From: 113463.3610@compuserve.com
Date: Fri Jun 25, 1999 1:43pm
Subject: Anthropocybersynchronicity (rhythm)
http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_culture/Consciousness/
Anthropocybersynchronicity:
Rhythm and Intimacy in VR
by Joel N. Orr, Autodesk Distinguished Fellow 1-800-CADD/CAM.
based on an article that first appeared in Computer Graphics World.
an*thro*po*cy*ber*syn*chro*ni+*ci*ty n [fr Gk anthropos, man +cyber, governor + synchronicity, coming together in time] The study of the rhythmic aspects of the person-computer interface.
I coined the term anthropocybersynchronicity to describe an area of person/machine interface research that is largely unexplored-- but holds great promise, especially for virtual reality. Untapped aspects of our
being can greatly enhance the contact between people and computers. The secret: Rhythm. Human-scale rhythms--visual, auditory, and kinesthetic--can and should be incorporated into the design of effective computer systems.
When MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte was asked a few years ago, "What comes after personal computing?" he responded with a single word: "Intimacy." While the conventional uses of this term have a wide variety of connotations, one cognitive psychology usage is most interesting: "the portion of the field of view occupied by a phenomenon." Since in most current VR applications the virtual world takes up the entirety of the user's field of view, intimacy is total: The user feels entirely "inside" the VR "world."
The totality of the user's immersion in the VR "world" represents both a danger and an opportunity. Anthropocybersynchronicity can lessen the danger and help us exploit the opportunity.
Two to Tango
One of the most widely-quoted statistics in CADD comes from a study done over a decade ago by IBM, in which the researchers demonstrated that the number of transactions performed by users of a CADD system (CADAM, in this case) increased as the response time decreased, down to a quarter of a second. This finding was surprising; most CADD users and experts believed that response time was important, but that below about one second, other factors would limit the productivity of the user. The study, published in the IBM Research Journal, showed that the transaction rate at half a second was double that at one second--and that the transaction rate at a quarter of a second was about double that at half a second.
For years, I believed IBM misapplied this statistic to justify selling much more powerful computer systems for CADD than the user really needed. I pointed out that CADAM commands typically had very limited span; that is, it took four or five picks on CADAM to accomplish what could be done with just one pick on a Computervision system. So response time, I reasoned, was important--but only in the IBM/CADAM environment, where individual commands did not accomplish as much as they did on other systems.
But in 1984, when I visited a CADAM user group meeting and a Computervision user group meeting within a short period, and an observation I had made earlier was confirmed: CADAM users were happy, and CV users were frustrated, with their respective systems. Exploring the matter further with my clients who had CADAM and CV, I was surprised to learn that CADAM users ended their workday tired but happy--with sweaty armpits, so to speak--while CV users often ended their workday with a headache.
It became apparent to me that the "dance" of the CADD operator was much smoother for the CADAM user, with sub-second response times to all commands, than for the CV user, whose system response time varied widely from command to command-- and from moment to moment, for it depended on what the other system users were doing at the time.
Fascinatin' Rhythm
Then I wondered that I had not seen it before: CADAM users were able to develop a working rhythm, much like farm or factory workers. When I was thirteen, my Uncle Bobby taught me to use a scythe. "Once you capture the rhythm of it, it won't even seem like work; you'll find it exhilarating," he told me. I was skeptical, and remained so for several muscle-sore and blistery days, but I kept practicing. And one day, I started cutting clover at about nine in the morning, and only stopped when my worried aunt came to find me at three o'clock in the afternoon--I hadn't shown up for lunch.
This dynamic aspect of ergonomics is sadly neglected by computer users and vendors. It desperately needs more serious study.
Hidden Power
Computers are, potentially, a very powerful amplifier of human thinking. Their use has been limited to date by their accessibility; only a relatively small segment of the population can make contact with their power.
This is largely due to their arcane nature. A great deal of knowledge is required to use most systems with any facility. And most operating systems and applications demand near-perfection from those who would exercise them, operating under the principle of "a miss is as good as a mile"; if you mis-key a command or a file name, the resultant behavior may be astonishingly different from what you expected, and the computer may give you little indication of what you did wrong. So at a minimum, you have to
be precise with letters and numbers to make computers work; only a fraction of the population has the aptitude needed to be so.
