A new Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach to translate brain waves into speech

Akbari et al. Towards reconstructing intelligible speech from the human auditory cortex. Scientific Reports January, 2019.

In a recent study, researchers demonstrated that brain signals from the human auditory cortex can be reconstructed into intelligible speech with a high rate of success. In the study, the brain signals from the auditory cortexes of five participants (suffering from epilepsy) were recorded while they were listening to stories and numbers being read. Researchers specifically chose epilepsy patients as they were already undergoing a clinical procedure involving the placement of electrodes into the temporal lobe of their brains. This procedure is called invasive electrocorticography. The researchers then spoke 10 numbers into the ears of the test subjects: zero to nine. Each number produced a unique response in the brain. The sound produced by the vocoder in response to those brain signals was analyzed and cleaned up by neural networks, a type of artificial intelligence that mimics the structure of neurons in the biological brain. Remarkably, the robotic translations were successfully understood by 75% of people enlisted to test the technology. These results suggest a hopeful future for the Brain-Computer Interface. In particular, this new technology has great potential at giving a voice to people who are paralyzed or severely injured. Despite the potential, the path for a practical device is still long. To go beyond simple numbers and access the thoughts that go with speaking, the researchers will have to probe a different part of the brain known as the Broca area. It is found in the frontal lobe and linked to speech production and language processing.

Milky Way is warped and twisted, not flat

Chen, et al. An intuitive 3D map of the Galactic warp’s precession traced by classical Cepheids. Nature Astronomy February, 2019.

Astronomers have been studying the Earth’s home galaxy, the Milky Way, for centuries in efforts to get a better understanding of its size, structure, and place in the universe. While modern instruments have provided invaluable details about our galaxy and others, a truly accurate model of our galaxy has been missing. Researchers have recently built, for the first time, an accurate 3D map of the Milky Way. We often think of spiral galaxies as a flat thin disk of stars that orbit around a central region, where billions of stars provide the massive gravitational force to hold everything together. However, a new study showed that the Milky Way’s gas disk is no longer confined to a thin plane, but is instead organized in an S-like, warped appearance. The researchers determined the Milky Way’s exact shape at high accuracy by measuring the distances to so-called Cepheid variable stars. Cepheids are young stars that can be up to 20 times as massive and 100,000 times as bright as our Sun. These high stellar masses live fast and die young, sometimes after only a few million years. They also show day-to month-long pulsations, which are observed as changes in their brightness. Combined with a Cepheid’s observed brightness, its pulsation period can be used to obtain highly reliable distances.  By using the data of 1,339 Cepheid stars as benchmarks, researchers were able to map out accurate distances between objects in the Milky Way. Interestingly, in the Milky Way’s outer regions, they found that the S-like stellar disk is warped in a progressively twisted spiral pattern. Researchers suggested that the Milky Way’s warped spiral pattern is most likely caused as a result of rotational forcing or “torques” by the massive inner disk. The further stars are from the center of the galaxy, the weaker their gravitational pull is. This new morphology is expected to provide a crucial updated map of our galaxy’s stellar motions and the origins of the Milky Way’s galaxy.

Smart fabric self-cools or self-insulates depending on conditions

Zhang et al. Dynamic gating of infrared radiation in a textile. Science, February 2019

Decades of innovation in fabrics have yielded high-tech materials that react to hot and cold conditions, allowing them to keep marathon runners cool or alpine hikers warm. However, there was never a material that could change the insulating properties of fabric in response to the environment. A recently developed fabric is the first to automatically warm wearers up or cool them down as needed. Infrared radiation is the primary way the body releases heat and is the focus of this new technology. When the condition is warm or moist, like when a body sweats, the fabric allows the infrared radiations to pass through. Conversely, in cool and dry conditions, the fabric traps the surrounding heat that escapes. The fibers are made of two different synthetic materials coated in carbon nanotubes – one absorbs water, and the other repels it. When the material gets hot and wet during sweating, the strands twist and warp. This distortion brings the strands of yarn closer together, which opens the pores in the fabric to allow heat to escape. When a wearer is too cool, this mechanism is blocked, trapping heat close to the skin. The reaction takes place almost instantly. The garment cools people down before they realize that they are getting hot. Athletes perhaps will be the first people to wear clothes made from the material, but it could be useful for infants, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Researchers say it could be in production within months as the base material is easily available and the carbon coating can be effortlessly added during the standard dying process.

