Recollection Refreshed: Déjà Vu, False Memories, Witness Testimony

"The term "déjà vu" describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of “eeriness,” “strangeness,” or “weirdness.” The “previous” experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience “genuinely happened” in the past."
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". . . U.S. researchers have identified the part of the brain responsible for this [déjà vu], and they think it may lead to new treatments for memory-related problems. They said neurons in a memory center of the brain called the hippocampus make a mental map of new places and experiences, then store them away for future use. But when two experiences begin to seem very much alike, these mental maps overlap and start to blur. “Deja vu occurs when this ability is challenged,” said Susumu Tonegawa, a professor of biology and neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. It is really just a malfunction in the brain’s ability to sort through new information, something called episodic memory. . . ." From Brain mechanism explains sense of déjà vu.
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"Episodic memory refers to the memory of events, times, places, associated emotions, and other conception-based knowledge in relation to an experience. Semantic and episodic memory together make up the category of declarative memory, which is one of the two major divisions in memory."
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". . . For many years researchers in cognitive neurscience have known that episodic memory does not work like a tape recorder or a computer hard drive. Recollection of events is not a simple replay from a fixed store. Rather, episodic memory (and memory in general) is today seen as a dynamic - even fragile - reconstruction process. As a consequence, errors can happen, and they do. One of these kinds of recall errors are false memories. The mere existence of false memories are serious news for the use of eye witness testimonies, even for victims of violent acts such. If memories cannot be treated as true, but are unstable, influenced by the context in which it is recalled, how can we make use of it at all. . . . "From The making of false memories.
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". . . University of Portsmouth scientists in the UK have developed a powerful new tool that ‘freezes’ the memory of crime scenes in the minds of witnesses. The tool—a self-administered interview applied by witnesses at crime scenes—combats natural memory decay by using the latest research in cognitive psychology techniques. It ‘freezes’ images and details of crime scenes and perpetrators in the minds of witnesses, particularly small and seemingly insignificant details that provide major leads for detectives that turn out to be crucial in solving cases.

Tests at simulated crimes scenes were remarkable with witnesses using the tool recalling forensically relevant information 42 percent more accurate than other witnesses who were simply asked to ‘report as much as you can remember.’ The tests also revealed the witnesses using the self-administered interview (SAI) were 44 percent more correct with details about people - therefore, possible suspects - who had been involved in the event. . . ." From Scientists Develop New Tool To 'Freeze' Crime Scene Memories.

The Spin Zone: Possible Applications of Quantum Entanglement

". . . A team of physicists has teleported data over a distance of 89 miles from the Canary Island of La Palma to the neighbouring island of Tenerife, which is 10 times further than the previous attempt at teleportation through free space. The scientists did it by exploiting the "spooky" and virtually unfathomable field of quantum entanglement - when the state of matter rather than matter itself is sent from one place to another. Tiny packets or particles of light, photons, were used to teleport information between telescopes on the two islands. The photons did it by quantum entanglement and scientists hope it will form the basis of a way of sending encrypted data.

Robert Ursin of the University of Vienna said the latest experiment in quantum entanglement shows its potential as a means of communicating sensitive information via satellites using quantum cryptography, that could effectively deploy an uncrackable security code. "We really wanted to show that this can be done in the real world and our dream is to go into space and try it there. This was a feasibility study funded by the European Space Agency," Dr Ursin said yesterday. "In principle, such experiments may in future be used for teleporting information between places, but our system is not capable of transporting matter," he said. . . ." From Breakthrough brings 'Star Trek' teleport a step closer.
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". . . Quantum entanglement is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more objects have to be described with reference to each other, even though the individual objects may be spatially separated. This leads to correlations between observable physical properties of the systems. For example, it is possible to prepare two particles in a single quantum state such that when one is observed to be spin-up, the other one will always be observed to be spin-down and vice versa, this despite the fact that it is impossible to predict, according to quantum mechanics, which set of measurements will be observed. As a result, measurements performed on one system seem to be instantaneously influencing other systems entangled with it. . . ."
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". . . In a proposed effort to concoct the ultimate omniscient radar, Lockheed Martin is suggesting that it can break the boundaries of theoretical physics and create a "quantum entanglement" scanner that can "penetrate any type of defense to identify hidden weapons and roadside bombs from hundreds of miles away." The theory -- which hasn't been realized in a product just yet -- suggests that two particles can be joined so that whatever happens to one must also happen to its partner, however far apart they are, which could be used to detect contraband from faraway locales (or peek through suspicious garb). . . ." From Lockheed Martin eyes quantum entanglement radar.

