From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Mar 01 1999 - 08:55:27 MST
Sorry for the delay, but I have been doing a lot of stuff as
usual. One thing worth mentioning was the Aleph "Power / MindDesign"
weekend where we held seminars and discussed and mental techniques ,
very stimulating and practical transhumanism. The basis for my main
talk was Mind Tools excellent website, I really recommend it for all
transhumanists: www.mindtools.com
This time, there is a bit of nanotech, some hormones, and a big chunk
of the neuropsychological effects of food and drink.
Sign language for wearables
Nanotechnology and the environment
Bucky-shuttle memories
ACTH and beta-endorphin in Transcendental Meditation
Testosterone is affected by winning or losing in sports fans
Mood and vigilance effects of exercise and food composition.
Long-term vitamin supplementation improves mood and cognition - in women
Thiamine supplementation, mood and cognitive functioning
Blood Glucose Influences Memory and Attention in Young Adults
Effects of alcohol on creative scientific thought
Thumbcode: A Device-Independent Digital Sign Language
Vaughan R. Pratt
http://boole.stanford.edu/pub/PS/DVI/
An interesting idea for a wearable typing method. Since the only thing
that is truly device independent in typing is the hand, Pratt suggests
using a code mapped on the hand to enter characters. The thumb is used
to touch the phalanges (12 possibilities), and by shifting by holding
together fingers enough possibilities (96) become possible to use as a
general purpose keyboard. The mapping is somewhat arbitrary, but Pratt
suggests a system partially based on frequency and various mnemonics
to map characters to the hand ('t' would be touching the tip of the
ring finger with the thumb, 'M' toughing the middle section of the
index finger while holding it together with the middle finger, and so
on). Seems quite possible to implement in hardware, whether it is
useful and ergonomic is another question.
Nanotechnology, resources and pollution control
Stephen L. Gillett
Nanotechnology 7 177-182 (1996)
A paper about the implications of nanotechnology on the
environment. Just the thing to put in the hands of the
environmentalists. Gillet points out that the thermal paradigm used
today in element separation is extremely wasteful, expensive and dirty
and that the ’cut-off grade’ of ore where extraction becomes
uneconomical is a technological rather than physical limitation. He
also shows that there are no increasing thermodynamic costs due to low
grades; it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of energy to extract or
recycle something from a very dilute mixture. He then goes on to
discuss pollution control, molecular sieves and solute extraction
(such as desalination) in the perspective of nanotechnology.
"Bucky Shuttle" Memory Device: Synthetic Approach and Molecular
Dynamics Simulations
Young-Kyun Kwon, David Tomanek and Sumio Ijima
Physical Review Letters, 82:7 1470--1473, 15 February 1999
When finely dispersed diamond powder (4-6 nm) is treated with thermal
annealing under certain conditions (heated in graphite crucible in
argon to 1800 degrees C for 1 hour) oblong multiwall carbon structures
appear. In some cases they can move around inside each other, like
having a C60 trapped in a C480. It turns out that there are two
potential energy minima corresponding to lying at the ends, and if the
buckyball would be given a charge (e.g. by trapping an ion in it) then
it can be shuttled by an applied electric field. The article studies
the possibility of using this for memory storage. They simulate what
happens when writing a bit, and it turns out that the buckyball neatly
shuttles to the right end, and gently bounces to rest (the energy is
dissipated as 10 Kelvin thermal vibrations in the C480, far too little
energy to disrupt the molecule); it takes around 10 ps. They suggest a
high density memory board with aligned buckyshuttles in a hexagonal
lattice and addressing wires above and below, not unlike a ferrite
core memory. The memory is likely nonvolatile at room temperature (and
can be made more stable by using La instead of K). Switching and
access can at least be 10 Gbyte/s, and ideally 0.1 THz. Mass
production can be based on self-assembly.
