Water drop refraction (Built with Processing and Processing.js)
Sun rays as they are refracted and reflected within the water drop. MouseY changes the drop Y position. MouseX (towards the right edge) adds more rays. The difference in the color refraction angles is amplified, for better visibility.

Geometry and Precision

As all worldly phenomena that fall into the category of sublime beauty, the physics of rainbows is hard to grasp.

The transformation of white light into multiple colors through refraction and reflection inside a water droplet – yes, that is easy. And it happens constantly, whenever light waves cross over the boundary from one medium to another. Yet sun rays enter the droplet at all possible surface points and as each ray refracts differently, colored rays go off in many different directions (within a 84 degree section). Basically there are colored rays all over, whenever there is sunlight and rain.

The magic of the rainbow happens when some of those colored rays get bundled into the eye of the observer. The geometry requires sun, rain and observer to be in perfect placement to each other. The sun behind and the rain in front of the observer – then a rainbow can be seen between the angles of 40.89 (blue) to 42 (red) degrees from the direction opposite the Sun.

Somehow the precision of nature – the precision of water droplets being perfect little spheres, and the precision of colored light’s different refracting angles – enables us to experience this optical phenomenon.

What buffles me is that there are all these rainbows out there, that exist whenever sunlight hits rain, and that they are hidden in our world unless an observer positions himself at that perfect location and angle. (tbc)

Circular rainbows can be experienced from airplanes

Brocken Spectre

References

wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow
Why not start here?

The Scientific Explanation of Rainbows
Great antiquated video on youtube, explaining the history and physics of the rainbow. Lots of helpful illustrations / animations.

About Rainbows
By The National Center for Atmospheric Research

Topic: physics of Rainbow
Java applet showing the refraction inside a water droplet

Build a Rainbow
another applet

Physically-based Simultion of Rainbows
Physically-based model for simulating rainbows, paper presented at ACM 2012

How to make your own rainbow
Create your own rainbow effect with a glass-bead display

How to Make a Rainbow
There are 6 ways: water glass method, mirror method, CD method, …

Rainbow Demonstration
More physic class experiments

Q: If you suddenly replaced all the water drops in a rainbow with same-sized spheres of polished diamond, what would happen to the rainbow? How do you calculate the size of a rainbow?
From the blog “Ask a Mathematician / Ask a Physicist”, and because i love thought experiments.

Catching the Light – The Entwined History of Light and Mind by Arthur Zajonc

A beautiful book i can’t recommend more. Chapter 7 is called “Door of the Rainbow” and talks about the scientific history of the rainbow in a poetic, philosophical and scientific way.

Beauty by Olafur Eliasson (1993)
Fine curtain of water droplets, and a suspended spotlight.

1+1=3 by Marc Quinn (2002)
White light, water, pump system

Brocken Spectre by Charles Monkhouse (2011)
Glass-bead display, as part of exhibition ‘Seeing the Light, an investigation into Brocken Spectres and Heiligenschein’

Traveling Rainbows by Chris Fraser (2013)
Tiny glass beads and point light source. More optical experiments on his website.

Round Rainbow by Olafur Eliasson (2005)
Light shining onto what seems to be a prism ring.

Creating Max/MSP/Jitter patches can get messy fast. You can create labyrinths and hierarchical monsters full of objects, subpatches and externals. Sometimes writing it down in code is more elegant.

The options to write code for Max/MSP are as follows (efficiency tests results see forum post):

• c++
• c
• java … 1.5 times slower than C
• javascript … 200 times slower than Java

Step by Step

Disclaimer: This guide shows the steps i followed when creating my first java jitter externals for Max/MSP. It is far from a comprehensive guide, it might not work for everyone and especially not every operating system, but it worked for me. Note: This is a Windows-7 guide.

1. Java Virtual Machine

Java objects for Max function with the mxj external, which builds the connection between your Max patch and your java code being executed in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Be aware that there is a little bottleneck of 1 microsecond for every package that is passed between your [mxj] object and JVM.

• Find out what Java version is installed on your computer with the javatester.org, or Verifying Java Version
• In the likelihood of needing to install or update Java, go to java.com

2. Setup Eclipse

You need an development environment to write and compile your Java code. Eclipse is free, open source, popular and cross platform.

• Download Eclipse Classic 4.2.2 (JUNO) at eclipse.org/downloads. As alternative: Eclipse IDE for Java Developers should work too.
• Install Eclipse, and pick your workspace directory
• Setup your workbench: WINDOW > OPEN PERSPECTIVE > JAVA

Select the approriate Java Runtime Environment (JRE) when creating your java project.

