EGOPROJECT

Baarn, 28 august 2003

Dear Reader,

My last article was on the dim perspective about our existence on planet Earth in this century (www.egoproject.nl). In this new article I will give some of my thoughts that may give you some hope for the future. I am well aware that it maybe wishful thinking, but anyhow when there is life there is hope. The last 15 years I have become interested in the workings of my brain. How it works, how it perceives the world around me.

The study of the brain has given me one dominant thought: I can describe it, but I will never really understand it. Well, I hope you enjoy some parts of it. I hope that you will give me your comments.

With my kindest regards,

Dr Tom de Booij

Koningsweg 45, 3743 ET Baarn, The Netherlands, E-mail : 5star@tiscali.nl

PS. I  wrote this article for the greater part already in the end of the year 2000, 3 years ago, but I think my thoughts about our future have not much changed. This forms the reason to open a new website www.egoproject.nl/brains. My article "Where is our planet Earth heading to in the next century", written in April 1999 is still under the website: www.egoproject.nl .

Unfortunately due to an error of my programme, this site has been partly out of order. Today I have updated my site. I apologise for the inconvenience.

15 November 2001 I started to publish the newsletter: "De Uranische Vijfster Nieuwsbrieven".You can find them, since 5 november 2002, on internet : www.egoproject.nl/star/. I hope shortly to translate these newsletters in English.

1 March 2003 I started a website www.egoproject.nl/woonwagenbeleid ( in Dutch) on the history of the so-called travellers in the Netherlands 

 

WHERE ARE WE HEADING TO ON OUR PLANET EARTH IN THIS CENTURY?

Chapter I

GROWTH IS UNSUSTAINABLE

  1. We are in the "fall" of our western civilization
  2. My personal experiences: from denial to acceptance
  3. My new challenge: to show the readers that growth is unsustainable
  4. Energy can not be created or destroyed only changes in form
  5. The laws of thermodynamics never will take a holiday
  6. The sun has burnt already half of her energy
  7. The universe goes from order to chaos

Chapter II

OUR THREE-POUND UNIVERSE, THE LAST RESOURCE TO HANG ON A LITTLE LONGER

  1. Reality is an illusion
  2. Our body: a dead leather bag filled with chemicals
  3. The most complex structure found in our Universe: the human brain
  4. Our way of thinking
  5. The miracle of our most important sensory system: vision
  6. The maturation of our visual system
  7. Cultural and environmental effect on perception
  8. How we are fooled in who we are perceiving the world around us
  9. What we will perceive, we perceive
  10. We see edges off  objects sharper than  they really are
  11. When our eyes are moving from one fixation point to another, we are stone blind
  12. Rivalry between two images we perceive in our two eyes
  13. Visual attention: we perceive more than we think

Chapter III

THE VISUAL PERCEIVING PROCESSES IN OUR BRAIN

  1. The visual field perceived by the retina is processed in the brain by four separate channels
  2. The eye: the mirror of the soul
  3. The astonishing receptor pigment in de rod cells: rhodopsin
  4. The processing in the retina, after the receptors cells have been hit by the electromagnetic vibrations, is highly impressive
  5. From the retina nerve fibers are sent all over the place in our brain
  6. The thalamus, the conducter of the orchestra, sending his orders to other parts in the brain
  7. Most of the orders from the thalamus are processed in the back of our brain
  8. Pathways emanating from V1 of both hemispheres to higher visual areas
  9. The functional properties of the higher visual areas  

Chapter IV

VISUAL PROCESSING IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL ATTENTIONAL SYSTEM

  1. Evolutionary necessity of a duplication of neuronal systems on each side of the body
  2. Difference between left- and right hemisphere
  3. Upper and lower visual fields: a world of difference
  4. Difference in processing objects close by and far away

Chapter V

BRAIN DAMAGES TELLS US MORE ABOUT THE DIVISION OF LABOR IN THE VISUAL BRAIN

 

EPILOGUE

LITERATURE CITED