Hormones
ACTH and beta-endorphin in Transcendental Meditation
Jose Rafael Infante, Fernando Peran, Margarita Martinez, Ana Roldan,
Rafael Poyantos, Concha Ruiz, Francisco Samaniego and Federico Garrido
Physiology & Behavior 64:3 311-315 1998
Meditation has physiological effects, there is nothing strange with
that. The question is what effects are there, how large are they and
can they be useful? One of the most obvious and practical application
is stress reduction and relaxation. Earlier studies have shown that TM
has some effects on the levels of various hormones. This study
compared the amount of stress-related hormones during the day among a
group of non-meditators and meditators (who had at least been
meditating twice daily for 12 months, on average they had been doing
it for 7.5 years). It turned out that the normal variation of
endorphin and ACTH during the day is changed in the TM subjects:
instead of showing a higher level in the morning than in the evening,
the meditators had roughly constant levels. The morning levels of
hormones were significantly lower among the meditators. Cortisol,
another stress-related hormone, did not differ between the
groups. Interestingly, both groups had similar anxiety levels; in this
case meditation seems to have changed the body more than the mind. The
authors speculate that the change is due to some modifications of the
hypothalamic regulation of the pituitary hormone system.
Testosterone Changes During Vicarious Experiences of Winning and
Losing Among Fans at Sporting Events
Paul C. Bernhardt, James M. Dabbs Jr., Julie A. Fielden and Candice D. Lutter
Physiology & Behavior 65:1 59—62 1998
Testosterone plays an important role in social status interactions at
least among primate males, especially dominance. It has been shown
that testosterone levels increase in winners and decrease in losers
(both rhesus monkies and humans engaged in competitive activities such
as wrestling, martial arts, tennis, chess and coin flips (!)), and
this might help dominant individuals to keep their dominance since
testosterone levels partially predict the outcome of contests. Since
fans react strongly to the results of their teams and overall behave
almost as if it was *they* who won or lost, it seems likely that they
too change testosterone. This paper has studied the testosterone
levels in saliva from male sports fans before and after a match (the
first, smaller experiment was college basketball, the second the world
cup soccer match). It turned out, as expected, that winning
significantly increased the testosterone levels, while losing
decreased them. There is likely a complex biosocial web here, where
hormone levels interact with self-esteem, mood, dominance and social
hierarchies, fun stuff for psychologists of all kinds and also
suggesting that we really ought to take a look at what effects our sex
hormones have in our behavior, and what stimuli affect them.
Food and Drink
Influence of the Composition of a Meal Taken after Physical Exercise
on Mood, Vigilance, Performance
P. Verger, D. Lagarde, D. Batejat and J. F. Maitre
Physiology & Behavior 64:3 317-322
How does exercise and the composition of food affect our mood? One
obvious effect is that we become tired after exercise, but it is
slightly uncertain what the effects of meals with protein,
carbohydrates and fats have on our mood and thinking; glucose improves
memory, but carbohydrate intake can also produce a release of insulin
making us less vigilant, and proteins can change the amino acid levels
which in turn affect neurotransmittors. Obviously, the interactions
are complex. This experiment consisted of having young men perform two
hours of nonstop athletic activity or not, and afterwards they ate one
of two different kinds of meals, one high in proteins and one low in
proteins (but high in carbohydrates). They were tested for vigilance,
memory and mood before the exercise, after the exercise, directly
after lunch and 2 hours after lunch. There was no significant
difference in how much they ate. Exercise of course made them tired,
and they were drowsy at the beginning and directly after the meal –
the men who ate between 125 and 150 g glucide were less drowsy than
the men who ate more or less. The men who ate the protein meal
reported being happier both immediately after the meal and 2 hour
later. However, the glucose group apparently felt a bit peppier after
exercise and lunch. People in the glucose group felt less depressed
and anxious when they are 125-175 g than when they ate more or
less. There was no difference in memory abilities between the
groups. Vigilance was increased by the exercise (since it is
arousing), but eating less than 100g or more than 150g or
carbohydrates decreases this effect. The conclusion seems to be that
eating the right amount of food is important, neither too much or too
little. Carbohydrates reduces anxiety and depression (possibly by
increasing serotonin release) while protein rich meals increase
happiness.
