MICHAEL LENNOX: WHAT ARE DREAMS?

DR. MICHAEL LENNOX

TOPOLOGIES

Many cultures divide a person’s life into stages and create images or ideals of each stage. The stages are defined by how a certain function is performed. A culture could build a functional topology around any activity affected by changes in age.

Closely related to functional topologies are maturational schemes. These trace the stages of life in terms of mental, physical, or even spiritual changes. Many cultures throughout history have recognized these stages.

MATURATIONAL TOPOLOGY

This is a Hindu system that focuses on spiritual maturation. Life is divided into four stages, depending on one’s progress towards being spiritually full – grown. These stages are:

a.       Brahmacarya: this stage lasts from initiation into the Hindu community at five to eight years of age until marriage.

b.      Grihasthya: one marries, raises a family, and takes part in society.

c.       Vanaprasthya: in this stage, the Hindu leaves the household and prepares for the spiritual search or quest.

d.      Samnyasa: this is when one gives up attachment to all worldly things and seeks spiritual liberation.

Most cultures take maturational topologies are almost poetic in their ability to create images.

BUREAUCRATIC TOPOLOGY

This topology is based purely on where a person falls into some scheme invented by a government or another organization. Cultural traditions have influenced this topology, but it is supported mostly by law and not by belief. Some aspects of a bureaucratic topology may actually conflict with widespread cultural beliefs.


MY PERSONAL OPINION

In my opinion, this lecture was so interesting in many ways.  First at all, it allowed me to improve my knowledge. Without a doubt the most common maturation topology divides our life into childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. In these stages of life, we experiment different changes.
Another important point I liked was rites of passage. As you know, it is important to have rituals for some important occasions like to mark our entrance into a new stage. One example of this could be our birth.

STAGES OF LIFE

OUR LIFE IS LIKE A GIANT PUZZLE

We gather and piece together our life experiences as we learn and grow and change. Most people look for forward to changes in the future. We want to see time and change as positive, but we also see time and change as negative because they always bring our decline and eventual death.

The ways people react to change are more important than what actually happens to them. Some people waste time worrying about what they weren’t able to do or what they didn’t become. Other people take a more positive view and learn to accept and take pleasure in what they weren’t able to do.
People who have positive feelings toward humanity tend to believe that a lifetime is a period in which we must work hard to develop and perfect ourselves. On the other hand, other people aren’t as optimistic about the intelligence and goodness of people.
There are many ways people view the stages they go through in life. One of the most disturbing visions is the idea that we are just actors playing out roles created for us by genetics. We agree to play roles that are predetermined by our own characters and society’s expectations of us.

One of the most famous speeches about the stages in life is the one given by Jacques in Shakespeare’s play, As you like it. Jacques says that we are all simply actors going through our lives as if they were real, when actually we are only playing roles already determined for us. He says the seven stages of life are like acts in play.

The seven stages of life are:

a.       The Infant

b.      The schoolboy

c.       The lover

d.      Soldier

e.      Justice

f.        Pantaloon

g.       Second Childishness

STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

      He is talking about stages of development. The first stage of development is Dependence. It is from the age of twelve where we experiment physical and emotional changes. Also, we depend on someone. We progress and we move to Adolescence. This stage starts at the age of 13. Also, this stage is called Independence. As we continue the progress, we move to the stage of Interdependence. Then we move to the stage that he would call Interdevelopment. The last stage of development is called Interconnecteness.

      The voice of Dependence is ‘I need you’. The voice in the Adolescence is ‘I don’t need you’. Then, we move to the stage of Adult. They can take a real decision. Furthermore, an adult independents on other people and other people independent on this adult.                            Interdevelopment is the next stage. In this stage, we make a reputation for ourselves and the relationship is very different.                                                                                                                    

     The last stage is Interconnecteness. They develop an interconnected worldview.                        As you can see, each one of these stages has any voice.

MY PERSONAL OPINION

     According to the lecture 'Seven Stages Of Life', I am in complete agreement with the lecturer. It is important to be an optimistic person if we want to become a successful person.                                                         We should learn to face our problems and take a positive view, too.                                                                                                                                         In mi personal opinion, William Shakespeare's famous play, As You Like It was so interesting. I think that all men and women are like puppets in the hands of destiny. Furthermore, every person in its full lifetime has many parts to play. Its total numbers of acts in its lifetime is the seven stages.

     Also, it is important to mention that in each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges.

I CAN WRITE A SUMMARY AND MY PERSONAL REACTION TO THE VIDEO ''VIRTUAL REALITY WILL LEAD THE FUTURE''

 Paul Brinkman is talking about a research project called Virtual Reality and  Phobias. Brinkman is more than just a researcher delivering intricate studies. He leads the way by developing VRET systems and combating phopias with avatars and virtual reality and examines the ninteraction between man and machine.

Having a job interview or asking a girl out on a date. Social activities that can be at most thrilling or nerve-wrecking to some, but truly terrifying to others. By reconstructing our social environment in a virtual world, Brinkman might be able to help people with social problems in the near future. Brinkman looks at establishing systems to treat patients with mental health problems, such as virtual reality exposure therapy.