Jeff Hawkings on Theories of Neuroscience

". . . In 2004, Jeff Hawkins published On Intelligence, laying out his "memory-prediction framework" of how the brain works. His unified theory of the brain argues that the key to the brain and intelligence is the ability to make predictions about the world by seeing patterns. He argues that attempts to create an artificial intelligence by simply programming a computer to do what a brain does are flawed and that to actually make an intelligent computer, we simply need to teach it to find and use patterns, not to attempt any specific tasks. Through this method, he thinks we can build intelligent machines, helping us do all sorts of useful tasks that current computers can't achieve. He further argues that this memory-prediction system as implemented by the brain's cortex is the basis of human intelligence. . . ."
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". . . In his book, Hawkins explains that his theory proposes that the human brain is a pattern recognition machine that breaks complicated topics into smaller chunks of time related events and then compares it to known experiences. He portrays the brain as a series of stored patterns all existing in the neo cortex, a neuron packed organ about the size of a dinner napkin, all crumpled up inside our skulls. His simple analogies to dinner napkins, playing cards, hierarchies and feedback loops explain how we can recognize a song even though we are hearing it in a different key than the first time we heard it, and that we can recognize a friend’s face in a crowd despite changing angles, lighting conditions, apparent size, and distance. Hawkins explains that the human computer instantly recognizes the significant difference between a person standing at the front door with a wrapped birthday gift and another with a crowbar, and that no computer built would even have much of a chance of figuring out that the crowbar was not part of the person. The Real Intelligence that Hawkins seeks is not to be found be amplifying artificial intelligence. They are different approaches entirely.

Hawkins then concludes the book with brilliant chapters on consciousness, creativity, and the future of intelligence. Without becoming deeply philosophical, he discusses the intelligence of animals, the significant shifts of biological memory systems over millions of years and how design professionals can develop systems that integrate more smoothly with the way our brains work. He finishes with speculation on the future of real intelligence and how it might improve automotive safety, weather prediction, and medical research. . . ." From Thinking Ahead – Jeff Hawkins’ “On Intelligence”

Incompletely Understanding the Unknowable

". . . According to Gödel's first incompleteness theorem any effectively generated theory capable of expressing elementary arithmetic cannot be both consistent and complete. Gödel's second incompleteness theorem implies that a theory T1 can't prove the consistency of any theory T2 which proves the consistency of T1. This is because if T1 can prove that if T2 proves the consistency of T1, then T1 is in fact consistent.

In formal logic, one can mechanically check the validity of proofs so that there can be no doubt that a theorem follows from a starting list of axioms. In theory, such a proof can be checked by a computer. To be able to perform this process, we need to know what our axioms are. We could start with a finite set of axioms, or more generally we could allow an infinite list of axioms, with the requirement that we can mechanically check for any given statement if it is an axiom from that set or not (an axiom schema). While an infinite list of axioms may sound strange, this is exactly what's used in the usual axioms for the natural numbers.

Gödel's first incompleteness theorem shows that any such system that allows you to define the natural numbers is necessarily incomplete: it contains statements that are neither provably true nor provably false. That is, no formal system which aims to define the natural numbers can actually do so, as there will be true number-theoretical statements which that system cannot prove. . . ."
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". . . What is the relation between Gödel's theorem, and whether we can formulate the theory of the universe, in terms of a finite number of principles? One connection is obvious. According to the positivist philosophy of science, a physical theory is a mathematical model. So if there are mathematical results that can not be proved, there are physical problems that can not be predicted. One example might be the Goldbach conjecture. Given an even number of wood blocks, can you always divide them into two piles, each of which can not be arranged in a rectangle. That is, it contains a prime number of blocks.

Although this is incompleteness of sort, it is not the kind of unpredictability I mean. Given a specific number of blocks, one can determine with a finite number of trials, whether they can be divided into two primes. But I think that quantum theory and gravity together, introduces a new element into the discussion, that wasn't present with classical Newtonian theory. In the standard positivist approach to the philosophy of science, physical theories live rent free in a Platonic heaven of ideal mathematical models. That is, a model can be arbitrarily detailed, and can contain an arbitrary amount of information, without affecting the universes they describe. But we are not angels, who view the universe from the outside. Instead, we and our models, are both part of the universe we are describing. Thus a physical theory, is self referencing, like in Gödel's theorem. One might therefore expect it to be either inconsistent, or incomplete. The theories we have so far, are both inconsistent, and incomplete.

