Thinking a little about time.
Is time a dimension or just a frame of reference?
Is there any way to prove that we are moving forwards through time rather than being 'sucked back into the past'?
Science fiction story fragment
Time travel is impossible but it can be faked by reversing the passage of dimensions through the frame of reference.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Consciousness, the barrier /channel mechanism, glial cells and a non-psychic sixth sense.
UPDATE: Alright, the following is looking less and less coherent the more I go over it. The idea of a channeling mechanism seems to be reinventing the wheel re. neural networks. I will try to do another post with a clearer idea of the barrier stuff(Dynamic Permeability Gradients in the Human Body).
I had an idea a few weeks ago that got me very excited. It was all about way the brain functions, the basic pattern that underlies consciousness. It is in part based on the following:
For a while now I had been thinking I had a previously undocumented sensory ability. Not psychic. ...More like the ability to sense the tension in areas controlling blood flow/nutrient supply in the brain and throughout the body. It started when I was thinking about my ability to 'feel' things with distinct locations within my brain - even though high school science classes left me with the impression that 'there are no nerves in the brain' and that as such we should be unable to feel anything there except for headaches.
Looking this sensation up online I stumbled upon:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postxf94692-0-45.html
The sensations reported varied but seemed to be similar to sensations I had experienced myself.
Then I started thinking about how I could feel similar sensations of tension and relaxation within my body before muscle movement. After looking at research on the subject I came to the conclusion that these are probably just part of my somatosensory system(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatosensory_system) or more likely baroreceptors(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroreceptor) linking up to a kind of sensory homunculus(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_homunculus), allowing me greater ability to sense and to a small degree control over the locality and level of what I believe to be vascular constriction and/or nutrient supply.
This phenomenon is probably what is affected by ADHD medications. Also it makes me think that people have some control over this when they tense or relax and that this is a requirement of most muscle movement when related to sustained effort.
Back to the brain - I can feel sensations within my brain that, when I concentrate, seem to increase in intensity in certain locations. For instance when thinking about this stuff the first time the sensation was an upright slightly bent fan starting from the front right fanning out to the back left in a slight backwards lean. While rewriting this for the blog post there is a fan of sensation that is more upright and that starts from the front left and moves to the back right. As i sit here consciously focusing my attention on my brain the center of the fan started fading and dissipating into a small ball at the front left and a larger at the back right.
From this I theorized that what I am feeling is the physical mechanism the brain uses to focus consciousness and attention.
My understanding of how the brain works:
At its most basic the brain functions by connecting nodes of 'simple ideas'. This occurs simultaneously throughout the brain billions of times per second(or millisecond etc). Connections are made by formulaic associations and will eventually loop back to original ideas. Certain ideas connect more frequently and as such have greater associations with similar ideas. The looping arrangement allows feedback. The aggregate result of these feedback loops is consciousness.
- The CHANNEL idea is that feedback loops between nodes of similar ideas will begin to send signals more often and with greater ease making a kind of channel between them. These channels form over the short and long term.
- The BARRIER idea is that nodes which are not being accessed as frequently or with the 'right amount' of signals will actively reduce the signals they send.
- Consciousness is the buildup of active signals within feedback loops that flow mostly through channels while being constrained partially by barriers.
- The focus of conscious attention increases the signals being sent to corresponding nodes and the buildup of signals in nearby channels dictates the flow of thought.
- If the focus of attention receives insufficient positive feedback the channels will not deepen and the barriers lower causing new short term channels to connect as the person searches for a solution to an idea.
- If the focus receives too much negative feedback the barriers strengthen and channels will form between more relevant areas. This happens regularly when seeking the optimal way to complete a task Ie. the best solution to a maths problem out of several familiar alternatives. A slightly more extreme example happens when the task is unfamiliar and the usual channels don't provide feedback in the form of correct solutions to the mind starts searching nearby ideas for ways to achieve the correct solution
Example 1: a child multiplying 12 x 12 - known/remembered solution from times table is 144
Example 2: a child multiplying 12 x 13 - answer not remembered from times table - child associates a difference of 1 in the second number multiplied by the first number and added to the first remembered solution = 156
Example 3: a child multiplying 8236344 x 84642664 - known solutions are unhelpful so the child associates this with stupidly difficult maths questions - ...and gets out a calculator
Anyway. The BARRIER/CHANNEL mechanism relates to the organization and focus of consciousness but they are not the actual process of signalling.
