The Author grew up during the 1960's and 70's. He/we was influenced by the clash of values typical of the age. We characterized ourselves in contrast to the Older Generation by identifying with the New Age of Aquarius. The direction of this new age included a disenchantment with Science. We felt the momentum of the scientific-military-industrial complex was responsible for the threatened destruction of the eco-system and for increasingly destructive weaponry and wars. We were disturbed that Science had become the servant of dangerous forces.
With his strong background in math and science, the Author was never completely disenchanted with Science. Instead he hoped that Science could eventually serve humanity’s internal psychic requirements, rather than continue their exclusive focus on humanity’s external requirements. Uninterested in the outward-directed focus of the scientific establishment, the Author abandoned academia and shifted his gaze inward. This focus on personal cultivation led to decades of Tai Chi classes with Master Ni, who also introduced him to the practices of Taoist Alchemy. In addition, he followed his Muse into multiple fields of creative expression, which continued to include his mathematical and scientific investigations into human behavior.
Imagine his surprise and delight when forty years later he realized that his mathematical studies on behavior converged with the investigations of cutting edge scientists. The Author was encouraged because the focus of these new studies was upon the internal well being of individual humans. This significant shift in the direction of inquiry suggests that science is on the threshold of a new age – an age where science serves the internal needs of humanity. Imagine his even greater awe and amazement when he had the insight that his work provided a mathematical foundation for this New Science.
There is a fork in the road at this point. To continue, the Reader must choose between parallel universes.
For the emotional impetus behind the investigation, read our first Right Brain narrative – Life’s frustration.
If you are more interested in Left Brain analysis, check out the next article in the series - Introduction to Behavior Dynamics.
The Author is not a professional, credentialed scientist. In fact, he has earned his living doing physical labor – waiting tables in a series of excellent restaurants.
Due to his aptitude in math and science, he could have easily pursued an advanced degree in the hard sciences. Throughout secondary school he excelled in all the courses offered in these fields. His high school counselor was disappointed when he dismissed her suggestion that he apply to Cal Tech. Instead, he chose to attend UCSB. Ultimately he shifted from his original major in Mathematics and graduated with a BA in Psychology from UCSB in 1973.
Subsequently, he spent the 1977-78 school year at the local city college taking all of their undergraduate Math and Physics courses. His intent was to return to the security of a scientific career. After a brief and uneventful return to UCSB, he left academia for good to pursue the path of creative freedom.
During the next 3 decades he pursued a diverse course, delving into a variety of disciplines, including divination (Astrology and Tarot Cards), music (piano and organ), writing (novels, histories, and philosophy), oil painting, and science. Amidst these creative activities, he raised two beautiful and intelligent daughters with his equally beautiful and intelligent wife.
In general, his creative obsessions were sequential rather than simultaneous. Further, they consisted of 2 to 3 hour daily sessions over a few months. The entire project would come to an abrupt halt followed by another project, most frequently in an entirely different modality. For instance, a 2-month painting project might follow a 4-month history project - with the former completely abandoned in the midst of the new obsession. During this erratic, yet concentrated course, he participated in numerous periods of intense scientific activity. Each project ended as rapidly as it had begun (one in the middle of a paragraph). His Muse was in charge. He had no idea what was coming next.
The Author experienced frequent periods of doubt about his choice of freedom over security. In his mid-50s due to the impact of the recession on the fine dining industry he actually responded to his insecurity. He chose to ignore his Muse and pursued the publication of a restaurant novel, Ma Belle, that he hoped would provide the desired financial security. The abandonment of his Muse led to a breakdown in his psychic and physical well-being. Too weak to do anything else, he began to listen to the song of his Muse once again. Could this significant turning point be interpreted as his Muse reasserting control? Was she singing about the neglect of his scientific investigations into the nature of behavior? (See Breakdown for an account of this difficult, yet transformational time.)