3. Create Eclipse Java project

• Create a new project by: NEW > JAVA PROJECT, name the project, select the appropriate JRE (most likely JavaSE-1.7, but if you want to use your externals on older computers choose JavaSE-1.6) and click finish.

Once you added the jitter.jar and max.jar to your project’s lib directory, and added both libraries to your build path, your package explorer should look like this.

4. Import Libraries

• Create a lib folder within your Java project.
• Copy max.jar and jitter.jar from the C:\Program Files (x86)\Cycling ’74\java\lib\ directory into the new lib folder. Refresh (F5) inside Eclipse to see the libraries in the Package Explorer. (ALTERNATIVE: add libraries as external jars)
• Add both libraries to build path by right-click: BUILD PATH > ADD TO BUILD PATH. They will now be listed under Referenced Libraries.

Settings the directory and filenames of your SSH key for the Eclipse and Git integration.

First commit

5. Setup Github

I am squeezing the Eclipse+Git setup and github linkage in between here, as it changed my folder structure, which will effect the other upcoming steps. More setup help at the EGit User Guide.

• First, setup a new repository on github.com
• Verify your SSH settings in Eclipse by: WINDOW > PREFERENCES > GENERAL > NETWORK CONNECTIONS > SSH2. Verify your SSH2 home is C:\Users\eva\Documents\.ssh. For this to work i had to create an additional SSH key that is only for Eclipse (in addition to my computer’s usual SSH key).
• Install EGit by: HELP > INSTALL NEW SOFTWARE and paste http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno in ‘Work with’ line. (Pick URL adequate for your IDE here: eclipse.org/egit/download/)
• Type EGit into the filter, then pick and install Eclipse EGit and EGit Mylyn and Eclipse EGit Mylyn GitHub Feature
• EGit setup: identify yourself
• Set the environment variable HOME by: type environment in start menu, select Edit environment variables for your account, click ‘new’, enter HOME into name field, enter %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ into value field. Restart Eclipse
• Right click on project and: TEAM > SHARE PROJECT, select Git, click ‘Create’, Parent directory will be C:\Users\eva\Documents\git, name it, and click ‘finish’.
• Add files to repository by: TEAM > ADD TO INDEX
• Commit with: TEAM > COMMIT
• Setup your Destination Git Repository with the github project’s SSH URL, ssh as protocol, git as User and no password. Click ‘next’, if connection successful, accept the host key, enter your SSH key’s passphrase and continue to push commits.

Write a simply Hello World program

6. Write Code

Write a first dummy class for testing purposes. No jitter functionality for now.

• Create a new class with NEW > CLASS, give it a name and click finish.

  import com.cycling74.max.*;
  
  public class dummyObject extends MaxObject {
  
      public void bang() {
          outlet(0, "BANG");
  
      }	
  }

• As soon as you save the file, Eclipse will autocompile it for you. Check your project directory, you should find a dummyObject.class inside the /bin directory. (The .java files inside the /src directory are the source files, while the .class files are compiled code)

Write a simply Hello World program

7. Test Java External

First you need to tell Max/MSP where it can find your Java externals.

• Locate your max.java.config.txt file (should be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Cycling ’74\Max 5.0\Cycling ’74\java folder) and add a new line, defining the location of the .class files inside the /bin directory:

  max.dynamic.class.dir C:/Users/eva/Documents/git/maxExt/maxExt/bin

• Start Max and create a new patch
• Add your object [mxj dummyObject] and see if it works.
• Go back and change your code in Eclipse. Make sure to save, so it autocompiles the new class file. Delete your object in your Max patch, and immediately undo the action. Now the class file has been updated in Max’s memory as well.

Jitter example

8. Write and test a Jitter example

Now let’s test if our java class can also create jitter objects, and draw simple geometry with the [jit.gl.sketch] object.