Adding pictures to the human/computer communication goes a long way toward enlarging the segment of the population that can take advantage of the brain-amplifying power of computers. Icons and spatially distributed menus make interaction with the computer less ambiguous for more people. Pictures unleash more of the awesome intellectual leverage of the machine. But we do
not have to stop there.
Your Meter is Running
In The Neural Lyre: Poetic Meter, the Brain, and Time, Frederick Turner and Ernst Poppel note that "...brain processing is essentially rhythmic. That these rhythms can be "driven" or reinforced by repeated photic or auditory stimuli, to produce peculiar subjective states, is already well known." They go on to show that this rhythmic nature is the same across cultural
boundaries: "Metered poetry is a highly complex activity which is culturally universal. (Frederick Turner) has heard poetry recited by Ndembu spirit- doctors in Zambia and has, with the anthropologist Wulf Schiefenhovel, translated Eipo poetry from Central New Guinea. He reports, as a poet, that the meter of Eipo poetry, when reproduced in English, has much the same emotional effect as it does in the original."
Through their study of poetry in hundreds of languages, Turner and Poppel have identified a fundamental temporal unit that seems to be shared by all humans. "It has been known for many years that rhythmic photic and auditory stimulation can evoke epileptic symptoms in seizure-prone individuals, and can produce powerful involuntary reactions even in normal persons. The rhythmic stimulus entrains and then amplifies natural brain rhythms, especially if it is tuned to an important frequency such as the ten cycle-per-second alpha wave."
They have determined the length of this unit to be three seconds; in poetry, this period is identified with a vocal space unit discernible in all the languages they studied, which they call LINE. Rhythmic driving at frequencies that are harmonically related to this temporal unit produces astounding effects. "The curious subjective effects of metered verse--relaxation, a holistic sense of the world and so on--are no doubt attributable to a very mild pseudotrance state induced by the auditory
driving effect of this repetition."
Moreover, such stimuli seem to have an integrative effect on people. "Auditory driving is known to affect the right brain much more powerfully than the left: thus, where ordinary unmetered prose comes to us in a "mono" mode, so to speak, affecting the left brain predominantly, metered language comes to us in a "stereo" mode, simultaneously calling on the verbal resources of the left and the rhythmic potentials of the right."
"But the driving rhythm of the three-second LINE is not just any rhythm. It is, as we have seen, tuned to the largest limited unit of auditory time, its specious present, within which causal sequences can be compared, and free decisions taken. A complete poem-- which can be any length--is a duration, a realm of values, systematically divided into presents, which are the realm of action. It therefore summarizes our most sophisticated and most uniquely human integrations of time."
Good Vibrations
Both mechanical and electrical engineers say a system is in resonance when it vibrates at its natural frequency. Energy from a resonating system moves easily to another system of the same natural frequency. We tune radio and tv receivers to the frequencies of transmitting stations in order to receive their signals; when the soprano sings at the natural frequency of the crystal goblet, it shatters.
Human beings are complex systems--too complex to have simple natural frequencies. But there are certain frequencies that resonate with some human phenomena. Low-frequency sound pulses at or near a person's heart rate seem to cause the human system to "lock in" to the sound generator; once this occurs, changes in the frequency or rate of the sound cause
corresponding changes in the person's heart rate, as well as in other physical functions. The most popular video games are not the ones with the best graphics; they are the ones that have a heartbeat-rate low-frequency pulse, that accelerates as the game progresses. This auditory entrainment causes the player's heart rate to speed up, and an accompanying production
of adrenaline and endorphins. By the end of the game, the player is "hyped"--and wants more.
The companies that sell background music to large commercial establishments use rhythms (and often other subliminal stimuli) to create the kind of mood they judge to be most effective--for workers in an office, customers in a grocery store, and so on.
Filmmakers take advantage of this phenomenon to heighten tension in their audiences. Next time you watch a suspense film, note the heartbeat-rate pulse, that speeds up, at crucial times--like when the movie calls for extra suspense.
