Network-Pro 3

 

The Mind

The Mind and the Universe - Interfaces & Networks - An Anatomo-Functional Study of the Mind - The Physics of Consciousness - The Biological Basis and Neurophysiology of Consciousness - Consciousness Within and Without - Awareness, Consciousness and the Unconscious - The Mind and the Gene - The Mind and the Cognitive Sciences - The Conditioned Mind - The Fragmented Mind - The Holistic Mind - The Dimensionless Mind - Psychosomatics - The Suggestive Power of the Senses - The Suggestive Power of Movement - The Suggestive Power of the Mind - The Plasticity of the CNS, PNS and ANS - The Mind and Memory - The Mind and Infectious Disease - The Mind and the Neuroimmunoendocrine System - The Mind and the Disorders of the Immune System – The Mind and Disorders of Connective Tissue and Joints - The Mind and Surgery - The Mind and Anaesthetics - The Mind and Emergency Medicine - The Mind and Pain - The Mind and Alterations in Metabolism and Body Temperature - The Mind and the Nervous System - The Mind and Ageing - The Mind and the Circulatory and Respiratory System - The Mind and the Gastrointestinal System - The Mind and the Urinary System - The Mind and the Reproductive and Sexual System - The Mind and the Skin - The Mind and Haematology - The Mind and Neoplasia - Pharmacology of the Mind - The Mind and Genetics - The Mind and Psychiatry - The Mind and Paediatrics - The Mind and Nutrition - … 

Other Minds & Cross-Cutting Networks: Entomology - Ethology and Instinct - Botany - Zoology - … 

The Mind and the Image – "Dignity" in the Life Sciences? - The Mind and Politics: Going beyond the United Nations and the European Union - Democratic World Union - Interfaces and Networks - eGovernment - The Grid - The Legal Problem - The Mind and Education - The Mind and Existential Issues - The Mind and Ethics - The Mind and the Social System - Social Achievements and Superiorities rest overwhelmingly on Cultural Conditioning - Cultural Imperialism - … 

In Search of a New Economic and Commercial System - Economics based on Knowledge / Services - Fair Trade - What the heck is "Fair"? - Basic Principles of (National / International) Trade reviewed / redefined - Information, gathering, dissemination and exchange - Innovation and capacity building - Forging partnerships, responsibilities and facilitating dialogue between producers and buyers on codes of conduct/standards yet to be defined - Business, poverty and wealth redefined - Why must everything always be reduced to money and cash? - Exchange of Services Rethought – STI: Importance of communication between human beings, between different cultures and mentalities, the circulation of information and what kind of information (who decides?) - Interfaces & Networks - Vital importance of Networks and their implications in World Trade - Industry and the Human Factor - The Employed and the Unemployed: status reconsidered and a radical change in philosophy? - The Ageing Population - … 

Artificial Intelligence - Artificial Life Forms - Artificial Mind - Plasticity in Computer Science - Self-sustained Computers - Consciousness and Computers - Humanoids - HAL: Why not? - The Mind and Robotics - Augmented Reality - Virtual Environments - … 

What is the object of Education exactly? Has it so far succeeded in creating both intellectually and emotionally mature responsible human beings on this planet? When I look around and read the press, I doubt it. Besides, what do these words mean anyway…? Education for the general public often means learning under constraint, authority, stress and pressure (for the parents too!), and…examinations with possible "Disgrace" or supreme "Praise"! [Perhaps sometimes the "Praise" is in the "Disgrace"…] How can we dissipate this fear? How can we motivate, create a need to learn in the general population? How can we make people everywhere(!) in the world WANT to understand what is within and around them? Learning just for the simple pleasure of learning and discovering! There's not much point creating educational programmes if the general public feels defeated from the beginning. How can we make first-class education accessible and attractive to ALL, less elitist and more stimulating to the layman/woman? Everyone has the potential of becoming a Leonardo Da Vinci!