Quantum gravity is essential to the argument. The information in the model, can be represented by an arrangement of particles. According to quantum theory, a particle in a region of a given size, has a certain minimum amount of energy. Thus, as I said earlier, models don't live rent free. They cost energy. By Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc squared, energy is equivalent to mass and mass causes systems to collapse under gravity. It is like getting too many books together in a library. The floor would give way, and create a black hole that would swallow the information.

Some people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory, that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp, but I have changed my mind. I'm now glad that our search for understanding will never come to an end, and that we will always have the challenge of new discovery. Without it, we would stagnate. Gödel's theorem ensured there would always be a job for mathematicians. I think M theory will do the same for physicists. . . ." From Gödel and the End of Physics, a lecture by Stephen Hawking.

Multitasking Turing Test Technology

". . . CAPTCHAs—short for "completely automated public Turing tests to tell computers and humans apart"—are the simple distorted word puzzles commonly used to register at Web sites or buy things online. Computers can't decipher the twisted letters and numbers, ensuring that real people and not automated programs are using the Web sites. Researchers estimate that about 60 million of those nonsensical jumbles are solved everyday around the world, taking an average of about 10 seconds each to decipher and type in.

Instead of wasting time typing in random letters and numbers, Carnegie Mellon researchers have come up with a way for people to type in snippets of books to put their time to good use, confirm they're not machines and help speed up the process of getting searchable texts online. Many large projects are under way now to digitize books and put them online, and that's mostly being done by scanning pages of books so that people can "page through" the books online. In some cases, optical character recognition, or OCR, is being used to digitize books to make the texts.

Internet Archive scans 12,000 books a month but has hundreds of thousands of files that are images that the computer doesn't recognize. Those files are downloaded and split up into single words that can be used as CAPTCHAs at sites all over the Internet. If enough users decipher the CAPTCHAs in the same way, the computer will recognize that as the correct answer. . . ." From Researchers Turn Web Blather to Books.

Tracking Objects and Cognitive Ability

". . . How many moving objects can you keep track of at once? Clicking on the image to the left will take you to Lana M. Trick's web site, where she has a nifty demo of a multi-object tracking task. You're asked to keep track one to four of the smiley-faces as they move randomly around the screen. Then when the faces stop moving, you click on the ones you were supposed to follow. Go ahead, give it a try!

You'll notice there are four levels of difficulty. Most adults can, with a little practice, track four out of ten randomly moving objects for ten seconds -- they fall apart when there are more than four objects to track or more than ten total objects (the "most difficult" trial features four objects to track and twelve total). But when do kids develop the ability to track multiple objects? Very young infants can track a single object moving by itself quite easily, but what about several objects moving among others?

Trick's research team developed a task that could be followed by kids as young as five. Previous studies of multiple-object tracking used colored shapes, which were uninteresting to young kids, who became distracted during the task. Trick's team told kids they'd be looking for sinister "spies" among normal, happy people (just like the demo you just tried). They found that five-year-olds understood the task, and reliably completed it when the faces weren't moving. . . ." More at Keeping track of multiple objects: How and when is it learned?

Real World Outsourcing of Virtual Work: Gold Farming, Free Trade, and the Growing Pains of Capitalism in China

". . . A new documentary, Chinese Gold Farmer, travels into several different Chinese gold farms. Several gold farmers tell their own stories and see their everyday struggles to live at the border of the virtual and the real.

Multiplayer online games have given rise to a virtual economy, in which all kinds of virtual assets---from in-game currency to magic shields & whole characters---are traded against real world currency. In China, there are tens of thousands of gaming workshops that hire people to play games like World of Warcraft and Lineage. The gaming workers kill monsters and loot treasures for 10-12 hours a day to produce virtual assets that are exported all over the world. They are called Chinese gold farmers by western gamers and many myths about them are circulated in the game universe.

According to estimates, around 100,000 people in China are employed as gold farmers, as of December 2005. This represents about 0.4% of all online gamers in China. Chinese gold farmers typically work twelve hour shifts, and sometimes up to eighteen hour shifts. Wages depend heavily on location and the size of the gold farming company. One gold farming operation in Chongqing in central China with 23 gold farmers was reported to pay its employees the equivalent of about 120 U.S. dollars per month, while workers at a larger gold farm in Fuzhou earn the equivalent of about 250 U.S. dollars per month. The rising prevalence of gold farming has led to the creation of gold farm brokerages.

