Saturday, August 18, 2012 – A Great Science Fair Project Idea
It seems that Friday night is the new night for insomnia chez
moi.
I made this discovery after 7 hours in bed last night, during which time
lengthy stretches of feverish mental activity alternated with brief periods of
sleep punctuated by vivid dreams.
It felt like hypercreative demons had hijacked my brain.
Could I possibly be experiencing manic episodes? More likely, it's a lingering
symptom of my Effexor XR withdrawal.
As long as the insomnia is predictable (i.e. limited to Friday nights),
I don’t mind it. In fact, it makes
it very easy to get up early in the morning.
Once my head becomes a bubbling cauldron of ideas, it’s
almost impossible stay in bed, even though I leave a notepad and pencil on the
bedside table so I can make notes in the dark. (They’re mostly decipherable next morning.) The alternative is to get up and sit
down at the keyboard, not matter what the hour is. A similar situation occurs when I’m in the shower since I
find that water stimulates the flow of creative ideas. For years, I’ve gotten some of my best
ideas while taking a morning shower, when it’s nearly impossible to write them
down. I used to keep an index card
and a pencil by the bathroom sink, but the paper tended to get soggy.
What we really need is a 21st century solution to
this problem. In other words, we
need an invention that will act as a direct interface between the brain and the
computer. For example, if I think
a phrase in my head, those words will automatically appear in an electronic
version in a computer file.
Mistakes in spelling and punctuation will be forgiven.
And it’s not as far-fetched as it seems. Scientists can already pinpoint areas
of the brain that are activated during certain mental activities. So to all of you in high school now,
I’m handing you a great idea for your next science fair project: Take a little neuroscience, add some
computer software engineering, and see what you can come up with.
No comments:
Post a Comment