From here on I start to ramble a bit and occasionally link to relevant online articles, if you see a question mark it means I am probably guessing rather than theorizing.
The latest extrapolation of the original idea: Consciousness is focused by (ion?) channel regulations and permeability gradients moderated by glial cells.
1. The formation of channels is linked to the strength and regularity of signalling ie. if a neuron either doesn't have enough charge to signal or is signalling more regularly than usual then it is likely causing changes in the cell. These changes will be thermal/chemical/mechanical effects which can cause drastic differences in the resultant signals such as by releasing or absorbing neurotransmitters.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_channel) this stuff looks like it could support my idea if ion channels are capable of near(NEAR) immediate response... reading further... crap this stuff gets complicated.
2. The formation of barriers is likely to be based on signalling regulated by glial cells. Barriers include a component that is strongly chemical and mechanical. Regulation of blood flow as well as supply and collection of nutrients and neurotransmitters. Stronger barrier forming creates more focus.
Random wikipedia link - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glia_limitans)
Insects have an open circulatory system, so there are no blood vessels found within their ganglia. However, they do have a sheath of perineurial glial cells that envelops the nervous system and exhibit the same tight occluding junctions that are induced by the glia limitans in humans. These cells act as a barrier and are responsible for establishing permeability gradients.
In certain molluscs, a glial-interstitial fluid barrier is observed without the presence of tight junctions. Cephalopod molluscs, in particular, have cerebral ganglia that have microcirculation, often seen in the composition of higher organisms. Often, the glial cells will form a seamless sheath completely around the blood space. The barrier consists of zonular intercellular junctions, rather than tight junctions, with clefts formed by extracellular fibrils. In addition to protection from the blood, these barriers are thought to exhibit local control of the microenvironment around specific neuron groups, a function required for complex nervous systems.[5]
barrier mechanism can be regarded as a system for regulating permeability gradients in the brain?
3. The components of the various systems of the body work in similar ways but using varying components. Ie. parts of the nervous system which only signal electrically in one direction will still form feedback loops by signalling chemically.
4. Immediate thermal/chemical/mechanical effects are just as important as electrical in determining consciousness(if not more so).
5. Current theory: ADHD meds affect the chemical/mechanical regulation of the barrier mechanism. Tension related effects(throughout the body) of these medications are due to their basic function to be the increase of definition within permeability gradients and it is this effect within the brain which increases focus. I have noticed a kind of tension signal is sent to the area of a muscle when activity is occurring(Different to the nervous system signal used to activate the muscle). I believe this releases or supplies energy for the muscle to use. The effect of dextroamphetamine(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextroamphetamine) increases the effectiveness of this secondary signal and results in reduced feelings of fatigue. When this secondary signal is ineffective or does not get sent at all it results in a feeling of 'arms or legs giving way' even though the muscles are being sent the usual impulses to move through the nervous system.
6. Extended Consciousness - we interact with the world in similar ways as we interact with other portions of our own brains and bodies. = possible implications with regards to social studies and psychology/psychiatry.
7. There are numerous(hundreds? thousands?) of substances/chemicals/biological agents which make direct or indirect changes on the signalling processes. Many(if not all) of these have BOTH inhibition and excitation effects when applied to different parts of the signalling processes. Feedback loops ensure that many of these effects meet and are cancelled out. Completely different concentrations of substances will result in similar symptoms.
Implications? Pharmaceutical research needs to start human trials with far more control over subjects. You cant just try out a drug to see if it helps autistic people. You have to test it for autistic people with very specific sets of symptoms. Otherwise what appears to be an insignificant result could in fact be an incredibly helpful drug that is cancelled out by other effects. Problematic as it might be - the 'fix' for a specific individuals autism is likely a combination of drugs that target a variety of different mechanisms. This might seem obvious to some people but all the research in this area I see seems to focus on trying to find a general 'cure all' which will not exist.
I guess 7 should be - Autistic spectrum disorders occur across a multidimensional spectrum with hundreds/thousands of dimensions, same with motor neurone diseases I guess?
Ok where are we... Below are a few ideas I'm messing around with that I haven't looked at fully but still think they might have merit...
- headaches, particularely cluster headaches are likely glial cells mismanaging the microclimates in the brain
- Hypnosis is possible due to an individuals partial control over their own barrier/channel functions. The person being hypnotised allows their barriers to be lowered while still having their attention being effected by feedback loops. The hypnotist then stimulates certain feedback loops verbally which the subject then reacts to as if the stimulated feedback is the result of the subjects own conscious thought.