China is in fact dominant in this industry and Jin Ge—a 30-year-old Shanghai native—has done a documentary on "gold farms" in China as part of his doctoral research at the University of California, San Diego. You can read an interview with him here. He is one of the many researchers who has invested his time in investigating how farm owners manage their production and distribution of virtual commodities across the border between the virtual and the real as well as the border between nations. “I tried to find out what this job, combining work and play, means to Chinese gold farmers and how it feels like to live at this peculiar intersection of the virtual and the real.” . . ."

(Hat Tip Freakonomics)

Swimming in Genetics (A Shark and Human Production)

". . . A hammerhead shark that gave birth in a Nebraska aquarium reproduced without mating, a genetic analysis shows. This shark’s mother is said to have had no contact with male sharks. This form of asexual reproduction, called parthenogenesis, has been found in other vertebrate species, including some snakes and lizards. But this is the first time it has been documented in a shark.

The offspring of parthenogenesis will be all female if two like chromosomes determine the female sex, but male if the female sex is determined by unlike chromosomes because the process involves the inheritance and subsequent duplication of only a single sex chromosome. The offspring may be capable of sexual reproduction, if this mode exists in the species.

At the time of the birth, many scientists thought that the female had mated with another species, or that it had used sperm obtained years before. Female sharks are capable of storing sperm, although none have been known to store it as long as these sharks had been isolated. Instead, the female shark’s own genetic material combined during the process of cell division that produces an egg. A cell called the secondary oocyte, which contains half the female chromosomes and normally becomes the egg, fused with another cell called the secondary polar body, which contains the identical genetic material.

Previously, Dr. Schuett said, zookeepers and others tended to discount evidence of virgin births precisely because they were so out of the ordinary. But in recent years it has been found in Komodo dragons, other lizards and snake species. Still, parthenogenesis among vertebrates tends to be rare, and, while it may occur in the wild, has been documented only in captivity. “It’s a last-resort tactic that animals use when they absolutely can’t find another mate,” Dr. Hueter said.

While it has the advantage of ensuring the survival of a species in the absence of males, it also comes at a cost: a loss of genetic diversity. And that, Dr. Shivji said, may spell conservation problems for some shark species whose populations are declining. If it becomes more difficult for female sharks in the wild to find a mate and instead they reproduce through parthenogenesis, then the offspring will be less genetically diverse, making the species more susceptible to diseases and other problems. . . ." From Female Shark Reproduced Without Male DNA, Scientists Say.
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". . . Lesbian couples may be able to have a baby that shares both their genes following a new technique pioneered in the US. Scientists at the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago have devised a way to create “artificial sperm” from any cell in a woman's body which can be used to fertilise another woman's egg.

It was initially developed to allow men with no sperm—those who have received radiotherapy or chemotherapy for cancer, for example—to father children. But it is being seen as a way of enabling lesbian couples to have a baby with genes from both partners. US scientists are now trying to produce viable human embryos after the process, known as haploidisation, proved successful in experiments on mice. It involves taking half the genetic material from one cell and injecting it into another woman's egg, resulting in an embryo which contains half of the mother's genes and half of the cell donor's genes. . . ." From Lesbian couples ‘could have own baby.’

Engineering a Paradise with Featured Thought Merchant David Pearce

". . . David Pearce promotes the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. He argues that the abolition of suffering can be accomplished through paradise engineering. In The Hedonistic Imperative, Pearce outlines how technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, pharmacology, and neurosurgery could potentially converge to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience in human life and produce a post-human civilization. . . ."
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". . . The term “abolitioinism,” used to describe the use of biotechnology to eliminate suffering, was first proposed by Lews Mancini in 1986. Abolitionism is the use of science to maximize happiness and minimize suffering—not just in humans but in all sentient life. It is a philosophy inspired by utilitarian ethics: if happiness equals value, then the elimination of suffering or 'maximization of value' should be the prime objective of the human race. . . ."
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". . . It is hard for me [i.e., Barry Schwartz] to see much reason for concern over a society that dedicates itself to promoting happiness by cultivating virtuous character and human excellence. It strikes me that this is a vast improvement on the pursuit of increased per capita GDP. Making this point, I think, is Richard Layard’s main objective in his book, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, which is cited by McMahon as a prime example of the current interest in identifying happiness-promoting policies. Layard’s argument, in essence, is that one of the things nations do is pursue policies. Given that nations pursue policies, they ought to be pursuing policies that promote the welfare of their citizens. All nations have pretty much taken it for granted that the way to promote the welfare of citizens is by increasing national wealth. It has seemed reasonable to take wealth as a proxy for welfare, because the more wealth citizens have, the better each citizen will be able to pursue welfare as he or she sees it. If wealth is not an end in itself, but rather a means of promoting welfare, then it would certainly be good to know whether it is achieving this end. . . ." From Why Societies Should Pursue Happiness.
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". . . Four of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies are proposing to launch a television station to tell the public about their drugs, amid strenuous lobbying across Europe by the industry for an end to restrictions aimed at protecting patients. Pharma TV would be a dedicated interactive digital channel funded by the industry with health news and features but, at its heart, would be detailed information from drug companies about their medicines. . . ." From Coming soon: the shopping channel run by drug firms.