Phobias are the most common form of anxiety disorders, which themselves are the most common psychiatric disorders.

Virtual Reality allows a third option of exposure therapy in a virtual setting that is safer, less embarrassing, and less costly than reproducing the real world situations. Besides situations can be created that are difficult to find in real life and it is more realistic than imagining the danger. Already some experiments have proven Virtual Reality to be a useful tool in treating specific phobias such as fear of heights, fear of spiders, fear of flying and claustrophobia, as well as agoraphobia.

To take Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy from the experimental lab and into the daily practice of psychologists more research is needed. Within four years they have built a fully functional system optimal for the given situation. Furthermore we have substantial data to support the effectiveness of VRET for the treatment of phobias (fear of heights, claustrophobia, and fear of flying). The domain is being approached from two angles: Psychology and Human Computer Interaction.

Furthermore, they completed another study in which they evaluated the effectiveness of low-budget virtual reality exposure versus exposure in vivo. According to this study there were no differences between the effectiveness of gradual exposure in vivo and VRET. Both conditions improved significantly and didn’t differ in their degree of improvement. The decline in fear of heights was sustained at six months follow up. It seems that VRET has the same effectiveness as exposure in vivo, even when measured on a behavioral avoidance test. They got very interesting results on usability of the therapist user interface, on navigation techniques in virtual reality, on comparison of virtual reality modalities and more. This system is being used for fear of heights, claustrophobia and fear of flying.

MY PERSONAL OPINION

This is one of the most amazing projects I have ever listened to. In my opinion, Brinkman is a successfull researcher because of this wonderful project that combates phobias and psychotic disorders using virtual technology.He showed how this method can provide solutions for such problems as fear of flying and, in the longer term, possibly also for social disorders. I hope Paul Brinkman continue creating new projects with the purpose of changing the world in a good way.

BROOKS STEVENS

Clifford Brooks Stevens was born on June 7, 1911. He was an American industrial designer of home furnishings, appliances, automobiles and motorcycles as well as a graphic designer and stylist.
In 1944, along with Raymond Loewy and eight others, Stevens formed the Industrial Designers Society of America. On his death in 1995, the New York Times called Stevens a "a major force in industrial design."

BACKGROUND AND PERSONAL LIFE

Stevens was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 7, 1911. Stricken with polio as a child, Stevens was encouraged by his father to practice drawing while confined to his bed, perhaps motivating his career in design. He studied architecture at Cornell University from 1929 to 1933, and established his own home furnishings design firm in 1934 in Milwaukee. His son, Kipp Stevens, ran the Brooks Stevens Design Associates until late 2008 when he stepped down.

 In 1959, Brooks opened a 12,500sf automotive museum in Mequon, Wisconsin, which became a repository for his own designs as well as others and became a production facility in the late 1980s for the Wienermobile fleet. The museum closed in 1999, four years after his death.
Brooks Stevens died on January 4, 1995, in Milwaukee—survived by his wife Alice, sons Kipp, William and David, a daughter Sandra A. Stevens, and five grandchildren.

PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE 

Though he is often cited with inventing the concept of planned obsolescence (the practice of artificially shortening product lifecycle in order to influence the buying patterns of consumers in favor of manufacturers), he did not invent it but rather coined the term and defined it. Stevens defined it as "instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary". His view was to always make the consumer want something new, rather than create poor products that would need replacing. There is some debate over his role in this controversial business practice.

 

DESIGN

His designs in home and kitchen appliances were popular, and he is recognized as the originator of the robin's-egg-blue phase of 1950s kitchen appliances. He also practiced architectural design and graphic design. Of note is his design of the Miller Brewing logo and he is also credited with convincing the company to switch from traditional brown bottles to clear bottles.

As an automobile designer, Stevens redesigned the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk on a minuscule budget. The fast, elegant GT remained until the end of American production. According to Hendry, Stevens also styled "three innovative products for family car use for the 1964-66 period" (which were never manufactured). He then designed Harley-Davidson motorcycles. All Harleys since, including models in production now, are based on Stevens's body designs.

Stevens designed the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, an American pop-culture icon. He designed engines for Briggs and Stratton. He also designed the university logo for the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in 1978 as a part of "The Diamond Jubilee" celebration. The logo remains in use today.

 

Stevens designed the post-war Skytop Lounge observation cars for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad's Hiawatha passenger trains. He also designed a series of "Excalibur" racing sports cars in conjunction with Kaiser Motors. Beginning in the mid-1960s he and his sons began production of the Excalibur, styled after the 1930s-era Mercedes roadsters.

Stevens's design contributions to the recreational boating industry included collaborations with Outboard Marine Corp. to style the Evinrude Lark and Johnson Javelin outboard motor series as well as the Evinrude Lark concept boat, eventually produced as the Cadillac Sea Lark. Together with Bob Hammond's 1956 Lone Star Meteor, these designs may be credited with introducing post-world war automotive styling to leisure craft. Other work in the marine industry include designs for Owens Yacht Company and Cutter Boats as well as a line of stainless steel marine hardware for the The Vollrath Company.

