The Soliton and the Action Potential – Primary Elements Underlying Sentience

At present the neurological basis of sentience is poorly understood and this problem is exacerbated by only a partial knowledge of how one of the primary elements of sentience, the action potential, actually works. This has consequences for our understanding of how communication within the brain and in artificial brain neural networks (BNNs). Reverse engineering models of brain activity assume processing works like a conventional binary computer and neglects speed of cognition, latencies, error in nerve conduction and the true dynamic structure of neural networks in the brain. Any model of nerve conduction that claims inspiration from nature must include these prerequisite parameters, but current western computer modeling of artificial BNNs assumes that the action potential is binary and binary mathematics has been assumed by force of popular acceptance to mediate computation in the brain. Here we present evidence that the action potential is a temporal compound ternary structure, described as the computational action potential (CAP). The CAP contains the refractory period, an analog third phase capable of phase-ternary computation via colliding action potentials. This would best fit a realistic BNN and provides a plausible mechanism to explain transmission, in preference to Cable Theory. The action potential pulse (APPulse), is made up of the action potential combined with a coupled synchronized soliton pressure pulse in the cell membrane. We describe a model of an ion channel in a membrane where a soliton deforms the channel sufficiently to destroy the electrostatic insulation thereby instigating a mechanical contraction across the membrane by electrostatic forces. Such a contraction has the effect of redistributing the force lengthways thereby increasing the volume of the ion channel in the membrane. Na ions, once attracted to the interior, balance the forces and the channel reforms to its original shape. A refractory period then occurs until the Na ions diffuse from the adjacent interior space. Finally, a computational model of the action potential (the CAP) is proposed with single action potentials significantly including the refractory period as a computational element capable of computation between colliding action potentials

Anti-Nirvana: crime, culture and instrumentalism in the age of insecurity

‘Anti-Nirvana’ explores the relationship between consumer culture, media and criminal motivations. It has appeared consistently on the list of the top-ten most-read articles in this award-winning international journal, and it mounts a serious neo-Freudian challenge to the predominant naturalistic notion of ‘resistance’ at the heart of liberal criminology and media studies. It is also cited in the Oxford Handbook of Criminology and other criminology texts as a persuasive argument in support of the theory that criminality amongst young people is strongly linked to the acquisitive values of consumerism and the images of possessive individualism that dominate mass media

Does the Brain Function as a Quantum Phase Computer Using Phase Ternary Computation?

Here we provide evidence that the fundamental basis of nervous communication is derived from a pressure pulse/soliton capable of computation with sufficient temporal precision to overcome any processing errors. Signalling and computing within the nervous system are complex and different phenomena. Action potentials are plastic and this makes the action potential peak an inappropriate fixed point for neural computation, but the action potential threshold is suitable for this purpose. Furthermore, neural models timed by spiking neurons operate below the rate necessary to overcome processing error. Using retinal processing as our example, we demonstrate that the contemporary theory of nerve conduction based on cable theory is inappropriate to account for the short computational time necessary for the full functioning of the retina and by implication the rest of the brain. Moreover, cable theory cannot be instrumental in the propagation of the action potential because at the activation-threshold there is insufficient charge at the activation site for successive ion channels to be electrostatically opened. Deconstruction of the brain neural network suggests that it is a member of a group of Quantum phase computers of which the Turing machine is the simplest: the brain is another based upon phase ternary computation. However, attempts to use Turing based mechanisms cannot resolve the coding of the retina or the computation of intelligence, as the technology of Turing based computers is fundamentally different. We demonstrate that that coding in the brain neural network is quantum based, where the quanta have a temporal variable and a phase-base variable enabling phase ternary computation as previously demonstrated in the retina.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Key Words: Plasticity; Action potential; Timing; Error redaction; Synchronization; Quantum phase computation; Phase ternary computation; Retinal mode

