When a person takes small amounts of psilocybin visual acuity improves. They can actually see slightly better, and this means that animals allowing psilocybin into their food chain would have increased hunting success, which means increased food supply, which means increased reproductive success, which is the name of the game in evolution.

by Adam McLean

"The brain can no longer be seen as a vast piece of organic clockwork, but as a subtle device amplifying quantum events. If we trace a nerve impulse down to its root, there lies a quantum uncertainty, a sea of probability."

By Jeff Prideaux
jprideaux@gems.vcu.edu
Virginia Commonwealth University

TABLE OF CONTENTS (with HYPERLINKS)

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2 HOLOGRAMS

What is holography?
The Hologram Relationship
Holograms

CHAPTER 3 EUCLIDEAN-BASED GEOMETRIC MODEL

CHAPTER 4 HOLONOMIC BRAIN THEORY

Experimental Evidence
Other Aspects of the holonomic theory
The Uncertainty Principle
Quantum Physics
Communication theory
Dissipative Structures

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS

General Comments
Conclusions

WORKS CITED

DARPA To Support Development Of Human Brain-Machine Interfaces

DURHAM, N.C. -- Devices including "neuroprosthetic" limbs for paralyzed people and "neurorobots" controlled by brain signals from human operators could be the ultimate applications of brain-machine interface technologies developed under a $26 million contract to Duke University sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The contract is part of DARPA's Brain-Machine Interfaces Program (http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrust/sp/bmi.htm), which seeks to develop new technologies for augmenting human performance by accessing the brain in real time and integrating the information into external devices.

Dances with Robots

Kazerooni and his colleagues have made what may be the world's most advanced motorized exoskeleton. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) regards exoskeleton technology as promising enough to deserve a $50 million, 5-year commitment to fund Kazerooni's lab and others. This spring, the agency awarded first-year grants under the program.

NASA SCIENTISTS USE HANDS-OFF APPROACH TO LAND PASSENGER JET

Imagine being able to land a jumbo jet without ever taking control of the stick. NASA scientists recently demonstrated the ability to control a 757 passenger jet simulation, using only human muscle-nerve signals linked to a computer.

from http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu

In a remarkable invention, US scientists have developed a biological computer made of leech neurons that can think for itself. The neuron computer works in a way similar to the human brain.

U.S. Military Admits to Plan to Create a "Warfighting" Cyborg

The Augmented Cognition program will explore the interaction of cognitive, perceptual, neurological, and digital domains to develop improved performance application concepts. The advanced applications will be tailored to military problems in order to demonstrate potential pay-off for operational users. Success will improve the way 21st Century warriors interact with computer based systems, advance systems design methodologies, and fundamentally re-engineer military decision making.

by Douglas Rushkoff

Has anybody here seen my old friend William? Can you tell me where he's gone?

As if to reunite with his recently departed "beat" cohorts Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, Naked Lunch novelist William Burroughs died last week. Whether they found the ultimate hyperlink in the sky or merely a "Server Unknown" error will be left for each of us to determine in his or her own time. Wherever they've gone, they probably don't have access to a "back" button.

What seems more certain, to me anyway, is that their mutual and near-simultaneous final exit parallels the disturbing decline of their philosophies and ideals in the world they helped create. Cyberspace itself is, in many ways, the technological realization of the visions of these three men. Their departure offers us the opportunity to see how far from their vision we may have wandered, and if there's a way to revitalize some of their pioneer spirit.