His life choice to respond to his Muse was finally validated in his early 60s when his scientific writings coalesced. There were a few factors involved in this coalescence. First was the famous Zen experience on a sailing trip to Catalina with some high school friends. This voyage catalyzed his current science obsession. The second factor involved discovering some key books that provided experimental evidence and context for his studies. In one set of books addressed to the general public, Science Insiders summarized the current understanding in their respective fields. In another set of books, scientists discussed the philosophy of science. These books both provided current experimental evidence affirming many of the Author’s findings and placed his mathematical studies in a greater context.
The third factor had to do with collaboration. This equally significant factor pulled his extended studies together and put them in a coherent form. This was triggered by an occult event. After he allowed his Muse to perform her magic, the Author sensed he was not up to the task of taking his Life's work to the scientific community without help. An I Ching reading thrown in January 2011 confirmed his intuitions. Its suggestion was clear. Despite his sincerity, the Author's attempt to cross the Great River was doomed unless he first consulted the Great Man. Shortly thereafter, he engaged King Schofield, his childhood friend and master Rhetorician, in what the Author deemed to be an alliance of historic proportions. His retired friend consented to assist him in the editing and critical analysis of his work. Shortly thereafter, the Author also engaged his wife Laurie, a master of common sense and clarity, in the task of editing this prodigious series of articles. Their collective scrutiny on these current scientific writings refocused his attention, stimulating an abundance of insights into the nature of his work. These insights were a group effort - coming from 3 entirely different perspectives to provide a tasty stew of ideas. This stew of ideas is contained in the following series of articles.
For the emotional impetus behind the investigation, read our next Right Brain narrative – Life's disappointment with the Living Algorithm's simplicity.
If you are more interested in Left Brain analysis, check out the next article in the series – The Pulse of Attention: the Graph.
Information Dynamics was not planned. Instead the Author relied, and still relies, upon Divine Intent to guide his course. When yet a lad in his earliest twenties, he made a decision to relinquish trying to consciously exercise control over his destiny. In the Author’s life, conscious intent tends to play a supporting role. In a casual conversation with a good friend, the Author learned of a central theme in Thomas Kuhn’s insightful book, The Structure of Scientific Revolution. The mere mention of this theme was the final impetus toward his momentous decision.
The Author recognized that Kuhn was articulating the narrowness of perspective that can often accompany the formal academic life. Kuhn suggested that a fresh perspective is central to a ‘scientific revolution’ – what he calls a ‘paradigm shift’. This theme resonated powerfully with the Author, leading him to make the decision to listen to his Muse, rather than pursue a formal academic career.
Although the Author wanted to be open to insights that might drive a paradigm shift, he was unclear as to the direction of his investigations. He sensed that he would have to address some problem from a fresh perspective. He was not sure what that problem would turn out to be. In this context, a fresh perspective would be one that hadn’t already been shaped, possibly tainted, by an extensive formal education in any one particular field. The Author knew that he would have to give up all the potential perks of an academic career. Still, he consciously made the choice to forego the perks, search for a new paradigm, and risk coming up with nothing. He chose the path less taken.
After making the decision to abandon the traditional pathways of academia, the Author decided to prepare the ground for his Muse. This unconventional preparation involved two key elements: 1) ridding his mind of weeds through meditation and 2) turning over the soil of his body through regular Tai Chi practice. This purification of the ground of his body/mind was performed under the tutelage of Master Ni, a Chinese of Taoist persuasion.
The Author’s Taoist orientation was the context that led to cultivating non-action in the conscious realm in order to allow the powerful subconscious processes of the Muse to become manifest. This Taoist perspective is not meant to eliminate Conscious Intent, but rather to channel this energy into the service of Divine Intent. The Author felt that Divine Intent would manifest itself through subconscious processes, which he hoped would provide insight and direction. As our prior discussion suggested, once subconscious processes provide the insight, the work of conscious processes begins – communication, verbalization, articulation, and elaboration.
