ID: UI5KC9GR
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MegaMayD on YouTube
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    A series of rambles by SpaceCollective members sharing sudden insights and moments of clarity. Rambling is a time-proven way of thinking out loud,...

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    Books that redefine...

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    Develop a generative, emergent process to fill space (2D or 3D) using only black lines. Modify a known process or invent your own. Implement your...

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    How to stay in touch with our biological origins in a world devoid of nature? The majestic nature that once inspired poets, painters and...

    The great enhancement debate
    What will happen when for the first time in ages different human species will inhabit the earth at the same time? The day may be upon us when people...
    Now playing SpaceCollective
    Where forward thinking terrestrials share ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction. Introduction
    Featuring Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, based on an idea by Kees Boeke.


    I remember when I first saw those big red caterpillar busses in Los Angeles I thought the worlds long anticipated sci-fi image was finally starting to take shape...this may have been a superficial observation of a rather mundane vehicle, but Its been striking me lately how much world is changing. Well, yes, you might say, about fuckin time you picked up on this, its been changing, but my point is, people are finally noticing.

    Its made me realize, humans are just not optimized to understand intellectual concepts emotionally, it takes direct experience to be emotionally cued in, direct experience is processed more immediately, striking many more physioemotional chords. This isnt to say the intellectual capacities of the human brain are useless, in fact, it seems the thinking capacities of the human brain are finally tuned to comprehend the complex socio-economic networks weve built up just in time to consider re-arranging them.

    Being a proponant for the evolution of the human mind, I find it extremely interesting that we find ourselves in the midst of an environmental crisis that requires us to consider the abovementioned complex, non-linear networks and their larger scale impacts, particularly in light of how thoroughly entangled our lives are with petroleum. It seems to me that the human brain has only recently, in the last several decades, evolved to a point where it can retroactively comprehend the networks it has unwittingly manifested. We were always building a non-linearly networked world, our brains just didnt quite compute the sum of its interconnected parts.

    But first, how did we arrive at this greater level of across the brain interconnectivity that enables our timely comprehension of greater levels of complexity? I can see in rather plain view two moments in history when the human brain was modified towards complexity on a massive scale. One was the widespread use of LSD, a drug with the potential to speed up the rate at which connections are made across the brain. Next, the computer revolution, which allowed us to instantly access and incorporate the wealth of knowledge collected online into our thought processes and work methods to simultaneously operate in many different mediums that mutually inform and enrich one another.

    Now what becomes interesting is whether we can successfully disentangle ourselves from the tightly woven network of material products and processes that we acknowledge as unsustainable and leap into a more intelligent future?
    Fri, May 30, 2008  Permanent link
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    click to play

    A project I did for an electronics class at UCLA using a stepper motor and an Arduino microcontroller.
    Thu, Apr 17, 2008  Permanent link
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    I made a short about a year ago that seems to be a fairly accurate metaphor for the Total Library project, hopefully it's as enjoyable as any book I might recommend. It also features a fellow Space Collective member.

    THE BOOKS
    **starring**
    carel struyken
    nancye fergeson


    nancye throwing books (sorry to the hardcore book enthusiasts for this mild show of disrespect,
    but worry not, no books were harmed in the making of this video)
    Thu, Apr 10, 2008  Permanent link

    Sent to project: The Total Library
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    EDIT :: thursday 04032008 744

    Since it's appearance, this post is realized to be a reaction to the directionlessness and problem riddled state of the world. Today I found several individuals who shared these sentiments and we realized our MUTUAL CONFUSION. If you are mutually confused, we can offer support and prepare for the unknown future together. You are welcome to send word to the help box at MUTUALCONFUSIONinc@gmail.com. Best of luck.


    ~~*~*~*~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~***~*~~~~~~*~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~~~*~***~**~*~~~~****
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~~~*~*~~~~*~*~*~**~*~
    ~~**~~~~*~*~**~*~~~~~~*~*~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â *~*~**~***~**~***~***~***~*~*~**~*~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~~~~~~~*~*~*~~~~~*****~*~*~~~~*~*~*~
    ~~*~**~***~*~
    ~~**~**~~~~~~~*~**~**~**~***~**~**~*~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~*~~*~**~~~~~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~*~**~*~*~~~~


    I will not dump my privileged western world angst here, as such a rant is predictable enough to estimate and it's really more of an aside because the issue at hand is as follows:

    there is so much going on right now, so much crazy shit, I don't know what do to or how to synthesize it except to (for the time being) just compile the following links that i stumbled across today while wandering the WWW (which of course represent only a small fraction of the "crazy shit" i mentioned earlier) and let them do the talking. It may be old news to you (some of these articles date back to 2006) but, well, lets call it a, ahem, "hypertext narrative" and consider it a cross-section of my brain right now

