明天, 今天, 昨天（ghostneuron）

People are looking for this day when human brain and computer communicate more directly than talking through fingers, and envolve together, which may change the world completely…the new research in UK has just made a promising progress. The cultured neurons are connected by electrodes to a robot, and the signals can be received and sent feedback to avoid collision. I remembered from an exhibition in Museum of Science in Boston that a paralyzed patient could control the keyboard of a computer through a chip implanted in his mortor cortex. But this research seems make more reduction than before, which could be used as a model for neuronal circuit studies.

I am done with step2 cs at last. I feel good for most cases. I finished most 2 min earlier than limit, but also forgot something like family history and DTN in physical exams. The cases are all in expectation except 2 unsured. Most patients were cooperative especially with older people, and the younger ones were still OK but made me more nervous. Record here from memory:

1/ TIA, 65 yo F c/o weakness and numbness of right arm and leg

2/ Stroke, 60 yo F c/o pass out, faint, speech difficulty

3/ Colonrectal cancer, Ulcerative Conlitis, 58 yo F Diabetes check up, c/o diarrhea

4/ Colonrectal cancer,  40 yo M c/o hard stool

5/ Abortion, PID, 32 yo F c/o non-stopping menstural period

6/ Anemia, Purpura, 54 yo M c/o loss of energy

7/ Disc Herniation, 31 yo M c/o lower back pain 

8/ peumonia, 28 yo M c/o chest pain and cough 

9/ URI, Peumonia, 26 yo F c/o cough and sputum 

10/ Enuresis, father consults for his son’s Bed wetting 

11/ Depression, 30 yo F c/o suicide atempment  

12/ Adjustment disorder, 16 yo F c/o feeling bad 

The power of a computer is up to its calculating speed, the power of a human brain is atributed to its neural transduction speed; are there a limit for both? the computer can become bigger and bigger, or smaller and smaller with the material revolution, which leads to an expotientnal increase of speed limited by the energy consumed only, while human brain has to consider a balence between the size and energy consumed. The new research recently used a math model to see weather the human brain size changes with evolution, and drew the conclusion that it won’t unless human doen’t live in a dangous world. However I think there are other posiibilities to reach the objectives. Suppose we get a biological modification to improve the metablism efficacy and shrink the total volume of our body, then the brain could become smaller too and high speed running.  The iPhone might be leading the trend for human brain evolution….high speed, low energy consumption, small size…..I heard from some researchs that said the future human is like a ball already, maybe that’s it…..

人类的进化是自发的随机的吗？ 这个电影显然给与人类一种外星智慧的启示；人类是外星人的试验品。。。为了这个试验，他们可以耐心等待几百万年。如果驱使人类进化的动力是好奇心的话，外星人的目的是什么呢？ 人类从发明工具，到探索月球，到木星寻源，每一次都要靠神指一点。。。也许外星的进化系统与人不同，他们对人类也是好奇之中。象人类一样，在这个电影里只以石碑形态出现的外星人标志，也在探询着思考着生命的意义。。。两种文明可以通过碰撞交流而互相理解，两种星际文明的碰撞也需要得到对方的反馈才行，不过这个电影只有人类自己的声音和想像。

电影里的配乐是Also sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss) and On The Beautiful Blue Danube (Johann Strauss II)，一个雄壮，一个悠扬，一个充满英雄主义般的探索和孤独，一个充满现世主义的享乐和浮华，一刚一柔，代表了人类以及世界的两极。真是很有代表性。。。除了这两个人类的创造，在无垠的宇宙中伴随着飞船的是各种刺耳的噪音，包括蝉叫的声音，还有绚丽奇幻的声光色。

当然最吸引人的是宇航船上的生活，未来的科技，包括人与电脑的对抗。。。这个电影也是个科幻迷百看不厌的，有人列下这个funny单子在IMDB___ 

1. Hal is sorry
2. people can survive in space, for a bit.
3. do not be afraid of a big black 1x4x9 monolith, that yells AAAAAAA!
4. floating in an egg above the world, as a baby, is one way to end a film
5. never step into a regency decorated room, without expecting to age very quickly, and to constantly see yourself through time
6. when in the regency room, all your food will be made for you
7. the hilton hotel has reached space!
8. in space, there is no need for the internet, you have access to video phone booths
9. the soviet union still exists in 2001
10. carefull, its hot! 

