Expanding Subjective Time

Working from home isn't new to me. I've done it fulltime since 2013 when I left Wizards and joined MCG. But with the additional social restrictions of the pandemic, things have been different. One day just seems to blur into the next, and recalling what I did two days ago let alone two weeks ago is difficult. I'm sure that's true for a lot of us late.

When you’re a kid, three months seems like an eternity, because it’s all new. Almost every experience is novel. But as you get older, time seems to go faster and faster. We wonder where a month has gone, or even a year. You may have even speculated that's because it only seems that way because so many things that happen to us as adults are things that have already happened to us, perhaps many times if we have a regular job and live in the same place.

Recently, I've been on a kick to read outside my regular sci-fi/urban fantasy wheelhouse; I recently read Madelaine Albright’s latest memoir, for instance. After that, I selected Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. I figured maybe I would learn a few methods to improve my memory. 

As it turns out, the Moonwalking with Einstein is actually more that, diving into a high-level overview of how memory works. An objective measure of how much I'm enjoying it is how many times I'll randomly quote a section to Batgirl. (Her enjoyment may differ.)

The book describes author Josh Foer's own journey into learning about memory. During this "odyssey of the mind," he meets and befriends all sorts of super-interesting people. In fact, I'd say the author displays a Hunter S. Thompson-esque talent for making these characters larger than life, which is enjoyable in its own right.

The text describes two types of memory explicit and implicit. Explicit memory is a specific memory of something that happened, like how you might remember that one time you had that bad interaction with your boss. Implicit memory is knowledge, like your knowledge of language, how to divide numbers, or that you like (or dislike) icecream.

Explicit memory is constantly shrinking, thanks to implicit memory. The way implicit memory works is that the more we do a certain activity over and over, the more likely that additional but similar memory gets classified as “more of the same" by your brain. When a new memory gets that tag, the memory is far more likely to be tossed out. It doesn't need to be stored, according to your brain. It's not new; you've already go it covered under implicit memory.

Anyway, in the process of learning how a memory palace actually works, (as opposed to how I incorrectly thought it worked), one of the interviewees (a British memory champion named Ed Cooke) talks about how he hoped to expand subjective time so that it feels like he lives longer. The idea is to avoid that feeling at the end of the year ‘where did all that time go?’

And I'm like 'YES!' This is what I want, too! Lockdown or not, I'm tired of wondering how the previous year could have possibly passed so fast. Even though I'm still not quite finished with the book, I've taken at least one inspiration from it. I'm going to expand my subjective time by seeking chronological landmarks. 

All of which is to say, I'm going to try a little harder to do more new things more often, really. Starting with reading outside my regular wheelhouse... oh. I guess I've already begun.

[This article was cross-posted from my Patreon. If you'd like to support my fiction-writing, please check it out!]

L-Carnitine And Atherosclerosis

l-carnitine

The metabolic pathway for atherosclerosis has been discovered. Sorry, regular meat eaters. (And energy drink guzzlers!) 

The old school thinking of "if a little is good for you, then a lot must be better" has been proved wrong by Stanley Hazen, whose research last year established a link between bacteria in your gut, l-carnitine, and heart risk.

Yes, it's well understood that l-carnitine is crucial. It helps produce all your body's energy by transporting fatty acids to your mitochondria. However, humans produce all the l-carnitine they need. Supplementing with it (and eating a diet rich in red meat) does no good, and in fact, does harm.

Your gut bacteria can be "trained" to digest l-carnitine by eating a lot of it. The more you ingest, the more your gut fauna evolves to digest it. A byproduct of this digestion is a substance that promotes plaque build-up in your veins. 

Instead of accelerated energy, you end up with accelerated Atherosclerosis!

Want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth? Then give this a listen! http://www.sciencefriday.com/guests/stanley-hazen.html#page/full-width-list/1

Portal 2

I just finished playing Portal 2. This is one of the funniest and fun video games I've played in quite a while. If you haven't played the first Portal, get it. Then move on to Portal 2. Five Stars! The video below provides a hint why I enjoyed the game so much.

Fun with Magnifying Glasses

Watching this video reminds me how my Grandma Cordell got my brother, sister, and I out of the house on sunny days--she'd break out her magnifying glasses and send us into the driveway to do . . . science! Or at least play with the power of the gathered, focussed light of the sun itself: Professor Paper, you've finally met your match. Dr Sunbeam is here, mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!



Had you, like me, forogotten the joys of owning a magnifying glass? Well, here you go, have fun. And don't burn any ants!

Large 4" Magnifying Glass 3X Optics

X-Files vs. Fringe

I was a big fan of the X-Files in its day. The Truth Is Out There! The first episode I saw was Squeeze (thanks to my friend Monte telling me there was a show I just had to see).

Many years have passed, and now I've become a big fan of Fringe. I mean, come on; coretexiphan!

Recently I started re-watching the X-Files. Granted, the pacing is slower than modern shows, but it was appropriate to the era. Most of the shows stand up just fine. I'm really enjoying the experience, and it's a good way to pass the time on the elliptical machine.

As I finished the X-files first season and moved onto the second, I was struck by a realization: A philosophical difference exists between the two shows. These differences influence a given plot in a noticeable, characteristic fashion (though of course outliers exist*).

Both shows deal with unexplained, odd, and unlikely phenomena. In fact, I'd say it's obvious that the X-Files was a big influence on Fringe.