    Â Â Â Â ~**~*~
    **
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~~*~*~~~~~~~~****~*~~*~*~~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â ~**~**~~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~*~**~*~***~*~**~*~**~*~~~~~~~~*~~~~*~~~~~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~**~***~*~
    Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why ~~*~*~~~*~Computer Hands Down Prison Sentences
    ~~*~~~~~*~*~*~Technosexual: One Mans Tale of Robot Love~~**~~~*~~~Robotic Earth Movers Coming From Caterpillar.~~~*~*~**~~~~*Chunk of Antarctic Ice Collapses~~~*~*~*~Iran Outlaws High Speed Internet*~~*~*~~~~*~*~*~China Concerned Over Missile Parts Mistake in Taiwan*~**~*~~~*~*~**New Inkjet Tech Can Print LCDs Using Silver Nanoparticles
    ~~~*~**~~~~Modern Day Slavery~~*~**~~*~Senate Bill Could Restrict Political Commentary~~**~*~**~**~**~***~**~
    ~*~**~***~*~*~~~~~*~**~*~**~*~**~~~**~*~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~~*~**~***~*~~~~~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~~*~*~~~~~~~~****~*~~*~*~~~
    ~**~**~~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~*~**~*~***~*~**~*~**~*~~~~~~~~*~~~~*~~~~~~
    ~**~***~*~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~**~*~
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â **










    Wed, Mar 26, 2008  Permanent link
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    A project done for the Voyager Update Project by megan, cayla, gleb, nick soni, and tank
    Thu, Mar 20, 2008  Permanent link

    Sent to project: The great enhancement debate
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    Galvanic skin response sensors measure levels of emotional arousal through changes in skin conductivity, and the added layer of intimacy produced by this data was something I was interested in pursuing. After a number of experiments with the sensors, it became clear that some of the most interesting results were produced through a simple conversation between two people.

    Whether used in lie-detector tests, as the basis for scientology, or the plot thickener in game shows, GSR technology has a (non-scientific) reputation as a truth telling technology. Whether GSR readings can effectively be mapped onto truth telling is definitely questionable, but undoubtedly by its very nature, this possibility provokes a direct line of questioning, which makes it an excellent technology for speed dating!

    So, after collecting my findings, I decided that they would be best demonstrated as a blind date performed before an audience, where the drama of the circumstance would be communicated not through acting, lighting, or narrative alone, but through physiological activity in the sympathetic nervous system put on display for all to see.

    My blind date and I would navigate each other's emotional space through questions and answers, and hopefully get a glimpse into each others 'true' feelings.

    The results:


    click to play


    Wed, Mar 19, 2008  Permanent link

    Sent to project: Emergence and Navigating Space
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    Dear fellow Space Collective members,

    I am illiciting your help in devising the following experimental art experience for the Emergence/Navigating Space project on Space Collective:

    I need someone to find me a blind date for THIS WEDNESDAY March 12th sometime between the hours of 9 AM and 12 PM.

    This will not be just any blind date though, this will be a spontaneous non-rehersed 15 minute blind date, performed LIVE in front of my Programming Media class at UCLA's Design|Media Arts school.

    The idea is that we will sit down at a table facing one another and be adorned with galvanic skin response sensors (that I built myself), which we will wear for the duration of the date as the readings are projected for the audience to see.

    Galvanic skin response sensors measure levels of excitement in the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight or flight response, and are set off by all varieties of emotional arousal, from anxiety and "stress", to sexual feelings and startle response, so hopefully the circumstances will prove excitatory.

    If i don't know you and you live in the LA area and are interested in said social experiment, please contact Aaron Olhmann at aaronohlmann@gmail.com as soon as possible.

    Sincerely,
    Megan

    Sat, Mar 8, 2008  Permanent link
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    Everyone i've talked to in the past few days seems to hate new years, and the overwhelming distaste for this particular day got me thinkin.

    Here we are on a wild ride round the sun, every day moving incrementaly closer to this date 1/1, till December 31st rolls around, and suddenly we're bracing ourselves for that moment when we make it all the way around this arbitrary placemarker on the Earth's orbital path once again. The start of another wild ride. You'd expect the Earth's rotation to pick up speed. It's quite beautiful really, We made it round again! And the Earth didn't fall out of the sky!
    I suppose the irony of new years has mostly to do with the way it's often celebrated. You prepare yourself for a new beginning with lists of revisions to your character, your life, your plans, and
    then you wake up, January 1st, a brand new day, a brand new year, and you're hungover.

    But there's a great opportunity to embrace this strange symbolic eve and actually CHANGE the things you PLAN on changing THIS VERY NIGHT. I resolve to be a more fearless human. Can't wait to see how this plan pans out.
    Mon, Dec 31, 2007  Permanent link
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    A theme has presented itself over the past two days: the flexibility of the human brain and the way things are. or aren't.