11. In the future, everything still tastes like chicken.
12. Velcro shoes are needed to walk on floors where there’s little/no gravity.
13. Space toilets don’t look that fun to use.
14. Floyd’s daughter wants a telephone, and if not that, then a bush baby!
15. They can spend billions on building a space station, but can’t afford a non-nauseating interior decorator/designer.
16. Interstellar portals look like an ELO show.
17. Ligeti wrote theme music for black monoliths and other strange things.
18. A muddy waterhole is SO not worth it!
19. When in a bizarre hotel room, be careful about breaking wine glasses, or a monolith will appear and you will die and transform into a Starchild.
20. An advanced supercomputer is no match for a guy with a screwdriver!
21. The bone is mightier than the sword.
22. Classical music is still cool.
23. When intelligent machines turn on you, ventrilliquism is a useful skill to have.
24. Winning a chess game will become impossible.
25. In hindsight, it’s probably a good idea to install sensitive hardware on the INSIDE of your spacecraft so you don’t have to keep going outside to fix it.
26. Despite what film school has taught me, a jump-cut isn’t always a bad thing.
27. No matter how trapped you might seem to be, there is ALWAYS a hidden lever somewhere.
28. Taking LSD isn’t the only way to have a trip.
29. Dialogue is over-rated.
30. 3 Acts. No, I mean, 4. No wait…..3…..no, wait…..
31. Tapirs are tasty
32. Don’t mess with the Moonwatcher
33. In space, it’s better to hold "it" until you get to the space station
34. Those sneaky Russkies are still sneaky in 2001
35. You can’t go home again.

36. people dont talk for a good 26 minutes
37. apes are not apes, baby apes are
38. he’s not at liberty to say
39. people watch wrestling on long space flights
40. if your waiting for someone, ask for them, they will arive behind you
41. gravity doesnt apply to some sets…
42. never let a computer have the ability to kill you, especially if it can be cheesed off…
43. when your going to talk infront of a super computer, make sure you use telepathy
44. hal doesnt want to open the pod bay doors
45. Mr Langly taught hal to sing a song, and if you’d like to hear it, he can sing it for you, dying or not…
46. there is no sound in space… only clasical music! 

47. A helmet doesn’t do you any good if you leave at at home.
48. Leopards do not make good pets.
49. Touching long vibrating things can be habit forming (ask my x-wife)

50. man can go anywhere in the universe, but computerised chess is 2d
51. the bbc have hundreds and hundreds of television channels
52. the food trays from that machine are hot!
53. theres a delay between descovery and earth, but editing overcomes this
54. dave does very nice renderings…
55. …and has improved 

56. Hal looks like an iPod, which was released in 2001…. :

57. HAL was also the first webcam.
58. Humanity’s destiny is to go from the rat race to the rodent wheel. 

59. Sucking (straws) can be fun and nutritious.
60. In space, no one can see your luggage.
61. Exercise can make you dizzy.
62. Beware of geeks bearing grifts – whether they’re computers or troll posters.
63. Richard and Johann Strauss can share the same space in peace.
64. Black is beautiful, especially when rectangular.
65. Accept no substitutes. 

……… 

The anatomical asymmetries of brain have been found in many animals bescides human, even honeybee. It seems the evolution prefer asymmetries for brain and heart, which are the most important organs in the body. Thare are some spliting brain cases, which are to help seisure patients, and as a side-effect, if those patients are right-handed, they are able to write words displayed to the left side of the brain, but not words displayed to the right, it ’s reasonable bacause the left side of the brain controls speaking, reading and writing in most people. And There is another case who is left-handed, when her brain was splited, she can write words displayed to the right side of her brain, but not words displayed to the left, which means the right hemisphere might control writing in left-handed people.

And interesting, when human is older than 25, the langusage center becomes blurred, with both hemisphere function rather than one domination. 

With the development of the genomic knowledge, we know more and more about gene related disease. Except single gene disease, which means you have 100% chance to get the disease if you had the gene, most diseases are multi-genes correlated, such as diabetes, colon cancer. There are already biocompanies helping you to exam your genes to see if you are at risk for any genetic disease…..so, do you want to know if you are at risk or not?

I don’t have the gene, then I will not care about my life style…these people may increased their risks…I have the gene, I am depressed in the beginning, then I change my life style, I may get better chance to escape the disease, but with the painful constrain on eating, drinking, working…life could be changed, everyone want to get their idea life, health is only one of them, maybe it’s not everyone’s choice….