Like a garden, tending the ground of the body/mind is an ongoing never-ending process. In the midst of this purification process, the Author discovered (at the tender age of 26) that he was obsessed with recording personal data streams. For instance, he recorded his nightly tips and still does 40 years later. In another instance, he recorded the hours he spent doing what he considered to be scientific research. When he would mention that he was recording personal data streams, the typical response of listeners was to trivialize this pursuit. Instead of allowing his conscious mind to succumb to this cultural noise and veto his strange obsession, he chose to allow his body/mind to manifest naturally. This technique was successful far beyond the Author’s expectations. Cultivating these personal data streams through careful observation and detailed mathematical analysis eventually led to one flurry of insights after another.
According to our model, the Author’s sustained conscious attention on these data streams provided his Subconscious with food for thought. The powerful pattern recognizing abilities of these subconscious processes eventually bore fruit. The intellect had been patiently waiting for the vortex to open into another dimension of understanding. His first big insight came in 1978 when his Muse revealed the equation for the Living Average – the basic Living Algorithm. Over the next decades, the Muse of his subconscious processes illuminated many more features of these data streams.
This long and lonely course of scientific investigation was not easy. He was unaware of any professional colleagues to share ideas with, and there was no one to recognize and validate even minor accomplishments or provide encouragement. Furthermore, performing manual labor to make a living was not exactly the ideal environment to find acknowledgement for his creative mathematics. Doubts inevitably arose. What am I doing here? Why did I choose this course? Where am I going?
But, it appeared that the Author was on his Dharma Path. Guardian Angels seemed to regularly come to his assistance. His Muse-driven insights into some extraordinary connections between mathematics and behavior were augmented by Providence. Divine Coincidence appeared to provide books that supplied the necessary background, as well as chance meetings that kept him on track. After working in obscurity for decades, the Author reached a particularly low point, where he felt that all his work was for naught. He was not aware of any significance to his research and equally unaware of any colleague in his field of study to counsel or provide direction. In the late 1990s, he reached his lowest point and even considered abandoning his scientific endeavor altogether.
Then in 1999, an eminent Physicist, a visiting professor at the prestigious Physics Institute at UCSB who had a penchant for fine dining, walked into a local restaurant. A chance encounter at the restaurant where the Author was waiting tables led to a significant interaction. This interaction led to a series of encounters where the Author shared a small, yet significant segment of his body of work (the Data Stream Momentum article). Over the course of these interactions the professor validated the Author’s approach, thus reassuring the Author that he was not a ‘madman’, but rather had some significant things to say about data streams. The professor commented, “I’ve already thought about some of these topics, but some I haven’t.” A bit intoxicated from some shared wine and food, he said, “I could even get some of this published, if you like.” Although this encounter was brief, it provided the validation the Author needed to carry him through. In 2002, three years after that serendipitous first encounter, the Author uncovered the Creative Pulse and Triple Pulse.
During the decades after his Living Algorithm insight, the Author was not just sitting on his hands waiting for inspiration to strike. Instead, he was assiduously investigating data streams in any way he knew how. His conscious attention was feeding volumes of data to his subconscious. This data came in a wide variety of forms – numerical, graphic, and conceptual.
After consuming this tidal wave of information over a period of years, the subconscious finally revealed a new process. Up to this point, the Author had only utilized to the decaying measures to describe personal data streams. A flash of subconscious insight revealed a new way of utilizing these measures. For the first time, the Author’s Muse suggested employing the Living Algorithm to digest an experimental data stream. The Author responded by generating a computer experiment designed to analyze a hypothetical binary data stream. The initial experiment examined a pure data stream consisting solely of an uninterrupted series of ones. The graphic representation that resulted from the digestion of this data stream captured his imagination. Voila! The Creative Pulse was born. This model seemed to the Author to be a graphic visualization of behavior. This stunning visual experience was a crucial step toward his current investigations.