    I was grilling my parents on Jesus the other day in anticipation of his day of birth (let it be known that I wasn't raised with any sort of religion and have never fully explored the origins of the world's religions) and it was brought to my attention that in the beginning, the Christians were a much maligned minority. Though in retrospect my surprise is merely the byproduct of a certain ignorance, it also fascinated me that in the beginning, people were extremely resistant to a worldview that has held so much sway over the Western world for the past few centuries. This was the first bit of information that got me thinking about how hard/easy it is to revise the dominant reality paradigm.

    NEXT I'm reading a book about sensory deprivation and I come across the following phrase
    "conventional criterion of sanity." This criterion is just something we agree upon, and throughout the world the divide between insanity and sanity exists on a sliding scale. (in Holland the saying goes, "act normal, that's crazy enough." Meanwhile, the Truk islanders from the Western Pacific are so accustomed to getting lost at sea and experiencing the hallucinatory effects of isolation, insanity is a much more frequent, and therefore normal occurrence.)

    FURTHERMORE, the way we actually see the world is determined by our culture and surroundings. In the rectangular western world we have a strong sense of perspective, while the Zulus, who live mostly amongst circles and posses very few rectangular objects don't generally experience a strong sense of perspective in their day to day lives. People who live in densely forested areas lack advanced depth perception because they need only perceive things through clearings, so when shown something far away, it appears to them as small rather than distant.


    all the red lines in these disgrams are straight, and while most western observers perceive them as bent, the Zulu's don't perceive a distortion

    THEN, I went on a hike today and had a conversation about paleolithic man who, according to the superintelligence that is Carel Struycken, essentially had the same brain as modern man. In other words, you could throw a paleolithic baby into modern day Los Angeles and it would grow up just like a baby born yesterday and vice versa.

    AND THEN, to top it all off, i just picked up a book called Proust was a Neuroscientist, turned to a random page, and what do you know. It's all about brain elasticity and neurogenesis. The brain IS elastic, "neurogenesis is evidence that we evolved to keep evolving," because the brain is constantly changing and changeable. FURTHERMORE; a new variety of anti-depressants is being developed that work by stimulating neurogenesis. THE CREATION OF NEW BRAIN CELLS MAKES UP HAPPY!

    BY GOD, the human brain must have been the inspiration for rubber bands. Reality can be anything we want it to be, we can re-invent our personal or inter-personal reality frameworks over and over and over again. It's fucking incredible. But I'm left with one question: if the human brain is so changeable, why is so much of humanity resistant to change? And if our everyday experience can be adapted to any reality, why do we agree on this particular one?

    With that, I'm off to imagine/inhabit some more possible realities, ones that don't involve sitting in traffic, watching television, or behaving rationally.
    Fri, Dec 28, 2007  Permanent link
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    We have drugs in our heads, they've been there since birth and exist in more or less ample supply. We experience the effects of these chemicals in a fit of rage, a fit of laughter, with feelings of lust, love, sadness, anxiety. Sometimes it's involuntary, but often, whether or not we're conscious of it, we take actions that intentionally catalyze these chemicals.*

    I'm a fan of altered states, in particualr the self induced variety, and people often ask me if I'm high when I'm really just enjoying the madness of life and being slightly mad myself. I think this is great. But there's a more destructive cluster of neurotransmitters that I've been trying my best to stay away from. The best way to identify this cluster most generally is to say, they're the ones that make you wanna hit someone...or maybe just yell at them a little bit. They're buried deep within the most primitive reptilian portions of our brain but they are some of the easiest chemicals to call forth.

    Now, it's easy to spot an addict to these particular neurotramitters. They tend to embody the following characteristics: a worldview dominated by cynicism, an predisposition for self-pity and/or victimzation, and sporatic or regular outbursts of agression towards other people. The occasional existential dilemma doesn't qualify someone as an addict, and sometimes these are merely character traits, but I do advise, if you find that you or someone you love identifies with two or more of the aforementioned characteristics, you may want to re-evaluate whether you've slipped into a self-induced chemical addiction.



    * Funnily enough, this addiction may be the key to maintaining loyalties in partisan politics, from an MSNBC article published last year:
    "Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows. And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their point of view."


    EDIT:

    There was a preacher preaching at my school today. There was something so perverse about it. There was a white guy standing with a sign enumerating symptoms of demonic behavoir, and a thin, well dressed, bible salesman looking black guy being attacked by the hormone laden college students like a whipping boy. People were so ready to snarl, to bite, i was just wondering what it would take for them to kick and kill. All these students who sleepwalk around campus suddenly ablaze with passion, hatred. How do you source this incredible energy? The preacher is so effective at harvesting it, but it evaporates, does nothing but flows through the bloodstream being sure to avoid the brain. I imagined putting something on his back, an advertisement for actually thinking, or trying to capture that energy in a container to be released later. Or creating a scene around the man, staging a performance, making the whole thing a play, an incredible fiction, a live demonstration of the state of the world.

    Later, I found this (see "enjoying agression")


    Sun, Dec 23, 2007  Permanent link
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