Brain Music Treatment--The Mood Organ is Here!!!

In his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick invented a device that citizens hook into to administer moods for the day. Last autumn at the College Music Journal (CMJ) Music Marathon and conference in New York City (2006), a company called Brain Music Therapy was displaying their service in a booth, the production of a "brain music" audio track for people to use to treat commonplace diseases, including such blockbuster ailments as depression, insomnia, attention deficit disorder, anxiety, migranes and tension headaches. It sounds like new age piano music, but the idea is that it is recorded based on rhythms and data from your personal EEG, an electroencephalogram which measures electrical nerve activity from the skin of your scalp and ears.

Here's the link.

First observation: the girl in the "before brain music" photo is way hotter than the organized and efficient "after brain music" woman. Sure, before listening to brain music the woman couldn't even get her jacket on and off, but man, that brain music makes her look rather Stepfordian afterwards. Or perhaps it's just the lighting.

Second observation: language is deployed throughout this site in a way that promotes thinking about the body as a collection of replaceable parts, a system to be tuned. The body and mind can be kept in optimal functionality, all very jargon-laden and scientific sounding. But this is no mere gimmick, this is crucial to the reorganization of the human body as a site for commerce and exchange. Read through the website for awhile and the language of optimized performance starts to sound like you're buying a Lexus.

Third observation: if the therapy actually works, it is regulating performance through adminstration of a feedback loop. This is basic cybernetics, Norman Weiner's theory about the human-machine interface. Data is collected from the EEG rhythms and intensities, manipulated into audio information--brain music--and played back based on a deliberate and systematic schedule. The company even advises revising as necessary (recording a new audio loop, $$) once the new patterns have taken effect. It could be a scam or it could be a brilliant new discovery--related companies are selling equipment, and training in neurofeedback therapy, and such therapies are being administered by licensed psychiatrists and psychologists. Clearly, the American Medical Association is going to resist any alternative medicine--there's too much money in treating the big pharm diseases that brain music claims to heal. But even if this therapy helps me sleep better at night, I am uneasy about spending more time being disciplined by information, or any media at all.

Still curious? Check out www.cnih.net, the website for The Center for Neurofeedback and Integrative Health, Inc. The new technology, and systems analysis approach to emotional and mental health are explained in detail here. The average treatment period is about six months, with twice weekly sessions.

Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln - Disneyland History-458

This animatronics "robot" was state of the art in the 1960 when Disneyland first installed it. While technologies of mechanized movement have been as commonplace as ChuckECheese restaurants, Disney's attention to detail in the animatronic mask and arm movements seems pretty good when we compare it to contemporary efforts to create robotic Japanese women.

CES 07: Honda Asimo Humanoid Robot demo

Heeeeere's Asimo! I wouldn't want to spend an evening dancing with "it" as they so rudely refer to the robot, but it has taken a long time to get it to ascend and descend stairs without falling.

Dancing Sony Robots

So you think you can dance? Try shaking your groove thing with a mechanical butt. The most challenging thing so far in humanoid robots, at least for emulating our bodies, is biped locomotion. Asimo, Honda's robot is the best at this, but these Sony robots have the moves. Well, sorta...

AKIBA ROBOT FESTIVAL 2006: Actroid Female Robot

Here's one of many Japanese talking and arm waving robots--all female from what I have found on youtube.

Neil Young - Sample And Hold

Here's a songabout a robotic love companion. Not meant to be funny, this song expresses the same desire that companies like realdoll are trying to satisfy with their product.

Flight Of The Conchords - The Humans Are Dead

Here's a comic song about the end of humans at the hands of robots. Perhaps I am just looking for an excuse to post my favorite new band tot he blog, but this is funny, even as it toys with a standing nervousness in the general psyche of people regarding robots.

post-evolution or just better healthcare for aging?

Check out this Washington Post graphic overview of new transplantable organs for the aging body. In a post-evolutionary world, nature gives way to intervention and networked bodies. The first step is reconceiving of the body not as a natural housing for the person, but as a temporary vessel to be modified and tampered with as needed to adapt to the environment. This is no longer adaptive mutation, but something far more deliberate and manufactured.

William Burroughs NIKE CM

Here is one of my personal heroes, William S. Burroughs, whoring himself out to NIke in the 1990s--as these things go, he at least makes an interesting defiant statement about technology. As egregious as NIke is in their aggressive business practices and exploitation of labor, they have mastered the art of advertising cool. How little this ad has to do with sneakers confounds me as much as my desire for a pair of Burroughs brand Nike's makes me wonder who the heck I am inside.

Stelarc - The Body is Obsolete - Contemporary Arts Media

Here is a primer on Stelarc, narrated by the artist himself. His philosophical position is that the body is not a seat for the soul, but rather one input-output device in a universe of other input-output devices of equal value. So, his body suspensions, while they may have the look of new primative piercing actions, have none of the spiritual resonance (nor even fashion concerns) typically associated with piercing and suspensions. His most recent act has been to have a third ear installed beneath the skin of his arm. By deforming his body for the sake of art, Stelarc demonstrates the harsh reality that post-evolution requires: an abandonment of the natural as sacrosanct, a relinquishment of the body as a temple for the soul. For thos who still feel the body is the seat of indentity, Stelarc's work will be confrontational.

Literature and Science as a broader field

Here is a link to a pretty vast web resource for the larger field in which our Post-Evolution class fits. Prof. Ian Roberts of Missouri Western University has put this together.

Official narrative: figuring out how much human modification is just right...

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has a report on human enhancement that tries to wrangle with the way economic and other differenes in the populace might be exasperated by scientific and technological enhancement. Although this sort of expository prose is not as sexy as the cultural fare exploring the same materials, this is the realm of the experts who end up on government and policy-making panels. - MF