The Author has regularly employed this same creative process over and over again in his short existence. He sustains his conscious attention on whatever draws his interest and then allows his subconscious processes to reveal the magic of the Muse. In the midst of cultivating quietude, his Muse provided both the direction and illumination that was to guide his course. This approach has provided his conscious mind with an abundance of work. However, consciousness is a tricky fellow – continually attempting to seize overt control of the journey. It was and is a constant battle to restrain the conscious mind. For the Author the workings of the conscious and subconscious mind are complementary processes. He feels that the mind works best when these processes are allowed to work together – responding to each other’s strengths, rather than allowing one set of processes to dominate the other.
Despite the abundance of insights into the nature of data streams there was still a huge hole that needed to be filled if the Author’s studies were to have any scientific validity. He had the encouragement from the professor that he was on to something with his mathematical approach; he had a computer experiment that produced a compelling, suggestive, visual image; he began to see possible applications of his mathematics to several intriguing areas of human behavior; but he had yet to find scientific studies of human behavior that supported his speculations.
Rather than taking any investigative initiative, the Author continued waiting, presumably for his Guardian Angels to provide him with the needed evidence. Eventually a friend recommended a book that summarized current findings in cognitive science. This book contained a gold mine of scientific evidence that supported the same patterns of correspondence that the Author originally observed regarding both his own personal experience and his computer experiments.
The Author feels that Providence has been guiding his course. He has been driven by innate urges and subconscious insights that seemed to emerge unbidden from his Muse. He has also experienced many divine coincidences that encouraged and enriched his journey. It appeared to the Author that he was just there to help out, acting as a conduit to the Divine Flow. Accordingly, the Author feels an immense responsibility to transmit these powerful insights as effectively as possible.
Working through these insights, he produced a significant body of work. Aware of his personal limitations, he eventually engaged the assistance of his friends to help sort out his writings and to render them understandable to the intelligent public. The following series of articles elucidates the Author’s revelations into the patterns of correspondence between the Living Algorithm’s mathematics of information processing and significant aspects of human behavior. Read on to discover the enormous potential impact of these mathematical patterns upon many fundamental features of our lives.
For the emotional impetus behind the investigation, read our next Right Brain narrative – Life encouraged by the Living Algorithm's Visual Methodology.
If you are more interested in Left Brain analysis, check out the next article in the series - The Pulse of Attention: Interrupted.
In 2002 the Author slipped into one of his extended science trances. This began with countless correlation studies on myriad personal data streams that he had been tabulating for decades. Due to his curiosity about the patterns of typical human activities, he has been engaged in the peculiar behavior of generating data streams as a way of charting the progress of his life. He began recording the full range of his personal activities in 1978. These data streams range from a record of his daily sexual activity, to the number of hours he sleeps in a night, and even to the amount of conversation he has in a day. Of course, he was most interested in his creative sessions, including painting, music, and science.
In the midst of this science obsession, his Muse revealed some startling correspondences between his mathematical models and behavioral reality, including Zero Correlation and Energy Bundles. (See The Experiment.) In the process of writing up the results of these personal experiments, he had another major scientific insight regarding behavior.
For a long time, measured in years, he had retained a little piece of paper on his desk, which simply said 'Hole Theory'. This was there to keep his subconscious mind working on finding a 'solution' to why interruptions created a hole in the creative process. He was, and is convinced that even a small hole drains the momentum of vital inspiration from his creative sessions. While working on an unrelated project, suddenly his Muse revealed the solution to what he ultimately called the Interruption Phenomenon. This solution enabled him to effectively model this unusual phenomenon with a graph generated solely by a mathematical process. He called this graph the Creative Pulse.
At the time he had no idea that the Creative Pulse was a fundamental mathematical form of the Living Algorithm. This meta-connection was to come nearly a decade later. He was just delighted that his mathematical model was somehow linked to the empirical reality associated with interruptions. He certainly didn't know what the mysterious connection was between these unusual bedfellows; and he had no hard experimental results to support his findings. Although his only evidence was experiential and personal, he wrote up his unusual findings in one of his many scientific notebooks (The Creative Pulse). It was only much later that the Author began to realize the enormous implications of this early exploration. This notebook uncovers just some of these insights.