- People who can semiconsciously manipulate the barrier/channel mechanism but are unaware of it's action are those most likely to be hypnotised.?
- Some people are harder to hypnotise, these people either make too many connections outside the artificial channels or have less semiconscious control over the barrier/channel mechanism and cannot be inducted to lower it. problem - induction method of overwhelming attention and giving forceful command?
- sleep is the partial or complete lowering of the barrier mechanism(a reduction of definition within the permeability gradients). This allows long term channel formation from greater ranges information and associations while also assimilating and resetting short term channel formation. This allows the mind to learn and let go of unbalancing influences.
- query if MRI scanners track the diffusion of water within the brain is anyone researching what is preventing the passage of water in areas that do not light up.
- social interaction is the association of external signals to internal nodes which are then associated to via the same barrier channel mechanisms - in other words - to an individual, social interactions are an extension of consciousness. the same mechanisms are used. positive/negative feedback aggregation, permeability gradients and channel formulation.
- dominance is the act of impressing upon existing feedback loops to increase positive feedback with less regard for the effects of increasing amounts of negative feedback. Extrapolated examples can be seen socially(outgoing personalities), mentally(calm personalities) and physically(relaxed personalities).
- stroke is a collapse of the physical mechanisms used by glial cells to modulate blood flow within the brain???
- autism is the result of aggregate conditions which cause over-definition of either the permeability gradients or channels.
- Aspergers includes an element of addiction to focusing attention inwardly, when the focus on one idea stops returning enough positive feedback the long term attention shifts to something else which can be used to attain reward.
-If this mechanism is affecting an individual without the requirement of greater and greater reward then the inwards focus will remain - possible autism?
Some ways this stuff can be used in the future (or as a pseudo-scientific basis for science fiction)
regressing chemical conditions of the brain to a point when it begins to repair itself should be possible? although this would likely result in cancers due to degradation of the genetic structure within cells that then begin to multiply. If a way can be found to selectively isolate cancerous growth if it is known that it will occur - neural regeneration may be possible.
Idea: story about astrocyte bridges grown to connect parts of the brain and/or implants and then triggered to become neurons?
Simulation of consciousness for artificial intelligences.
Ok, that's enough. What does this stuff mean if any of it is accurate? It means that even if correct I will have no part in the upcoming research and will be thoroughly disheartened by the extraordinary advances in understanding obtained by others while I continue to wash dishes for a living. Oh well.
- Consciousness is the aggregate conclusion of association formulation that has been defined by a barrier/channel mechanism.
I had an idea a few weeks ago that got me very excited. It was all about way the brain functions, the basic pattern that underlies consciousness. It is in part based on the following:
For a while now I had been thinking I had a previously undocumented sensory ability. Not psychic. ...More like the ability to sense the tension in areas controlling blood flow/nutrient supply in the brain and throughout the body. It started when I was thinking about my ability to 'feel' things with distinct locations within my brain - even though high school science classes left me with the impression that 'there are no nerves in the brain' and that as such we should be unable to feel anything there except for headaches.
Looking this sensation up online I stumbled upon:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postxf94692-0-45.html
The sensations reported varied but seemed to be similar to sensations I had experienced myself.
Then I started thinking about how I could feel similar sensations of tension and relaxation within my body before muscle movement. After looking at research on the subject I came to the conclusion that these are probably just part of my somatosensory system(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatosensory_system) or more likely baroreceptors(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroreceptor) linking up to a kind of sensory homunculus(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_homunculus), allowing me greater ability to sense and to a small degree control over the locality and level of what I believe to be vascular constriction and/or nutrient supply.
This phenomenon is probably what is affected by ADHD medications. Also it makes me think that people have some control over this when they tense or relax and that this is a requirement of most muscle movement when related to sustained effort.
Back to the brain - I can feel sensations within my brain that, when I concentrate, seem to increase in intensity in certain locations. For instance when thinking about this stuff the first time the sensation was an upright slightly bent fan starting from the front right fanning out to the back left in a slight backwards lean. While rewriting this for the blog post there is a fan of sensation that is more upright and that starts from the front left and moves to the back right. As i sit here consciously focusing my attention on my brain the center of the fan started fading and dissipating into a small ball at the front left and a larger at the back right.
From this I theorized that what I am feeling is the physical mechanism the brain uses to focus consciousness and attention.
