random dispatch

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline… That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.” — David Foster Wallace

Mapping terra incognita? “A team of researchers have marshaled a huge amount of brain scan data to create a new, precise brain map, published in Nature today. Today’s maps are not so comfortingly simple. The new map, created by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis and others, draws in part on the brain’s internal web of connections: how neurons light up together in response to certain stimuli. Based on those areas of co-activity, the map divides the cortex, the layer of tissue on the brain’s exterior, into 360 distinct sections (180 on each hemisphere). Wherever neuroscientists settle on this debate, the new map is a stab at imposing some semblance of order on terra incognita. Researchers working off of it can populate it with features, dispute borders, subdivide regions—and, little by little, change the landscape of what science knows about the brain.” [more]

Hyperrealism and mediated experience. “The future of human consciousness will be a hybrid affair. We will live and work in a ubiquitous computing environment, where physical reality and a pervasive digital layer mix seamlessly according to the logic of software and the richness of highly contextual data. This is mixed reality (MR) — and it will soon simply be reality.” [more]

Is there is such a thing as being too connected? “Nokia wants to make this physically impossible by patenting an electronic tattoo that would vibrate, on your body, whenever someone calls. It would work like a body-based caller ID system, vibrating in a specific pattern according to the caller or the type of message.” [more] 

Is Elon Musk the futurist we need? And more importantly is he our Tony Stark? Musk revealed his new master plan for Tesla yesterday in a blog post published on Tesla’s website: here

Will designer children with decrease cost of healthcare and make for smoother social relations? “Human reproduction is about to undergo a radical shift. Embryo selection, in connection with in-vitro fertilization (IVF), will help our species eliminate many genetic diseases, extend healthy lifespans, and enhance people’s overall well-being. Within 20 years, I predict that it will supplant sex as the way large numbers of us conceive of our children. Over time, many genetic diseases will come to be seen as preventable parental lifestyle choices rather than bad luck.” [more]

Nanotech “smart” stiches? “A team of researchers from Tufts University in the US have successfully tested a “smart stitching” prototype thread using nanotechnology, which allows medical sutures to diagnose infections and then communicate the information to doctors in real time.” [more]