For the emotional impetus behind the investigation, read our next Right Brain narrative – Life & Living Algorithm agree on Interruption Phenomenon.
If you are more interested in Left Brain analysis, check out the next article in the series - Triple Pulse Experiment: Method.
In 2002 when the graph of the Triple Pulse made her first appearance, the Author was working as a waiter at Citronelle, a fine dining restaurant in Santa Barbara with an absolutely spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. As one of his obsessive scientific periods was winding down, he completed a paper summarizing his findings. The paper explores the link between the Creative Pulse, a mathematical model, and the Interruption Phenomenon, a reality-based phenomenon (summarized in an earlier article in this series Creative Pulse Review.)
As his personal Creative Pulse surrounding this science project was zeroing out, he decided to try one last manipulation of the data stream. After the Creative Pulse of 1’s ended, he plugged a few extra zeros into the program to see what happened. He pressed Return. And OMG! A pulse began to emerge below the x-axis. Ultimately he decided to plug in an uninterrupted string of 120 zeros. The Living Algorithm digested the data stream and the result was the mirror image of the ideal Creative Pulse, now appearing below the x-axis. This result indicated that there is a relationship between pulses. He explored this relationship by taking the next logical step. After this mirror image faded out, he plugged in another series of ones. OMG. Out popped another Creative Pulse! We named the relationship between this alternating trio of pulses the Triple Pulse.
He had no idea what to make of the Triple Pulse – but this pulse of zeros below the x-axis suggested the notion of rest, perhaps even sleep. He played around with the idealized model of this relationship between the pulses, what he now calls the Active Pulse and the Rest Pulse. He generated a series of graphs representing a variety of mathematical scenarios regarding interruptions to the Rest Pulse. (Some of these variations are included in this paper.)
He had a few vague notions of her potential importance - even of her possible relationship to sleep deprivation – but his Pulse was fading fast. With his last ergs of creative energy, he included the graphs in his Creative Pulse Notebook, but included no words of explanation whatsoever. His Creative Pulse had zeroed out and the Notebook’s relevance lay hidden for years.
Eight years later, in July 2010, my Person had his famous ‘Zen experience’ - a weekend sailing trip to Catalina with some boyhood friends. Their questions regarding the Creative Pulse catalyzed an extended scientific obsession that is still burning. One of the participants, nicknamed Socrates, suggested that my Person read the book, brain rules, written by the highly esteemed Dr. John Medina. While reading the chapter on Sleep, my Person was shocked to find experimental evidence that corroborated his casual inferences made 8 years prior regarding the Triple Pulse and sleep deprivation. The prior article shares some of those correspondences.
Why did it take so long to develop the implications of the Triple Pulse model? One reason probably had to do with our attitude towards 'zero'. In the process of experimentation we had to undergo a major shift in our attitude towards zeros. This attitudinal shift was possibly a factor in the decade-long delay between results and interpretation. In the original Creative Pulse experiment we considered the zero’s to be ‘evil’. They represented interruptions that were disruptive to the creative process, which was generated by ‘good’ one’s. In the Triple Pulse context, these same zeros generate the Rest Pulse that is necessary to refresh the Active Pulse. Further our intuitions suggested that the Rest Pulse of zeros is associated with the refreshing nature of sleep – a necessary break from an active day. Accordingly, the zeros are perceived in a positive light. The evaluation of the ‘behavior’ of the zeros is contextual. If the zeros interrupt the ones, they are perceived as 'evil'. If they provide a necessary break, they are perceived as 'good'. Moral relativism.
After removing himself from the material for nearly a decade, his preconceptions faded and the Author was able to view the Triple Pulse in a new light. This was one of the four factors that motivated the Author to finally write up his findings regarding the Triple Pulse (which includes this article). The 4 Factors: 1) A distance in time from the material provided a fresh perspective. 2) The questions of his Zen friends refocused his attention on the material. 3) The book, brain rules, provided experimental validation for his casual inferences. 4) The attentions of his Collaborators crystallized his findings into this specific string of articles.