My understanding of how the brain works:
At its most basic the brain functions by connecting nodes of 'simple ideas'. This occurs simultaneously throughout the brain billions of times per second(or millisecond etc). Connections are made by formulaic associations and will eventually loop back to original ideas. Certain ideas connect more frequently and as such have greater associations with similar ideas. The looping arrangement allows feedback. The aggregate result of these feedback loops is consciousness.
- The CHANNEL idea is that feedback loops between nodes of similar ideas will begin to send signals more often and with greater ease making a kind of channel between them. These channels form over the short and long term.
- The BARRIER idea is that nodes which are not being accessed as frequently or with the 'right amount' of signals will actively reduce the signals they send.
- Consciousness is the buildup of active signals within feedback loops that flow mostly through channels while being constrained partially by barriers.
- The focus of conscious attention increases the signals being sent to corresponding nodes and the buildup of signals in nearby channels dictates the flow of thought.
- If the focus of attention receives insufficient positive feedback the channels will not deepen and the barriers lower causing new short term channels to connect as the person searches for a solution to an idea.
- If the focus receives too much negative feedback the barriers strengthen and channels will form between more relevant areas. This happens regularly when seeking the optimal way to complete a task Ie. the best solution to a maths problem out of several familiar alternatives. A slightly more extreme example happens when the task is unfamiliar and the usual channels don't provide feedback in the form of correct solutions to the mind starts searching nearby ideas for ways to achieve the correct solution
Example 1: a child multiplying 12 x 12 - known/remembered solution from times table is 144
Example 2: a child multiplying 12 x 13 - answer not remembered from times table - child associates a difference of 1 in the second number multiplied by the first number and added to the first remembered solution = 156
Example 3: a child multiplying 8236344 x 84642664 - known solutions are unhelpful so the child associates this with stupidly difficult maths questions - ...and gets out a calculator
Anyway. The BARRIER/CHANNEL mechanism relates to the organization and focus of consciousness but they are not the actual process of signalling.
From here on I start to ramble a bit and occasionally link to relevant online articles, if you see a question mark it means I am probably guessing rather than theorizing.
The latest extrapolation of the original idea: Consciousness is focused by (ion?) channel regulations and permeability gradients moderated by glial cells.
1. The formation of channels is linked to the strength and regularity of signalling ie. if a neuron either doesn't have enough charge to signal or is signalling more regularly than usual then it is likely causing changes in the cell. These changes will be thermal/chemical/mechanical effects which can cause drastic differences in the resultant signals such as by releasing or absorbing neurotransmitters.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_channel) this stuff looks like it could support my idea if ion channels are capable of near(NEAR) immediate response... reading further... crap this stuff gets complicated.
2. The formation of barriers is likely to be based on signalling regulated by glial cells. Barriers include a component that is strongly chemical and mechanical. Regulation of blood flow as well as supply and collection of nutrients and neurotransmitters. Stronger barrier forming creates more focus.
Random wikipedia link - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glia_limitans)
Insects have an open circulatory system, so there are no blood vessels found within their ganglia. However, they do have a sheath of perineurial glial cells that envelops the nervous system and exhibit the same tight occluding junctions that are induced by the glia limitans in humans. These cells act as a barrier and are responsible for establishing permeability gradients.
In certain molluscs, a glial-interstitial fluid barrier is observed without the presence of tight junctions. Cephalopod molluscs, in particular, have cerebral ganglia that have microcirculation, often seen in the composition of higher organisms. Often, the glial cells will form a seamless sheath completely around the blood space. The barrier consists of zonular intercellular junctions, rather than tight junctions, with clefts formed by extracellular fibrils. In addition to protection from the blood, these barriers are thought to exhibit local control of the microenvironment around specific neuron groups, a function required for complex nervous systems.[5]
barrier mechanism can be regarded as a system for regulating permeability gradients in the brain?
3. The components of the various systems of the body work in similar ways but using varying components. Ie. parts of the nervous system which only signal electrically in one direction will still form feedback loops by signalling chemically.
4. Immediate thermal/chemical/mechanical effects are just as important as electrical in determining consciousness(if not more so).
