I’ve often chided myself for this. Ali used to say that I wasn’t focused enough. I agreed then and still do. But I also think that in some ways, this could be seen as a good thing, or at least ‘valid’ as a social position, and whilst I’m not the richest that I could be, I am at least broadly secure. Focus, after all, simply means that we are filtering out peripheral distractions…and following something through. I choose to see it like I’m sweeping a wider floor than others, that’s all.
Daile’s TMA this month has been on, amongst other things, the precise mechanics of interneuronal pathways. The way that photons arriving at the back of the eye (for example) are converted into information that can be used by the brain to orientate our actions is truly phenomenal. Within each eye, there are 120 million receptors (rods) that are specifically designed to process monochromatic information about shapes and forms, and a further 6 million (cones) that are colour processors. These are wired to filtering cells in ways that are not straightforward. Signals that are fired off to the brain are the result of significant moderation before the signal is initiated. Each ganglion cell that sends them, is fed (via bi-polar cells) by a circular array of photo receptors that are arranged so that there is an annular array of cells that give an opposite signal to the ones in the middle. Cells at the fovea in the centre of the retina are wired more densely. These are wired virtually one photoreceptor to one bi-polar cell, to one ganglion cell. These are the ones that are concerned with focus… but it is the ones on the periphery that are used to discern changes to form. Sometimes, to see a faint signal (such as a distant star) one has to look sideways at it. (You can’t see the distant star with the receptors in the fovea) If enough signals of one type are collected at a ganglion cell, it triggers a response called an action potential, which is a pulse of electricity that is propagated along an axon to the brain… or more accurately, to several places in the brain that have different responsibilities for processing information. The brain collates the information, compares it with other current data, previously observed patterns, and templates that trigger a considered or instinctive response.
Sometimes it still gets it wrong...try this (Click the link and then go to 'How does Whites illusion work'): http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nku.edu/~issues/illusions/Images/Photo/Photoreceptors.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nku.edu/~issues/illusions/Photorecepters.htm&h=262&w=350&sz=59&hl=en&start=11&sig2=JsFVAnudMrVbJbd85sAC3A&um=1&tbnid=VnhR8phwFZqLYM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&ei=2QFwSP2aHpeuoQSJ4t2QBA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dphotoreceptors%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
For me, all this makes me think about the complexity of our bodies and our environment. I’ve not gone into the detail about the chemical transformations that lead to and support the whole signalling process within the cells of the eye, or how that process has evolved. But it’s so diverse, so well balanced, and so poorly understood, that it makes you wonder about focus. Our focus in business, our focus in social aspiration is so narrow and our purpose is so one sided, that we are missing much of the peripheral detail that ought to give us balance. Our focus in terms of our physiological vision is constantly tempered with peripheral vision…so as to warn us of impending threats beyond our subject of focus. Our social systems are constructed in such a way that we don’t admit information that is from the outside of our permitted field of vision.
I’ve been reading a book about where we are in terms of civilisation. I know that many of you think that I’m a bit screwed up with that…but I’m really beginning to think that I should have kept up with my environmental preservation activities that I started in the 80’s. The predictions of fuel crisis are beginning to be vindicated, and the ongoing prognosis for our society are a subject of great consternation, to say the least. I find it very frustrating. Our failures here are massive. Yet we still focus on the narrow definition of success that are orientated around consumption. Our ability to consume is our focus, and those of us who are, for one reason or another, not greedy enough to be able to focus on that kind of success, are currently considered to be failures.
I know YOU don’t consider me to be a failure Mum, but I’m not ever going to be a success by the terms of success that are held dear by our society. The guy that owns the company that I work at is a multi millionaire….but he’s still pushing hard for more. He’s happy to push so hard that people go over the edge, and leave. Society holds him to be an object of praise. He’s a success. He’s incredibly focused.
Anyway…. We got tenants.
So, where was I?
This weekend we’re down the coast. Carlene and Ian have gone to Adelaide and we’re looking after the kids. It was decided a while back that it would be good plan to leave the boat down here, and there’s a place for it out the front of the their house that’s ideal. It’s a sort of recess in the fence that looks like it would have been where a garage and drive could have gone. There’s no drive, but the space is there.
I HAD thought that we’d also get the chance to go out in it this weekend. The environment at Surfers Paradise and the inland waterways in the vicinity are designed for small leisure craft. Normally the water is blue, the sky is blue, the sun is shining and its all pretty good. On Friday night it rained so hard that it filled up the boat with water to about 250 mm deep at the gunwale! The girls came out to have a look in the morning, and see how far the water would squirt.
The other thing that happened yesterday was that I finally got a transformer for my un-environmentally sound nixie tube clock. I’m dead proud of it, and spend extended periods of time just looking at the numbers changing. Sad f****r that I am! Ha ha.
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