In the X-Files, many episodes are devoted the idea that society can't or won't accept the Truth that Is Out There. Villains are many times scientists working in secret labs or in government facilities. Or, if scientists are not outright villains, then they are part of an uncaring establishment, hidebound in its dogmatic acceptance of the world. In fact, at one point the FBI agent Dana Scully goes so far as to tell her partner Mulder that she's always accepted the facts that "science" has taught her, and is unwilling to accept that things might be different (which is an odd way to look at science).

In Fringe, one of the main characters is a scientist. All the crazy phenomena and odd occurrences that threaten the world in Fringe are dealt with and mediated by science and the application of reason. Sure, reason in the form of Walter Bishop, but back off man, he's a scientist.

Thus my comparison: The X-Files was slightly suspicious of the scientific method, while Fringe is more apt to embrace it. The X-files is more likely to reject that science can solve the problems that beset us (problems like killer insects escaped the Pleistocene and aliens who live in black goo, granted), while Fringe usually holds that only science can save us (from parallel-dimension shape shifters and collapsing universes, sure). On the X-Files, scientists are more likely part of a conspiracy, while on Fringe, scientists are more likely to show us how things really are.

I think you can probably guess--though I love both of these shows--which one I prefer.


*Note that I tried to stay away from using absolute language, like 'fundamental difference' and 'always this way.' Mainly, I think I've pegged that both these shows lie on a continuum, and those points are in different locations between 'embrace science' and 'suspect science.'

Red Lines

So, check out the two red lines.

The one at the end of the hall is longer than the one in the foreground, right?

Wrong! Get a ruler and measure each one. On the computer screen, they are exactly the same length.

Yes, your brain is lying to you. Isn't that amazing?

For an explanation, check this out. The explanation by Phil Plait also describes the illusion of why the moon looks so huge on the horizon.

Goodbye Digg

I'm removing Digg from my feed reader; it serves as home to too many climate deniers more concerned about being right than the possibility that overpopulation is gradually pushing our ecosystem to brink (in more ways than warming).

Is it lame to be smart?

Because I like superhero movies, I watched the movie Zoom, which turns out to be for kids a little younger than me. But I liked it... except for a couple strange bits that made me realize how prevalent the message: it's lame to be smart.

"It's lame to be smart," hmm, I think we've gone off the rails somewhere . . .

The worst scene in Zoom along these lines was when the lead Tim Allen walks into a room filled with adults in lab coats sitting at monitors doing, you know, science-y stuff. His first words? "Raise your hand if you do NOT live in your mother's basement." No one raised their hands.

Like it or not, funny or not, shows aimed at children that contain these sorts of tropes reinforce the idea that science, and by extension the scientific method/evidence-based thinking is something to be avoided instead of embraced.

The answer is simply to be on the lookout for these sorts of unintended messages in our media. If you have children, point out when you see these instances. The best remedy is a little inoculation and sunlight.

350

A number worthwhile knowing.

Phoenix has Landed!

Wow, I just watched NASA TV as the Phoenix lander touched down on the northern plains of Mars, while also monitoring a planetary society chat room (elakdawalla's Ustream page) with a bunch of fellow enthusiasts. It was awesome, especially because the spacecraft landed safely!

The last three successful landings used airbags for a bounce landing. This one was like the earlier Viking landings in the 70s, using thrusters for the last hundred or so meters. Very cool stuff.

Looking forward to digging down into the ice and seeing if anything like earth life has ever lived on mars!

Avatars of the Future

What if digital avatars ten years from now where so realistic, your brain was actually tricked into thinking you were one and the same? Science fiction? Nope.

Take a listen to this fascinating discussion that begins with phantom limb pain and induced out of body experiences, then ties in how your brain maps its perceptions to your physical body, and then on to how we might truly be fooled into inhabiting our digital avatars in the future. The fact that people TODAY can be fooled into believing a fake rubber hand is their own feeling limb with just a few simple tricks starts us down this road. Add VR goggles and haptic feedback , and holy cow, you could BE a tyrannosaurus rex in the smash XBOX game of the 2020's! (I'm not entirely sure this is a positive development.)

1/16/2008 -- Sandra Blakeslee from the New York Times discussed
body maps in the brain on the show Berkley Groks Science.

INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION: Sensory events are conveyed to our brains and
interpreted in specialized maps of the outside world. On this program,
Sandra Blakeslee discussed the function of these body maps in the
brain, and how they could be used ultimately for making us believe we
are various digital avatars. Here's the MP3:

http://www.archive.org/download/groks306/groks011608_vbr.mp3

P.S. Go Obama!

Cracking Open Creation

To understand the fabric of reality, puny blobs of protoplasm like us must go to extreme ends. What's amazing to me is that we are willing to try. This embedded video describes our newest, most powerful tool for cracking open creation to see and understand what makes it tick. (hat tip to Bad Astronomy)

Presidential Science Debate

Would you like to see all the presidential candidates in a whole new light? Would you like to see them talk specifically about issues with a little more depth than the various wedge issues that show up in debates year after year? Would you like to see a

[...] debate devoted to policy surrounding what may be the most important social issue of our time: Science and Technology?

Yeah, me too: I'd like to see them debate science and technology. And so would

[...] Nobel laureates and other leading scientists, presidents of universities, congresspersons of both major political parties, business leaders, religious leaders, former presidential science advisors, the editors of America's major science journals, writers, and the current and several past presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among many others.

Yep, there's a group working to make this happen, appropriately titled ScienceDebate 2008. Check them out here and join the cause!

Bussard IEC Fusion Rockets

Bussard IEC Fusion Rockets are the sort of break-through propulsion technology that could actually reasonably/affordably put up a constellation of solar-power satellites that, in turn, could turn the tide on the energy-demand avalanche that is crashing down on our environment in a slow-mo, decades-long disaster.