Three Sectors of Geospatial Technology

A. The Scientific Development of Geospatial Technology

The term “geospatial technology” refers generally to global satellite surveillance systems or similar technology. The term “land remote sensing” generally means the collection of data which can be processed into surface feature imagery of the Earth—such as those one Google Earth. Google Earth makes accessible to users remotely sensed data that has been processed into picture form. Through this compilation of images, users can examine an aerial view of most parts of the world—many with greater than 1-meter per pixel resolution.An easily recognizable example of this is the set of images posted on Mahmood’s Den showing palaces and islands owned by the Bahrain Monarchy.

Bahrain’s November, 2006 elections saw a novel form political speech. Mahmood al-Yousif writes Mahmood’s Den, one of Bahrain’s most popular blogs. In the run up to the elections, Mr. al-Yousif posted photos retrieved from Google Earth of the land (palaces, parks, yachts, and water-front property) owned or controlled by the Monarchy and their supporters—totaling 80% to 90% of the entire country. A vocal critic of the ruling class, Mr. al-Yousif commented that the appropriation of the land by the government left “nothing for development projects and low income housing.” On August 7, 2006, Mahmood’s Den reported that “the Ministry of DISinformation has instructed the Bahrain Internet Exchange to block Google Earth.” Mr. al-Yousif promptly posted a link for circumventing the block, and within three days government officials lifted the ban acknowledging the futility of their efforts.

On a more technical leveling “remote sensing” means “the sensing of the Earth’s surface from space by making use of the properties of electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected or diffracted by the sensed objects.” This is important to note because it means that the private companies and governments collecting this data have much more than what most people think of as aerial photographs of buildings, cars, and people. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey (“USGS”) uses satellite images to monitor environmental changes by processing data differently than the companies like DigitalGlobe and GeoEye that supply the images for Google Earth and similar engines. USGS applies distinct algorithms to the remote sensing data such that the near infrared (“NIR”) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum can be seen in the visible portion of the spectrum. Because vegetation almost completely reflects NIR light, but the surrounding terrain absorbs it, these researchers can produce images that clearly demarcate where vegetation growth begins and ends, tracking environmental changes over time.

More narrowly, there are actually three classes of data in remote sensing: primary data, processed data, and analyzed data. Primary data is the “raw data . . . acquired by remote sensors borne by a space object.” Using electromagnetic signals, primary data is “transmitted or delivered to the ground from space.” Processed data is the product of “processing of the primary data.” It is necessary “in order to make such data usable.” Finally, analyzed data is “the information resulting from the interpretation of processed data, inputs of data and knowledge from other sources.” The value of the analyzed data is largely dependant on the resolution of the images. “Ten-meter resolution is sufficient for detecting bridges, buildings, and even concentrations of tanks,” whereas “two-meter resolution is sufficient to generally identify aircraft, vehicles, roads and bridges.” However, a large portion of all remote sensing data today is well under one-meter resolution. “One-meter resolution is sufficient to precisely identify types of aircraft, tanks, airport and harbor facilities, cars in railroad yards, vehicles on roads and bridges, and troop units. It is also precise enough to distinguish fighters from bombers or missile launchers from trucks.”

Within this system there are also three sectors that conduct remote sensing: the governmental civil sector, the U.S. governmental military sectors, and the non-governmental commercial sector. The governmental civil sector is operated by the Earth Observation Satellite Company (“EOSAT”), which is a joint venture between RCA Corporation and Hughes Aircraft Company under the supervision of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”). They provide “low and moderate resolution imagery for different purposes” such as weather patterns and agriculture supplies. The governmental military sector, which “provides highly classified imagery for military and intelligence purposes,” is operated by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. Today, “U.S. military satellites are believed to provide real-time or near real-time streams of images.” By 1996, these agencies were already operating systems with 0.1-meter resolution capability.