• Write a new class:

  import com.cycling74.max.*;
  import com.cycling74.jitter.*;
  
  public class dummyJitter extends MaxObject {
  
      // jitter objects
      JitterObject sketch;
      JitterObject texture;
      
      float v = 0.0f;
  
      /* instantiate mxj with render context as argument */
      public dummyJitter(String context) {
  
          declareIO(2, 1); // declare 2 inlets, 1 outlet
  
          // instantiate Jitter sketch object
          sketch = new JitterObject("jit.gl.sketch");
          sketch.setAttr("drawto", context);
          sketch.setAttr("glclearcolor", new Atom[] { 
              Atom.newAtom(0.), 
              Atom.newAtom(0.), 
              Atom.newAtom(0.), 
              Atom.newAtom(1.) });
      }
  
      public void bang() {
      	sketch.call("reset");
          sketch.call("glcolor", new Atom[] { 
              Atom.newAtom(1.), 
              Atom.newAtom(0.5), 
              Atom.newAtom(0.),
              Atom.newAtom(1.) });
  
          v += 1.0f; // rotation value
          sketch.call("glrotate", new Atom[] { 
              Atom.newAtom(v), 
              Atom.newAtom(0), 
              Atom.newAtom(0), 
              Atom.newAtom(1) });
          
          // draw a triangle
          sketch.call("glbegin", "polygon");
          sketch.call("glvertex", new Atom[] { 
              Atom.newAtom(0.5), 
              Atom.newAtom(0.5), 
              Atom.newAtom(0) });
          sketch.call("glvertex", new Atom[] { 
              Atom.newAtom(-0.5), 
              Atom.newAtom(0.5), 
              Atom.newAtom(0) });
          sketch.call("glvertex", new Atom[] { 
              Atom.newAtom(-0.5), 
              Atom.newAtom(-0.5), 
              Atom.newAtom(0) });
          sketch.call("glend");
          
      }
  }
  

• By saving the class in Eclipse, the IDE will compile the class file for you
• Create a Max/MSP patch with a [jit.gl.render] object, a [jit.window] for showing the graphics, and your [mxj dummyJitter] object. Give them all the same render context, run a metro and see if you see the spinning triangle.

9. Max/MSP communication with Java object, and vice versa

Triggering functions within or sending values into the java object, is straightforward. All you need to do is send in messages in the left inlet. If you want to have the java object communicate back to the patch, you can use the outlet() function.

An elegant way to update GUI elements with values from within the java object – without having to make connection lines – is by using script and the [thispatcher] object.

• Create a number box, and assign a scripting name to it.
• Connect a [fromsymbol] and a [thispatcher] object to the left outlet of the java object.
• To simply set the value of the number box, write

  outlet(1,"script send gui_v set "+v);

• To send (not just set) a value to the number box, write

  outlet(1,"script send gui_v "+v);

Helpful Links

WritingMaxExternalsInJava.pdf
very helpful guide, the PDF is to be found in the ‘java-doc’ folder in your Max folder

Max/MSP Development with Eclipse
How to setup Eclipse to develop Java externals

MaxMSPExternalsTutorials3.2.pdf”
by Ichiro Fujinaga, McGill University, Sept 2006
Tutorial for writing external objects with C

Tutorial 51: Jitter Java
Tutorial by Cycling74

Late 2011 Rachel Lovelock Yeomans – a fashion designer graduate from Central Saint Martins – sent me interview questions about my project Hyper and the abstract concept of the fourth dimension. Rachel is interested in the subject matter as her dissertation dealt with the concepts of time, the fourth dimension, faceted realities and how they are given expression via the arts.

I am posting the interview here, as answering her questions felt quite relevant to me.

1. Scientific phenomena and ideas seem to be a major influence in your artistic approach. By combing ideas described in metaphysics with your own artistic practice how do you feel you contribute to each discipline?

“I have a hard time positioning myself with regards to stereotypical disciplines. Thankfully this notion of strict categorizations has become more and more relaxed in recent time. It’s like we are going back to a renaissance where art and science are allowed to mingle freely. Yet as i am not a full-time artist (i do earn my living working as a creative technologist) i give myself the freedom of escaping the art-world with its rules and its categories and jargon. I regard my artistic projects as something very egotistical. Something i do, because i have to. Because i am entranced by all these mysteries and sights of beauty around me. Because i am – as you named it – enchanted by the unknown. And i express this fascination of mine in the form of design, art and – somewhat amateurish – research. I hope that my art reaches other people and maybe causes them to experience new feelings of love, appreciation and curiosity for science and reality. I don’t think that my projects contribute to any scientific discipline. They are much too undisciplined and short-lived to count. Unless i manage to pin myself down and deeply immerse myself in one specific topic, and thoroughly follow up on that for many many years, i doubt i will reach a level in my research that would also be valid on scientific fronts. No illusions there, but i am okay with that. I know that i am much too easily distracted by new topics, new discoveries. One fascination just seems to lead to another, and it never seems to end.”