I CAN WRITE A SUMMARY AND MY PERSONAL REACTION TO THE VIDEO ''TEACHING DESIGN FOR CHANGE''

TRANSFORM THE WORLD 

Emily Pilloton spent the time in a woodshop, teaching teenagers how to prototype roof joists for public chicken coops. And not just any teenagers loud, unruly, secretly brilliant, very underprivileged teenagers.

How she ended up in this role: a trained architect and designer working as a high school educator in the poorest county in North Carolina. It was a feat of serendipity, blind ambition, and the desire to bring together design, community building, and public education.

In July, She stood proudly and nervously on the stage at TED Global in Oxford, England, and told the story of Studio H, the high school curriculum my partner, Matthew Miller, and she had spent a year and a half developing and implementing in Bertie County, North Carolina. The idea was ambitious: Teach design, coupled with vocational shop class, at a high school level for one full year, then build a full-scale architectural community project alongside students the following summer.

In short, they believed they could bring back shop class, infuse it with design thinking, and build real community progress in a struggling rural place like Bertie County. Bertie has a total population of 20,000, with 27 people per square mile; one-third of the children live in poverty; and 95 percent of all public school students receive a free or reduced-rate lunch.
That TED talk, which she delivered with sincere passion, came with a tragic irony: She was unaware that wheels were in motion to oust both the visionary superintendent who first brought them to Bertie County and any programs he helped make possible.                                                                

What followed was an emotional and political roller coaster that can only be described as Machiavellian.
It involved a school board which evicted them from the district-owned home they were living in, followed by accusations that they had forged our grant funding documents. One board member even asked her for her bank account info so she could check for herself that they had the money.
It involved pleading to the board while they not-so-subtly told us to scram, and eventually talking them into letting us stay on the condition that they would receive not one penny of support from the school district. In short, the "won."

MY PERSONAL OPINION

Without a doubt, this is a brilliant application of design-thinking. I think that every town needs charity and volunteer work, but when the educated people are the ones helping, doing the process, the product is more efficient because people tend to listen more when you have a degree.             Also, involving the local communities and establishing a learner-centered system is definitely the future of education anywhere in the world. It is also a model that old teacher-centered traditional systems have to measure up against. What makes this special is the location where they choose to offer this program in order to create a better future.

I CAN WRITE A SUMMARY AND MY PERSONAL REACTION TO THE VIDEO ''I LISTEN TO COLOR''

Neil Harbisson is an artist. He spoke at TEDGLobal in Edinburgh in June.

Neil Harbisson comes from a world where color doesn't exist; He was born with achromatopsia and he was born completely colorblind. So He has never seen color, and he doesn't know what it looks like. But since the age of 21, He can hear color.

In 2003, he began a project with computer scientist Adam Montandon with the aim of extending his senses. The result is an electronic eye: a color sensor between his eyes connected to a chip installed at the back of his head that transforms color frequencies into sound frequencies that I hear through his bone.

He has had the electronic eye permanently attached to his head and He has been listening to colors nonstop since 2004. So, He finds it completely normal now to hear colors all the time. At first, He had to memorize the sound of each color, but after some time this information became subliminal, He didn't have to think about the notes, color became a perception. And after some months, color became a feeling. He started to have favorite colors and he started to dream in color.

 

When he started to hear colors in his dreams, He noticed that his brain and the software had united and given him a new sense. His brain was creating electronic sounds in his dreams. That was the point when he started to feel no difference between the software and his brain.

Since he started to hear color, his life changed dramatically. The way he dresses has changed. Now, he dresses in a way that sounds good and his sense of beauty has changed, too. He also found out that things I thought were colorless are not colorless at all.

After some time, an unexpected secondary effect appeared. He started to perceive normal sounds as color too. So he started to paint the colors of music and the colors of voices. For example, telephone tones started to sound green, and listening to Mozart became a yellow experience, even people's voices had dominant colors.

 

Furthermore, Neil Harbisson was able to perceive 360 different colors, one for each degree of the color wheel. He was able to perceive colors just as well as people with color vision. Then he realized that the human visual system is not very impressive: you can't actually see many colors; there are many more colors around us that the human eye can't detect. So he decided to continue extending his color perception.                                                                                                                             Now, he can also perceive infrared, which means he can hear if there are movement detectors in a room, or if someone is pointing at him with a remote control.

 

MY PERSONAL OPINION

I am in complete agreement with him. I think that we have the chance to extend our perception to the level of other animal species. We focus so much on extending our knowledge and focus so little on extending our senses. Without a doubt, knowledge comes from our senses because if we extend our senses, we extend our knowledge.

Furthermore, we are the first generation that doesn't need to wait for natural evolution to evolve because we can evolve during our lifetime.

We need to awake our senses, our instincts, our intuition and our qualities that we seem to have lost due to our constant use of technology as an external tool and not as part of our body.

 

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'Life will be much more exciting when we stop creating apps for our mobile phones and we start creating apps for our own body''