5. Current theory: ADHD meds affect the chemical/mechanical regulation of the barrier mechanism. Tension related effects(throughout the body) of these medications are due to their basic function to be the increase of definition within permeability gradients and it is this effect within the brain which increases focus. I have noticed a kind of tension signal is sent to the area of a muscle when activity is occurring(Different to the nervous system signal used to activate the muscle). I believe this releases or supplies energy for the muscle to use. The effect of dextroamphetamine(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextroamphetamine) increases the effectiveness of this secondary signal and results in reduced feelings of fatigue. When this secondary signal is ineffective or does not get sent at all it results in a feeling of 'arms or legs giving way' even though the muscles are being sent the usual impulses to move through the nervous system.
6. Extended Consciousness - we interact with the world in similar ways as we interact with other portions of our own brains and bodies. = possible implications with regards to social studies and psychology/psychiatry.
7. There are numerous(hundreds? thousands?) of substances/chemicals/biological agents which make direct or indirect changes on the signalling processes. Many(if not all) of these have BOTH inhibition and excitation effects when applied to different parts of the signalling processes. Feedback loops ensure that many of these effects meet and are cancelled out. Completely different concentrations of substances will result in similar symptoms.
Implications? Pharmaceutical research needs to start human trials with far more control over subjects. You cant just try out a drug to see if it helps autistic people. You have to test it for autistic people with very specific sets of symptoms. Otherwise what appears to be an insignificant result could in fact be an incredibly helpful drug that is cancelled out by other effects. Problematic as it might be - the 'fix' for a specific individuals autism is likely a combination of drugs that target a variety of different mechanisms. This might seem obvious to some people but all the research in this area I see seems to focus on trying to find a general 'cure all' which will not exist.
I guess 7 should be - Autistic spectrum disorders occur across a multidimensional spectrum with hundreds/thousands of dimensions, same with motor neurone diseases I guess?
Ok where are we... Below are a few ideas I'm messing around with that I haven't looked at fully but still think they might have merit...
- headaches, particularely cluster headaches are likely glial cells mismanaging the microclimates in the brain
- Hypnosis is possible due to an individuals partial control over their own barrier/channel functions. The person being hypnotised allows their barriers to be lowered while still having their attention being effected by feedback loops. The hypnotist then stimulates certain feedback loops verbally which the subject then reacts to as if the stimulated feedback is the result of the subjects own conscious thought.
- People who can semiconsciously manipulate the barrier/channel mechanism but are unaware of it's action are those most likely to be hypnotised.?
- Some people are harder to hypnotise, these people either make too many connections outside the artificial channels or have less semiconscious control over the barrier/channel mechanism and cannot be inducted to lower it. problem - induction method of overwhelming attention and giving forceful command?
- sleep is the partial or complete lowering of the barrier mechanism(a reduction of definition within the permeability gradients). This allows long term channel formation from greater ranges information and associations while also assimilating and resetting short term channel formation. This allows the mind to learn and let go of unbalancing influences.
- query if MRI scanners track the diffusion of water within the brain is anyone researching what is preventing the passage of water in areas that do not light up.
- social interaction is the association of external signals to internal nodes which are then associated to via the same barrier channel mechanisms - in other words - to an individual, social interactions are an extension of consciousness. the same mechanisms are used. positive/negative feedback aggregation, permeability gradients and channel formulation.
- dominance is the act of impressing upon existing feedback loops to increase positive feedback with less regard for the effects of increasing amounts of negative feedback. Extrapolated examples can be seen socially(outgoing personalities), mentally(calm personalities) and physically(relaxed personalities).
- stroke is a collapse of the physical mechanisms used by glial cells to modulate blood flow within the brain???
- autism is the result of aggregate conditions which cause over-definition of either the permeability gradients or channels.
- Aspergers includes an element of addiction to focusing attention inwardly, when the focus on one idea stops returning enough positive feedback the long term attention shifts to something else which can be used to attain reward.
-If this mechanism is affecting an individual without the requirement of greater and greater reward then the inwards focus will remain - possible autism?
Some ways this stuff can be used in the future (or as a pseudo-scientific basis for science fiction)
regressing chemical conditions of the brain to a point when it begins to repair itself should be possible? although this would likely result in cancers due to degradation of the genetic structure within cells that then begin to multiply. If a way can be found to selectively isolate cancerous growth if it is known that it will occur - neural regeneration may be possible.
Idea: story about astrocyte bridges grown to connect parts of the brain and/or implants and then triggered to become neurons?
Simulation of consciousness for artificial intelligences.
Ok, that's enough. What does this stuff mean if any of it is accurate? It means that even if correct I will have no part in the upcoming research and will be thoroughly disheartened by the extraordinary advances in understanding obtained by others while I continue to wash dishes for a living. Oh well.