With a contemplative eye, one finds that the facts he deduced from the treasures of this Divine Book are many and various and that they relate to all knowledge, science, culture, or philosophy, despite their differences.

In this article I will try to explain one of the many Qur’anic facts that Nursi derived and to which he drew attention, a fact that had not been explained before or whose share of study and research was brief, immature, or incomplete.

It is what he refers to as “the Qur’an’s preservation of the existing equilibrium among all sublime divine truths.” Explaining this fact, Nursi states that this preservation and equilibrium represent a property that certainly does not exist in any human work of art, in any of the thoughts of the greatest intellectuals, in any of the righteous people’s traditions, or in any of the books of illuminists who delve into hidden matters. Each of these groups clung to one branch, or at most two, of the great tree of truth, and so became preoccupied with its leaves and fruits, ignoring the other branches, either because of ignorance or because they were unmindful of them. It is as if there was a kind of division of labor so that they could specialize among them.

The ocean of truths

Nursi draws a similarity between this and a great treasure found by divers at the bottom of a sea. Because each one of them has seen only a small part of this great treasure, which is separated from the other parts, the divers’ perceptions of it differ and even contradict one another. Then, Nursi goes on to say, “The Qur’an, that ocean of truths, encompasses and sees in its verses the entire treasure and describes its jewels in such a harmonious and balanced way that they show their beauty perfectly” (Nursi, 25th Word, 2005, p 458).

I believe that this great truth to which Nursi draws our attention in the above lines needs some explanation, especially when its proof has become crystal clear in the extreme confusion prevailing among all western scholars or all those researchers who stray from the guidance and light of the Qur’an. This fact has also become manifest within their works or conversations, as will be seen later.

Many are those who think that the universe we live in is full of many different truths, whereas the fact is that this conception is a false illusion; the universe has only one single truth, which has many different branches and angles.

For instance, those who devote themselves to studying astronomy, geology, zoology, history, biology, psychology, philosophy, ethics, etc. walk in different directions along the one global truth. The magnitude of this truth, with its diverse aspects and directions, make many people, including many intellectuals and specialized scientists, think that there are various scientific truths that are independent from one another. That is why some of them do not concern themselves with what the others have discovered and limit themselves to the world of the independent truth they imagine to exist.

That is why the information people have in such fields is incomplete or even misleading. Further, such

information does not quench their thirst or satisfy their aspirations, but rather adds to their perplexity and confusion. This is because the more they delve into such information the more they are faced with threads that surpass the limits of their research and the ranges of their studies. If they try to follow some of this new information, they will be led to ranges which are more spacious and to threads which are more entangled and complicated.

Partial knowledge

Such partial knowledge, which may seem like independent truths within the firm universal structure are, in fact, like so many chapters in one great scientific book that is only concerned with one subject. What can one gain if one only finds one of its chapters and occupies oneself with studying it thoroughly and meticulously? Or even, what would one understand of such book if one studies all of its chapters without following any order or coordination, and without referring to any connection between one chapter and the other? It is unquestionably clear that such a person will not emerge from such a study, however meticulous and profound it is, with anything but some broken concepts and incomplete information, which are in total nothing but the worst kind of compound ignorance, even if they are partially true information. The same applies to the universe: It is a whole book, containing so many connected and harmonious parts, even if they seem to be independent and disharmonious before the eye that quickly glances over them.

The proof of that which Said Nursi has stated in brief is the fact that so many of the scholars and philosophers who have enjoyed world-wide fame have returned to in their final days, complaining about ignorance, seeking knowledge, and suffering confusion.

To illustrate, in his autobiography, we find Bertrand Russell stating that although he achieved much of what he had dreamt of, including love and peace, as far as seeking knowledge, he had gained nothing more than misfortune.

Even the man who created special and general theories of relativity and established the rules of space, time and gravity, that is, Albert Einstein, complained of the same problem and disclosed to his friend, the American writer George Ferk, that the information he had gathered about the universe could provide him with nothing except a mysterious riddle that was impossible to solve. When George Ferk asked him about death he answered, “I don’t know.”

