The Future is Now

Sometimes you read a book so powerful, so wise that you feel the duty of spreading the author's words and contribute to a better world.  Michio Kaku's Physics of the Future is a must-read in the night stand of every leader in the planet, every decision maker, everyone with power to influence societies with high decisions.  Actually, I will rephrase this: it should be part of every school curriculum.

If we talk about the future, we talk about the next generation which is going to inherit the very complicated mission of bringing mankind from a Type 0 civilization to a Type I civilization.  A type I civilization is planetary, it controls all sources of energy of the planet and might be able to tame and modify the weather.  This civilization has an incredible life span and enjoys technologies that we could only dream about when we were kids.

We will live in a world where energy is cheap and abundant, where computers are everywhere to assist us in our daily duties, from our clothing to the walls of our houses.  Information will not be only at the palm of your hands, but in front of your eyes.

Nowadays, we are in the transition from Type 0 to Type I and this is the most dangerous moment in history of humanity.  This is because we still have all the savagery, all the fundamentalism, racism and intolerance that marked us through our barbaric stage, yet we have enough destructive power to eradicate ourselves from Earth, thanks to the same advances in technology that have brought us to the top of this planet's evolutionary table.  If knowledge is power, information is the currency and we live in an age where it can be accessed immediately and anywhere.  Anyone can access online data about how to build a nuclear weapon, or where to find all materials needed for it.  In these upcoming times where information will be abundant, the only force that oppose the chaos is wisdom.

Kaku defines wisdom as the ability to identify the crucial issues of our time, analyze them from many different points of view and perspectives, and then choose the one that carries out some noble goal and principle.  As he points, unlike information, wisdom cannot be dispersed via blogs and internet chatter.  It comes from reasoned and informed democratic debate from opposing sides.

George Bernard Shaw once said: "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."  The Internet is an ally of democratic freedom, allowing people to access information that centuries ago would be controlled by some local government in order to keep their dictatorship's hegemony.  Now, youngsters have the power and responsibility of choosing wisely, of deciding how far to take this technology that can change the world, and in what directions it must develop.  This promising generation must be educated overall, must be an informed electorate, but we run into one problem.  How to do that with a dysfunctional and outmoded educational system?

Sir Ken Robinson warned us with a short question on his memorable speech at TED's conference in 2006: "Do Schools kill creativity?"  If the leaders of tomorrow must have common sense, ability of thinking creatively and be problem-solvers, how to develop them in times like these?  Why are we leveling our kids by the bottom and rewarding mediocrity when the great work should be done in those years prior to their academic life?  Let's not be complacent with a wasteful attitude; let's not try to tell them what to do, but help them to develop their way.  We all are responsible for changing the present, we all are parents of the kids of the future; we are the role models of the men and women who will set the destiny our species.  Thousands of generations have lived and died to pass their genes so you could be here today, and you have this weight on your shoulders.

Robinson also said: " I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth, for a particular commodity, and for the future, it won’t serve us.

We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children."

. . . . .

What are you going to do today?

To Be or Not to Be... Immortal

picture by Lauren Burgess
Have you ever heard the tale of Phineas Gage?  I have read about it in psychology.about.com by Kendra Cherry, and it made me think.

In 1848, a young man named Phineas Gage suffered a traumatic brain injury that astonished doctors and continues to fascinate scientists today.

On September 13, 1848, the then 25-year-old Gage was working as the foreman of a crew preparing a railroad bed near Cavendish, Vermont.  He was using an iron tamping rod to pack explosive powder into a hole.  Unfortunately, the powder detonated, sending the 43 inch long and 1.25 inch diameter rod hurtling upward. The rod penetrated Gage's left cheek, tore through his brain, and exited his skull before reportedly landing some 80 feet away.  Shockingly, Gage not only survived the initial injury but was able to speak and walk to a nearby cart so he could be taken into town to be seen by a doctor, Dr. Edward H. Williams.

Soon after, Dr. John Martyn Harlow, took over the case. It is through Harlow's observations of the injury and his later descriptions of Gage's mental changes that provide much of the primary information that we now know about the case.

In the months that followed, Gage returned to his parent's home in New Hampshire to recuperate.  Unable to return to his railroad job, Gage held a series of jobs including work in a livery stable, a stagecoach driver in Chile and farm work in California.  Popular reports of Gage often depict him as a hardworking, pleasant man prior to the accident.  Post-accident, these reports describe him as a changed man, suggesting that the injury had transformed him into a surly, aggressive drunkard who was unable to hold down a job.

Since there is little direct evidence of the exact extent of Gage's injuries aside from Harlow's report, it is difficult to know exactly how severely his brain was damaged. Harlow's accounts suggest that the injury did lead to a loss of social inhibition, leading Gage to behave in ways that were seen as inappropriate.

In 1968, Harlow presented the first account of the changes in Gage's behavior following the accident:

"The equilibrium or balance, so to speak, between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities, seems to have been destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his intellectual capacity and manifestations, he has the animal passions of a strong man. Previous to his injury, although untrained in the schools, he possessed a well-balanced mind, and was looked upon by those who knew him as a shrewd, smart businessman, very energetic and persistent in executing all his plans of operation. In this regard his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was 'no longer Gage.'"