Interesting diet and energy drink facts
Interesting stuff. People seem to be a little freaked out about the contents of diet and energy drinks.
PHENYLALANINE
Phenylalanine in diet cola: about 90mg
Phenylalanine in an egg: about 330mg
Phenylalanine in a glass of milk: about 500mg
The warning on diet drinks is there because about 1 in 15000 people have a condition which prevents them from breaking down phenylalanine - resulting in brain damage. If you don't have this condition - it's unlikely to be a problem.
The problem with diet drinks is that because they apparently stimulate your appetite they may have adverse effects on a diet.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/08/05/1167056.htm
TAURINE
Estimated taurine dietary intake: 40 to 400mg per day
Taurine in an energy drink: 500mg - 2000mg
Taurine in you: about 0.1% of your body weight
Taurine is pretty much essential for the body, has a host of beneficial effects and does not appear to have significant negative effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurine
GUARANA
Caffeine in coffee: 1 - 2%
Caffeine in Guarana: 2 - 4.5%
The effect of guarana is basically due to the caffeine and in moderate doses it increases memory, alertness and mood. The most interesting thing about guarana is that when the fruit splits open it looks like eyeballs. Seriously - google image search that. It's kinda freaky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarana
PHENYLALANINE
Phenylalanine in diet cola: about 90mg
Phenylalanine in an egg: about 330mg
Phenylalanine in a glass of milk: about 500mg
The warning on diet drinks is there because about 1 in 15000 people have a condition which prevents them from breaking down phenylalanine - resulting in brain damage. If you don't have this condition - it's unlikely to be a problem.
The problem with diet drinks is that because they apparently stimulate your appetite they may have adverse effects on a diet.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/08/05/1167056.htm
TAURINE
Estimated taurine dietary intake: 40 to 400mg per day
Taurine in an energy drink: 500mg - 2000mg
Taurine in you: about 0.1% of your body weight
Taurine is pretty much essential for the body, has a host of beneficial effects and does not appear to have significant negative effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurine
GUARANA
Caffeine in coffee: 1 - 2%
Caffeine in Guarana: 2 - 4.5%
The effect of guarana is basically due to the caffeine and in moderate doses it increases memory, alertness and mood. The most interesting thing about guarana is that when the fruit splits open it looks like eyeballs. Seriously - google image search that. It's kinda freaky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarana
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Multidimensional Display... and chess!
So multiple dimensions. Thinking in 2 dimensions: easy. 3 Dimensions? Do it all the time, doing it right now just to pick up my coffee. 4 Dimensions? ...suddenly things start to get complicated.
Or at least that's how our brains have been trained to think.
About 10 years or so I had started an Information Processing degree at university... the required subjects included maths at a much more advanced level than that taught in high school. It was a little bit a mental hurdle going from doing calculations in my head and getting in trouble for not writing out the working to quaternion calculations and multidimensional maths where I couldn't even visualise the most basic of calculations. Somewhere in this course I had heard that no one had even figured out how to display multidimensional data.(It's not that they hadn't but just that it never seemed to be easily understood/interpreted... or something... I was never very clear on what the problem was) Move forwards a couple of years and I was once again working as a software tester... well, games tester. I spammed buttons in front of a console game for 7 hours a day, kind of mindless but gave me a lot of time to think. Returning from lunch one day I was struck by an idea.
Concentric spirals. Coils made up of coils.
Imagine a wire coiled around a central axis a thousand times - the result is a spring. 1000 coils is equal to a value of a thousand. Coil that spring about another axis 1000 times. coil the resulting spring around another axis 1000 times. coil the... etc etc. You can keep doing this as much as you want, number of coils results in the number of dimension, number of loops is equal to the value.
Ok, so the example here shows the main problem with this way of displaying information - the more dimensions the more difficult to get an idea of all the information at once. It would need to be a 3D display so that it could be viewed from different angles and zoomed in on.
Ideally the angles and offset between dimensions and values would be set through code or script for accuracy and clarity.
I didn't really have anything I could do with this idea at the time. It was just an interesting idea that killed time while spamming buttons. I told a few people and expanded on the idea a bit. Eventually I thought about patenting this idea but had 3 problems:
1. Patents are expensive and frankly I couldn't afford it.
2. If you think about it for a moment it's not the easiest way to visualise data, I couldn't think of anything to use it for so I didn't really think anyone else would pay to be able to use it either.
