Freud "Mystic Writing Pad"

The srandard Edition of the Complete psychological Works of Sigmmund Freud
Volume XIX (1923-1925)
The Ego and the Id and Other Works.

Frued looks upon a simple device, pictured below:

The memory is a device that in Freud’s hypothesis is something that can gain new data and store old, he makes comparisons between different methods and how they stack up to our own "Perceptual System" For example, a piece of paper is great, you write on it and the paper stores your memories indefinitely, and unlike out memories they do not get manipulated and changed over time, but as your aware you will run out of space and cannot write any more without a new piece of paper. Slate and chalk are different, we can write all the memories we want and store what we want, and when the space is full we can simply erase the writings that are of little to no interest to us anymore. Only problem is the memories we erase are lost for good, the only thing Freud could relate our brains storage system to is the mystic writing pad shown in the image above. This pad can take notes, when your done with them erase them from your indefinite memory that’s always active, then write another, but unlike the other methods, once you remove the page and look at the wax*(1) layer in which supports the writing, you have indents that when observed in the right light reveal the many messages you have written. And it's this method that Freud believes is the way our "perceptual System" works, by storing masses of data that become part of our framework. His theory falls to this quote, "If we imagine one hand writing upon the surface of the Mystic Writing-Pad while another periodically raises its covering-sheet from the wax slab, we shall have a concrete representation of the way in which I tried to picture the functioning of the perceptual apparatus of our mind."

 *(1) The wax he is referring to is the 3rd layer, first layer is a very thin layer of plastic, then second layer is a cellouse substance to help the sheet keep its shape and not crumple easily, third layer is a wax like substance that presses and creates the dark shades in the indents that represent brush strokes. 

Budda Boy Documentry

A documentary from the discovery channel looks at the astounding feat achieved by a 15 year old Buddhist. He has been meditating for something like 10 months, without eating or drinking, and hardly moving. I personally come from a scientific background, but something I do not doubt is the power of the mind, and its effects on our existence. The cameramen filmed the boy for 60+ consecutive hours to prove that he was not taking in nutrition, and was in fact legitimately performing this act, the boy planned to meditate for six years, just like the original Buddha. This was obviously seen as a second coming by the local practitioners of Nepal, where Buddhism originated form. The documentary also had another, and in my opinion, more fascinating individual. There was this old man, who has claimed to have not eaten or drank since he was twelve, which makes his starvation last over 60 years; he hopes to live for thousands of years this way. The scientists actually applied machines and probes all over his body and monitored him for 10 straight days, and amazingly, there were no changes to the man’s body, and he left fine. The average human will die in 4 days without water; water keeps our brain functional and takes up a staggering 70% of our total body mass. This is proof enough, to me anyway, that the mind's power is much more than we could ever imagine. Some monks have even (and this happened to the 15 year old boy) combusted during meditation. With the power of the mind we see some other aspects of memory seep through. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAH4ZJBiN8&feature=related A video about the power of the short term memory of a monkey, it’s staggeringly fast compared to us humans. The test uses randomly positioned numbers, 1-9 and touch them in order, but to make things interesting, after .4 of a second the numbers turn into blocks and using memory alone you touch the numbers. After watching this it makes you wonder what other mysteries the mind holds.

Ok, first part done.

Managed to get in embedded with some help form a friend, this means I do possess the ability to embed the items into a web page, next thing is covering the actual web shell to host this application in and what it’s going to do, also I need to get reading some more of my books. Still got to work out how to play video, but I'll check the developers forums for that, and of course there is the issue of having the site hosted otherwise I have to work out how to make the sites page call from the C: drive. I'll keep you updated as always.

Cooliris has been unleashed.

As I unleash my secret weapon I first need to fully understand its applications, and what its use will entail. So at a glance, Cooliris looks like a fancy photo album, but Cooliris is much more than that, it can play audio and video, this ability makes this application, straight off the bat, much, much more than a photo album. And a lot like our own minds with this I can now recall video and depth, sound and even atmosphere! 
This is for the current time, the nearest thing I can get to replicating my memory, which for me is very exciting as originally I would have had to manually learn the coding for working audio within the framework I was initially going to use, but now Cooliris takes care of that, all I have to worry about are the important things, like the visual aesthetics of the project and the layout of the interface.