In his book Anti-Duhring, Friedrich Engels expresses his confusion about the issues of the universe in a long speech in which he says, “How little we know about the origin of blood corpuscles, and how numerous are the missing links even today, for example, in the establishment of a rational relationship between the symptoms of a disease and its causes! Again, often enough discoveries such as that of the cell are made which compel us to revise completely all formerly established final and ultimate truths in the realm of biology, and to discard whole piles of them once and for all.” He continues, “But eternal truths are in an even worse plight in the third group of sciences, the historical ones; … In the sphere of human history our knowledge is therefore even more backward than in the realm of biology.” He goes on to say, “…and the generations which will correct us are likely to be far more numerous than those whose knowledge we are in a position to correct-often enough with considerable contempt.”I am certain that the appearance of extreme philosophical doctrines such as idealism, existentialism, pragmatism, and the like is but the fruit of a disorder that results from an incomplete and partial knowledge about conceiving the overall structure of existence, of course with the supposition that this partial knowledge is correct. Partial knowledge can never convince the mind and appease the soul, except if it comes after having achieved an overall comprehensive knowledge that encompasses the structure of all existence: humanity, universe, life, and the relationship between them. It is not important for such overall knowledge to be profound and precise, especially at first, yet, it is extremely important that it be correct and comprehensive. In this connection, I shall remind you of a scientific truth to which we should direct our attention as proof of what is being said. The study of 20% of a mass that is composed of many parts does not necessarily lead to a correct perception of 20% of the facts about this mass. In fact, such a study does not even lead to the correct perception of 1% of the facts of this mass, but it may lead to some distorted conceptions about this mass in general. What a researcher may conclude from such a study is nothing but some illusions which they consider to be information and science. What is the percentage of correct information which a person may conclude from putting a magnifying glass on a certain spot on the map and totally concentrating on the scope of this glass, contemplating bright colors and broad lines that appear under their eyes, before getting to know the whole map with all its longitudes and latitudes? Although they may get to know “some knowledge” when they comprehend the colors, read the names of towns and cities under the magnifier correctly, observing the bending lines, etc. this kind of knowledge should actually be called “dead knowledge” as it has no connection with any of the information contained on the overall map. Such is the truth of the knowledge gained by the person who searches for the truth about the universal existence and limits their mind to one of its angles or one of its parts. It is certainly a dead knowledge that has no relation with the knowledge and information that the universe as a whole reveals. That is why such knowledge cannot provide its owner with any aspect of the scientific certainty that the researcher seeks.

Comprehensive knowledge

Now, the question is how can we get to know the overall comprehensive knowledge? In other words, where would one find this map, which displays to us the comprehensive perspective for perceiving all of the universal structure, and reveals to us the kind of relationship that exists between its major aspects and basic elements? It is certainly known that we shall not find any such map except in the Qur’an, as Nursi asserts. In fact, this is the essential mission for which the Qur’an was revealed and upon which the self-knowledge of humanity depends. Through the Qur’an mankind can easily identify its ability to shoulder the responsibility with which it was charged and for which it has been created. We should all be aware that only if the Qur’an is the word of the Creator of this universe can it comprise the whole comprehensive picture of the unity of these created things that are connected and intertwined in such a marvelous harmony. Whoever devotes themselves to studying the Qur’an with due contemplation, dedication, and scrutiny shall discover that this book starts by acquainting humanity with itself, its properties, and its missions in this life. Then, it explains to humanity the life that they enjoy with all the important and trivial things it contains, and causes them to see its beginning, its end, and its relation with what will come after it. After that, the Qur’an allows human beings to perceive universal phenomena around them and how these phenomena are connected to them in a comprehensive overall way. In this way, it causes us to observe the fixed courses that never undergo any development or change and the sophisticated symbols that are exploited for the interests of mankind. These are the general elements of the structure of this existence: human beings, life, universe, and any other components.