The impact of long-term vitamin supplementation on cognitive function
David Benton, Joyce Fordy and Jurg Haller
Psychopharmacology 117 298-305 (1995)
Vitamin Supplementation for 1 Year Improves Mood
David Benton, Jürg Haller, Joyce Fordy
Neuropsychobiology 32 98-105 1995
Two papers based on the same study. Benton has earlier argued that
micro-nutrient deficiencies cause sub- clinical psychological symptoms
in the population, so it would be interesting to see what happens if
they are supplemented for a while. There is actually rather little
known about the psychological effects of vitamins, but since at least
some are relevant for brain chemistry it is not far-fetched. They gave
volunteers placebo or vitamin supplements (10 times the US recommended
daily amount, except for vitamin A), and followed them for one
year. Already after 3 months the vitamin levels in the treated
participants were significantly raised. In women, but not in men,
mental health (as measured by a psychological questionaire; asocciated
with B2 and B6), feelings of composure (associated with B2 and
B6). Both men and women who had taken vitamins for 12 months felt more
agreeable (associated with B1, B2 and B6). In women reaction time and
attention improved. It looks like especially B6 (thiamine) improves
mood in women, but not in men. Overall, it seems like supplementation
should be allowed to take its time, the mood and cognitive effects
only appear after around a year despite the fact that the levels of
vitamins stabilize already after three. Some restructuring might be
going on in the brain during this time.
Thiamine supplementation mood and cognitive functioning
D. Benton, R. Griffiths and J. Haller
Psychopharmacology (Berl), 129:1 66--71 Jan 1997
A follow-up inspired by the above study. The authors tested the
effects of 50mg thiamine (B6) or placebo taken daily for two months on
120 females, and studied the effect on mood, memory and reaction
times. They felt significantly more clear-headed (and composed and
elated just missed statistical significance); overall mood seemed to
have improved. There was no effect on memory (recall of famous faces
or word lists). Reaction times became faster for the thiamine group
(statistically significant, but the difference was only 5% faster
really).
Blood Glucose Influences Memory and Attention in Young Adults
David Benton, Deborah S. Owens and Pearl Y. Parker
Neuropsychologia 32:5 595-607 1994
By now most of my readers likely know that glucose can enhance
memory. One reason might be that it increases the production or
release of acetylcholine, ACh. However, since Ach is also involved in
attention it is interesting to see if glucose improves attention
too. The authors tested 70 female undergraduates at a rapid
information processing task (detecting certain number series) and a
memory task, after being given a drink with or without glucose. A high
level of glucose correlated with forgetting less and having faster
reactions. Rising and falling levels of blood glucose influenced the
Stroop attention test, where people with glucose levels rising before
the test scored higher. One interesting thing they discuss is that
the ability to handle glucose load might be an important cognitive
factor; the people who can get more glucose into the brain at the
right time have an advantage. This is why it is not just the baseline
levels of glucose that are interesting, but also how quickly the brain
can suck it from the blood. Lots of potential here for enhancement.
Effects of Alcohol on Scientific Thought During the Incubation Phase
of the Creative Process
Torsten Norlander, Roland Gustafson
The Journal of Creative Behavior
1996, 30:4 231--248
Creativity is a process; Wallas suggested the now familiar four stage
model of preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. How
does alcohol (and other drugs) affect this process? Alcohol at low
doses decreases inhibitions, so it might be expected to influence
creativity. The authors divided 60 students (male and female) into a
control, a placebo and an alcohol group. The control group got two
bottles of tonic water, the placebo group tonic water with vodka
essence and the alcohol group tonic water mixed with vodka (total
alcohol content was 1.0 ml of 100% alcohol per kg body weight). The
participants were given a scientific problem (to design an experiment
to test nature vs. nurture) to discuss, a notebook and one week to
think about it. On wednesday and thrusday night they were to drink
their bottles before going to bed. At the end they wrote a report
about their solution, which was scored by three panels: one to
identify stages of creative thought in the original discussion,
notebook and report, one panel to judge the reports depending on
scientific value and creativity and the third judging reports based on
originality. There was no difference in scientific value or scientific
creativity between the groups, but the alcohol group showed overall
more originality and more incubation of the plan. The paper suggests
that the alcohol might affect creativity using some kind of rebound
effect: the alcohol group had more incubations the mornings after
drinking than the other mornings - it might be the combination alcohol
+ sleep that is the real cause. In earlier studies the authors have
apparently found that alcohol consumption during the illumination
phase reduced the number of creative solutions, as well as decreased
the effort and deductive thinking in the preparation phase. So a
moderate amount of alcohol may help the just the incubation part.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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