You Lead
But when a person watches a film, the movie is active and the person is passive. By contrast, good sales people have long known what practitioners of neurolinguistic programming have recently written about: You can establish rapport with someone by intentionally mirroring different aspects of their behavior--their rate of breathing, their blinking rate, the rate at which their leg is swinging, for example. And after a couple of minutes of matching, you can verify that you have rapport by leading--changing the rhythm, and watching to see if they follow. If they do, you are communicating with the person on a very primal level, and they are much more open to your suggestions and other forms of leading than when such rapport is absent.
Studies of people in singles' bars back this up. People who began to mirror each other's behavior soon left together; people who were "out of synch" with each other after a few minutes separated and made other contacts.
Getting at the Problem
Now let us think about the computer as a general-purpose tool, something we use to get a job done. We must measure its effectiveness by how easily and how well it helps us to accomplish our goal, which is usually not operating the computer; it is writing, accounting, designing, drafting, or something to which the computer--except for the specifics of its assistance--is
irrelevant.
We can increase our control of the tool by increasing our coupling to it--the extent to which our actions and the actions of the computer system affect each other. Rhythm, through resonance, enables us to increase that coupling.
Of course, increasing coupling could give the tool more control over the user, which could be undesirable; like the binding of a ski, it has to be both loose and tight. You don't want the ski to fall off while you are going down a slope; but you want it to come off easily if you fall.
Ultimately, it is not literacy, or pictoracy, we need; it is not even "mediacy," a facility with multimedia. Rather, we must have
immediacy--enhanced access to our problems so that we are empowered to solve them without mediation, without the intrusion of the irrelevancies of the computer. Rhythm can bring us closer to this goal.
They Got Rhythm
Although they are only nominally anthroposynchronous, there are already numerous rhythmic uses of computers. The ones given below demonstrate the feasibility of having the computer control rhythm.
Biomuse II is a music- generating system invented by Hugh S. Lusted and R. Benjamin Knapp, of Stanford University. Small electrodes pick up electric signals from the muscles of the "player," and translate them into MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) signals. Electrodes can be placed, for example, on the skull, near the eyes, and on arms and legs. The player can make music by moving, by changing brain-wave patterns (through visualization or other means), or by looking in different directions.
Music therapist Shmuel Ben-Dov uses a program called "Xanadu" to teach autistic children. The system can detect both pitch and rhythm via a microphone connected to a board that comes with the software. Ben-Dov designs lessons that can be executed by Xanadu; in them, the student is instructed to sing a particular series of notes, at the given rhythm. When
the student does well, the system rewards him or her with a pleasant arpeggio; mistakes cause the program to provide additional instruction and encouragement.
In the Boston Computer Museum, a computer plays along with a musician, improvising an accompaniment in real time.
A simpler version is available in Broderbund's "Jam Session" for the Macintosh. The program has a mode in which the user can "jam" with the music by selecting particular licks; the software makes sure that the user's contribution fits in with the rhythm of the piece.
Richard Bandler, co-inventor of NLP (neurolinguistic programming), has described programs for the Apple II that induce a light hypnotic trance by rhythmic flashing and clicking. Once the system has "rapport" with the user, it makes suggestions to enhance the user's learning state.
I'll Lead, You Follow
Suppose the keyboard of your personal computer had a sensor that could detect your pulse. When you first start working with the computer, the system would inquire as to your mood and alertness, from time to time. It would build a table with the corresponding heart rates. After a period of calibration, it could then sense your level of alertness, and use rhythmic
auditory and visual pulsation to alter it. It could, for example, flash a character in the corner of the display at the rate of your pulse, while making an unobtrusive but audible clicking sound. When it detected synchronization between your pulse rate and its beat, it could speed up the flashing and clicking, checking to see that your pulse was entrained.
By increasing your heart rate, the system would cause your body to generate the substances that are the concomitants of the "fight or flight" response--including endorphins and enkephalins, pain- blunting, pleasure-enhancing morphine-like chemicals that could make you more effective.
They could also make you less effective, if your work required a more contemplative mood. For this reason, you'd be able to control what the system did to you.