2. What was your intention behind the HYPER project?

“The intention was to create an experiment that potentially could let you develop a deeper understanding of a fourth spatial dimension. I’ve been reading lots about higher dimensions, and i’ve been staring at rotating hypercubes on screens. I could wrap my head around the idea of a fourth dimension. Yet it always was very theoretical. I started to wonder how this theory could become something more realistic or even something intuitive in your mind. At that point i was working at an institution that houses a virtual-reality cave. I decided that a dynamic interactive 3d-environment would definitely offer more ground for experimentation. Furthermost i wanted to create an environment that i could use myself, for research. Something i could insert myself into and spend time in, trying very hard to translate my theoretical knowledge of 4d into the visual presentation in front of my eyes.”

3. Do you link ideas of time as described in special relativity with hyper-space and your HYPER project?

“HYPER didn’t touch upon the notion of time. Besides when i presented the project to a public and kept telling them endlessly about the fourth dimension, until someone asked if i was talking about time. Then i realized that i had forgot to mention that the work is about extra spatial and not temporal dimensions. Even though we could think of those as somewhat similar. Time and Space, Space-Time, it’s all supposed to be the same, right? Highly exhilarating of course. Yet with HYPER i felt like i didn’t want to open that door. I was fine just focusing on one extra dimension that was bound to our elementary understanding of spatial dimensions. Everything else would have been too overburdening then. But i am highly intrigued by the idea that time is only a construct of our mind. I have Julian Barbour’s ‘The End of Time’ on my bookshelf, and i already know that i’ll want to do some more exploratory artworks based on that idea.”

4. How successful do you think HYPER was? How was it received by the general public?

“HYPER was shown to the public only once on the occasion of a short conference presentation. Besides a few people, no one actually had to opportunity to test the virtual environment for a longer time period than say 5 minutes. I would say the minimum time requirement for experiencing the installation lies at about 30 minutes. Either this, or you need to have a very open mind and be highly educated on everything 4d. The public at the presentation was mainly intrigued, but also had a hard time grasping the concept and the intention. Which is understandable. My experiments with HYPER came to a natural end when i left the institution. I definitely wouldn’t call HYPER successful in terms of its initial goal (developing a more intuitive understanding for higher dimensions). I see it as a first tentative step into a direction i would like to explore further. Probably not in a virtual reality setup though (i am not a fan of screens and projections).”

5. Do you think we are coming any closer with our understanding / visualization of the fourth dimension?

“No. But we just started trying. And now we ‘discovered’ dark matter and dark energy. And more people are trying to wrap their heads around what it means that there is more than our naked eye can see. It’s gonna be fun to see what solutions we can come up with. Maybe we’ll develop new sensors that allow us to perceive everything hidden. Maybe the recent constant exposure to brain-science and ideas of consciousness will actually help us change our brain-networks and loosen the limits on our thoughts. All exciting, all in front of us!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video by Axel Lambrette

1. Power Options

You don’t want your computer falling asleep due to a lack of mouse/keyboard input.

> Control Panel
> Hardware and Sound
> Power Options
> Change when the computer sleeps

Set the computer sleep setting to “Never”. If your installation outputs visuals, you also have to set the display to turn off “Never”.

Put the computer to sleep > “Never”

2. Deactivate Screensaver

If your application produces visual output you don’t want a screensaver interrupting that.

> Control Panel
> Appearance and Personalization
> Personalization
> Screen Saver

Set the screen saver menu to (None).

Select (None) as screensaver.

3. System Updates

How to avoid annoying system popups informing you of new operating system updates.

> Control Panel
> System and Security
> Windows Update
> Change settings

Set to “Never check for updates”.

4. Auto Shutdown

How to setup the machine to shut down automatically at the same time every day.

> Control Panel
> System and Security
> Administrative Tools
> Task Scheduler

> Action Menu
> Create Basic Task …
> Add title and description
> Task Trigger: select Daily
> Set your shut-down time and recurrence
> Action: select Start a program
> Program/script: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe
> Add arguments: /s
> Finish

To disable or edit a task, select the task in Task Scheduler Library and right-click.

Set the recurrence of the task to “Daily”.

The task will execute shutdown.exe.

5. Autostart machine

How to setup the machine to boot automatically at the same time every day.

