I drink therefore I am

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ALCOHOL: The pharmacology of booze and brains

IF there is one discovery that has arguably been the most influential in human history, it’s alcohol. Alcohol is up there with caffeine as one of the most widely used drugs in the world. It has helped shape human societies for millennia and influences nearly everyone either directly or indirectly. In fact, many anthropologists would argue that you can divide the human race into three distinct tribes – those who drink occasionally, those who actively avoid alcohol and those who seize any opportunity to drink it.

Most people will quietly organise their lives around access to or avoidance of the drug alcohol. Many animals like to drink, including monkeys and elephants, and it has been happening for millions of years. Alcohol has become so ingrained in our culture that traces of alcohol-use can be found in out DNA.

A quirk of evolution

Alcohol is a naturally produced substance which first entered our world millions of years ago via a symbiotic relationship between yeast and the cherry fruit. Yeast lived within the fruit which was at risk of being eaten by various insects. To protect itself and its host, yeast began to convert the sugars in cherry fruit and produce the poisonous bi-product, alcohol, which killed any cherry-hungry insects. When the fermenting fruit was discovered and eaten by man, our long-lasting relationship with alcohol began.

There is no doubt that alcohol is poisonous to humans too. In fact just 29mils of pure alcohol (ethanol) injected into the bloodstream would kill a man. It is also a very unique and hardcore drug. Pharmacology reveals that alcohol affects the same neurotransmitters in the brain that are targeted by drugs such as cocaine, heroin and Prozac.

The pharmacology of alcohol

For most people, alcohol has a powerful calming effect. Two shots of distilled booze is the equivalent of taking a mild tranquilizer. This is why alcohol is offered on planes soon after take-off. The ‘buzzing’ effect is a result of dopamine being triggered by alcohol, which is the same neurotransmitter that cocaine targets. Serotonin makes us feel good and is triggered by both alcohol and anti-depressants. Feeling like you can take on the world after a good few drinks or feeling severely ‘spaced out’ is the same sort of effect you would feel if you were to inject heroin.

Of course, alcohol affects each of us differently and our relationship with the drug changes as we change. Body size, fitness level, metabolism and gender are a few of many factors that determine how alcohol will affect our brain chemistry. However, a recommended weekly allowance has been calculated at 24 units for men and 14 units for women per week. Twenty-four units equals two bottles of wine; 14, a bottle and a half.

Personality type and social context are also huge factors when it comes to accessing one’s drinking habits. Knowing someone’s relationship with alcohol would reveal a lot about that person’s life. But for most of us, alcohol has formed a pivotal part of several social situations. Weddings, parties, graduations, funerals, promotions, birthdays and anniversaries are just a few of these. Drinking has almost become synonymous with celebrating.

The hangover

The unfortunate hangover of all this is that there has been a huge increase in the number of people admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems. This has caused much concern for those in the medical profession and a move has been made to create a new designer drug to replace alcohol. The idea is to be able to add a pill to a soft drink and enjoy all the benefits and euphoric effects of alcohol without being harmful or addictive.

Many pharmacologists would argue that if alcohol was ‘discovered’ today it would most certainly be banned or at least more controlled than it currently is. But perhaps we don’t really want to know that much about alcohol as a drug. In the end, many of us might choose to be blissfully boozed and ignorant.

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Steam rises to power

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STEAM: And the future of the video game industry

DIGITAL distribution giant and gaming platform, Steam, has fast become the Google of the gaming world – reaping in an estimated US$468 million (roughly R3.1 billion) in revenues through June 2011, according to mygaming.co.za. This attests to the fact the gaming industry has become one of the fastest growing industries in history.

Using Steam has become compulsory for ardent PC gamers, who are forced to use the platform to buy, install and update several of the latest gaming titles. According to Wikipedia, as of July 2011, Steam had over 30 million active users and offered over 1 300 game titles. It is estimated that Steam has a 70% share of the digital distribution market for video games.

The Steam platform

The idea of creating a centralised online platform to distribute games and related media online was, in part, a move towards combating software piracy – specifically pirated games. To play a store bought game that is powered through steam requires one to register a Steam account. One then has to be logged into Steam to install the game, update the game, play the game and be offered a host of promotional adverts upon exiting the game.

In bandwidth-stricken countries such as South Africa, one can imagine what a schlep this can be. In my experience, if a newly released game if bought through Steam, it can take up to two days to download and install. Thereafter Steam automatically updates your newly bought game, which can take another day or two. If your bandwidth hasn’t run dry by this point, you then have to log into Steam before you can play your new game for the first time.

The benefits of Steam

One can understand the benefits that gaming platforms such as Steam offer. They have made it extremely difficult for impoverished gamers to play pirated titles; it automatically patches and updates your game collection, and it offers you downloadable content for your favourite titles. It does also offer a lot of specials and promotions, whereby one can easily transfer and convert your money into US dollars and buy games via the web for cheap. In fact, purchasing games through Steam is so simple that it can be dangerously addictive.

