Technology and Emotions Introductions...
This article is about technology and mood. Mood or brief emotional state is a very detailed and examined set of behaviors which can be classified into some type of emotion that affects our actions. This article published in Psychology today, is neither in-depth nor academically serious. But few articles in Psychology Today are. Articles in the academic journals such as APA's Neuro-Psychology, typically will have more in depth scientific coverage. So it is unfair to judge the science or depth of this article compared to academic research. But it is precisely this lack of insight that makes the existence of the following technologies even more disturbing. Because it ease of offloading personal skills of understanding emotional states to machines is approached in such a non-chalant manner. Each gadget is described, the article sections include a "In My Dreams" quip that extends the already surreal technology a step further.
The article includes two sets of Photos one large mood lamp featured at the top of the article and a set of art pictures of flowers. The lamp is built onto a black base unit, and glows with colors from green to yellow to blue. The article has five sections. First a insert by Dawn Stanton, comparing the 70's mood ring to the new technologies featured below.
The next section is the Shoji mood lamp. Shoji is an actual type of cylindrical Japanese lamp. But here it also represents an acronym Symbiotic Hosting Online Jog Instrument. The lamp analyzes the mood of an entire room from sensors detecting humidity, temperature, movement, and sound. It then reflects the mix of data as different colors inside the luminescent cylinder.
The mobile mood phone is a cell phone that emits a LED light based on the mood of the caller. This LED changes in brightness and color depending on the analysis of the persons voice tone and patterns.
The final section is broken into two parts. First the device, a hardware and software setup that analyzes the facial expressions. Based on the changes of facial expression, the system can create an empathic painting by changing brushstrokes and color. The second part of this final section is a quiz that includes five small photos of a painting adjusted to match some mood. Each is numbered and the answers to the correct mood is listed upside down at the bottom of the article.
The irony is a popular magazine that issues clues to human emotion and how to master them, is writing an article about machines not humans that master emotion. Detecting mood requires presence, and as we depend more on technology to be where we are not, presence becomes a rare commodity. From telecommuting, teleconferencing, virtual meetings, and online groups or chats, real in person presence is becoming rare.
As a result so is social skills to detect and understand the moods of others are slowly being regulated to machines. This article leaves the implications of machines replacing social skills out of sight. In fact each section includes a In My Dreams section where the author makes suggestions how to extend the intelligence of the mood gadget further. Of course, nothing is mentioned on why anyone would want to depend on a machine to understand some one's mood.
As a society we are slowly losing our ability to sharpen our social skills. Our culture is rewarding isolation and the power that isolation brings. Having to be there and show up, is for common people. Those with power teleconference in or simply send a response. Since transportation has become a hassle due to post 9/11 security and congestion, modern american society continues to place presence at a premium. Now through these technologies , any skill at ascertaining moods of a group or individual will be off-loaded to machines.
The potential is entire swaths of our brain evolved for social interactions will atrophy, skills developed in earlier generations from greetings, to posture, to understanding body distance will slowly decline. There may be a rise in the premium of those with skills of presence, such that persons will be paid to just appear at live events. As this happens already, it may become so pervasive that it will trickle down to lesser known individuals who may not be famous, but at least have the skills that these gadgets are attempting to replace.
When Does Somebody take Non-Pharmacological solutions seriously
Introduction:
This annotated bibliography takes broad overview of the technology and non-pharmacological approaches used today to diagnosis and treat Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. The DSM-IV (1994) states clearly that no laboratory tests or specific physical biological features have been established to identify Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Despite this fact, hundreds of case studies including use of such technologies as SPECT, fMRI, QEEG, Neurotransmitter urine panels, and specific attention tests which include computerized T.O.V.A., provide ample evidence that ADHD can be more accurately diagnosed and treated via the latest technologies and milder vitamin supplements. The critical aspect, of these approaches, is despite not being part of the DSM-IV literature, these alternative approaches provide in many cases a more quantitative analysis than current traditional methods. Though not in the scope of this bibliography, hopefully this annotated bibliography provides a thoughtful counterpoint to the current over prescribing of drugs to children for the treatment of ADHD.
Sterman, M. Barry (2000) EEG Markers for Attention Deficit Disorder: Pharmacological and Neurofeedback Applications Child Study Journal 30.1
This first citation provides both a history and an overview of approaches to ADHD. Dr. Sterman is emeritus professor of Neurobiology at UCLA. He is considered one the founding fathers of Neurofeedback along with Dr. Joel Lubar. Most papers on the use of QEEG or Neurofeedback will usually cite Sterman and/or Lubar who interned under Sterman. Sterman was the first to have peer reviewed research on biofeedback on animals and humans in the 1960’s. This article includes startling data on the over prescribing of methylphenidates which include Ritalin. Estimates made during the late 1990’s put the amount for Americans consuming Ritalin at 8.5 tons per year. The paper begins by pointing out that the DSM-IV describes ADHD as a qualitative cognitive issue, that lacks any physical evidence or biological supporting facts. Most prescriptions for ADHD simply need to fall within the typical list of observed behaviors of impulsivity and inattention. Dr Sterman then lays out several cogent points for the use of QEEG, primarily pointing out that EEG analysis of ADHD generally display several dominant features. These features include; increased slow rhythm activity known as Theta 4-8 Hz in the frontal, prefrontal and Sensorimotor regions, and reduced activity 12-20 Hz known as the more alert Sensorimotor Rhythm, or SMR in similar brain areas. Also many subjects display hypercoherence between left and right frontal cortex and between frontal/temporal regions within each hemisphere. Hypercoherence is when two regions of the brain are too “in sync” and their EEG rhythms spike and dip in near perfect phase, preventing flexible and independent reactions one would expect in different brain regions to display. Dr Sterman’s final well cited argument is that QEEG studies help increase the accuracy of treatment. An example is that of mild deep brain epileptic seizures, which might appear to cause individual attention problems externally. While EEG is an established diagnostic tool for such brain activity, Sterman points out that prescribing a stimulant like Ritalin to an epileptic could create severe reactions. Included in his paper are dozens of case studies showing the efficacy of Neurofeedback as a diagnostic tool and treatment of ADHD.