Therefore, these are the springs of all knowledge. In this way, the universal structure appears before human sight through their contemplation of that amazing Divine Book. It appears just like a huge tree would appear before you as you look at it from level ground without anything to block your view; the tree clearly appears before your eyes with its body, huge trunk, spread out branches, and the fruit it carries among its leaves. Thus, if human beings, after such overall comprehensive knowledge that is deduced from the Qur’an, plunge into the sea of universal existence and dive deep into whatever aspect or part they desire to know and study they will not be lost in mazes or be misled by the refracted spectrum that results from the view being limited to narrow separated angles. Through their dependence on this comprehensive map, which has become printed on their insight, human beings attain that which will protect them from being misled or deluded, and that which will make them aware of the relationship between the parts that may seem discordant or independent. This kind of awareness is what is meant by “knowledge,” the importance and honor of which are recurrently mentioned in the Qur’anic verses. The Qur’an also refers to those who are gifted with such scientific insight, for example in the verse that states, The erudite among His servants fear God Alone (Fatir 35:28). As for those who start by placing huge magnifying glasses on small spots on the huge universal map and then stare at these spots while they are unaware of the map itself, these are the people to whom God refers in the verse that reads, They know only some appearance of the life of the world… (Rum 30:7). Some may think that the phrase “some appearance” (which is the translation of the Arabic word zahiran in the verse), refers to a superficial understanding of things. However, the fact is that the superficial understanding of a thing is knowledge about which a person brags while they are still ignorant of the truth and magnitude of this same thing. So they start to delve in and concentrate on a single corner of such a thing, abandoning its spacious magnitude.

Still, there is a question which should be directed to those who, like Said Nursi, state that no philosophy or any other branch of knowledge can substitute for the cognitive role of the Qur’an. The question is: Has anybody who understands the sciences of the universe in the light of the Qur’an thought of death as a perplexing mystery, as was the case with Einstein? In addition, has anyone, after starting to ponder upon the universal map shown in this Divine Book, happened to be taken away by their knowledge from the life in which they are living into confusing ignorance or desolate darkness? On the contrary, this only happens to those scientists and philosophers who embarked on their scientific journeys at a great distance from the great Qur’anic gate that gives humanity an overall perception of the universal mass and its comprehensive relationships. Examine closely, for as long as you like, the history of past and present scientists who have taken the Qur’an as a cognitive course for themselves and as a ship in their intellectual journeys throughout this universe. You shall never find anyone of them whose knowledge has thrown them into confusion or whose scientific discoveries have thrust them into fear or gloominess. The opposite is always true.

“Knowing where things are and why is essential to rational decision making.”
Jack Dangermond

Geography matters in almost everything we do, where we live, where we work, and the decisions we make about our environment. By the middle of the twenty-first century, it is estimated that 12 billion people will be living on this planet. This means that our planet will be hard-pressed to meet all our food, water, and fuel needs. Thus, managing each limited natural resource has emerged as perhaps the most crucial problem that we will face in the near future. Fortunately, technologies are becoming available for everybody and may allow us to feed and power the growing population without destroying the environment.

In today’s global community, more information helps you to make an easy and informed decision when it comes to interacting with the high-tech world. Currently, information comes in many different ways from the private and public sectors, such as reports and statistics, digital photos, and multimedia.

In today’s complicated and global world, private and governmental organizations and individuals must daily solve problems in a vast array of areas. Business concerns have to deal with advertising, direct and target marketing, facility management, financial services, manufacturing, insurance, retail siting, and property management. Local governments face issues related to community development, construction, crime analysis, demographics, education, emergency services, environmental management, land management, and tourism. The federal government has to concern itself with all aspects of health care, military and defense, natural resources, oil and gas, pipelines, public health, public information, public safety, tax assessment, and intelligence. And these are only a few of the areas requiring decisions.

All these actions happen in a geographic location and affect each other. How can we solve these complicated problems? How can we collect data and analyze it? More important, how can we devise appropriate solutions? Today, we have the technology to solve these kinds of problems: Geographic Information System (GIS).

The history of GIS is relatively short. The first GIS development and application started in Canada during the 1960s. Due to its dependence on computers and its limited capabilities, GIS technology developed simultaneously with computers. Along with the rapid development of computer capacity after the mid-1970s, GIS technology increased rapidly. Since the 1980s, the number of GIS-related companies has increased rapidly. Some of these companies produce data or specialize in producing GIS software and education, and others concentrate on solving problems. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first satellites (LANDSAT [USA], SPOT [France], and IRSS [India]) designed specifically to collect physical data about the Earth and humanity’s impact upon it were launched into orbit. As the vast majority of updateable data was not only for military purposes, but also available for public use, GIS users and developers were able to use it to solve their problems.

