Month: June 2014

Consciousness Posted on

Maps: A Symbolic Representation – Mental Overlay On Reality

One of the more dramatic ways to see the effect of the mind upon our perception of reality is with our knowledge and understanding of the earth itself. Now after our trips into space, viewed from space we have a familiar image of Earth’s topography. But the human mind does not stop there; to understand reality “better” we have divided the globe into lines of latitude and longitude, enabling us to better navigate its surface. But of course actual “lines” of latitude and longitude do not exist in “reality” –just in our mental overlay onto the reality of what exists within our perception of nature. Similarly the “borders” that we have superimposed onto the planet to divide us into nations and states do not actually […] Read More

Virtual Reality Posted on

What It Feels Like to Jump Off a Virtual Cliff

Images: Project Tango When I strapped Google’s Tango gadget on my head, a device designed to virtually replicate reality, I found myself standing on a platform overlooking a chasm that felt thousands of feet deep. I took a virtual step off. Up until that point it felt real enough to generate some feelings of nausea while peering into the abyss, but with the background chatter from crowds of people milling around Google’s I/O conference, the experience of virtually diving off a cliff didn’t feel quite the way I’d expect it would in reality. Still, after messing around with one of the Tango developer units, I couldn’t help think their tagline “we like epic shit” sounded accurate. Project Tango is the brainchild of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects division. The device […] Read More

The Mind Posted on

The Internet of Pain: When Suffering Goes Viral

Image: Shutterstock It begins with a sickly child, as so many stories do. This week saw two news stories which tested the “viral” potential of bodily suffering. The first was that of Victoria Wilcher, the three-year-old survivor of a pit bull attack who was asked to leave a branch of KFC because of her “scary” facial scarring. The narrative lends itself to social media: hate on the giant fast food chain, side with the child victim, then share your outrage on Twitter and Facebook. Then a second story surfaced: after investigation the entire account was shown to be a hoax. Whatever the parents’ intentions, they must have known their daughter would attract online attention. Her story coincides with another, yet more sinister one: that of Garnett Spears, […] Read More

Living the Illusion Posted on

2014: De-Pave Paradise: Driverless Cars Will Kill the Parking Lot

The sharing ecosystem that driverless cars are going to usher in is going to cut down on the number of cars on the road and as a consequence, will kill the modern parking lot. Cities could look completely different with 80 percent fewer cars on the road, you know. The vision (and that number), put forward by Carlos Ratti, director of MIT‘s Sensible City Lab earlier this week, isn’t new: Autonomous cars and buses will supplement public transit by providing “last mile” transport. People will share rides instead of owning cars, cutting down the number of vehicles needed for mobility in congested cities dramatically. “Your car could give you a lift to work in the morning and then, rather than sitting idle in a […] Read More

Living the Illusion Posted on

De-Pave Paradise: Driverless Cars Will Kill the Parking Lot

The sharing ecosystem that driverless cars are going to usher in is going to cut down on the number of cars on the road and as a consequence, will kill the modern parking lot. Cities could look completely different with 80 percent fewer cars on the road, you know. The vision (and that number), put forward by Carlos Ratti, director of MIT‘s Sensible City Lab earlier this week, isn’t new: Autonomous cars and buses will supplement public transit by providing “last mile” transport. People will share rides instead of owning cars, cutting down the number of vehicles needed for mobility in congested cities dramatically. “Your car could give you a lift to work in the morning and then, rather than sitting idle in a […] Read More

Consciousness Posted on

2014: A Neuroscientist Explains What Happens To Your Brain When You Meditate

Meditation is becoming very popular lately. Perhaps it’s the anecdotal evidence friends are sharing with each other or the fact that more and more science is coming out to confirm the benefits of meditation that it’s encouraging people to take up the practice. Meditation has shown to decrease stress, increase happiness,quality of life, increase gray matter in the brain, making people more compassionate, lowering blood pressure, increasing memory and more. A great series of benefits from such a peaceful practice. Meditation can be discouraging at times. It’s not easy to calm your mind, stop the thoughts and get into a space that is quiet. Since many of us, especially in western culture, are never taught to explore this practice at a young age it […] Read More

The Mind Posted on

A Neuroscientist Explains What Happens To Your Brain When You Meditate

Meditation is becoming very popular lately. Perhaps it’s the anecdotal evidence friends are sharing with each other or the fact that more and more science is coming out to confirm the benefits of meditation that it’s encouraging people to take up the practice. Meditation has shown to decrease stress, increase happiness,quality of life, increase gray matter in the brain, making people more compassionate, lowering blood pressure, increasing memory and more. A great series of benefits from such a peaceful practice. Meditation can be discouraging at times. It’s not easy to calm your mind, stop the thoughts and get into a space that is quiet. Since many of us, especially in western culture, are never taught to explore this practice at a young age it […] Read More

Reality Posted on

Deru’s ‘The Future Never Comes’: The Strange Loop of Techno-Anxiety

Image: Deru/Tim Navis What we know for sure is that what comes next is going to be huge and nothing will ever be the same again. This statement, possibly the dominant sentiment of the post-industrial world, is what it means to be defined by technology: neverending expectation, the assurance that this here now is insufficient, a mere stepping stone to the real future‘s future. It’s a perfect strange loop: as we progress upward through hierarchies of new and better technology, we’re also conditioned by that same new and better technology to anticipate the next wave of new and better. The real future is always just over the horizon and it’s such that we’re rarely impressed by anything, no matter how much things actually change […] Read More