Bone, Kerry (2003, October 1)The Potential Role of Phytotherapy for ADHD.(Phytotherapy Review & Commentary)Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
This is another broad overview of ADHD and its history. What is critical is the clarity of documentation of phyto-nutrients that Mr. Bone elucidates with his claims. One of the most effective of the claims is a double blind study measuring speed and accuracy of college students in cognitive tests. Ginko Biloba and Ginseng were used in combination, and showed significant improvement over placebo users. Also, Mr. Bone cited studies of decreased Essential Fatty Acids in a subset of ADHD children, as opposed to normal levels in non-ADHD children. Though there are many broad case studies and research papers on Ginko for increase cerebral blood flow, the stimulant effects of Ginseng, and the protective qualities of Essential Fatty Acids to nerve myelination. Mr. Bone had one of the few referenced uses of Bacopa. Bacopa is an Ayurvedic herb that has been used in India for memory and learning difficulties. He cites an Australian double blind study where Bacopa clearly demonstrated increased scores in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test over placebo subjects. The significance of this article is the fact that Mr. Bone relied solely on solid double blind research as opposed to case studies where multiple factors are rarely considered. In the realm of supplement and phytonutrient claims, Mr Bone refused to use weak research to make any significant justifications despite his general thesis that phytonutrients can be an effective adjunct to treatment of ADHD symptoms.
Westerberg, Helena (2005, February 1) Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD--a randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Ms Westerberg outlines a Swedish double blind study, where children who were diagnosed with ADHD were randomly given ‘Working Memory’ exercises that ran off a Personal Computer CD-Rom. These exercises included recollection of the position of items in a 4 X 4 grid as well as verbal tasks remembering phonemes, letters, or digits. The subjects used a computer mouse to select and navigate the tasks for about 40 minutes per day, everyday for several weeks. The test group contained only fifty subjects, yet the results were impressive. Those receiving the treatment increased their visual-spatial working memory by an average of 19%. This increase sustained itself 5-6 weeks after treatment. In addition, evaluations of hyperactivity and poor attention as noted by parents through psychologists showed decrease in symptoms as compared to the placebo group. The group of 7-12 year olds were selected based on symptoms of ADHD and were eliminated if defiance disorder, low IQ, or were under the influence of prescription drugs such as methylphenidates. Various tests were given to subjects including WISC-III, Raven, Stroup and Conner’s Rating scale tests during treatment, pre-treatment and post-treatment. The most surprising aspect was the post-treatment score, of the group to be within .3 of the standard deviation mean for cognitive reasoning ability of the population norm. The only troubling aspect Ms. Westerberg admits to is that of teacher evaluations that saw little change in ADHD behavior. Clearly, as Ms. Westerberg admits further research needs to continue to study the aspects of exercising working memory regions of the brain.
Shapiro, Theodore (1997, December 1) Evolution and revolution in child psychiatry: ADHD as a disorder of adaptation. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Theodore Shapiro advances the theory that ADHD may have been an evolutionary adaptation. As this may seem to be beyond the scope of this bibliography, his arguments are persuasive enough that if plausible add to the thesis that ADHD has genetic and biological underpinnings that the DSM-IV has yet to acknowledge. But rather than ignore the symptoms described in the DSM-IV, Shapiro uses them to make the argument that these symptoms are adaptive. Impulsivity, attentional processes (scanning and rapidly, shifting attention), vigilance and increased motor activity (hyperactivity) are all adaptations that are highly effective on the savannah or dark jungle, but not for sitting at a desk quietly reading. These set of ADHD behaviors form what Shapiro calls “the response ready” child. Here is where his hypothesis enters the realm of this paper. Shapiro suggests adapting the environment with tools and technologies that utilize rather than punish the “response ready” child. The child is given tasks that enable his scanning abilities and use of interactive tasks that are more physical in nature. This could reward the child and help to eventually mainstream the child into an average classroom. Such technologies exist, for example; video games that track body movements could be combined with math or reading skills. Even Shapiro admits that his theory can not allow teachers, parents, or administrators to romanticize these behaviors as premature noble savages.
Vaidya, Chandan J.(2005) Brain Imaging of Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder: What have We Learnt? Cognition, Brain, Behavior Vol. IX(3), 287-300
Vaidya paper reviews the evidence that is clear that ADHD has biological markers that are apparent via several imaging technologies. These technologies include single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Vaidya covers the ethical dilemmas of using radioactive isotopes in children and thus tends to favor fMRI studies. What is clear about the research that is covered is there is comprehensible evidence that children with ADHD have abnormalities that can be detected through computer imaging. Her review of the evidence includes aspects such as metabolic action was reduced in ADHD subjects in an array of regions implicated by the structural anatomical findings including in the frontal and parietal areas. SPECT/PET studies illustrated that during an auditory attention task, ADHD subjects demonstrated hypoperfusion (decreased blood flow) in the periventricular regions, representing low metabolic activity in the frontal (premotor and prefrontal) and striatal (caudate, putamen) regions. The research cited over 50 published papers on neurological imaged deficits of children and adults.
Dige, N., & Wik, G. (2005). Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Identified by Neuropsychological Testing. International Journal of Neuroscience, 115(2), 169-183.
This research paper used a double blind study to test whether the use of specific neuropsychological testing was an accurate indication of adult ADHD. Niels Dige’s team were able to successfully diagnosis ADHD with over an 85% accuracy. Dige used over a dozen tests to measure the various disabilities in the test group. These tests checked for working memory, including auditory and verbal working memory, and logical sequential tasks. What is striking, is the fact that despite using over a dozen tests 25% of the controls were miss identified as having symptoms of ADHD. This raises an interesting problem, where as cognitive test use clear quantitative statistics, little to no statistical data of accuracy exists in any substantial form for neuroimaging diagnosis. Dige’s work though instructive illuminates the fact that more work needs to be done linking neuropsychological tests with neuro-imaging.
Grizenko, Natalie Bhat, Mamatha Schwartz, George (2006, January 1) Efficacy of methylphenidate in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities: a randomized crossover trial. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, Vol. 31 Issue 1, p46, 6p
This is a standard double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, 2-week crossover trial of methylphenidate usage in children with ADHD. Grizenko’s research in ADHD and psycho-stimulants is not at the surface notable. Dozens of studies, drug trials, FDA reports have looked at the efficacy of Ritalin and other stimulants for children and adults with symptoms of ADHD. The critical issue was the lack of efficacy for children with ADHD and learning disabilities. Particularly in mathematics, where over 63% of those medicated displayed no cognitive improvement at all. Statistically speaking those with reading disability faired only slightly better, with 45% or nearly half showing no improvement. On average half of the learning disabled students with ADHD showed little to no improvement. Whereas, 75% of the ADHD children with no learning disability showed improvement with the addition of methylphenidate. It is important to note that despite being given psycho-stimulants, the research did not include any biological tests to see if there had been any changes in levels of catecholamines which are typically raised due to the introduction of a stimulant. Thus there is no way other than cognitive testing to see if any biological metabolic marker differs between the two groups.