This article highlighted one of the many links between the Triple Pulse and the experimental findings in John Medina’s brain rules. If this has sparked your curiosity to explore another of these correspondences between human behavior and our mathematical model, read the next article in the stream – The Triple Pulse and the Necessity of Sleep.
For the emotional impetus behind the investigation, read our next Right Brain narrative – Life & Living Algorithm amazingly compatible regarding Sleep Deprivation.
The Author has always been interested in the phenomenon of Sleep. He began tabulating his nightly hours of sleep in September 1978. During a certain period he attempted to limit his sleep - presumably to maximize his productive time. After meticulously recording data and performing many cross correlations over decades, he came to the distinct conclusion that it was impossible to shorten sleep time. Short-term gains in awake time were more than matched by losses due to ill health. If sleep were shorted, it would be made up at a later date. No matter what he did the average amount of time he slept remained the same. More surprising was the fact that certain of his creative activities actually increased in duration when he got more sleep. These studies were entirely personal. They had nothing to do with the quality of his creative time, only the quantity. This was the only measure he could ascertain with any degree of accuracy. Imagine his satisfaction when he learned after reading Dr. Medina's brain rules that experimental results confirmed and extended his findings. Imagine his even deeper joy when he found that the Triple Pulse, a model he had developed, actually suggested the necessity of sleep.
If you are interested in how our unlikely partners are doing, check out Life: “Our correspondence regarding Sleep Necessity is impressive.”
To return to the main stream, read The Triple Pulse & the Importance of Naps.
For the first 58 years of his existence, the Author was definitely anti-naps. He felt that they were a waste of productive time. Obsessed with his many creations, he would do anything to avoid the dreaded nap. This included regular injections of caffeine via cappuccinos or swimming in an ice-cold pool to refresh his weary mind. How misguided he was. This push, push, push eventually led to a psychic breakdown. An acupuncturist diagnosed the problem as the result of depleted yin energy due to overuse of the yang energy. The Author was drying himself up with excessive activity. The acupuncturist’s prescription for this condition was simple: Nourish the yin to restore health. And sleep was one way of nourishing yin energy. Imagine his surprise when he realized that the Triple Pulse mathematical model suggested the importance of naps.
To see how the interaction between our unusual mathematical system and human behavior is going, return to our mythological world and read Life & the Living Algorithm agree on the Importance of Naps.
If you are more interested in Left Brain analysis, check out the next article in the series - Triple Pulse & the 10-minute Rule.
As an Outsider, the Author had never even heard of the 10-minute rule until he read Dr. Medina's book brain rules. (Serendipitously, Digger 'Socrates' Graybill had recommended this significant book on the momentous Zen voyage to Catalina.) Further, the Author had never even considered the possibility that this 'rule' was linked to the Triple Pulse, until a week ago (August 2011).
However, as he was writing up the previous article on the Importance of Naps, he came upon material from an earlier inspirational time. This had to do with how the Triple Pulse mathematics did not just simulate the alternation of waking and sleeping, but also simulated shifting modalities as well. After the session the Author took one of those important naps that gave his subconscious time to digest the information he had just ingested. Gratefully he reached the desired state of unconsciousness, within which he experiences chaos. This state allowed his Liminals to do their work without the distraction of conscious awareness. Upon waking, his subconscious revealed the linkage between our mathematical model and the 10-minute rule. This insight is the topic of the preceding article. But the insight would have meant nothing without a previous breakthrough that daughter Serena provided.
As in indication of how approachable the Triple Pulse concepts are, friends and family have provided significant insights into the parallels between the mathematical concepts and behavioral reality. In contrast, we don't imagine anyone helping Newton, Einstein, or Feynman with their theories. We instead imagine that those with scientific genius enter a state of divine inspiration unavailable to the average person and then bring their insights back into the everyday world for the benefit of humankind. Whether true or not, it is definitely not true in this chain of discovery. For instance, my eldest daughter Serena provided me with the shifting modalities insight, a key feature of the Triple Pulse's simulation of reality that is crucial to the topic of this paper.