Personalised Interactive Educational Software - Wearable "Intelligence" - Customised Education / Tuition for All - The Human-Computer Interface - eLearning - Distance Education - Fundamental Research open to Everyone - … 

The Grid: information network - redundancy and "quality" of information - Who Knows Who Gets What? - research - education - Dangers Of (the grid) - patents – innovation - intellectual property - copyright - creativity - intellectual freedom - The Grid of Minds: path to World Consciousness and World Peace?

The Power of Academic Institutions - Decentralising Education - The Value and Status of Degrees, Examinations and Education in general is openly questioned - Even when the degree is fully deserved (which may sometimes not necessarily be the case...), what does he/she "know" exactly…? and how…? - Duration of School + University/Academy/Technical Institution = about 20 years (at least!) of a lifetime: Are you now able to understand the world within and around you? I doubt it. - I.Q./GRE reconsidered - … 

I might add that I also consider medical training in general to be quite inappropriate (not to say detrimental) to proper patient care. Here again, the approach is much too fragmented, the result being that I have all too often seen specialists feeling very uneasy indeed when faced with a problem outside his/her specialty. The patient is then sent to another specialist who has also more or less "forgotten" what is outside his/her own specialty.... and so forth... These fragmentary approaches often not only lack coordination but can also be very expensive to the community (and patient). The result being that not only the patient is confused but the doctor in charge has considerable difficulty having a complete and thorough picture of his/her patient's case and personality. The human brain is perfectly capable of acquiring and storing all the information necessary from the different specialties into one single competent doctor. The medical courses should be entirely reviewed.

And not only medical courses...

Could the process leading to the enculturation of the brain possibly smother/limit it's full creative potential and render it "unintelligent"? This is of fundamental importance not only for research but also for mankind/humanity in general and for the years to come. What is important is what and how you "know" (whatever that is supposed to mean...), not so much the degree as such - What would happen if - and I don't think the idea is too far fetched - through the use of personal computers, the Web and somewhat more adapted personalised interactive programmes, every human being could acquire knowledge of "good degree standard" in record time and thereby short-circuit institutionalised establishments of education which would therefore become obsolete?

I am convinced that this era of multidisciplinarity and world access to information shall give birth to a new generation: that of self-made intellectual (and why not artistic...) chameleons.

How could we make the Brain function more efficiently? - Cluttering the Brain with useless material - How can thought be quiet? How can one exercise thought when necessary and not exercise it when it is not necessary? - What is intelligence? - Cleverness and Intelligence: two different things - Assimilating and reproducing knowledge is a mechanical process which is not intelligence: indeed, is intelligence mechanical? Intelligence seems to be of a completely different dimension - I am proposing to find a language more adapted to the nervous system than that used so far in educational institutions: this means going into the neurophysiology of basic thought processes: a protocol enabling the study and the unravelling of the mechanisms of understanding (in its fullest sense) and what hampers these processes, including neurosemantics (and the neurosemantic reactions that can bring about or take the form of powerful psychophysiological blockages), the suggestive power of words and thoughts (conscious or "hidden"), the reason for the incessant and sometimes wild chattering "noise" within most of us (we are like slaves, puppets to the mind living in a prison of our own making) which hampers insight, reasoning and understanding, and which is sometimes just too much for the nervous system to take. The protocol explores the possibility of finding a common denominator in all the languages not only from a grammatical but also from a physico-chemical point of view.

In short, I am here trying to find the basic "code", the key principle of learning and reasoning (the basis of research) so that the human being does not have to waste so much time not only to acquire knowledge but even just to understand what is seen, read or said (sometimes one third of a whole life is given to study, or a whole life for research). In so doing not only shall the pace in the advancement of research, in the understanding of Nature, and of the nature of Nature be considerably increased, but also the status that is generally given to knowledge is invited to climb down the ladder putting whatever knowledge "in its place" as it were; perhaps much more attention that is so urgently needed can thereby be given to the human being as such on this planet and thus attend to the vital problem of harmony (i.e. intelligence) within and between human beings.

Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom and if one could feel the urgency of an inner revolution, the solution to all the human problems would come on its own accord, without relying on any guru, book, system, belief, idea, or what have you (including violence), since self-knowledge by definition cannot depend on any external agency.

Network Programme 3 shall be regularly updated