Ross, Brian M. McKenzie, Ivor Glen, Iain et al (2003 October)Increased Levels of Ethane, A Non-invasive Marker of n-3 Fatty Acid Oxidation, in Breath of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Nutritional Neuroscience; Oct2003, Vol. 6 Issue 5, p277, 5p
This report concludes that children with ADHD exhale larger amounts on average of a chemical known as ethane. Ethane is produced by the oxidation of Omega 3 class of fatty acids. The oxidation process which appears accelerated in ADHD children, has no known direct causes. But Ross cites numerous studies that show that polyunsaturated fatty acids which included the various omega class of fatty acids 3-6-9, are low in ADHD children. If this is true that ADHD children are low in PUFA’s, and are producing a byproduct of oxidation of PUFA’s then dietary supplementation seems like a logical remedy. Ross recommends a combination of fatty acids and anti-oxidants to counter the breakdown and release of ethane. Where as many ‘new age’ prescriptions by various so called health care providers tout essential fatty acids and anti-oxidants, Ross provides real scientific evidence that these supplements might be effective for children with ADHD.
Wooltorton, Eric (2005, December 6) Suicidal ideation among children taking atomoxetine (Strattera) CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal; Vol. 173 Issue 12, p1447-1447, 1p
This citation is to force home that even the newer psycho-stimulants have serious side effects. The side effects of stimulants like Ritalin have been well documented. And their efficacy is sometimes no better than a 50/50 proposition. Wooltorton examines the increase in suicide ideation among users of Strattera. Strattera or atomoxetine acts as a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Norepinephrine is produced by the adrenal gland and has stimulant like effects on the central nervous system. Suicidal ideation is reported to have occurred in 5 (0.37%) of 1357 children given atomoxetine but none of 851 children given placebo. All reports of suicidal ideation were in children aged 7–12 years; one attempted suicide.
Heuser, G, Mena I, (2002)Treatment of Neurogically Impaired Adults and Children with "Mild" Hyperbaric Oxygen The proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium p 109-115
This is one of only a few published papers of the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment for what is considered “off label” use. HBOT is used for divers and for diabetics by established protocols in hospitals across the world. Typically, HBOT treatment uses nearly pure oxygen, and very high levels of air pressure at nearly 4 times normal levels. In cases of open wounds from advanced type two diabetes it can help wounds heal by bringing much needed oxygen to the wound. Mild HBOT, uses lower pressure and lower oxygen levels. This case study by Dr Heuser a UCLA professor and medical doctor specializing in neuro-toxicology shows the reversal of neurological impairment. Included in the case studies are pre and post treatment SPECT studies which clearly demonstrate increased metabolic function in the cerebral cortex. Also Heuser offers pre and post T.O.V.A scores which also show quantitative improvement ranging from 2-23% increase in attention achievements. The logic behind the treatment of HBOT, is that some ADHD symptoms may be due to brain regions in idle mode. This idle mode may be due to earlier stress to the system. By increasing air pressure and oxygen levels previously injured brain areas may ‘awaken’. By increasing air pressure more oxygen is released as changes in pressure make the cell walls more permeable to the release of oxygen.
Thomas R. Rossiter and Theodore J. La Vaque (1995) A Comparison of EEG Biofeedback and Psychostimulants in Treating Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders Journal of Neurotherapy, p 48-59
The study contrasted the outcomes of EEG biofeedback and stimulant medication in reducing AD/HD symptoms. The intriguing result of Rossiter’s research was there was no difference between the two groups. Both displayed improvements, in attention scores and overall behavioral changes. EEG patients were seen three to five times a week for 45-50 minute treatment sessions that included 30 minutes of EEG biofeedback. Biofeedback consisted of responding to both visual and audio cues to suppress theta activity and increase SMR or low beta. Patients in the ‘MED’ set were started or restarted on methylphenidate or dextroamphetimine prescribed by their personal medical doctors following the baseline assessment. Though not a double blind study, the results were intriguing. Ritalin has many side effects including sleeplessness and nausea, while EEG has few if any.
Robbins, Jim (2000) A Symphony in the Brain. New York: Grove Press
This is an entire novel that covers the history of Neurofeedback. It takes the reader through the early days with Dr. Sterman, and finishes with the Othmers. It is included here because there is a fork in the school of thought concerning neurofeedback. Dr. Sterman and Dr. Lubar are on one side, and the Othmers and Margaret Ayers are on the other. The book deals with both the science and the personalities involved in this budding science. Sue and Siegfried Othmer have the largest training facility of EEG practitioners in the United States. Margaret Ayers and Sue Othmer both worked under Dr. Sterman yet neither ever finished getting even a PhD. The Othmers use EEG as broad tool to affect many different mental disorders including epilepsy, autism, neurotoxic insults, ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Whereas Sterman and Lubar both take a much more conservative approach, applying EGG or neurofeedback to ADD and epilepsy. The Othmers come to neurofeedback from desperation to help their son Brian Othmer who had epileptic seizures and behavioral problems. The book on a whole does go into detail of protocols and precise treatments of specific disorders and how they com about. From testing cats’ brainwaves in the 1960’s to helping children with severe autism, the book delights as much as it enlightens.
Amen, Daniel G. (2001) Healing ADD New York: Berkeley Publishing Group
This is quintessential book on brain scans and Attention Deficit Disorder. Dr Amen has a massed over 10,000 SPECT scans of various patients over the years. Amen is not only a neurologist but also has a PhD in psychology. He has developed six types of ADD based on the thousands of brain scans in his practice. Along with the quantitative data from the scans he has also developed a series of over 100 questions that statistically match your ADD profile with your SPECT exam. In this book, he breaks down all six types by SPECT and behavior. Each type he describes and offers both pre and post medication SPECT studies. In addition, to the various medications, Amen also recommends various supplements for each ADD type. Some types such as inattentive type 2 require stimulants such as Adderall while others such as limbic type 4 require inhibitory supplements like GABA.