Off-Beat
"What do you call people who practice the rhythm method of birth control?" goes the riddle. "Parents," is the answer. Like any other tool or approach, rhythm does not ensure success.
Rhythm can be a powerful ally or a formidable foe, a liberator or an enslaver. I do not believe it is intrinsically evil, but it can be used for evil purposes, such as controlling people against their will. We should approach it cautiously and intelligently, respecting its destructive power while we harness it for our benefit.
Coming Soon
We have looked at rhythm with the mathematics of Euclid and Newton, whose underlying assumptions derive from Plato's: everything in the world is an approximation of an ideal. Recent discoveries under the general heading of "the mathematics of chaos" reveal that things are both simpler and more complex than we ever imagined. Sealed mysteries of natural phenomena, and biological phenomena in particular, are yielding in embarrassing profusion to this new Open sesame. I am anxiously waiting to see if there will be found, in a biological setting, a chaotic or fractal analog to the Newtonian notion of resonance.
Marching Forward
Historically, rhythm has sometimes been used to abrogate individual freedoms. "Military drums play music designed to make your feet take you where your head never would," says N'omi Orr. "Musick is almost as dangerous as Gunpowder; and it may be requires looking after no less than the Press or the Mint. 'Tis possible a publick Regulation might not be amiss," said Jeremy Collier (1650-1726).
There is danger in rhythm, long perceived. Let us exercise good judgment in its application. We have to be sensitive to the possibilities for its misuse. Here, the best remedy is education; we must teach our children about rhythm in the context of communications, and make them sensitive to its use and misuse.
But we must act quickly; we are late. In 1947, mystery writer and medievalist Dorothy Sayers pointed out, in The Lost Tools of Learning: "We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armored tanks with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of "subjects"; and when
whole classes and whole nations become hypnotized by the arts of the spell binder, we have the impudence to be astonished. We dole out lip-service to the importance of education..."
We have to see education as an ongoing activity; we must teach, and learn, how to think, not just what. And part of that set of skills is in the examination of what we take in. In his science-fiction novel, David's Sling, Mark Stiegler gives good advice:
"Filter first for substance. Filter second for significance. These filters protect against advertising. Filter third for reliability. This filter protects against politicians. Filter fourth for completeness. This filter protects from the media.
" "History is a race between education and catastrophe," noted H. G. Wells. May education win in our generation.
DR. JOEL N. ORR
Chairman and Principal Consultant
ORR ASSOCIATES, INC.
5224 Indian River Road * Suite 106
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23464
804/467-2677; Fax 804/495-8548
Dr. Joel N. Orr is a CADD/CAM and computer graphics consultant. He is
chairman of Orr Associates, Inc. (OAI), one of the most active consulting
firms of its type in the world. OAI counts among its satisfied clients such
organizations as IBM, AMP, Kodak, Unisys, the US Air Force and Navy,
Hasbro, Xerox, Motorola, Citicorp Venture, and many others. OAI provides
both technical and marketing counsel to users and vendors of CADD/CAM and
computer graphics equipment and services, as well as to investors.
Dr. Orr is a contributing editor for COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD, TEMPLATE,
CAE, DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT, andWINDOWS SOURCES. He is a founding member and
past president of the National Computer Graphics Association. A popular
speaker, he frequently addresses the Society for Manufacturing Engineers,
the American Production and Inventory Control Society, and many other
professional groups. He has written and edited several books on CADD and
CIM, and is listed in "Who's Who."
LEAP, the League for Engineering Automation Productivity, was established
by Dr. Orr. Its goal is to empower engineering professionals by working
with academic and industrial leaders to make computers the locus, rather
than the focus, of day-to-day engineering activity.
The CADD/CAM Institute, a seminar and publishing firm, was founded and is
directed by Dr. Orr. It publishes Joel Orr's WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY, a
30-minute monthly video newsletter.
COMPUTER TALK, a weekly radio talk show hosted by Dr. Orr, can be heard on
Standard Broadcasting Network affiliates Sundays, 2-3 pm EST.
Dr. Orr holds a PhD in mathematics and computer science. He was named a
Distinguished Fellow by Autodesk Corporation.
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