Living for the weekend: youth identities in northeast England

Consumption and consumerism are now accepted as key contexts for the construction of youth identities in de-industrialized Britain. This article uses empirical evidence from interviews with young people to suggest that claims of `new community' are overstated, traditional forms of friendship are receding, and increasingly atomized and instrumental youth identities are now being culturally constituted and reproduced by the pressures and anxieties created by enforced adaptation to consumer capitalism. Analysis of the data opens up the possibility of a critical rather than a celebratory exploration of the wider theoretical implications of this process

Liberalism, lack and living the dream : re-considering youth, consumer sovereignty and the attractions of night-time leisure in Magaluf

Much of the academic literature on alcohol-based leisure focuses on the pleasures of hedonism and youthful cultural exploration in environments free from the prescriptions, pressures and routines of everyday life. In this article – in which we present data from our ongoing ethnographic research exploring the experiences and attitudes of young British tourists in the Spanish resort of Magaluf on the island of Majorca – we argue that the standard liberal social-scientific image of youth leisure is naive and misrepresents its variegated reality. Our research indicates that many young British tourists gain little contentment from their holiday in the sun. Rather than embarking on a leisure experience composed of boundless freedom, choice, indulgence, excess and that is indicative of personal consumer sovereignty, many of our interviewees could identify the regimented and commodified nature of alcohol-based tourism. Rather than satisfaction, they felt an imprecise dissatisfaction. Drawing upon elements of psychoanalytic theory, we argue that underneath our interviewees’ accounts of drunkenness and promiscuity lies an obdurate but imprecise sense of lack. Yet, it is precisely this absence which only recharges their motivation to do more of the same the year after in similar destinations, thus confirming the presence, power and domination of consumer sovereignty

The English Riots of 2011: Misreading the signs on the road to the society of enemies

Most of the riots that occurred in England throughout modernity were associated with symbolic protests and fuelled by an underlying sense of injustice about specific, objective grievances related to the position of the agrarian or industrial working classes in the socioeconomic and political structure. In the period that stretched from the 1880s to the 1930s, however, it is possible to discern a significant shift in form. Perhaps the most important aspect of this shift was the gradual emergence and development of coherent, unifying political discourses amongst the popular classes (Thompson, 1991). To be specific, the motivation and symbolism that underpinned both protests and riots became increasingly shaped by the related but competing political visions of communism, socialism or Labourite social democracy. These discourses did not incorporate populations en masse, and indeed many individuals remained apolitical or conservative in outlook despite their continued economic exploitation and political marginalization. However, the influence exerted by these discourses was most certainly on the rise and, between the two World Wars, it could be seen at the forefront of most protests and riots

'Throughout my life I've had people walk all over me': trauma in the lives of violent men

In this article we present original qualitative data gathered during prolonged ethnographic fieldwork with violent men in deindustrialised communities in the north of England. We use the data as an empirical platform for a theoretical exploration of the symbolism and subjectivising influences of traumatic life experiences in these men’s biographies. We conclude by making the tentative suggestion that there is a complex and mediated causal link between traumatic experience and a deep subjective commitment to aggression and violence in adulthood

“We are still quite patchy about what we know” International migration and the challenges of definition, categorisation and measurement on local service provision

International migration has a consistently high profile within national and international politics with increased focus on measurement and quantification of migrant numbers, impact on services and contribution to local, regional and national economies. However, the absence of consistency within definitions, categorisations and measurement of international migration and migrant populations create challenges and barriers to both understanding the needs of migrant communities but also the provision of adequate services within specific geographical areas. This paper will present findings from a project designed to map the impact of migration on a settled community within a Local Authority (LA) in the North East of England. As the project encountered routine inconsistencies around definitions, categorisations and measurement of migration within the LA area, this paper demonstrates the complexity of trying to ‘measure’ migration on the ground and while consistency in measurement is key to accurate data, we conclude with an ethical question about the rationale for collecting data on migrant populations