many of the images used throughout this album’s material are 40X magnifications of isolated immunofluorescent cortical neurons and astrocytes / together, these cell types comprise most of the brain in mammals and play crucial roles in allowing an organism to interact with its environment / furthermore, astrocytes in particular are an extremely important, albeit remarkably under-studied cell type that, in humans, account for more cells in the brain than any other cell type / moreover, astrocytes display uniquely curious distributions and morphologies in humans compared to even our closest surviving genetic relative, the chimpanzee / the same cannot be said when making analogous comparisons using neurons; hence, astrocytes [such as the one pictured below] may hold the key to understanding our exclusive human consciousness and experience_
astrocytes and neurons communicate through complicated electrical and chemical interactions that orchestrate the most powerful system of parallel circuitry known to humankind / such circuitry is far superior to our current digital technology of mostly serial computation / therefore, the complexity of our analog computation defines the parameters of consciousness / from one perspective, the human brain is simply a corporeal, analog computer operating in a bath of salt water; a computer that manifests the elegant complexities of love, fear, joy, sadness, hope, memories, creativity, and music -- the amalgam of which is the beautiful catastrophe of the human experience_
like any powerful technology, the human brain -- our analog technology -- holds the potential for good and for evil; it charts our path towards evolution or towards extinction / understanding how to harness this technology with benevolent means will permit our species’ success, happiness, and persistence as we advance towards a universal consciousness_
our analog technology is the tool by which we can reject destruction to become gods of creation // the human brain is the Universe within_