This is not to mention that the Steam servers are often running at full capacity whereby one is put on a waiting list to play. I was once informed that my newly installed and updated game would launch in approximately five days. Bearing all this in mind it’s fair to say that Steam is having a negative impact on many game consumers who don’t necessarily want to play multiplayer.

Market research

Anti-piracy aside, Steam most certainly uses its cleverly crafted platform for market research purposes. A Steam user’s page includes some brief personal information, details of any games owned, as well as the number of hours played in each game. Steam admits that it collects and reports anonymous metrics of its usage, stability, and performance and uses this information to justify implementing new features.

However, a lot of this information is collected without notifying the user or offering an opt-out. Some of these metrics are also available publicly, such as what games are being played or statistics of a player’s progress in certain games. Last year, Steam announced that they would begin collecting a list of the user’s installed software as well.

Steam critiques

Steam has been criticised for allowing developers and game publishers to change prices and restrict game availability depending on the locations of users. Despite the reduction in manufacturing, packaging, design and distribution costs, this can cause some games to cost more than their retail prices. Steam has also been heavily criticised by European users for pricing games much higher in Euro-zone countries.

Furthermore, according to the Steam Subscriber Agreement, “Steam’s availability is not guaranteed and Valve is under no legal obligation to release an update disabling the authentication system in the event that Steam becomes permanently unavailable.” – www.gamefaqs.com

Ardent PC gamers can argue for or against the value of Steam. However, with Steam now being in the position of power that it is, has implications for gamers worldwide. In our liberal and democratic age, I suppose the biggest concern is a lack of choice.

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The Turing Machine

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ALAN TURING: Inventor of the digital computer

THE modern world as we know it is run on computers. Your world and mine would be very different without them. It’s interesting to know that just 70 years ago computers didn’t exist. What’s more interesting is to consider that some of humankind’s most significant and most innovative inventions, such as the computer, emerged from the horrors of warfare. They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. This couldn’t have been truer at the time of Second World War.

Alan Turing (1912-1954) was the founder of computer science, a brilliant mathematician, a philosopher, code-breaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time, whose unique contribution helped turn the tide of war. Turing was also known as the “brain” man and was the genius of Britain’s wartime code-breaking headquarters in Bletchley Park — the most secret place in Britain during WW2. Here, Turing created a code-breaking machine which formed the basis of all computer technology.

Alan Turing lived a short but significant life. At public school he fell in love with a boy who sadly died of tuberculosis, leaving Alan distraught, but contemplative. It was at this moment in his life that Alan Turing began to think about the relationship between the body and mind — between mind and matter. He wondered if the mind of the boy he had loved could have somehow survived his death. He became obsessed with the nature of thought and how the mind worked and became fascinated with the idea of building a thinking machine.

Whilst going for a run outside of Cambridge, Turing had one of the greatest mathematical insights of all time. He began to contemplate how an imaginary machine, operating with a very simple set of rules or instructions, but with an infinite amount of time, could solve any and all conceivable, mathematical problems. This was the first logical concept of the programmable computer, which became known as the Turing Machine. But then war broke out.

Turing was known for his code-breaking and mathematical skills and was soon assigned a post at Bletchley Park. Turing and his colleagues were tasked with cracking the Enigma — the sophisticated German coding device that was used to encode messages during the war. The Enigma was believed to be unbreakable and nearly all German u-boat missions used it. If it hadn’t been cracked by the code-breakers, it would have certainly changed the outcome of the war.

Thousands had been tasked with cracking the Enigma system, but it was Turing’s genius that allowed them to figure it out. It was also Turing’s chance to finally implement his idea of building a mechanical brain.

The Enigma device used a simple rotary system but was able to encode messages in literally millions of different ways. Not only that, but messages were encoded differently each day, and to crack it required more than thousands of human eyeballs.

Alan Turing and his colleagues constructed a mechanical machine called The Bombe, which was able to churn out thousands of possible answers to the encoded German messages. It involved a lot of guesswork, but without Turing and his code-breaking machine, Britain may very well have not survived the battle of the Atlantic.

The Bombe was not the world’s first computer, but after the war Alan Turing and his colleagues went on to build Colossus. This mechanical, “thinking” machine was labeled as the word’s very first digital computer and is what all modern computer technology is based on.

Alan Turing died young under mysterious circumstances. He was found dead in his room by his housekeeper and it was reported that he died of cyanide poising. There is a bit of a conspiracy theory here as some believe that Turing’s death was by accident, others thought it was suicide and another group believe that he was assassinated. The assassination theory certainly has something going for it, as Turing was not only a homosexual at a time when it was illegal, but he also held some of the most important secrets of WW2 and may have been considered as a security risk.

However his life ended, Alan Turing will certainly be remembered and appreciated for the rest of mine.

• Footnote: A personal statement of apology was given by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on September 10, 2009, for Alan Turing’s inhumane treatment.

