Interests Meme

[avad]

Hmmm...not a bad one. I learned a lot reading the notes to her entry so i'll put it out there as an invite:
taken from boxcarbecca

1. scan my interest list and pick out the one that seems the most odd to you.
2. i'll explain it.
3. then you post this in your journal so other people can ask you about your interests.

Comments

I'm Not weird, I'm Not! ok, maybe a little...

[avad.livejournal.com]

The global brain refers to the concept that with the evolution of the internet....WE are the neurons to a larger brain that is developing.
If one looks at the development of the brain of a fetus....:

"The embryonic human brain passes through two major phases of development. The first is a massive explosion in the number of nerve cells. Starting eight weeks after conception, the number of neurons explodes, increasing by many millions each hour. After five weeks, however, the process slows down, almost as rapidly as it started. The first stage of brain development, the proliferation of cells, is now complete. At this stage the fetus has most of the nerve cells it will have for the rest of its life.

The brain then proceeds to the second phase of its development, as billions of isolated nerve cells begin making connections with each other, sometimes growing out fibers to connect with cells on the other side of the brain. By the time of birth, a typical nerve cell may communicate directly with several thousand other cells. The growth of the brain after birth consists of the further proliferation of connections. By the time of adulthood many nerve cells are making direct connections with as many as a quarter of a million other cells.

Similar trends can be observed in human society. For the last few centuries the number of "cells" in the embryonic global brain has been proliferating. But today population growth is slowing, and at the same time we are moving into the next phase–the linking of the billions of human minds into a single integrated network. The more complex our global telecommunication capabilities become the more human society is beginning to look like a planetary nervous system."
taken from The Global Brain by Peter Russell (http://www.peterussell.com/GB/Chap8.html)
Other authors take a similar yet even more inclusive viewpoint seeing the 'global brain' as the self-maintaining interconnectedness of all planetary life...see Gaia hypothesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis)...of which we are perhaps only a passing experiment....

Hey and if you want, feel free to ask me about any other ones!This is actually good for me I think...to reinforce these things..I might start posting the 'answers' in separate posts so they're readable to all. hmmm

Re: I'm Not weird, I'm Not! ok, maybe a little...

[dankamongmen.livejournal.com]

that was the one I'd planned to ask about, as well; thanks for the great explanation! heh, we were talking about Gaia and Daisyworld (albedo lab from an environmental sciences class far, far away) the other day.

anyway, saw you on lorigami's journal and followed the smell of physics. nice to meet you!

Re: I'm Not weird, I'm Not! ok, maybe a little...

[avad.livejournal.com]

I smell of physics? *checks*
hmmm eep maybe I do.;)
Nice to meet you too. Now praytell what IS going on in that icon of yours??!