So totday we work on getting this all operational and ready for the data to be loaded into the app, I have set the deadline for this to tomorrow evening, around the 7pm mark.
Well I betetr go I have to get this operational.

Auto-biographical memory

The ability to use the memory is derived from a sense of self. It’s roughly explained in this video.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMxkFd4PdWk

A clever test on some 5 year olds also covers a guy who can’t remember most things, a lot like me.

Part 2 of the documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZhQFaB1YUk&NR=1

Featured around the guy who cannot remember his past or imagine a future, and apparently during tests it was noted that imaging a future and remembering the past are the same thing! The man in question had to write down everything so that when he eventually forgot what he was doing he had a safety rope in the diary, he could recall messages from his past self and become clear just what it is he is doing or has to do. Much like my project about restoring and preserving memory, his diary is a mental body extension of his mind much like the hard drive is for me in my project. Basically, he is following the methodology that I placed myself in this project, use the external body enhancement to help remember the events of the past etc. It was interesting, because apparently you call from past memories and with added judgement we create an image of a possible future, but if like me, you don't have a complete past, are your preconceptions of the future edited or even censored? With bits missing are you really guessing the future or just re-manipulating the past?

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xu2zcc07UQ&NR=1

Part three focuses on a young lady who has suffered severe emotional distress, to the point where she cannot remove the embedded memory of a sexual attack. She is given a drug which will suppress that specific memory by slowing down the production of the proteins that help re-connect the memory. Freud talked about the idea of memory always existing but this is not entirely true, because recently scientists had discovered that the neurological connectors actually de-attach after the initial memory, they are however ply able enough for a reconnection and thus the memory is restored, but if the memory has no trigger it cannot automatically re-connect, and then the memory is lost deep inside the mind. I often wondered if this might be the reason for me never remembering things I deem with little importance, I can drive back from Norwich, many times, and never remember a single thing about the trip. If nothing memorable happens I do not remember it, I can't even prove that I came back the normal route, because I have no re-collection of the event. Is this in essence, again censorship or just the brain editing events?

Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoDDiSYtYYM&feature=related

This section Covers the aging of the brain, and the understanding of why we lose memory capacity and why we slow down. As the brain ages, the quality and frequency of the blood supplied to the brain is reduced causing the white matter brain connectors to become unused and die off, with them the changes of the memory lost ever coming back, at the end of this section it begins to deal with something personal to me, Alzheimer's.

Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUMpVQF0GXw&feature=related

The last part is about the man coping with Alzheimer's, and follows some aspects of his life, with a few opinions thrown in. The very end posed an interesting thought, when you die, your brain collapses and releases every memory, thought and experience all in one, this brief euphoria is probably our parting gift before we cease to exist. Some might have confused such euphoria as a sign of an afterlife, a place where are souls live onwards, I do not share this view, I believe that once you’re dead there is a nothingness for unlimited eons, this time that will pass is not noticed of recorded, as a matter of fact I believe that it is the absolute of nothing, no feeling, depth of time, or understanding, we will just cease to exist. For some, this is a scary prospect, a feeling without belonging. But for me this is the greatest gift, it is the ultimate freedom and release form a world of happiness and pain. A good documentary, I never knew about the aging of the brain, this pushes me to create this piece more so than I originally thought, there is a possibility of me getting Alzheimer's, so it will be worth it in the future.

The Lazarus Project

I was looking for what I remembered to be an old TV program, not sure if it was a film or a short series, but it was about scientists looking into the mind of a human head, if I remember correctly they were stimulating parts of the brain and somehow were able to pull to a screen those images. But I did find this; I’ll keep looking for that series. ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VHkVNk90yg

After much palaviour, its here, the internet!!!

Nothing ever works first time, and in my experience, the more you want something the harder that thing suddenly becomes to acquire. The internet has taken a whopping month and a bit to arrive and get working, but now this means I can start the job of adding all the information I wanted to add to this blog.