3. I had already told people about the idea... which if done before a patent is applied for invalidates the patent. (or at least that's my understanding of the process)
Oh well. Recently I came up with something I could use a multidimensional display for - Chess! (or any strategy game for that matter, anyone up for a game of 12 dimensional rithmomachia?)
At this time I have a slightly more evolved versions of the original idea:
Fixed number of coils OR Relevant number of coils: Fixed number of coils shows a specific range, is a bit easier to understand and is more useful as a way of visualising data storage. Relevant number of coils scales with the value of each dimension and is a better way of displaying a single vector.
Coils per vector OR Coils per dimension: Coils per vector has the coils spread out across the multidimensional vector and is a more accurate way of displaying the information, it is also better for showing a single vector at a time(a 3 dimensional vector with max value of 3 has 3 small, 3 medium and 3 large coils). Coils per dimension has each dimension having a complete set of coils from preceding dimensions, it is easier to zoom in on a section and is better for showing multiple vectors.(a 3 dimensional vector with max value of 3 has 27 small, 9 medium and 3 large coils.)
Plain OR Shaded: Plain display just shows the coils and is easier to visualise smaller and simpler vectors, requires the use of 'relevant number of coils'. Shaded display shows the value by shading or colouring a number of coils out of a 'fixed number of coils'.
Scale become much more relevant when dealing with shading as multiple colours can be used to clarify or change the meaning of the presented information.
Common colour scheme OR Variable colour scheme:
Common colour scheme uses the same 2 or 3 colours for each dimension. This makes it easier to visualise the total vector(ie. orange for values before relevant numbers, black for relevant numbers and then either orange or another colour for values after the relevant numbers. There more black the greater the relevant vector etc) Variable colour scheme uses a different colour for the value of each dimension and another colour like black or white for non relevant values. this is better for showing changes across specific dimensions rather than the overall change.
I'll try and add some images to show what I mean when I have the time but for now I have a quick mock up of a variable colour scheme with fixed number of coils displayed with coils per dimension.
[Image]
Update: this type of display would not be used for a chessboard, bit too confusing. Also this particular example was an attempt to color only the side of the 'coil' nearest the high value end of the dimension.
Anyway, with this it should be possible to make simple multidimensional displays. Enough to... play chess! For a start you could limit the field to 5x5x5x5, player one starts with a king at 1,1,1,1 and player 2 starts with a king at 5,5,5,5 each player has 2 bishops and 2 knights and the goal is to actually take the opponents king. This type of game gives people enough time to get used to multidimensional play, once the basics are understood the field can be expanded and additional rulesets used. By playing games like this people can start to think in multiple dimensions and thus understand them a bit more.
I am currently using stencyl for all my flash games but if I learn a bit of unity it should allow me to make a reasonable game of multidimensional chess with a 3D display for coils. So look out for this sometime in the next year or so... if anyone one wants to have a go on their own let me know. I'd love to see this stuff put to use.
You have defeated a wild post and leveled up!
You have gained the following skills: Blogging.
- Blogging has reached Basic level 1.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Introduction
Starting a blog to record and/or expunge ideas dredged from the depths of my head. I was going to get the site 'mediocre polymath' but a last minute check revealed it has been taken for several years...
Expect nothing from this blog. Updates will likely be sporadic and on widely varying topics.
Current interests include: artificial intelligence, functional usage patterns of consciousness and the implications for understanding mental health and social interaction, animation solutions, currently achievable virtual realities(emotive headsets and ocular rifts etc), multidimensional displays(and multidimensional chess), flash games, user interfaces,culinary abominations recipes, extrapolations of cultural shifting, science fiction novels, audio manipulation to enhance visuals, the animals around the backyard(water dragons, rats, kookaburras, frogs etc), digital economies, fundamental patterns of reality and lifehacks.
Expect this list to vary on a day to day/hour to hour basis. Honestly I have the attention span of a hummingbird...
Expect nothing from this blog. Updates will likely be sporadic and on widely varying topics.
Current interests include: artificial intelligence, functional usage patterns of consciousness and the implications for understanding mental health and social interaction, animation solutions, currently achievable virtual realities(emotive headsets and ocular rifts etc), multidimensional displays(and multidimensional chess), flash games, user interfaces,
Expect this list to vary on a day to day/hour to hour basis. Honestly I have the attention span of a hummingbird...
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