Summary:
The objective of this annotated bibliography was to examine various aspects of non-pharmacological and technological aspects of diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. We covered various technologies including breath tests, hyperbaric oxygen, computerized neurofeedback, and several brain imaging approaches. We also looked at effectiveness of treatments of both technological and phytonutrient approaches versus stimulants. Supplements such as Essential Fatty Acids, Bacopa, and Ginseng were covered and dissected. Despite reviewing over a dozen sources, the surface has barely been scratched. Yet clearly, the evidence here has added to the argument that other more effective treatments and diagnostic analysis exist for the health care provider and for the patient to receive the best care possible.
Insta-0-Commu
Innocence of becoming one presence
ID's please:
This is a side note, on my work about gender and power in virtual worlds. See past posts and future ones for that matter, they are forth coming.
I have uncovered a deception. One broad and wide as the totality of IP networked servers that encircle our globe. That which I call the Ork Conundrum...
There are many online worlds, Second Life and World of Warcraft seem to be some of the largest and most written about. And in these worlds the user becomes attached emotionally to their avatar or 3-D character which they have created and grow with. In fact, some become attached to other avatars.
So, you enter these "games" and wander about meeting other avatars and building relationships... But with who? Who are you having a relationship with? If you wander around with an Ork, are you friends with an Ork or the user of that Ork?
We know, at least I hope most of us know, Orks do not exist in our real world. So we know that a male or female human is behind the clicks and streaming text emanating from these fantasy creatures.
But what if its not an Ork or large reptile humanoid? How do we decipher what these fantastical creatures are. If as we go to some polygonal night club, and meet a sexy female avatar, is it a female or male that operates her?
What I have found is we have such a capacity to embrace the fantastical, the illusion, the simulation, on the one side, and yet are curious and desperate to find the reality that lives behind it.
To be concrete, I traveled through Second Life as both a male and female avatar. I seduced, romanced, and had virtual sex with both male and female avatars. Though my physical self was never involved, I can not say what was happening on the other side of their keyboards. I found, typing dirty words a bit adolescent, and banal after the initial surprise that it was so easy. So despite, my total lack of physical involvement with the virtual acts, I learned to whisper in word not volume.
But at one point after a run in with a female professor, I got tired of being a female.I wanted to broaden the landscape, and not be trapped by the constructs of my latest avatar.I began to care about and become attached to other avatars. So, I felt the relationships I had built would just continue to be like a walk through a trashy lingerie store. Some giggles, maybe a moment of honesty, but basically a world of cliches... Images and words of what sensuality is as in mass produced fashion accessories. Just repackaged into text chat and poorly scripted 3-D animations.
So I did what I thought made sense, I allowed those I cared about to find out who I was. I thought though dangerous, being honest was both courageous and decent. How many walks down the aisle of heart shaped panties can one take?
The irony, the blithely incredible irony, is they took the bite of the apple instantaneously. All I offered was a phrase, a simple two word phrase "culture sponge" and a request if you want to know who I am just google that phrase...
Did they wait? Did they pause and think what am I about to do to this illusion? Did they hold onto that key for a moment? No, immediately they checked it. Yet, here is where the flesh gets in the way. For now, we see who lives inside that Ork, and the city where the Ork lives and the relationships of that Ork.And in astonishment, they prefer not the reality, they prefer the Ork.
I created a virtual feminine persona (my female temptress) so believable that they preferred the illusion of a 3-D woman to the fullness of the reality. Its like falling in love with the Prince of Denmark, but feeling sick at the sight of Laurence Olivier as he rubs his makeup off.
These persons who could not wait even a moment to destroy the illusion, have no interest in destroying their illusions. They hold onto their simulation soo tightly one imagines a bead of mercury in their palms. Transfixed, all their attention is required not to let even an ounce slip from their virtual fleshy grasp.
They express sadness, that I killed the Ork,I destroyed a city, I pulled back the curtain, on an illusion. Despite the fact I am the Ork...Some even revealed my true identity to others, before I could do so personally. Their lust for reality had no bounds when it came to me.
Yet, I remember, first visiting as a male avatar, Second Life, and I saw a profile. Each avatar, has a pop-up window with just a simple right mouse click on their virtual bodies. This female included their real life photo. At first I was dumbstruck, that picture looks nothing like her avatar. I was turned off and confused, why destroy the illusion?
Now, I understand. If you build a massive virtual metropolis, with virtual relationships, and all the sweet illusions and emotional monsters and desperate heroes to inhabit that city, all you are left with is an illusion.
No sweat, no tears, no bonding that builds real meaning or real value. A sad, silly little world, of no flesh and no blood. A massive social network built on illusions, useless, pathetic, and unable to lift a hand to true tenderness or compassion to those of the 99.999% who live in a real world. Those who truly need help, and need understanding. Not a single tissue crosses from a monitor to a human tear. All the melodious words typed in chat, are worthless, to the touch of a kind hand on your shoulder.
So what is left? Isolation, a long interminable masturbation of the mind, nothing can be learned about sports, politics, art, or fashion, without the flesh. Yes, you can discuss, the art of a waltz, or share a chat on the use of light on a canvass. But flesh, being present in the face of that canvass, or making the body move and coordinate to that song. That is living.
So, they rationalize, they hide, they accuse, "that I am fragile?" That I should understand its just fantasy. They forget it was my experiment, it was my creation they bonded to, it has been detailed in multiple college sociological papers... But by connecting and ultimately revealing my virtual persona with my real world persona, I am innocent.
And it is they that can't let go. They won't let go. No they must keep the two worlds separate, they didn't when they had a chance to see me as I am, but they themselves? The fear and loathing holds them silent. So they continue to build, to buy, and to create a fantasy. Its a refuge, its just play, are all the sad excuses of those who wish not see any inch of real flesh which will crumble the metropolis around them. Ignoring, a virtual fantasy built by fleshy bodies.
In the virtual world they shared intimate secrets and passions. But, now, my flesh exposed, they revile the reality. They embrace the illusion, while defending that their reality is so different that no connection could or should ever exist...No matter how much those thoughts now contradict the ones they expressed when both our avatars were naked together and passionate whispers were exchanged.
How terribly sad, to love in one world, and to fear the real world. To have passions in one city, only to live most your life in a city without that love.That instead of building bridges you build walls. Instead of turning virtual playmates into decent friends, you build massive thick walls to keep everything in its place, for their virtual feelings to hide behind. They will peek outside, if you give them a window. No, they will rush to that window and stare, but dare not knock on from the outside. You will hear the deadbolts click, the shudders close, and the lights go out. For who do they not trust?