> Restart machine
> Press F12 to enter BIOS setup when prompted
> Power Management Setup
> Resume by Alarm: set “Enabled”
> Date(of Month) Alarm: set “Everyday”
> Time(hh:mm:ss) Alarm: set boot-up time
> Save and Exit

Enter Power Management Setup to set boot time

Set recurrence and time of automatic system boot

6. No GUI boot

To avoid the Windows login screen when booting, follow the instruction to deactivate it.

> Start Menu search bar
> Type msconfig
> Boot tab
> Select No GUI boot
> Apply and Restart

Deactivate the login screen when booting

7. Startup applications

First, have a close look at all the programs that are automatically executed when starting the machine.

> Start Menu search bar
> Type msconfig
> Startup tab
> Disable whatever you don’t need

Disable all startup applications that you don’t need.

8. Startup your application

Then, add your application to the startup folder:

> Start Menu search bar
> Type shell:startup
> Explorer folder opens (C:\ Users\ eva\ AppData\ Roaming\ Microsoft\ Windows\ Start Menu\ Programs\ Startup)
> Create a shortcut to your application here

Create a shortcut to your application in the startup folder.

9. Remote monitoring

You might want to install a remote monitoring software like Teamviewer, to be able to log into the computer remotely to check up on its well-being or to debug problems.

When installing Teamviewer, setup the computer for unattended remote access. It will automatically be added to the startup applications.

The Live Issue of .Cent Magazine / November 2012

]]> http://www.evsc.net/news/centmagazine/feed 0 http://www.evsc.net/inspiration/troika?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=troika http://www.evsc.net/inspiration/troika#comments Tue, 06 Nov 2012 03:00:56 +0000 evsc http://www.evsc.net/?p=2046 →]]> With a particular interest in perception and the spatial experience many of Troika’s work draw inspiration from fundamental scientific, optical and mechanical principles. Building on their fascination for optical phenomena, they take inspiration in the work of early enlightenment scientists to create work that is derived from manipulating the very substance of the light itself.

Troika

• are Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel
• since 2003
• studied at Royal College of Art
• live in London, UK
• web troika.uk.com

Arcades (2012)
An arcade is given shape by a series of 14 pillars of light that are met by fresnel lenses, which refract the light beams and make them bend hyperbolically to form the arches of gothic architecture. By confronting the viewer with the seemingly impossible phenomenon of bending light it creates a space for contemplation and introspection, suggesting a synthesis between agnostic reason and intuitive belief.

Light Drawings (2012)
The remains of a powerful electric discharge appear in the shape of intricate repeat-basic forms. By guiding the traces of lightning and manipulating a force to produce the drawings, Light Drawings examine the tension between control over what is inherently uncontrollable, reflecting on what we observe in the small details and in the total pattern of life.

Circles and Countercircles (2012)
Inspired by the work of early Enlightenment scientists and the manipulation of the very substance of the light itself, the chandelier uses a large fresnel lense to shape the light generated by high power LEDs into geometrical patterns projected onto the ceiling.

Falling Light (2010)
English poet John Keats commented that science had robbed nature and the rainbow of its spectacle by reducing its notion to prismatic colours. ‘Falling Light’ challenges this belief, with a captivating cinematographic interplay between crystal prisms and the preternatural experience they are able to create. 50 ceiling suspended mechanical devices each incorporating a custom cut Swarovski crystal optical lens, a computer programmed motor and a white LED. Small drops of light fall from the ceiling onto the gallery floor, the visitor is immersed in a shower of light, each droplet encircled by a vibrant halo of rainbow colours.

Thixotropes (2011)
A series of eight illuminated mechanised structures, each of them shaped as a composition of intersecting angular and geometric forms that are made of thin tensed steel banding lined with rows of LEDs. The constructions continuously revolve around their own axis thereby materialising the path of the light and dissolving the spinning structures into compositions of aerial cones, spheres and ribbons of warm and cold light while giving life and shape to an immaterial construct.

Cloud (2008)
‘Cloud’ is a five meter long digital sculpture whose surface is covered with 4638 flip-dots that can be individually addressed by a computer to animate the entire skin of the sculpture.

All The Time In The World (2008)
A 22m long electroluminescent wall at Heathrow Terminal 5 – displaying a world clock – created using an custom-made modular text display system. Troika developed and patented a new typology of electroluminescent displays that is less than half a millimeter thin and relies on a custom designed segmented typeface.

One of the screenshots the ZeoLibrary takes every half hour while i am asleep.

Monitoring and Recording

I use ZeoLibrary to record zeo data over the course of a night. The application shows the current frequency levels and raw brainwave data on top (still need to remove the 60Hz noise), and a recording of the frequency data and sleep-stages from the last half hour at the bottom.