All that you can read at Kendra’s blog, but Phineas’ tale is not what I wanted to talk about.

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a philosopher who believed in free will.  According to him, a person consists of two ingredients, a body and a soul.  While bodies are like machines made of matter and are subject to the laws of science, souls are immortals and the origin of free will.  We have to understand that it was in an age when mankind had to feel special about our position in the universe compared to all other living beings – we are better than animals and anything else (oh, maybe that still sounds familiar…?)  That is the base for, I think, most of the religions known to man.  We have souls – we are responsible for our decisions – our afterlife depends on how we live this life.  Basically, if you’re a good person you are going to seize the fruits of your behavior.  Now, I understand, someone has either a good or a bad soul and, therefore, tends to be either good or bad, morally speaking.  If our bodies are merely temples of the soul, our brains should not define our character.  So, what happens in a case like Phineas Gage’s?

There are two options.  First: the brain has important influence in our behavior in the way the soul connects to the physical world.  Second: our behavior is entirely defined by how our brain works, what means we are determined by matter – atoms together in the right combination, those forming cells and electric impulses – and possibly have no souls.

Where does morality stand?  In the first scenario, how do we know if someone is naturally good?  What would be the method to identify who deserves to go to Heaven or Hell, reborn as a king or as a cockroach?  Would that be fair if we are confined in our bodies and our judgment relies on our brain capacity, like a race between a Ferrari and a bicycle with, maybe, equally good drivers?  Do we get our brains at random or there are some criteria to determine who deserves which?  If so, how can that be fair?  If there is some superior force who decides the rules of morality, how can that be fair?

The second case scenario is simple; we are determined by chemical reactions, laws of physics and mere chance.  Doesn’t that make you feel special?

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

So, here comes another week!  

I am facing some time-management issues since I am trying to adapt myself into a new personal routine, and in times like these the only good thinking comes from focusing and analyzing the big picture before acting.  I recalled, as I often do, some good “advices” written in history by wise men and that is what I am going to do today.  Here I share some good quotes so you might use them or not for your actual needs. 

The tittle is paraphrased from H. Thoreau and it gives me a good example of the effect of hard working in life.

Have a great week – Life is short; Carpe Diem.

Albert Einstein

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (My Days)

“A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.”

William of Ockham (also known as Ockham's Razor)

“Plurality should not be assumed without necessity.”

Henry David Thoreau ("Where I Lived and What I Lived For" Walden)

“Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify, simplify! ... Simplicity of life and elevation of purpose.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as one, two, three and to a hundred or a thousand… We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.”

Baruch Spinoza

“Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.”

Ken Venturi

“I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.”

Lighting Our Way

Universities and institutions all around the world are researching about different aspects and applications for something so common, but so necessary in our lives that most of the people would not even notice it’s there: light.  With all the advances in science and technology, light is being used in vary fields, such as medicine, communications and weaponry, and it may be a crucial factor in bringing us to a quick start into the future.  We are unleashing the power of light.

Scientists and engineers at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal are developing a Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) weapon to take out targets that conduct electricity better than the air or ground that surrounds them.  This future-like laser machine would guide a lightning bolt via laser beam to hit the target with the possible power of 50 billion watts, more power than a larger city needs.

"If a laser beam is intense enough, its electro-magnetic field is strong enough to rip electrons off of air molecules, creating plasma," said Fischer. "This plasma is located along the path of the laser beam, so we can direct it wherever we want by moving a mirror."

Meanwhile, researchers of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a procedure to focus light inside biological tissue which allows doctors to perform surgery without having to cut through your skin, or diagnose cancer by seeing tumors inside the body.

Such a less invasive technique of diagnosing and treating diseases enables scientists to research and develop promising applications for this ultrasound based method, and the benefits for patients are easily recognizable.  

Ok; we are developing weapons and medical technology.  That doesn’t sound so futuristic, right?  What else?

Think about history; think about nowadays.  What is one of the most important factors for human development, for learning and progressing into a more advanced society and going beyond our physical limitations?  Communication, I would say.

Without communication, knowledge would be lost in time and space and we would never be able to reach our potential.  Today, we live in a globalized era where we can share and learn with each other, doesn’t matter where in the world you live.  Computers, internet, cell phones; technology bring us together and it’s the key for our evolution.

The advances in computer technology are widely defined by the amount and speed of data we can storage and share, and microchips and processors nowadays have a great power comparing to, let’s say, last year.  The Moore’s Law isn’t dead yet and new supercomputers – funny term as they always get old – are being developed right now.  But, wait – aren’t you talking about light?  Let’s talk briefly about something else first: superconductors.

Superconductivity can be defined as a phenomenon of no resistance for an electric current with the expulsion of magnetic fields occurring in certain materials when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature, and superconductors are materials which allow these phenomena to occur, with no energy loss.  Superconductors can be used in defense, transportation, energy generation, communication and research, just to summarize a few applications.

