ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED Saturday, December 20th, 2014
Here’s a wee list of things I’ve been into lately…
The Human Face of BIG DATA: watched this documentary on a plane recently and was a-buzz with thoughts… human beings are using computers to capture massive amounts of data for almost anything that could possibly be measured. The data is shedding light on formerly dark problems, and at lightning speed. What a future we are hurtling towards… When traffic lights are hooked up to intelligent, responsive grids! When you can wear data collection devices that monitor every aspect of your health! Or if Kurzweil has his way, intelligent nano-bots in your bloodstream…
FLOTATION TANK ANYONE? – A friend of mine was describing on Facebook recently his first flotation experience and I was very intrigued… It’s basically a sensory deprivation chamber that looks like a cross between a pod and a mini-swimming pool wherein you float, in heavily salted water, in total darkness and silence for about an hour.
Always up for an investigation into consciousness, I booked a session that week. Well, when I got in there, it was calming, as you would expect. Your muscles all let go, and the temperature is regulated such that you can’t really sense where the water ends and the air begins. You’re in a cozy, non-frightening version of outer space. After what seemed like 15 minutes, my chattering mind stopped chattering as rapidly… and then it only kicked up a little spastic thought here and there, and then lo… and behold… it went utterly silent. I’m talking flatline. All that was happening was the ebbing and flowing of my breath and the steady beat of my heart. Nothing else chirping in the grey matter. Not even “Hey wow – I’m not thinking anything, anything at all!!” Zip. Zilch. Nada. In short, it was BLISSFUL. The bliss of being – pure being. When my mind faded in again, I noticed that I was smiling.
KURZWIEL – I watched an amazing documentary recently about Kurzweil and was dazzled by his ideas about the future, but also by the tragic, heart-warming drive behind his quest for immortality… He was clearly right about the exponential nature of technological change, but is he right that humans will be able to download their brains onto computers one day and merge with artificial intelligence? Part of me thinks – yes!
Dean Radin books – I’ve been reading his “Entangled Minds” and “The Conscious Universe”. Clearly on some kind of tangent… (see above J )
ZOE KAZAN – “Ruby Sparks” and “In Your Eyes”
This actress continues to blow me away. She is just amazing – arrestingly real, so genuine, so charming and flawed and human I can’t get enough of her. I believe she wrote the screenplay for Ruby Sparks as well, which was touching, smart and remarkably insightful about life and relationships. In Your Eyes is a recent film and though the ending was a bit disappointing I was fascinated with the main premise – which touches on the ideas in Dean Radin’s books; ESP, telepathy, etc.