For easy readability i let the software take screenshots every half hour. To analyse the data, i then simply compare the recorded graphs and approximated average values for each of the frequency bins.

The Zeo Sleep Manager groups recorded brain wave activity into seven frequency bins.

The Frequency Bins

Zeo measures and groups together frequency ranges into 7 so-called bins. The bins are:

• 2-4Hz …. DELTA waves
• 4-8Hz …. THETA waves
• 8-13Hz … ALPHA waves
• 13-18Hz .. BETA1 waves
• 18-21Hz .. BETA2 waves
• 11-14Hz .. BETA3 waves
• 30-50Hz .. GAMMA waves

The BETA3 bin overlaps in frequency with the ALPHA and BETA1 bin, and seems to be used for specific sleep spindle analysis.

The frequency bin levels during deep sleep.

DEEP Sleep

Deep sleep stands out with the highest DELTA and THETA values. In addition the GAMMA values are very low.

The frequency bin levels during light sleep.

LIGHT Sleep

During light sleep THETA and ALPHA waves are at very similar levels and quite high, while the DELTA waves are considerably lower than in deep sleep.

The frequency bin levels during REM sleep.

REM Sleep

In REM sleep, THETA waves are highest and GAMMA waves are slightly higher than in deep and light sleep stages.

The frequency bin levels during the wake stage.

WAKE Stage

When awake, the GAMMA values are at its highest, and the DELTA values at its lowest level.

Overlapping display of all 4 sleep (and wake) stages.

All 4 Stages

The images shows all four sleep stages – WAKE, REM, LIGHT and DEEP – as overlapped graphs. It shows that DEEP sleep reaches the highest levels in the low-frequency range, while the WAKE stage reaches the highest levels in the high-frequency range.

The transparent blocks represents the change of level of the frequency bins between the four different sleep stages.

Frequency Fluctuations

The graph on the left shows the change of levels for each frequency bin, over the course of a full night (or full cycle through all sleep stages).

While the THETA, ALPHA and BETA bins all fluctuate for similar amounts, the DELTA bin fluctuate over a range about three times as high. (Fluctuation zones are compared directly by levels, and not as percentage values in relation to each bins maximum value)

“This is one of the great conundrums, it seems to me, that what you learn in science is so different than what you feel in your regular life! How do you live between those two worlds when what you know and what you feel are so different?”

“When I look at the tabletop, I delight in the fact that I can, in my mind, picture the atoms and molecules and the interactions between them and the mostly empty space that’s in there. And that when my hand touches the tabletop, I see the electrons of the outer surface of my hand pushing against the electrons in the outer surface of the table. I’m not really touching the table! My hand never comes into contact with the table! What’s happening is the electrons are getting really close together and they’re repelling each other. And I love the fact that I am, in essence, deforming the surface of the table by making my electrons come really close to it. That enriches my experience.”

“It’s all really there. That’s what really gets you. But you gotta stop and think about it to really get the pleasure about the complexity, the inconceivable nature of nature.”

“The real change that’s around the corner [is] in the way we think about space and time, [...] We haven’t come to grips with what Einstein taught us. But that’s coming. And that will make the world around us seem much stranger than any of us can imagine.”

“People don’t understand how I can visualize four or five dimensions. Five-dimensional shapes are hard to visualize — but it doesn’t mean you can’t think about them. Thinking is really the same as seeing.”

“History suggests that our worldview undergoes disruptive change not so much when science adds new concepts to our cognitive toolkit as when it takes away old ones.”

“We are so familiar with causality as an underlying feature of reality that we hardwire it into the laws of physics. It might seem that this would be unnecessary, but it turns out that the laws of physics do not distinguish between time going backward and time going forward. And so we make a choice about which sort of physical law we would like to have.”

“”

This is an extension of Adventures in Sleeping, and presents more graphs analyzing my sleep data acquired with the Zeo Sleep Manager. Some of the graphs have already been generated with the help of my ZeoLibrary.

My sleep cycle time averaged over the course of the night, separated into groups for each weekday.

My sleep cycle time averaged over the course of the night, separated into groups based on sleep-onset time.

My sleep cycle time averaged over the course of the night, separated into groups of 50 consecutive days.

Here i am mapping the mean temperature of the day (for Montreal) against the time spent in deep sleep. Very obviously there is a correlation. Heat exhausts the body and it needs more repair time (deep sleep).