To those who fear the power of real human flesh, emotional connectivity is death. The virtual and real must never connect their worlds. Despite, facebook, myspace,friendster, and the list goes on, these connectivity hubs are to be feared, in at least never connected with their virtual persona.
But why? Why would you live two separate lives? And do whatever it takes to keep them that way? Fear, fear that the flesh, the body might awake and take the real with it to the same realm of the virtual emotion. Fear of loss of control, to let the hormones that drove your avatar to have virtual sex, might take over and dirty the clean organized world of reality. Ultimately, its fear of presence, the power of being in front of instincts and impulses that millions of years of evolution has hardwired into that brain that can deceive itself that the virtual is real. Being present requires; control, patience, and thought. Handling all the tiny signals of a gaze, a walk, the tone of your voice, is just too much, as letting a computer do it for you.
Thus, Presence, is now a commodity today. We pay people to just show up. From Tennis stars to Hotel Heiresses , people pay for there mere presence.To catch their gaze, to see them walk with no advanced 3-D graphic card needed. But as the hotel heiress has made a business out of just being present and selling it, most have not.
And all the work to build a virtual presence? As long as it stays in their small virtual world and disconnected from the flesh it remains a little hobby.A little hobby, that placates whatever fears, keeping them from connecting it to the outside world.
But sadly, they cannot market their presence, they cannot connect it over to the real world and build real value. Their feelings must be protected. They must keep any real emotion felt in the virtual world safe in a small locked box know as a personal computer. As such, personal growth is impossible, if not slowed to a imperceptible crawl... This is not to say their real world emotions, and lives are stilted. No, these are intelligent creative beings, and with dynamic minds that are eager to travel in a virtual world ahead of the masses.I swear to it. Kudos, to their spirit, yet lamentable to see them fearful to make a more meaningful connection.
So be it.
I build real value. I have built real companies from nothing. I build real communities with real social networks. I am not afraid to connect the virtual with the real. My passion for technology and science and wellness is empowered by all my connections of the virtual and the real. I am sure of the hundreds in my real social network, there exists a few Orks. I have no need to ask for their ID. But if they show me their ID, I am free to show them mine, connected and unafraid. Unnecessary of course, because the flesh in my world is passport enough.
Therefore, I will travel between all worlds virtual and real, looking for those who wish to travel with me. My flesh, my heart, and my mind will never bar my way and will remain as open as one can on travels to other worlds. If you would like a friend and companion, there are enough links to guide you, I hope to see you soon.
clariso.carnell@gmail.com
Virtual Affairs: lessons not yet learned...
This article is about infidelity that occurs in the virtual world. Published on the web at MSNBC on April 16th 2007, this article goes into the emotional aspects of what can happen when online romance interferes with real world relationships.
See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18139090/wid/11915829
It is written not by a social psychologist, not by a sociologist nor by a marriage therapist, but by a game editor which is the critical problem.
The author Kristin Kalning is sadly missing the entire depth and breadth of the subject in which she has cleverly exposed. A quick search finds that Miss Kalning writes for technical book publisher PeachPit Publishers a small print house for software tutorial texts. So to ask her to delve into societal or emotional pathos that her subject touches upon is beyond her breadth of knowledge at least as it appears in this article
The article primarily focuses on two couples Sam and Kat, and Max and Sarah. Though, it touches on other online worlds such as World of WarCraft (Action role playing game), the meat is about an online world known as SecondLife. As opposed to an online quest game in which the user is fighting dragons or killing secret agents, SecondLife has no quest, no death, no violence, and no crime. It is a creative simulated world where users can build, buy and own anything they can create in the virtual world. Even real world things such as paintings or music can be purchased in the online 3-D stores. Yet the article is about the jeopardy about falling in love online and its consequences…
In brief, Sam becomes obsessed with Kat in the virtual world. This online affair of avatars affects his real world marriage. Kat leaves Sam, and Sam is emotionally distraught. The other relationship, is one where Max becomes a real world jealous husband because of Sarah's constant need to be online in her second life. The two come to an impasse when Max finds that Sarah has become "virtually" married online. Sarah leaves Max, when she realizes that what she wants is a real man, that treats her more like her virtual lover. An irony that is poorly illustrated yet made by Miss Kalning.
The article uses a SecondLife Blogger to point out some of the pit falls of falling in love in a virtual world. The one that is stressed immediately, is that Sam met Kat as a female avatar. So technically, they were having a virtual lesbian affair, despite being in reality man and woman.
Now despite glossing over this as salacious, which Miss Kalning does, she avoids the entire realm of gender, power, and simulation. Understandably, these issues need more room, than her editors could have afforded. Yet, we have entered an entire world where Baudrillard's hyperreality and Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto map an entrance into a PostModern view of emotional attachment and its vast emotional cartography.
The question that the author careens around, is can romantic attachment be attained without gender? So that 3-D animation, sound effects, and a chat window can provide enough for the human to bond. Based on the examples, the answer is yes. That despite complete physical separation, the hormones are released to have us bond to these virtual mates.
Thus the essence of the article is not about the pitfalls of personal romantic destruction, but how technologies can destroy our sense of gender and identity. If a man falls in love as a women avatar with another female avatar who is also in reality another man, can there be any more proof that gender may be indivisible from biology, but that our ability to fall in love can with the use of technology be extricated from cultural chains that bind us to gender.
Though this requires deeper analysis than this paper can provide, we also must acknowledge that other than idealized avatars and their 3-D environment, the only window of real-time interaction is a chat window. Thus, we also must note the stream of sentences are our only unfiltered connections in this simulated world. Does Whorf-Sapir provide a navigational instrument for digital text and its distilled rapid shot use as a paramour in the attachment . Yet based on the interactions, and long term relationships of these virtual players, is language gender specific? Are there metaphors, phrases, words, verbs or adjectives that would betray the virtual illusion, Miss Kalning has not a clue nor does she attempt to approach the subject.
On the other hand, I have not only approached the subject but navigated it as well. As an individual who has entered SecondLife, both as a male avatar and female avatar, one can not be truly post-modern until they have fallen in love in a virtual world and let gender slip away. Once the body is eliminated from the equation of attraction and replaced by a simulation of body, the biology of passion in a 3-D world resembles "a map of an empire" of power politics which we use gender to control our social compass. A map that covers us as completely as the skin that reacts to the touch of another human.
