Idea for voice box with pitch

The pitch of a person's voice is determined by by the vocal cords or
vocal folds


image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_cord

When the folds close together they vibrate as air goes past
them.  The pitch is determined by the resonant frequency of
the folds.  So their closing must be determined by some
measurable nerve impulse.  This appears mostly possible
now through a metal probe placed into the adjacent muscle
tissue.  This could at some point be possible with external
electrodes.

That signal can then be processed to find a maximum and
minimum activity values that would fit to a pitch range. 
This would allow for that signal to be sent to an
electronically generated voice box that would have a
variable pitch.  This whole apparatus could be gently
strapped to the neck allowing the rest of the process
to occur in the mouth, like in a normal voice box device.

The smoker of yesteryear without a voice, could then
enjoy a much more expressive range of speech.  With
heightened control, the voice sound could become any
other sound, allowing the person to sing with any
musical instrument.

We are not I

I was thinking about deaf people today and decided to investigate what language deaf people think in. Unable to find a nice neuroscience study, I settled for a few blogs that discussed talking about the question with their deaf friends. Many of them said that they thought in sign. Attempting to think in sign myself was quite impossible, but thinking in expressive movements came very quickly. This is largely because I do not have the sign language vocabulary to establish a monologue in the language. My ability to communicate through movements of my body are limited to emphasis and emotion. Take a moment to think about frowning and sadness without frowning. Going through the motions in your mind. I would argue, aside from having less connection to the language centers of your brain, there is little difference between this action and the inner monologue you normally think through. Now try smiling and happiness in your mind and discover that this is much easier, smiles being one of the most contagious expressions, one could argue that your smile is nearly always primed.



So what does this tell us about the nature of consciousness?



There is certainly a question of motivation. Thinking jumps around from thought to thought, reliving experiences, repeating information, allowing full access to all functioning parts of the brain. A thinking person can visualize objects, practice speech, mix and meld ideas based on heuristics they have developed for doing so. This all seems to be for practice. Regardless of whether you are a person that has dedicated themselves to math, science, art, writing, business, or religion, you are constantly thinking and a good portion of that happens in the language you know and most of us speak that language well, at most as well as our conscious thoughts. It is natural for us to be motivated to talk to ourselves in our heads so we can better be able to communicate with others.



There is also a question of how the idea of "I" or self realization occurs. If you are most greatly developed through the communications of other people, and you practice the skills of communicating with other people through your conscious thoughts, along with your other skills. What will you call yourself other than I, given you are constantly communicating with yourself. Many have come to call themselves by their own names. No doubt I would be better at saying my own name if that were the case for me. Your self could be described as a graph with all your skills and ideas on the x axis and a bar coming up from each describing how primed or practiced each is. The greatest being the most practiced and ready to be filtered through language and become the start of a conversation.



So I is a creation of humanity and we must look past this humanity to realize that I is nothing without Us. We are not I because everything that makes up I comes from the world around us and what we gain from the communal pool of knowledge. Our ideals and faiths are a product of the part of the pool we come in contact with, but perfection as a species comes from allowing each of us to reach as deep as we can into that pool. That is where we can find the greatest truths and the insights into why we are the way we are and what we should do next.



We are not I.

6.5 billion minds should never think alone

650 quintillion neurons should never fire alone

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The Ether

The ether is probability. We have only come so far to say if the event is repeated over and over again, it might be this thing or it might be that. The electron may be there or there or there. But we know the electron is. We can feel its force and harness it to run the information age. But what has God done for us. Spoke to a few people that were very pre-information age, pre-science, and provoked by a lack of value for life and humanity in the world around them. All we have for science is a set of knowledge created from a process that has allowed humanity to progress much faster than it ever has in the past. Religions also have a collection of knowledge from texts, but more they have influence. They have the influence to convince millions to do right and to tell them what right is. Science only looks to know what helps and how it helps. Every one of us can look into our lives and find a quick decision that turned out poorly. Religion is the quick decision by humanity to sacrifice a little choice for a lot more justice. That balance should never be shifted away from justice, but I'm not convinced that the choices limited by modern religions are those that should be worried about. At a time when the human population is rocketing in the third world, religious and cultural movements in the Arab and African world have worked to prevent condom use and stop abortions. In a time when we can finally see the massive benefits seen in societies with growing education systems, religious and cultural movements move to control education and censor scientists. Rules must always exist to protect. Rules must always exist to control. But a cultural movement that started early in humanity must gain its validity from the world we can see and feel. Even when we look into ourselves it is there, but so are the building blocks of language, the processes necessary to learn. These abilities ride beside each other within the human mind, not because God blessed them upon us, but because they formed and grew as our society became more complex and largely integrated. That is why there are different religions in different areas where people were isolated from each other at different times. With language barriers behind us and people learning and gaining from science all over the world it is time to force our own evolution away from a god fearing race and into a race that realizes the universe is massive and complex and our minds and existence are simple in comparison. With a vast sky above us, we must praise and follow the light of the unknown to discover meaning and greatness in the world around as well as to survive another day. Maybe god exists, maybe the electron is there and going that fast, but the answer is not upon us so lets move on and think about what we can do to glorify humanity and the world we reside on.

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