In October 2010 at the beginning of the current Science Surge (still going strong January 2013), the Author was perplexed. He was still thinking in terms of the Triple Pulse being exclusively associated with the Sleep/Wake cycle. Indeed it took fellow collaborator King's badgering for him to finally let go of this 'unbreakable' mental link in October 2011. Yet Daughter Serena provided the initial insight.
The Author: "There is one thing about that my Creative Pulse theory that is bugging me. It seems that the Triple Pulse applies to waking and sleeping, but the pulses are of equal length, while we are awake twice as long as we are asleep."
Serena: "Have you ever considered that watching TV at night might provide a refreshment for the day's activities, just like sleeping refreshes consciousness?"
"Bingo!" The breakthrough.
Triple Pulse mathematics now applies to any shift of in the modality of consciousness - whether from exercise to desk time, from job to mealtime, or from work to entertainment. Despite this extension, the Author still had a limited conception concerning shifting modalities. It took the insight (subconscious assistance) from his nap to reveal that shifting modalities did not just apply to diverse mental activities, but shifting the topic of thought, as well. This is the insight that connected the Triple Pulse with the 10-minute rule – the topic of the prior paper.
For Life's response to this interesting interaction, read – The Living Algorithm must stretch to accommodate the 10-minute Rule.
For more correspondences between Living Algorithm mathematics and human behavior, check out the next article in the series - Liminals & the Subconscious.
After some disappointing feedback from the public to the initial transmission of his mathematical findings, the Author realized he needed some serious assistance, if his work was to be understood. He felt that his original writings might have been too abstract. With this in mind he wrote a short article of a more concrete nature, which introduced the Triple Pulse Study. Because of his prior experience, he wanted to run his article by someone else to get outside feedback. His wife Laurie, a concrete thinker, was the perfect choice.
When he embarked on this interaction, he assumed that she, as the editor, would fine tune and streamline his short article. This understanding could not have been further from the truth. With the ‘editing’ assistance the vast dimensions of the original article unfolded. In the process his editors became his collaborators. Due to the collective gaze, the original short article eventually blossomed into this extensive work.
Often deeper understandings arise out of the collaborative effort. This facet of the process has been a major factor in the evolution of the research. Frequently, the collective gaze evoked major insights into the underlying nature of the material. Many of the breakthroughs occurred in the process of what started as mere editing and then gradually shifted to the sharing and combining of ideas. One collaborator would have an insight, which would catalyze insights in the other’s mind. And then the other would return the favor.
This productive synergy of ideas is in part due to the accessible nature of the Living Algorithm System. The concepts are simple enough that someone having no experience with the topic can understand it well enough to make a significant contribution. As a pertinent example, in the process of editing a previous article, the Author’s soul mate Laurie had the insight linking the Liminals with the Subconscious. This insight completed the package of Triple Pulse associations - the Active Pulse & the Conscious, the Rest Pulse & the Unconscious, and the Liminals & the Subconscious. Simple idea, but we had never conceived of that thought before. This demonstrates the usefulness of collaboration. Thanks to the powers that be for providing such assistance in this enormous project. (Hopefully some semblance of completion comes before the Great Fire consumes all.)
If the emotional impetus behind this investigation is of interest, read the Right Brain narrative – Life fascinated by Liminals/Subconscious correspondence.
If you are more interested in Left Brain analysis, check out the next article in the series - Core Concept vs. Continuous Method of Lecturing.
After running the Triple Pulse Experiment in 2002, the Author stopped doing any more 'science' for nearly 10 years. He ran the program, performed the manipulations, and even 'published' the results in his Creative Pulse Notebook. The results only included the graphs – but with no word of explanation. This is where the project sat for 8 years – hidden away in an obscure location in his house. It was only in the spring of 2011, after the Collaboration had been going on for a few months, that the Author began to have any idea of the marvelous features of this little baby.