As J. L. Borges points out;
"On Exactitude in Science . . . In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography." ----- From Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, Translated by Andrew Hurley Copyright Penguin 1999 .
Therefore, if we do not analyze these monumental changes, if we do as Miss Kalning not honor the perfection of our virtual maps, we just might like Max, Kat, Sarah, and Sam be beggars or animals in the tattered ruins of our human geography, at a longitude and latitude where history and biography meet.
Article 6?
Article: Christian Science Monitor
Expand the pool of
Public schools must improve in order to engage more minority students in the sciences.
By Andrew J. Rotherham and Kevin Carey http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0420/p09s01-coop.html?s=widep
As I accept my failure in Calculus, I realized why
Yet before I rant about Film schools that won't let you touch a camera (http://www.filmstudies.ucsb.edu/undergraduate/undergraduate.html) until you get a PhD in cinematic studies. I am going to focus on Mathematics.
Math is a language, an amazing language that paints by numbers. Like the books of clown faces, galloping horses, and county side cottages with thousands of tiny numbers. It is a language and should be taught as a French, German or Italian is taught. It should be taught for the purpose to be used in situations that require precision and accuracy. "Where is the train station" needs to be precise. Where English or French approach precision, math provides the precise language to describe any object moving or not within the smallest degree possible. Something is small in English, but 1.2 X 10^-32 is more accurate and leaves even our best words like tiny in the dust.
Math is not a set of symbols to recognize specific operations to manipulate more symbols, so that after a series of more symbolic tricks we get less symbols. It is not a set of exercises to recognize rational equations to reduce to simplest means for fun and profit. Nor was Calculus created to test your memory of tangent and cosine functions as a value approaches a limit.
Yet that is what is taught.
This not to say practice of using polynomial rational equations is not needed. Obviously it is, you can't model motion or many other phenomenons without them. Yet...
WHAT THE FUCK DOES THE EQUATION REPRESENT???!!!!
No one will tell you, why because the man or woman teaching math has little idea what it means. Not to say they do not know what a limit of a function is, but rather what in the world it represents. Is it the growth of a virus? Is it the economic cycle of a third world nation? Is it the feedback from two gears shifting?
But that, that right there requires some of that right brain stuff. That part of the emotional and gestalt part that you would be hard pressed to find from a mathematics professor. Imagine a math professor with emotion or passion; I can't seem to remember a single one. I am sure they exist, a few rare weird apples...
Why what happens? Why there are right brains so under utilized? Let's take a look at the differences:
Right Hemisphere Style
Rational
- Responds to verbal instructions
- Problem solves by logically and sequentially looking at the parts of things
- Looks at differences
- Is planned and structured
- Prefers established, certain information
- Prefers talking and writing
- Prefers multiple choice tests
- Controls feelings
- Prefers ranked authority structures
Sequential
- Is a splitter: distinction important
- Is logical, sees cause and effect
---Draws on previously accumulated, organized information
Left Hemisphere Style
Intuitive
- Responds to demonstrated instructions
- Problem solves with hunches, looking for patterns and configurations
- Looks at similarities
- Is fluid and spontaneous
- Prefers elusive, uncertain information
- Prefers drawing and manipulating objects
- Prefers open ended questions
- Free with feelings
- Prefers collegial authority structures
Simultaneous
- Is a lumpier: connectedness important
- Is analogical, sees correspondences, resemblances
---Draws on unbounded qualitative patterns that are not organized into sequences, but that cluster around images
Imagine a math class that had used feelings to illustrate time critical problems as drawings that fit patterns, and all variables were real life objects as if x or y were not just variables but actually stood for something like a out of control spaceship or a deadly virus, and imagine a teacher asking how do we get to off Mars before our oxygen runs out? Or how can we slow the rate of growth of a deadly strain of bacteria to save a population?
But so far I have not seen a college math teacher capable of any of these qualities. Yet why do I care?, what could my reasoning be, I should just shut up and learn the seemingly random non-sensical symbols that require operations from past math classes because I am told to use when I see this specific set of math symbols?
Because I think it is important that
We also know that emotion, patterns, and connections’ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ entrez /query.fcgi? cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16478342&dopt=Abstract) increase plasticity in neural networks, and there is a real biological reason you can't remember those trigometric identities.
To often those real world problems are left to be solved by the left brain people, Oh you know, the ones that use only emotion and conjecture to explain why global warming does not matter. Or other non-scientific stuff like stem-cell research or in-vitro fertilization.
I will continue complaining, even to my graduate degree professors, on the splitting of left and right brain systems in academics and how it has put science on the defensive, against leaders who use very little left brain logic. For I do not advocate one side over the other, in science or politics.
And sure we can import minds (http://www.today.ucla.edu/2005/050816 news_mathscience.html), and we do, just listen to a math lecture at a major university, chances are the accents are so thick it will take three TA's and an independent study group to decipher. Why do we have to import (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles /2004/06/10/schools_import_singapore_math_style/) them?
But as we approach the end of the first 21st century decade, what systems have we installed to prepare the 21st century generation for the problems we have left? We can as do
A Memo to Mr. Matthews
Hardblogger : The Iraq War: It was all predictable
Now, Let Me tell you what I really think. (the real nobodies)
People, you know them Chris, the little guys who say this country is all they got. Got us into this war. The short sighted, lacking nuance, Cowboy and Indians mentality.
The people who thought revenge was needed for 9/11 but wouldn't know that Revenge is a dish best served cold. Doubtful they would know who de la Clos was?
And here we are today looking at Reagan who has a tear rolling down his face? How blithely ironic and truly un-deconstructed that image is today in face of our war of consumer choice.
Because it is our war fought with our generation's attitude, and our generation's skill. You not only go to war with the army you have, you also go to war with the country you have...
But French knew, the Germans knew, and I would venture somewhere inside you, knew too...
Regardless, we got the war we wanted, fought the way we wanted, and no matter how blue in the face I or the few others yelled it was a mistake... The country wanted war on the cheap, like a pair of Chinese made socks from WalMart we buy on credit.
Well, Let me tell you Mister Matthews what I really think...
It's the 21st century, and we are all connected, the rules have changed even if the mentality of the little guy hasn't...Video of your sex exploits would have killed a career 20-30 years ago, today it gets you TV series, Mosques are network hubs with no barrier to class, while our Cellphone networks discriminate against those outside our circle of friends...