Quite Interesting facts from long ago

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QUITE INTERESTING: Facts from long ago (not so general knowledge)

Quite Interesting Facts: Why do men’s clothes have buttons on the right while women’s clothes have buttons on the left?

When buttons were first invented they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid’s right. And that’s where women’s buttons have remained since in several buttoned outfits worn today.

Quite Interesting: Why do X’s at the end of a letter signify kisses?

In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.

Quite Interesting Facts: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called ‘passing the buck’ ?

In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would pass the buck to the next player.

Quite Interesting Facts: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?

It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host’s glass with his own.

Quite Interesting Facts: Why are zero scores in tennis & squash called ‘love’ ?

In France, where tennis became popular, round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called “l ‘oeuf”, which is French for “egg”. When tennis was introduced in the U.S. Americans mispronounced it “love” as in Squash as well.

Interesting Facts: Why is someone who is feeling great ‘floating on cloud 9′ ?

Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above all worldly cares.

Quite Interesting Facts: Why are people in the public eye said to be ‘in the limelight’ ?

Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatre, a performer in the limelight was the centre of attention.

Quite Interesting Facts: Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?

Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a dense orange clay called “pygg”. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay the jars became known as “pygg anks”. When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a container that resembled a pig, and it soon caught on.

Now you know everything.

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Perceptions of Time – Frikkie de Bruyn

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TIME: It’s not as simple as it seems

IF you were abducted by aliens and asked to describe Earth’s air in a language you understood, how would you describe it? It would be equally difficult to describe left and right without any points of reference. The same hypothetical can be applied to time — that dimension we all thought we knew until we were asked to describe it.

It’s natural to think of time as a linear progression. Experience will tell us that we live and we die; that the season’s come and go; that the sun rises and it sets. All these have a beginning and an end. Quantum physicists will argue differently — that time is far more precarious than we are conditioned to believe. When asked the question “what happened before the Big Bang?” physicists will most likely scoff at the notion and argue that space and time itself did not exist before the Big Bang. Without time, the notion of “before” becomes meaningless. It would be like asking “what’s south of the South Pole” if the Earth was the only object we knew existed.

But there’s no escaping our notion of time. Everything we do or experience takes place at a specific time and point in space. We all “experience” time, but can we ever be sure that it exists, out there, independent of our experience? Cosmologist, Frikkie de Bruyn, offers some insight into the precarious nature of time to help us better understand its nature.

“Time is experienced in two fundamental ways, explains de Bruyn. It seems to flow like a river, the seconds, days and years passing relentlessly. Our perception of time is also characterised by a succession of moments with a clear distinction between past, present and future.”

We can all confidently say that we have knowledge about out past experiences, but not of the future. However, at any given point in time, our past and future are connected to what we describe as the “now”. Some go as far as to argue that all that exists is the “now”.

Time as Linear or Cyclic
These perceptions of time are closely related to the idea of time being either linear or cyclic. It’s natural to assume that time is linear, with clearly defined beginnings and ends to most human experiences and unique events. “It is like a giant ruler, stretching back into the past marked in scale of years, decades and centuries and it stretches away into the future,” explains de Bruyn. The Big Bang theory also uses this “progressive” perception of time.

However, cosmologists like de Bruyn will argue that most of the time, time appears to be cyclical and not necessarily progressive. Cycles occurring in nature, such as the days, seasons and years can be used to support this perception. Time therefore becomes “the element in which natural events occur,” says de Bruyn.

We have always been limited by our language when it comes to describing something like perception of time, yet it nonetheless remains central to our modern lives. GPS devices would not exist without pinpoint accuracy in timing, computers and networks wouldn’t work and we couldn’t have landed a man safely on the moon.

Changes in perception of time
The invention of the clock and subsequently the watch brought about a new awareness of time. “Our minds process information from clocks and ‘interpret’ that information as ‘being time’”, explains de Bruyn. Another greatly significant revolution in our perception of time was Einstein’s theory of relativity.

“The Newtonian perception of time as separate and independent, ticking away irrespective of human activities, was replaced by the ‘personalised’ relative interpretation of time. Every person had his own time”, says de Bruyn.

At a more cosmological level, we now also know that time slows down as we approach velocities close to the speed of light. Stephen Hawking even described time as coming to a complete end within a black hole.

Einstein’s relativity theory also allowed us to think of time as a measure of the separation of events in space — clearly connected to change. However, time does not exist in the sense of objects and changes. “It is a human invention that provides a mental tool to measure change, and change means events separated in space”, explains de Bruyn.

It should be difficult for anyone to consider time as a human invention; that our concept of time is so closely related to space — the spatial separation of objects and change. It’s even more difficult to comprehend, that outside of this context, time simply has no existence.

It makes one wonder: if we discovered the secret to timeless longevity, where death was not feared as the end, would we still be so obsessed with time?

Source: Frikkie de Bruyn, Director of the Cosmology Section of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.

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