator between humans and other species; would it not make sense that we are compelled to augment that differentiation if it is the single most important factor to our success as a species? We are chatterboxes. We have to be, it’s what made us successful. On the other hand, maybe we should shut up already. comment []
RantsCounterRants: Lieberman's “We’ve always done it this way” bullsh*t Most of the time Joe Lieberman just annoys me. He’s a wuss, the kind of guy who makes nice with everybody while trying not to get his hands dirty. I picture him in golf pants and polo top, a drink in one hand and the other in his pocket, watching people working on his lawn or in the kitchen. F*ck that – it’s not going to work where we’re going; we need something more than a guy who’ll stand on the sidelines spouting platitudes and policy. We need somebody who’s going to go to the mats, duke it out, street brawl, mix it up and make things happen. Lieberman isn’t that guy. Worse, Lieberman thinks the way the “Dean said last week that the But Lieberman vigorously disagreed with Dean's assertion that his position was the same as that of former president Bill Clinton and said the governor was abandoning American values and threatening an important alliance. "Howard Dean's statements," he said, "break a 50-year record in which presidents, Republican and Democrat, members of Congress of both parties, have supported our relationship with F*ck that, too. Fifty years of taking sides brought us 9/11. Fifty years of taking sides brings us the same news every day, that another Israeli/Palestinian is dead, that there is no peace. Continuing to be partial as we have been will bring us another 9/11 -- possibly on a scale we can’t begin to imagine. I want to slap Lieberman’s pasty face and tell him to stop using The only side the That goes for the rest of the Those should be the real American values Lieberman protects: it's all about the children.
He no longer merely annoys me; you can guess how I really feel about him now, I’m sure. comment []
FULL HARVEST MOON – ** TONITE ** Last month it was the kids who couldn’t sleep, most affected by the full moon. This month it’s my turn. I was up, owl-y eyed at It was beautiful, I’ll say that. In spite of keeping me up way too late, it was a sight to behold – golden, larger than usual. Like a luminous woman wearing a midnight blue gown, a small red-gold broach of Mars pinned to her breast as she swayed slowly across the darkened ballroom. Watch for her tonight, will you? I’m so tired, I don’t think I’ll be able to catch her dancing this evening. Check your chart at Sky & Telescope to find out when the moon will appear in the sky in your part of the world. Hope the skies will be clear for you! Next month: Full Hunter’s Moon on comment []
Project Status: FIRST LEGO League – recruiting the team members No opportunity to talk with the principal yesterday about our potential impasse, emphasizing the fifth-graders over the fourth-graders. I’ve come up with another idea to increase interest by girls in this project, though: a letter to their parents. Dear Parent(s): I have a daughter attending Our daughters are at a truly interesting stage of development. They’re not yet women and no longer little girls. They’re seeking and exploring options now, deciding who they’ll be as adults. Most importantly, they’re already narrowing their options, potentially closing the door on bright futures in technology and science. Did you know that women make up only 22% of the total workforce in science and engineering? (As of 2001, only 11 percent of engineering positions were held by women.) Did you know that for women of color, that number is considerably smaller? Did you know this percentage has fallen – not risen – over the last decade, in spite of the increasing number of jobs in science and technology? Did you know that the formative years between kindergarten and fifth-grade shape girls’ decisions not to pursue science and math? Girls decide in this window of opportunity whether they’ll have any use for careers in these fields. I encourage you to talk with your daughter about science and technology as college and career options. A list of website links containing helpful information on women in these fields is attached for your use; many websites are suitable for your daughter to explore (although I recommend you screen material or use internet filtering as for all other internet materials). Can you name any female role models in science, math and technology for your daughter? Do you know any female engineers or designers, computer technologists or technology managers? If not, please feel free to contact me and I’ll try to help you find real live contacts who exemplify women in science in our community. I can also find materials for you, which will show women’s roles in science throughout history. Encourage your daughter by praising her work in math and science; encourage her to participate in fun team projects like XXX’s FIRST LEGO League Team. Find opportunities to show science and technology at work in her daily life. Help her see that science is a multi-media experience not limited to crunching numbers. Show her that science and technology are filled with opportunities to work creatively and collaboratively with others. Thank you very much for your time. I hope your daughter and mine will see their futures are limitless, overflowing with opportunities – especially in science and technology. --- Links to information documenting the shortage of women in science and technology: "The Incredible Shrinking Pipeline" Tracy Camp, Colorado School of Mines regarding the decrease of women in Computer Science -- http://www.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/cacm/paper.html Testimony for the hearing on Women in Science and Technology, Nancy Stueber, President, http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/072402steuber.pdf Ana Maria Boitel, Chair, Women in Technology: http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/072402boitel.pdf Update and Hearing Summary on H.R. 3007, the Advancement of Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development Act, http://www.agiweb.org/hearings/womensci.html --- I’m torn between sadness and anger when I read the figures about women in science and technology. What happened? Where did we go wrong? I thought things had changed for the better after I left school, but I was wrong. But I’m not giving up without a hell of a fight. I’m committed to living in a world which sees the value in every human being, recognizes a diversity of skills and talents is essential to our sustainability as a species. I’ve got little people watching me, too. I can’t let them see me shrug and give up on this. That’s every bit as important as the larger cultural impact I can affect. comment []
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