We now see the rise of the social capital entrepreneur, that uses grand exploits to increase their social net worth, and uses the dense network of communication and social networks intermeshed to achieve whatever selfish goals they wish to perpetrate.Or don't baby boomer watch YouTube?
And yet it is the nobodies sir, who got us into this. It is the nobodies who will die for it also. And it will be the nobodies who can't see or understand that there is very little difference between the rise of a Paris Hilton in the United States and the rise of Osama Bin Laden in the Middle East...
Both members of the new social capital entrepreneur class..
It is new terrain, and the nobodies are lost. And while you whine and complain, and ignore your sweet walks down country roads with the civilian corporal henchmen who helped sell the nobodies, this bloody mess, the responsiblity lies squarely on your head...
Because just like a typical baby boomer your indignation comes in small individually wrapped sanitized bite size pieces for consumption.
And because of that, you sir, you by being another commodity in this 21st century of the networked information age have an apology not to me, or your fans, but to the nobodies. The nobodies with their arms blown off, their skulls popped open, their legs turned to stubs.
Tell them, no really, seriously walk out of your office, and don't stop walking till you get to the first VA hospital and tell them... I am sure you'll bond immediately, I mean, you avoided the draft, had Republican parents, look them in their little guy eyes...
Do me one favor, when you tell them sitting in their cockroach infested beds, who's buddies died inflight over Germany, and remind them that their ideas of good guys and bad guys, and 9/11 revenge all of it is just a bunch of crap. Tell them that is what got their leg blown off. It's nuanced, yet their reaction may just be predictable as the wars outcome...
So keep the cameras rolling Chris Matthews. Keep the cameras rolling...
Link to Hardblogger : The Iraq War: It was all predictable
The Mother of all Conspiracy Theories....
The Democratic ticket will be Obama / Richardson. A black man as president and a Hispanic man as vice president.
Why is this a conspiracy? Why shouldn't a black and Hispanic man be at the top of political pyramid? How disgusting to think it might be a conspiracy?
I have done a lot of investigating on the Internet in the last several weeks. And here is what I found:
The former New Mexico governor did witness a UFO.
Global Warming will destroy the planet in 34 years.
Income Tax and the 16th amendment are illegal.
These and other conspiracy all have the same cast of characters, the uber elite who party at the Bohemian Grove, know about aliens, control our government through international banking. They believe in a new world order.
Only now, with the Internet these wild conspiracies are spreading, and thank god, what will we do when the federal government puts mandatory RFID chips into our arms? The new world order will track us like dogs!!! Charlie Sheen and Rosie please help us!!!!
We insipid citizens are either too busy paying illegal taxes, being polarized by the mass media to focus our attention on Democrats versus Republicans, or are part of a lunatic fringe of conspiracy theorists.
THEY potentially control elections, or at least our politicians who are either too naive that they are being bought by this dark elite which is sometimes characterized as a satanic cabal, or are actually part of the old world boys club to enslave all wage earning citizens into a cycle of debt and control of our money supply.
These theorists all propose we are at a tipping point, of no return, and that we must do something now. They are organized and they want us to protest. From WTO sit-ins to petitioning the government for Tax code. The truth is out there.
Well, if this is so, and let's face it who would not believe the man who produced Wise Guys with Joe Piscopo, that an evil set of American and European bankers set a plan to destroy our freedoms. I mean come on?
Or the rise in ocean level will devastate the isle of Manhattan as it inches up every ten years.
Note: This is not to say we are not polluters, we do not live in debt, taxes have not become a serious burden, and global trade never hurts American workers. All of these are blatantly true statements. We have serious issues both around the globe and in our own country.
But, if all the theorists are correct, that the CIA aided Gloria Steinem to push women into being wage earners to line the pockets of the Rockefellers and the man who shoots faces instead of mangled pheasants knew about detonating the twin towers, then the fix is in.
The uber elite must help get Obama and Richardson elected. Why? To counter act the conspirasists. If a black man can be elected, an outsider, it will appease the populace that our elections are not rigged for the Skull and Cross bones Kerry and Bush types.
Therefore these evil bankers will be allowing and helping fund the Obama campaign which will empower minorities to work harder and increase their credit and debt. If minorities see no glass ceiling, then their so called social complacency will be replaced by becoming over-worked over-taxed citizens, which in turn will enable their comfy children to become more likely to privatize social services as there over achieving parents have avoided.
The Corporatist elites who are to blame for most of our suffering, these entitled virtual citizens, will by electing the first black man stop the reparations movement dead in its tracks by cathartically empowering the black man as president. What power does a black president have anyway when we are dealing with UFO uber-elite International corporatists?
Yes its racist, its diabolical too. Because Richardson is a known member of the Bohemian Grove. Obama will be what current social commentators call the magical Negro or magical black. He will restore dignity and honor to our sadly islamo-fascist frightened soccer moms. While Richardson keeps the uber elite happy by watering down any of Obama's far flung social reforms which might fly in the face of evil plans of the WTO.
With the electorate at slumber, and the national consciousness dreaming MLK's promise, the tide will turn. The naive electorate will feel the system must be working if a black man and Hispanic man can be elected. Illegal taxes will continue, UFO's will continue to patrol our sky's, global warming will be monetized into carbon markets, and the uber-elite will continue to shape global trade into a single world government.
The conspiracy will continue. Unless we stop them and elect the only person who can stop them, the one person with the courage and strength to stop the lies....
Dear Mister Matthews....
Posted: Monday, March 19, 2007 5:06 PM by Hardball
Chris Matthews
The lazy story of the Iraq War is that nobody expected it.
Nobody thought it would be so unpopular. Nobody thought it would cause so much division in this country. Nobody thought it would cause so much of the world to condemn us.
But leaders are not supposed to be nobodies. They’re supposed to know things.
We ought to have known that going into Iraq would lack the world support that President Bush’s father enjoyed in the Persian Gulf War. It was clear as early as December of 2001 that going into Iraq would “forfeit” the global support we enjoyed in the weeks after September 11. It would mean “a hard division” here at home. I just came across those assessments I made back then as a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle:
"By the late summer of 2002, even before Congress voted to authorize the Iraq War, a Washington Post poll showed that division beginning to show itself. Asked whether they supported war if it would involve “significant casualties,” 51 percent, said “no.” Okay, we were fifty-fifty on the war even six months before the shooting started."
People like to say on this fourth anniversary of the war that we never thought it would this bloody. But in the Aug. 25, 2002, column where I quoted this poll number, I painted a vivid scenario of what would follow after the promised “cake walk” of the actual invasion.
“Our troops in Baghdad morph into a constabulary force. Their mission: guard streets, shoot snipers, arrest the suspicious, keep order, find the Hussein loyalists, round up the members of his ruling party, root out plots, battle the terrorists.”
The way our enemies in the Islamic world would exploit our occupation of Iraq was equally predictable.
“A mission to attack one isolated enemy will end up isolating us. A mission justified by the fight with terrorism will give birth to millions of terrorist-supporting haters. In every café from Manila to Casablanca, just whom do you think they will be rooting for? Just whom will their kids be killing themselves for?”
We Americans have lost over 3,000 of our young people. 24,000 have been wounded. One estimate by Johns Hopkins University has the count at 139,000 Iraqis dead in this war.
What part of this was hard to predict? That an invaded country would resent, resist and finally fight the invader? That the Shia would fight the Sunni? That America would not end up taking the blame?
It was all predictable.
Now, Let Me tell you what I really think.
(the real nobodies)
People, you know them Chris, the little guys who say this country is all they got. Got us into this war. The short sighted, lacking nuance, Cowboy and Indians mentality.
The people who thought revenge was needed for 9/11 but wouldn't know that Revenge is a dish best served cold. Doubtful they would know who de la Clos was?
And here we are today looking at Reagan who has a tear rolling down his face? How blithely ironic and truly un-deconstructed that image is today in face of our war of consumer choice.
Because it is our war fought with our generation's attitude, and our generation's skill. You not only go to war with the army you have, you also go to war with the country you have...
But French knew, the Germans knew, and I would venture somewhere inside you, knew too...
Regardless, we got the war we wanted, fought the way we wanted, and no matter how blue in the face I or the few others yelled it was a mistake... The country wanted war on the cheap, like a pair of Chinese made socks from WalMart we buy on credit.
Well, Let me tell you Mister Matthews what I really think...
It's the 21st century, and we are all connected, the rules have changed even if the mentality of the little guy hasn't...Video of your sex exploits would have killed a career 20-30 years ago, today it gets you TV series, Mosques are network hubs with no barrier to class, while our Cellphone networks discriminate against those outside our circle of friends... We now see the rise of the social capital entrepreneur, that uses grand exploits to increase their social net worth, and uses the dense network of communication and social networks intermeshed to achieve whatever selfish goals they wish to perpetrate.Or don't baby boomer watch YouTube?
And yet it is the nobodies sir, who got us into this. It is the nobodies who will die for it also.
And it will be the nobodies who can't see or understand that there is very little difference between the rise of a Paris Hilton in the United States and the rise of Osama Bin Laden in the Middle East... Both members of the new social capital entrepreneur class..
It is new terrain, and the nobodies are lost. And while you whine and complain, and ignore your sweet walks down country roads with the civilian corporal henchmen who helped sell the nobodies, this bloody mess, the responsibility lies squarely on your head...
Because just like a typical baby boomer your indignation comes in small individually wrapped sanitized bite size pieces for consumption.
And because of that, you sir, you by being another commodity in this 21st century of the networked information age have an apology not to me, or your fans, but to the nobodies. The nobodies with their arms blown off, their skulls popped open, their legs turned to stubs.
Tell them, no really, seriously walk out of your office, and don't stop walking till you get to the first VA hospital and tell them... I am sure you'll bond immediately, I mean, you avoided the draft, had Republican parents, look them in their little guy eyes...
Do me one favor, when you tell them sitting in their cockroach infested beds, who's buddies died inflight over Germany, and remind them that their ideas of good guys and bad guys, and 9/11 revenge all of it is just a bunch of crap. Tell them that is what got their leg blown off. It's nuanced, yet their reaction may just be predictable as the wars outcome...
So keep the cameras rolling Chris Matthews. Keep the cameras rolling...
Biology of Violence...
A recent New Scientist article proposes that the reason Bonobo's do not act as agressively is due to thier environment, with plenty of resources extremely agressive behavior is rare.
One article talks about social status and monkeys:
Scientists who have won a Nobel prize live nearly two years longer than those who were merely nominated, according to a new study. The findings suggest that social status confers "health-giving magic", the researchers say.
Previous research has found a link between status and health in monkeys, but it has been difficult to investigate the link in humans because status often brings more wealth, which improves living standards and medical care.
And then there is sex, what NewScientist mentions here is almost pornographic. And remember we share 95% or more of gene pool with these mammals:
Then there is the sex. Bonobos are famous for it. Aside from the typical male/female activity, they also engage in more "creative" behaviours: wet kissing, masturbation, oral sex, female/female and male/male couplings, group activities, the list goes on and on. The only restriction seems to be incest between mothers and their children. Chimps by contrast restrict themselves almost entirely to male/female sex and don't have nearly as much of it as bonobos. What's more, males are dominant, frequently use food to lure females into having sex with them, and sometimes beat uncooperative females.
Then there are links to developmental psychology. Scientists have found links to child abuse and lower levels of chemicals in brains of chimps later in life:
Analysis of the monkeys’ brain fluid revealed that those reared by abusive mothers or abusive foster mothers had 10% to 20% less serotonin than monkeys who had grown up without maternal abuse. This supports the idea that the drop in serotonin results from mistreatment, rather than a genetic predisposition. (Journal reference: Behavioral Neuroscience)
Social aspects that appear to be totally human, such as teenagers being late for dinner. It sounds typical night in suburbia. Yet it happens in the Zoo of our primates as much as it does in the Zoo's of our suburban sprawls:
To show that even social rule enforcement is not beyond non-human animals, let me recount a fascinating situation that I witnessed years ago at Arnhem Zoo in the Netherlands. One balmy evening, when the keeper called the large chimpanzee colony inside, two adolescent females refused to enter the building. The weather was superb, they had the whole island to themselves and were loving it. The zoo's rule was that none of the apes would get fed until they had all moved inside. The obstinate teenagers threw the rest of the group into a grumpy mood. When they finally came in, they were assigned a separate bedroom by the keeper to prevent reprisals.
This protected them only temporarily, though. The next morning, out on the island, the entire colony vented its frustration about the delayed meal by a mass pursuit ending in a beating for the culprits. That evening, the same two females were the first to come in.( NewScientist.com news service Frans de Waal)