The non-governmental commercial sector is owned and operated by private companies such as Space Imaging Inc., GeoEye, DigitalGlobe, OrbView, and EarthWatch. These groups have been granted licenses by the Department of Commerce to operate remote sensing systems which “are highly advanced and technologically sophisticated, with resolutions varying between 8 and [less than] 1-meter.” DigitalGlobe, the company that supplies the images used by Google Earth, “snaps photos with a resolution of 0.6 meter per pixel” and “photos from other satellite-imagery companies, such as GeoEye or ImageSat International, range from 0.7 meters to 1 meter per pixel.” Moreover, “a next-generation satellite from GeoEye, due to be launched in February 2007, will have a resolution of .41 meters per pixel.” From The Rise of Little Brother: A Survey of the Legal Constraints on Geospatial Technology by Tim Miano

50-light-year-wide Photo

". . . In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth — and death — is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission. . . ."

The Rise of Little Brother: A Survey of the Legal Constraints on Geospatial Technology (Introduction)

The Rise of Little Brother: A Survey of the Legal Constraints on Geospatial Technology by Tim Miano

Introduction:

Since George Orwell first published his now infamous dystopia novel 1984, “Big Brother” has become the paradigm of government feared by the public. Every day a poster of an enormous face with the slogan “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” greets the story’s protagonist. He trudges to his apartment where an obligatory “telescreen” continuously spouts propaganda, and through which the Thought Police monitor the actions of the citizenry. Although the technology has changed, the model of an all-knowing all-watching government has not. From chasing Will Smith to assisting James Bond, today’s Big Brother employs real-time satellite feeds that remotely read body temperature and triangulate on which floor of a building the hero is hiding. Interestingly, this accurately portrays some of the technological capabilities that a government could employ to monitor certain individuals. However, affirming the pop culture vision of Big Brother is not the goal of this article. In fact, the opposite is true.

At least in the United States, Orwell’s vision of a monolithic state has always been constrained by Articles I – III segregating power between the branches of government and the Fifth Amendment placing procedural safeguards between the state and the citizenry. Conceptually though, it is not clear that even without these legal protections, any state could achieve the opaque, paternalistic monitoring this vision fears. The technology that provides the state with the power to watch—computer networking, satellite imaging, and mass communication—is the same technology that allows governments to be watched by its own citizens (or at minimum the citizens of other nations). The Big Brother paradigm is fundamentally flawed because it assumes the state can eliminate transparency, or at least keep all of its secrets. The purpose of this article is to examine the rise of Little Brother—or to be precise, Little Brothers—and the implications therein.

This discussion will be limited to remote sensing technology (i.e. satellite imaging). The author hopes to use this technology as a vehicle to draw out some of the more interesting flaws in the Big Brother paradigm, and show how the information free market—rightly or wrongly—allows each the citizen to keep a watchful eye on government activity. Because this article is meant to be academic—analyzing the legal framework and implications of geospatial technology—and not an attempt at dystopian fiction, the analysis will refrain from wildly creative ‘what ifs.’ Instead, the article will examine the rights, duties, and limitations between the U.S. government, its commercial sector, and its citizenry to record, access, and distribute this type of data using real examples. Given the historical roots and current ties of the applicable U.S. legal structure to international laws of space and the laws of war, this discussion will take into account certain global rights and duties as well.

Part I will provide background for the state of geospatial technology and will provide some of the high profile examples of its use by the public. Part II will examine the international and domestic legal framework through which the nations and the private sector operate satellites used in remote sensing. Parts III and IV will examine the policing powers the United States can exercise to prevent or limit the dissemination of sensitive information. Part III will discuss the First Amendment rights individuals have to broadcast potentially compromising data and the limitations the U.S. government can place on those individuals. Part IV will apply the laws of treason and espionage to public use of this technology and examine whether under the same or similar facts to some of the high profile examples, how and whether the U.S. government could hinder or criminally prosecute the actions of Little Brother. Each Part will consider some subset of the rights and duties of three groups: the U.S. government, the private companies who gather and supply the data, and the individuals or groups that use or publish this data.