I am curious, so I want to know what’s in this Pandora’s box… 

I heard the recent news from China and Austria on clinical trials with moral stains. It seems both cases broke the Belmont Principles at least for "respect for persons" .  In this principle, the researcher should tell the patients in simple words to let them know what’s going to be done to them regarding their treatments, and the patients have absolute right to decide to attend the treatments or not, and the doctors or researchers cannot cover any information to the patients, so called "Inform Consent".

Science is a double-face sword, could be evil without human moral control, so a scientist should always be retrospective about their research to excluse any inhuman events.

"Selfish punishers can invade the population when rare but then limit each other, preventing the altruists from being completely eliminated.Individuals who behave altruistically are vulnerable to exploitation by more selfish individuals within their own group, but groups of altruists can robustly out-compete more selfish groups. Altruism can therefore evolve by natural selection as long as its collective advantage outweighs its more local disadvantage."

"Altruists ‘pay’ the selfish punishers by allowing themselves to be exploited, while the selfish punishers return the favor with their second-order altruism. “That way, no one needs to pay the double cost required of an altruist who also punishes others,” says Eldakar. “If so, then the best groups might be those that include a few devils along with the angels.” "

——————from  Science daily

想起小时候，小学里的班长虽然没有人喜欢，我们称他为“奸懒馋猾坏”五毒俱全，但是老师还是喜欢他做班长，大概就是这个原因。 一个集体对外竞争既需要好人，也需要坏蛋。 一个国家既需要忠臣也许要奸臣；这种组合是因也是果。经济学家认为是减少损耗的双赢。

I read this news today, and found out the list:  It’s surprise that untill 19 century did people know the problems of consanguineous marriage, even with biologist like Darwin….but his dilemma on marriage is another question, which could confused many men; however his is also different, as a special man, his gene seems deviated from the normal distribution of human population…

Marry

Children (if it Please God)
Constant companion (and friend in old age) who will feel interested in one
Object to be beloved and played with. Better than a dog anyhow
Home, & someone to take care of house
Charms of music and female chit-chat
These things good for one’s health—but terrible loss of time
My God, it is intolerable to think of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, and nothing after all—No, no, won’t do
Imagine living all one’s day solitary in smoky dirty London House
Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire and books and music perhaps
Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Great Marlboro Street, London

Not Marry

Freedom to go where one liked
Choice of Society and little of it
Conversation of clever men at clubs
Not forced to visit relatives and bend in every trifle
Expense and anxiety of children
Perhaps quarrelling
Loss of Time
Cannot read in the evenings
Fatness and idleness
Anxiety and responsibility
Less money for books etc.
If many children forced to gain one’s bread (But then it is very bad for one’s health to work too much)
Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment and degradation into indolent, idle fool

I am taking a training and test online about ethical considerations on biological research with human. That’s quite out of my knowledge before.

The Belmont Principles

The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human of
Research, published in 1979 by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects
of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, provides the philosophical underpinnings for current
federal laws that govern research involving human subjects.
Three basic ethical principles relevant to the ethics of research are described in TheBelmont
Report:
1. Respect for persons – This principle requires that researchers recognize that each
individual’s judgments and choices about participating in the research must be respected.
For those not capable of deciding for themselves or classified by the government as
vulnerable subjects (e.g., children, prisoners, pregnant women, fetuses), special
protection must be made.
To meet this principle , research subjects or their legal representative usually must sign an
informed consent form detailing the research to be done, the potential risks and benefits,
and anything else that might influence their decision to participate. The IRB reviews the
project to ensure that participation of subject is voluntary, and that the information
provided to gain consent is adequate and appropriate.
2. Beneficence – This principle embodies these concepts: 1) do not harm and 2) maximize
possible benefits and minimize possible harms. All research should be designed to
minimize risk and maximize benefit to the participant and to society. The IRB will
review the project to determine if risks are outweighed by the potential benefits.
3. Justice – This principle considers whether the benefits and burdens of participating in the
research are fairly distributed among all populations to ensure justice. Researchers must
be careful not to select already burdened or vulnerable groups who might be more easily
coerced to participate. This is a question of justice, in the sense of "fairness in
distribution" or "what is deserved." The goal is to distribute burdens and benefits in just
ways. The IRB reviews the project to ensure that subjects are selected fairly within the
specific project and among all other Messiah College research.