Omni connexae!
6th June 2011, 23:22
Hello all,
I just watched a video that sparked an intresting thought path, allow me to share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v4XxlfVk3o
It's a TED talk by Aaron Koblin (The youtube embed isn't loading on my preview screen, heres a direct link incase http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_koblin.html) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Koblin
http://www.aaronkoblin.com/
Aaron Koblin is an American digital media artist best known for his innovative uses of data visualization and crowdsourcing. He is currently Creative Director of the Data Arts Team at Google Creative Lab in San Francisco, California.
_________
I enjoyed this video becuase of the way he takes complex information and converts it into easily understood visuals. This intrests me alot, because I'm always trying to think of ways various types of data and understanding can be made more accessable (or rather: relatable) to the "general population". It also displays the potential power of data mining.
It begins with this quote:
19th Century culture was defined by the novel
20th Century culture by cinema,
the culture of the 21st Century will be defined by the interface.
This alone is quite thought provoking when you ponder it's implications.
-How all our views are becoming more and more accessible to everyone else, and how all our ideas will therefore directly become more connected and relevent to each other because of it.
-How differently newer generations enviroments are becoming due to the "interface", and all the profound effects this will have on shaping people.
This also makes me consider just how seriously we should be taking issues like "Net nutrality" and "Internet bubbles". Here's a quick introduction to "Internet bubbles" for anyone thats intrested, another TED talk: but I think this is a MUST watch for anyone who uses and benefits from internet access: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-DM_Inxtzg
Getting back to the original video, I found it intresting how the data visuals of airplanes over Atlanta airport:
http://i56.tinypic.com/2meo8hu.png
are reminiscent of many artistic impressions of the neurons in our brain, for instance:
http://i55.tinypic.com/30rtwf9.jpg
The image below is a 3-D model of what the connections in Blue Brain* would look like if they were flesh and blood neurons, not computer code:
http://i51.tinypic.com/flx9qa.jpg
*Blue Brain: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/computerized-rat-brain-spontaneously-develops-complex-patterns
...a team of researchers... switched on Blue Brain, a computer designed to mimic a functioning slice of a rat's brain. At first, the virtual neurons fired only when prodded by a simulated electrical current. But recently, that has changed...
...the simulated neurons have begun spontaneously coordinating, and organizing themselves into a more complex pattern that resembles a wave. According to the scientists, this is the beginning of the self-organizing neurological patterns that eventually, in more complex mammal brains, become personality...
...The researchers running Blue Brain hope that what they're learning about the organization of neurons in the simulated rat brain will allow them to create a digital human brain within 10 years...
Facinating :o
I'm going to act on a whim here and speculate for a bit, just in the sake of sparking creative conversation:
Just how similar is the way our brain works and the way neurons interact with each other similar to the way nations work? Or societys, families, religions, the internet, the world (or, dare I say it, everything?)
I'm no neuroscientist, so I'm not qualified to truely answer that question:
But philosophicaly speaking, if this notion does hold any mathmatical (scientific) relevence, the questions it begs are enormous, for example:
Different brains work in different ways, some brains are more technically efficiant, some are more creative, some can even be self destructive...
If we looked at society, for instance, in the same way we looked at brains, how would society as a "brain" look? What would you say, considering your own understanding of brains, however limited that may be?
How does the way society as a "brain" works, compare to how we know brains can work?
Well, i could brainstorm here all day, but i'll leave it there... for now.
I humbly welcome any thoughts about any part of this post, from any perspective.
Peace. :yo:
I just watched a video that sparked an intresting thought path, allow me to share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v4XxlfVk3o
It's a TED talk by Aaron Koblin (The youtube embed isn't loading on my preview screen, heres a direct link incase http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_koblin.html) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Koblin
http://www.aaronkoblin.com/
Aaron Koblin is an American digital media artist best known for his innovative uses of data visualization and crowdsourcing. He is currently Creative Director of the Data Arts Team at Google Creative Lab in San Francisco, California.
_________
I enjoyed this video becuase of the way he takes complex information and converts it into easily understood visuals. This intrests me alot, because I'm always trying to think of ways various types of data and understanding can be made more accessable (or rather: relatable) to the "general population". It also displays the potential power of data mining.
It begins with this quote:
19th Century culture was defined by the novel
20th Century culture by cinema,
the culture of the 21st Century will be defined by the interface.
This alone is quite thought provoking when you ponder it's implications.
-How all our views are becoming more and more accessible to everyone else, and how all our ideas will therefore directly become more connected and relevent to each other because of it.
-How differently newer generations enviroments are becoming due to the "interface", and all the profound effects this will have on shaping people.
This also makes me consider just how seriously we should be taking issues like "Net nutrality" and "Internet bubbles". Here's a quick introduction to "Internet bubbles" for anyone thats intrested, another TED talk: but I think this is a MUST watch for anyone who uses and benefits from internet access: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-DM_Inxtzg
Getting back to the original video, I found it intresting how the data visuals of airplanes over Atlanta airport:
http://i56.tinypic.com/2meo8hu.png
are reminiscent of many artistic impressions of the neurons in our brain, for instance:
http://i55.tinypic.com/30rtwf9.jpg
The image below is a 3-D model of what the connections in Blue Brain* would look like if they were flesh and blood neurons, not computer code:
http://i51.tinypic.com/flx9qa.jpg
*Blue Brain: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/computerized-rat-brain-spontaneously-develops-complex-patterns
...a team of researchers... switched on Blue Brain, a computer designed to mimic a functioning slice of a rat's brain. At first, the virtual neurons fired only when prodded by a simulated electrical current. But recently, that has changed...
...the simulated neurons have begun spontaneously coordinating, and organizing themselves into a more complex pattern that resembles a wave. According to the scientists, this is the beginning of the self-organizing neurological patterns that eventually, in more complex mammal brains, become personality...
...The researchers running Blue Brain hope that what they're learning about the organization of neurons in the simulated rat brain will allow them to create a digital human brain within 10 years...
Facinating :o
I'm going to act on a whim here and speculate for a bit, just in the sake of sparking creative conversation:
Just how similar is the way our brain works and the way neurons interact with each other similar to the way nations work? Or societys, families, religions, the internet, the world (or, dare I say it, everything?)
I'm no neuroscientist, so I'm not qualified to truely answer that question:
But philosophicaly speaking, if this notion does hold any mathmatical (scientific) relevence, the questions it begs are enormous, for example:
Different brains work in different ways, some brains are more technically efficiant, some are more creative, some can even be self destructive...
If we looked at society, for instance, in the same way we looked at brains, how would society as a "brain" look? What would you say, considering your own understanding of brains, however limited that may be?
How does the way society as a "brain" works, compare to how we know brains can work?
Well, i could brainstorm here all day, but i'll leave it there... for now.
I humbly welcome any thoughts about any part of this post, from any perspective.
Peace. :yo: