Theoretical Framework: Neurocosmology

Neurocosmology is the conceptual schema for the the research I do. Basic to neurocosmology is the notion that the human's ability to experience information is limited only by its nervous system's ability to receive, process and render to consciousness the contents of any information present to it via the senses. This boils down to saying, our nervous system can actually perceive greater amounts of information if we shunted information to all sensitive regions of the body. From our work with the disabled, we stumbled onto the idea of the human body as an interface mechanism. Building from this presupposition means that a much greater amount of information can be rendered to consciousness if more than just the eyes are involved in perceiving data-- a syndrome we call photic chauvanism [picture] (as the nervous system is getting more and varying information). In contrast, there can now be a multisensory approach to constructing interface systems for the perception and expression of any thing you can think of. Seeing, hearing, touching/being touched, balancing are all perfectly good avenues for getting information from the outside to the inside.

Neurocosmology is a kind of operational philosophy for thinking about the most basic and essential elements of human computer interaction. They are (parenthetical notes refer to the diagram below)

• A Mind (orange circle with green symbol: PSI) as the beginning of all expression and the end of all perception; the foundation of the whole process.

• An Organism/Life (grey matter with red symbol: PHX) system facilitating that perception and expression via sensory and motor actions (biological/physiological factors).

• An Interface system which is a two-fold element (for a very high level technology which applies this thinking: Bot Masters)

• Expressional (purple square with red symbol: SNS): some mechanism senses/captures some motor action as input from the human (e.g., mouse click, facial movement).

• Perception (red square with purple symbol: SKY): some mechanism which renders results of the expression back to the human (e.g., screen, audio screen reader for the blind, etc.)

• Implicity, finally, there is the computational system (yellow circle with blue symbol: KHI) which is taking inputs and turning them into outputs ongoingly creating a human interaction with information.

The diagram you see here is what I call the biocybernetic loop. It is a very good way for understanding all the elements of how a human interacts with a computer. Hopefully, taken in conjunction with our human computer interface tutorial you can see that the only constant part of this puzzle is the Mind. If there is a mind then no matter what the particulars of a disablity, what have you, there is a way to interface that mind with a communications technology.

Thinking about any possible way of interfacing humans with computers is allowed by this approach. Another example of the more exotic end of such thinking see our Grok Box proposal.

Early Papers

1985

1990

Brain wave studies and Chaos

Visual Renderings of brain studies [isosurfaces]