Light Reflections on Perception Bias

Cognitive Load refers to the load on working memory during problem solving, thinking and reasoning (including perception, memory, language, etc.). Most would agree that people learn better when they can build on what they already understand. But the more things a person has to learn in a short amount of time, the more difficult it is to process information in working memory.

Consider the difference between having to study a subject in one's native language versus trying to study a subject in a foreign language. The cognitive load is much higher in the second instance because the brain must work to translate the language while simultaneously trying to understand the new information.

Inattentional blindness, closely related to the subject of change blindness, is an observed phenomenon of the inability to perceive features in a visual scene when the observer is not attending to them. That is to say that humans have a limited capacity for attention which thus limits the amount of information processed at any particular time. Any otherwise salient feature within the visual field will not be observed if not processed by attention.

(Hat Tip Wired Science)

The Spacing Gestation of Wired Technologies

" . . . Chris Anderson, the editor of WIRED, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous. To demonstrate this trajectory, Anderson explores the evolution of the DVD player as it passes through each of these four tipping points, then offers specific examples of current trends in technology -- ranging from DNA sequencing to the hybrid -- to illustrate each stage of the game. . . ."

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". . . Wired Magazine debuted with a new logo that it “obeys the Law of Optical Volumes.” The Law of Optical Volumes states that the area between any two letters in a word must be of equal measure throughout the word, and remain consistent throughout the body of text, and is Wired creative director Scott Dadich’s term for a typography rule that governs the spacing of characters within a font.

The Law boils down to the science of kerning. In typography jargon, kerning is the act of adjusting the space between two letters to make words and sentences lay out more evenly. For example in the word “VAST,” there is usually reduced space between the V and A, and maybe extra space between the S and T. Otherwise the “VA” would seem too far apart and the “ST” would seem cramped.

The formal definition for a font includes not only the shape of each letter, but also a series of kerning pairs that specify a customized distance between certain pairs of letters, such as the “Yo” in “You.” Without the adjusted spacing, these pairs appear too far apart or too close together.

Typographers strive to balance letters so that the area of space between each pair of letters is identical. The premise is that human eyes unwittingly measure that area to decide how far apart each pair is. If Scott were more of a geometry wonk, he’d have dubbed it the Law of Optical Areas rather than volumes, but that doesn’t sound as imposing.

The same goes for Wired’s new logo. It alternates between letters without and with serifs, yet the area between each pair of letters is about the same, thanks to the serifs on the I and E and lack thereof on the W, R and D. This equivalence makes the logo easier to see and read across a crowded supermarket aisle. The alternating fonts also make the letters seem to blink on and off as you read them from left to right, in emulation of digital ones and zeroes. . . ." From Law of Optical Volumes: The Math Behind Wired's New Logo.

Conservation of Law and Science

" . . . As advanced science plays a larger role in courtrooms across the country, judges who earned degrees in English or the humanities face the daunting task of making informed decisions about some very technical disputes. That's why judges from across the Southeast gathered Friday for a crash course with medical and genetics experts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About 60 judges are attending the conference, which is exploring emerging and often contested areas of science. Unlike other judicial seminars, this three-day intensive training session - dubbed The Southeast Regional Science and Technology Boot Camp - aims to prepare judges for some of the most politically charged issues of the day: gene therapy, genetic discrimination, genetically modified foods, human cloning and stem cell research.

"We aren't here to weigh in on one side or another of these controversies," Dr. James Evans, a professor of genetics and medicine at UNC's School of Medicine. "But these are really the kinds of things that judges will face in the courtroom as contentious issues percolate into the courts."

And as science becomes a focal point in the courtroom, state and federal courts could hear cases involving questions at the forefront of scientific debate. Judges increasingly play the role of a courtroom gatekeeper, determining which expert witnesses are qualified to testify and explaining to juries which bits of forensic evidence have more value.

Allen Couch, Jr., a county judge from Hernando, Miss., said some attorneys likely take advantage of the courtroom by pushing complex issues past judges who don't fully grasp the science. "By coming to this (conference), we get an understanding - a working knowledge - so we may be able to understand the issues ourselves and not have to rely on others," said Couch, a former felony prosecutor who studied English at the University of Mississippi before going to law school.

The UNC Chapel Hill conference is focusing on emerging sciences, taking a different approach than other conferences for judges that focused on past issues, such as the 2006 Judges' Medical School that explored the biology of cancer related litigation. The North Carolina conference, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, also looks ahead to medical disputes - such as stem cell research - that are expected to be fought over soon in the courtroom.