In the course of the story of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins discovers a magic ring. He thought that it was only a ring of invisibility, when it was actually the Ring of Power! (This was revealed in The Lord of the Rings.) Initially the Author was just like Bilbo. When he discovered the Triple Pulse it seemed to him at that time a mere curiosity with limited application. It was only years later (the Summer 2011) that he realized that the Triple Pulse contained the Data String of Power!
He certainly had no inkling that the Triple Pulse model would shed some light upon a mysterious biological phenomenon regarding sleep. He didn't even know that there was a biological model for sleep. A serendipitous connection (the Zen Experience) provided him with Dr. Medina's book, brain rules. No light bulb went on during his first read of the book. However in doing research for other articles in the series, the Author reread the section on Sleep. And Bingo! The correspondences between the mathematics of the Triple Pulse and the biology of sleep jumped out at him. This is the topic of the current article.
For a consolidation and synthesis of the relationship between the Living Algorithm’s Triple Pulse and experimentally determined empirical reality, check out the next article in the series - Triple Pulse System: a Mathematical Web for Cognitive Mysteries.
To see what Life thinks about the current article, return to our metaphorical universe by following this link – Life amazed at growing web of compatibility.
It would easy for us to create a logical reason why the Author reached this point in his studies. Always interested in questions relating to sleep, biology, learning and attention, he read heavily on these topics. Along the way he formed his own eclectic theories, which he casually tested and investigated. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Without taking a methodical route, he encountered the synthesis of multiple disciplines under one roof. This was one more of those surprises that he has grown accustomed to expect.
In the formal scientific method, the theory leads experimentation in a logical progression. The Author certainly didn't take this course. He was just fiddling around. He had no particular questions he wanted answered. He had no particular theories or goals. He was just curious. He had no idea where his investigations would lead him or even where he wanted to go. He just wanted to investigate behavior because he found it interesting. He pursued this quest without machines, funding, or even any external motivation. His drive was purely internal – definitely Muse-driven.
As an obsessive record keeper, he began tabulating his own behavioral data at the early age of 26 and continues to do so to this day (2-1-13) 36 years later. Of course tabulating does not make for an investigation. One must digest this data – turn it into a meaningful form. As his mountain of daily data grew, he needed some general numbers (averages) that would reveal the patterns of the data. As this process began before personal computers by just a few years, he needed an easy method to perform his calculations. Voila – the Living Average (1978)! – the perfect tool for getting a quick read on the ongoing stream of daily data readings – on everything from Sleep to Sex to Tai Chi and even Books (record keeping).
The Author used this prodigious tool as a popgun for decades. He had no idea what her potentials might be – no idea that she would mature into the prestigious Living Algorithm some thirty years later. He just found her descriptions of behavioral reality informative. The Author did a few sloppy correlation studies along the way – even came up with some interesting results. But the data accumulation was so personal that the studies would be classed as a low level observational study – not even worthy of a professional inspection. The tool worked well to calculate the averages of the data he had collected. What he didn’t realize until 30 years later was that the tool herself (the equation) was the powerhouse. In other words the Tool was more significant than what it was used for.
The Author was content with his own behavioral studies. Yet, his curiosity propelled him forward. Muse driven – he continued to gather, digest, analyze, and even write up some of his findings. In the midst of writing up his results, he would pursue an interesting digression, as long as his Muse saw fit. Sometimes these amounted to mere speculative paragraphs. Other times more. More than once he veered off into mathematical derivations of unusual equations, combined with exotic speculations concerning their meaning. But again the drive to explore had nothing to do with the external world. The drive was purely self-motivated – internal – the Muse. Eventually these periodic speculations coalesced into this series of articles. Nothing was anticipated. No questions were asked. No goals pursued. No scientific method. Nothing in mind. Just curious. And ma Musa evoked this curiosity to lure him onto the path of Destiny. And here we are.
If you are curious as to how this investigation evolves, check out the next volume in the series – Living Algorithm: Mathematics of the Moment. It begins with Data Stream Mathematics.