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford Department of Physics, Japan and Germany were able to transform a non-superconducting insulator into a superconductor by the use of light.  An infrared laser pulse was used to perturb the positions of some of the atoms in the material, and the compound, held at a temperature just 20 degrees above absolute zero, almost instantaneously became a superconductor for a fraction of a second, before relaxing back to its normal state.

The researchers are hopeful that it could offer a new route to obtaining superconductivity at higher temperatures.  If superconductors that work at room temperature could be achieved, it would open up many more technological applications. 

The applications of these materials are wide and they may even hold the key for the next step in the evolution of processors.  Maybe, in the near future, superconductors can be used to manufacture real quantum computers as first coined by Richard Feynman in 1982; who knows?  The good thing about the future is that it keeps turning into present. 

Go After That Thing That You Want

The Will To Win

If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and
your sleep for it

If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry
and cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you’ll sweat for it,
Fret for it, Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

– Berton Braley

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Natalie du Toit (born 29 January 1984) is a South African swimmer. She is best known for the gold medals she won at the 2004 Summer Paralympics as well as the Commonwealth Games, and she became the first swimmer with disability to compete in regular Olympic Games (at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.)

Boosting You

I don’t know about you, but it amazes me when I see science overcoming the barriers that nature imposes us.  

Human beings are not impressively strong animals – we are definitely not among the fastest and our immune system has considerably deteriorated along the last millenniums – but our brains allow us to get far beyond any other species in this planet would ever dreamed of.  

We are not only able to create and control our personal environment and use technology to ease our lives, but we also use it to enhance ourselves.

Science for the blind

After losing his right eye in a shooting accident, the film maker Rob Spencer decided to implant a tiny camera in his eye socket and now he’s able to film and transmit videos wireless to screens, videos, cameras and hard drive devices.  He started the EyeBorg Project what would be, at least, a very interesting anthropological experiment.

A new technology of bionic eye is being developed to allow the blind to see again.  A camera in a pair of glasses sends a wireless signal to an implant behind the retina which sends a crude black & white image data back to the brain through the optic nerve.  Nowadays, people are receiving a 60 electrode implant, but scientists of the Doheny Institute in California are working on a 1,000 electrode version which should even allow facial recognition.  Electrical engineers of the Monash Vision Group have also begun trialing prototype microchips for powering the bionic eye and the Stanford School of Medicine is working on tiny solar-panel-like cells to be used in those kinds of implants.

Nootropics -- enhancing what you have and the impact on society

On the other hand, perfectly healthy individuals are using nootropics – also referred to as cognitive enhancers or intelligence enhancers – to boost their natural intellect and, said, “reach their true potential.”

If you have seen the blockbuster Limitless starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro you might have an idea of what I’m talking about.

Although these drugs are usually prescribed to treat medical conditions, many people take the risk and buy them over the internet in an attempt to boost performance at work, university and other social environment.  You can find plenty of information online about it – not exactly professional advices – and its popularity is increasing among students.  But what are the impacts on the society?

Imagine if you have to compete against a hyper focused student who wouldn’t get as tired as you and, worse, if that becomes common practice.

"I was able to write a 22-page paper in one day. I revised it over the next couple of days and got an A. Normally, I wouldn't have even been able to get a rough draft done in a week," says one student surveyed about his use of modafinil.

When asked about their potential impact on society, people clearly have concerns beyond safety - about how the drugs might create a two-tier education system in which some can afford the drugs and others can't, as shown on the BBC article Do Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs Work.

"The drugs would get stronger and stronger due to increased demand of performance. Addictions would ensue. People would not be able to live without them. Employers would demand their employees to be constantly using them."

Truth is, science allows us to get the best of ourselves.  The problem is when that also brings the bad side of human nature which is that predatory ability of exploitation and dominance.

The Man Cave Project

Ok…  You can be a science lover, a businessman, a devoted father or a party animal, but truth be said; doesn’t matter who/how you are -- everyone needs to catch a break every once in a while and surrender to guilty pleasures.

As a man, I fall into the category of the man cave wishers.  Come on… you actually don’t even have to be a man to appreciate a good man cave as I have lots of girl-friends (don’t get me wrong here; I’m a one woman man) who I’m sure would love to be in a place where you can have limitless fun without being bothered or having to be politically correct.

Every man has his own man cave project and a man cave may be never done as you can always attach new gadgets and maximize space within the area – although it is always perfect. Some might spend just a few hundred dollars on it and other enthusiastic people would sure invest thousands to develop the perfect place which is going to be, sometimes, more loved than the bedroom.

Let’s take a look at my ultimate man cave project… how’s yours?

PS3 and Nintendo Wii – for those who like to waste time arguing about which one is better, just understand one thing: both are cool and able to coexist in harmony.

A man’s TV and Home Theater system – because you have to do it right.

Air Hockey Table – within a short distance to the fridge where the beers are.

Foosball Table – it doesn’t have to be fancy to be cool…

Ping Pong Table – here goes a hint: don’t let your beer on the table, especially if you’re still playing.

A Pac Man – Galaga Arcade Machine – definitely hours of entertainment.

Pinball Machine – also within a short distance to the fridge.

A Pool Table – because you’re also classy.  Don’t forget the cigar.

Daytona USA Arcade – Good memories can create good memories…