George Annas, a bioethics and legal expert who was not involved in the conference, praised judges for seeking out a deeper knowledge of the issues. He said unbiased education can help separate the fact from the hype. "Good law begins with good facts," said Annas, chair of the department of law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University. "It's critical that judges get the science right." . . ." From Judges get crash course in sciences

A Recitation on Gesticulation

Edit Excerpts From Scientists look to apes for language origin clues:

Scientists seeking clues to the origins of human language analyzed the way two types of apes genetically closely related to people -- chimpanzees and bonobos -- use such hand and limb gestures to communicate. "We are a naturally gesturing species that may have first developed language in the gestural domain, and once the brain parts related to language were well developed, then started using speech."

A male chimpanzee may beg for food from another chimpanzee by gesturing with an extended arm and open hand. Under different circumstances, the same chimpanzee may use the same gesture to try to coax a female chimpanzee to have sex. And the same gesture may be used after two males fight as a signal of reconciliation.

They found that the apes use such gestures much more flexibly -- in different contexts with apparently different meanings -- than they used facial expressions and vocalizations. The findings, they believe, lend support to the idea that human language started with such gestures rather than speech.

Both types of apes used facial and vocal signals in similar and predictable ways. Screaming was used by both, for example, in fear and pain. But a particular gesture appeared to communicate wholly different messages depending on the social context in which it was used -- for example if food was involved or mating.

Gestures are used across a wide range of contexts whereas most facial expressions and vocalizations are very narrowly used for one particular context," De Waal said. Although all primates use their voices and facial expressions to communicate, only people and the great apes -- chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutan and gorillas -- use these types of gestures as well.

The researchers cited differences between the bonobos, the gentler and more sex-crazed, and chimpanzees, the more violent. The bonobos employed various gestures more flexibly, combining them with vocalizations and facial expressions to communicate a message.

De Waal said there might have been advantages to developing language from gestures before the spoken word. For example, silent communication might have been better when hunting for big prey. He added that when the apes gesture, they like to use their right hands, which is controlled by the left side of the brain -- the same side where the language control center appears in the human brain.

Dotting Your Eyes

Edited Excerpt From Optical illusion: A brain implant bypasses the eye and creates the simplest form of vision:

John Pezaris and Clay Reid of Harvard Medical School describe in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [their developments for restoring the vision of people who have lost their eyes]. In normal sight the eye relays coded impulses to the brain. Hence, in artificial sight, scientists can bypass the eye altogether and go straight to the business end of vision. To keep the task simple, Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid fiddled with a region called the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), which receives coded impulses and shifts them on to other regions for processing. At the LGN stage of the brain's visual pathway, the function of every nerve cell is largely determined by anatomical position. In other words, its nerve cells are arranged as a map of the retina.

Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid inserted tiny electrodes into the LGNs of two monkeys. These allowed nerve cells in those areas of the brain to be activated by the researchers, as though the impulse had come from a part of the retina. First Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid ran an experiment ignoring the electrodes. It measured the monkeys' tendency to focus on objects of interest. One at a time, the two monkeys sat in a dark room in front of a computer screen. As would any primate in an inquisitive mood, they tended to move their eyes rapidly to look straight at a dot of light whenever one flashed up at a random position on the screen, so that the light impinged on the most sensitive part of the retina. By the time the monkeys stared directly at the light, it had been extinguished.

Measuring how accurately the monkeys could move their eyes in the direction of the flash gave the researchers data that could serve as a baseline in their next experiment. This time flashes appeared on the computer screen just as before but the odd one was missed out at random. In its place an electrode briefly excited nerve cells in the monkeys' LGNs. Knowing which part of the LGN they had activated, Dr Pezaris and Dr Reid knew which position on the computer screen the monkey would have perceived a flash as having come from. The artificial twinkles seemed to make no difference. Both monkeys moved their eyes as accurately and rapidly in response to the imagined flashes as they had done to the real ones.

Playing the Brain: Notes on Lies

" . . . According to a neuroscience study, Mozart’s sonata for two pianos K448 (listen to it here) can increase your spatial-temporal IQ scores by 9 points. While the duration of the effect on your brain is only about 10-15 minutes, the findings are nonetheless fascinating. Neurology Professor John Hughes attributes this effect to the long-lasting periodicity in the power of Mozart’s music, seen also with JS Bach and his son JC Bach. Having analyzed the melodic line, he found that Mozart repeats his melodic line far more frequently than other well-known composers, but often in an ingenious manner reversing the notes. In other words, Mozart