GIS has been used to analyze the relationship and patterns of almost all natural phenomena. GIS technology helps its users see patterns that cannot be recognized by just viewing a list or an actual map, for it brings everything together. Working with locational information, GIS has the power to solve problems we encounter every day. Whether GIS users restore habitats, plant vineyards, search for oil, fight wildfires, or measure an endangered species’ population, they also can learn more about the ability of GIS to manage natural resources.

How does GIS work?

GIS is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing things that exist and events that happen on this planet. In other words, it is a computer system that assembles, stores, manipulates, and displays geographically referenced data. It integrates such common database operations as statistical analysis and query with maps. This ability sets GIS apart from other information systems, and provides valuable data to a wide range of public and private enterprises engaged in planning strategies and managing various infrastructures.

GIS allows people to create powerful maps, integrate information, visualize scenarios, solve complicated problems, present powerful ideas, and develop effective solutions. It is a tool that can be used by almost everybody: individuals, organizations, schools, governments, and businesses.

In general, GIS has two components: hardware (a desktop computer or workstation) and software. Its software produces the functions and tools needed to store, analyze, and display geographical information. The essential software components are tools to enter input and manipulate geographical information, a database management system (DBMS), tools to support geographic query, analysis and visualization tools, and geographic data that GIS can ingrate spatial data with others.

Essentially, GIS is a type of software application, running on a stand-alone computer or workstation, that analyses and displays multiple layers of geographic information. It can be though a spatial database. First, geographic locations on the Earth’s surface can be stored in computer files as sets of mathematical coordinates. This makes it possible to draw a map on a computer-a map of the world, the Amazon Basin, or your neighborhood. Second, it means that different map files or layers of spatial information with common geography can be displayed simultaneously and analyzed with reference to one another. On an agricultural map, for example, one layer can represent the land’s boundaries, another one can show the local streams, and still another can illustrate any changes in elevation. The analytical power of GIS lets people query the system to extract information from different layers.

GIS also is related to, and shares common features with, several other types of information systems. It can be used by desktop mapping, DBMS, computer-aided design (CAD), and global positioning system (GPS)/remote sensing GIS.

Today, GIS can be used for almost anything. However, its major users are utility companies (gas, electric, and water), cable and television companies, transportation networks (finding the quickest way and service areas on the roads), agriculture (planning crops, analyzing yields, planning the efficient application of fertilizers), federal agencies (USDA, NRCS, NGS), municipalities (urban planning), forestry (timber harvest and growth, roads in the forests, cutting and removing logs, environmental regulations, forest management), delivering products, educating children, and targeting markets. It is useful to botanists and biologists, planners, and petroleum engineers. It also can track customer sales, analyze crime patterns, route delivery truces, display soil types, and find the best location for an expanding business.

Over the past two decades, the development, acquisition, and implementation of GISs has continued to increase. Currently, it is a billion dollar industry in the United States, and is being utilized by both the public and private sector and well as academia. The declining cost of computer software and hardware, the increasingly user-friendly nature of the technology, and its increasing power have caused a rapid increase in the number of GIS uses.

The rapid and continued growth of GIS use in private industry, government, and academia has raised the concern of educational opportunities currently available to GIS practitioners. Since GIS is now a big business that is experiencing rapid growth, many new practitioners seek further education and training. In addition, GIS practitioners have acquired a professional identity that they did not have 20 years ago. GIS analysts, specialists, and project managers have been increasingly demanded both by industry and government.

References

• Dahlberg, R. E. & Jensen, J. R. “Education for Cartography and Remote Sensing in the Service of an Information Society.” The American Cartographers, Vol. 13, (1986): 51-71.
• Huxhold, W. E. et al. Managing Geographic Information System Projects. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Obermeyer, N. J. and Pinto, J. K. Managing Geographic Information Systems. New York: The Guilford Press, 1994.
• Robinson, J. H. “The Economics of Geographic Information Systems. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education,” Vol. 52, (1991): 33-42.
• Wikle,T. A. “Continuing Education and Competency Programmes in GIS.” The International Journal of Geographical Information Science. Vol. 12, No. 5, (1998): 491-507.