The Speed of Thought

Over the past several months I've been obsessed with the idea of time travel. The concept generally comes up when I'm operating on the mental redline, integrating lots of ideas at once or operating across multiple objectives in a short amount of time. Here is what I believe...

When the mind grows heated, time tends to distort.

I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I'm quite certain it's occuring. Often I don't even think about it until after speaking with someone else or passing some point of reference (ie: "has it been only 2 days?"). Einstein proposed a similar idea in his theory of special relatively, namely that as an object approaches the speed of light, a person traveling at that speed and an observer will see the same event, but at different times and distances.

Everyone's had these moments. When you're moving really fast. Working on something very hard. Frequently we brush this off quickly quipping, time flies when you're having fun! Yet what if there's some actual truth to this? What if thought-time exceeds the speed of light and alters what is possible in the same timespan? Tap when I start sounding looney.

What I refer to here is the idea of differentiating thought-time from real-time.

Central to this distinction are dreams. Consider what happens when you sleep. You're real tired, crash on the couch, and wake up feeling as if you've been asleep for weeks. Perhaps you had a dream with some extravagant journey to some elaborate location, for some absurd purpose.

Then you look at your clock. 20 minutes have passed.

In the course of time it took your mind to process weeks worth of experience and adventures, your physical body has experienced only 1/3 of an hour. How is this possible? An article over at Indiana U suggests that there is no difference between dream-time and real-time. I disagree. Actually, the only thing the study seems to suggest is that what we can recall and what our conscious mind can communicate is roughly equivalent to the time that has actually passed. This is not surprising. In fact, even if the study did suggest that our mind only concocted up an amount of experience equivalent to what I could imagine in real-time, the fact is that it still processed through that a longer amount of time in shorter span of space.

conscious... subconscious.
thought-time... real-time.
perception... reality.

I want to explore this vein further, for now it's back to my time machine (sleep). Thoughts?

V2

Great art is often a matter of multiple interpretations.

Round 2 with V for Vendetta this weekend. This time around with my deep thinking, great friend Bo. Bo grew up under Communist Europe, he's also one of those super intelligent, open your eyes types so I was real curious to know what his take would be. Did he like it? Yes. Would he see it again? Yes. Just one problem...

What does it prove? What can one person really do to change a society?

My initial reaction, disagreement. Yet chat some more, dig a bit deeper and it's clear. Bo saw the V as a person. I saw V as an idea. Bo sees Communist Europe. I see a future America. Each perspective follows its natural course to radically different results. A person in Communist Europe changing society? Not likely says Bo. But an idea in a future America? Who knows, says Clif...

Same film. Multiple interpretations. Great stuff.

We are told to remember the idea, not the man. Because a man can fail. He can be killed. But four hundred years later an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed firsthand the power of ideas. I've seen people kill in the name of them; and die defending them. But you cannot touch an idea, cannot hold it or kiss it. An idea does not feel pain, it cannot bleed, and it does not love.

Freedom of Information

V for Vendetta is a great film. Particularly with good friends in the best IMAX theater on the planet. What makes this film great? One line...

The security of information is paramount.

In context of this film the analogy is downright terrifying. It is the question of whether or not we are, at this very moment, seeing the first phase of the new world war. A war not fought with tank or a gun, but rather in our minds, in our fears, a war fought on ability to access information itself?

We talk a lot in IT about the information age/economy. Google gobbles rows of libraries every second. Open source movements go head to head over the access to DNA of our modern tools every day. Cluetrain throws a shot straight across the bow of the traditional corporate concept. And governments dare us to challenge them in ongoing efforts to protect from our own fears.

What if it were all connected somehow?

This is a movie for the ages. Ours. Watch it. Then give a listen to a different kind speech from another kind of "V". It doesn't take much to connect the dots.

Thought Rock

Beantown underground clubs with Dave & crew. Comment of the year from Dave, I never cease to turn your routine upside down do I? Truth bro. See Dave's one of these friends that gets me thinking. Throws out simple questions that get complicated. Last year he sparks thoughts about traveling more. This year he seems almost serious asking if he could ever convince a Norwegian skiier since age 9 to move out West. Very funny Dave.

Look up and round. 20 Campus Reps around dinner. Talking future. Talking innovation. Talking possibilities. Good times get great and then it hits me. Why I keep coming back here time and time again.

Rewind to 99' at Umass. I write my nine-thousandth paper for my Constitutional law class and a professor talks tough about why I should apply to law school. I rebuff claiming, I like the critique of law, I hate the study in it. Her response haunts me ever since...

It's not about the field you study, but the great minds you meet. You need to meet those minds.

I never went to law school. But I've kept looking for what I'd find there ever since. Work hasn't even come close, and yet here it is around a dinner table. Just a bunch of college kids talk'n geek and it's great. Not even a job. Just great minds and the firestorm of ideas that results.

Last year I considered to myself the possibility of unleashing Hill's Mastermind Principle within the context of social networks. This weekend I felt the MMP outside of IPs and screennames, in action. Great minds. Big ideas. No box.

Amazing.