Hacking the Human Mind

Hacking the Human Mind
Kirk Kaiser
http://www.kpkaiser.com
@burningion

Wednesday, December 12, 12

“The intelligent want self-control,
children want candy.
- Rumi


About Me

• Software Developer for 13 Years

• Developed Privacy Software Downloaded over 240,000 Times

• Active Writer, Blogs Have Been Featured on Front Page of Hacker News,
Reddit, CNN, and Digg.

• Studied with a Zen Buddhist in Vermont for a Year

• Spent the Past Two Years Building Electronic Hardware and Software to
Measure and Improve the Human Mind with Computers


The Problem


Ooh a Notiﬁcation!


The Exploding Distractedness of Our Lives

• Amount of Data Created In Computers Doubles Every 1.2 years1

• 12% of All Boys Between 3-17 Years of Age Now Diagnosed with ADHD2

• 20% of Smartphone Users Check Phone Every 10 Minutes3

• Multitasking Shown to Lower IQ By 10 Points4

• American Teens Send an Average of 3,417 Text Messages Per Month5

1. http://www.hufﬁngtonpost.com/tom-silva/the-era-of-big-data-is-he_b_1606914.html 2. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2011, Appendix III, table VI [PDF - 711 KB
3. http://www.hufﬁngtonpost.com/2012/08/16/smartphone-addiction-time-survey_n_1791790.html 4. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-08-10/news/ct-oped-0811-multitask-20100810_1_iqs-study-
information-overload 5. http://www.tatango.com/blog/who-sends-more-text-messages/


From Pong to Battleﬁeld 3 in 40 Years


64 Players Online at Once, Using Tanks, Jeeps, F-16s, Apache Helicopters, Land mines, Medical Devices,
C4, Sniper Rifles, Survival Knifes, Anti-Aircraft Machine Guns, and more to occupy five different territories.


Psychologists Now Hired to Design Games for
Addictiveness


Psychological Addictiveness Built into Games

• Skinner Boxes
(Random Item Drops)

• Variable Ratio Reinforcement
(Skill Kills)

• Leader boards

• 6 Second Rule
(Flash a sparkle every 6
seconds) Farmville
(Target Market 40-60 Year Old Women)

• Social Pressure
(Ask friends for help)


What is the COST of this DISTRACTEDNESS?


WILLPOWER & FOCUS


WILLPOWER HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE A
FINITE RESOURCE WHICH IS
DEPLETED BY DECISION MAKING1

1. Gailliot, Matthew T., and Roy F. Baumeister. “The Physiology of Willpower: Linking Blood Glucose to Self-Control.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 11 no. 4 (2007):
303-27.


WILLPOWER DRAINING OPTIONS EVERYWHERE.


Simply Put:

Technology has grown faster than our mind’s ability
to manage constant technological stimulation.
Nearly every piece of technology we touch in our
daily lives is willpower depleting.


With the Loss of Willpower
We’re Losing the Ability to
Control and Direct Ourselves


The Solution:

Using Technology to Manage Our Minds More
Effectively in the Face of New Threats


Brand New Research on Meditation

• Increases Attention Span1

• Sharpens Focus1

• Improves Memory1

• Dulls the Perception of Pain1

• Slows Age Related Thinning of the Prefrontal Cortex2

• Helps Build Willpower3

1. http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow/Fulltext/2012/08040/Meditation_as_Medicine.9.aspx 2. Cranson, Robert W., et al. "Transcendental Meditation and improved performance on intelligence-related
measures: a longitudinal study." Personality and Individual Differences 12.10 (1991): 1105-1116. 3. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/living-well/articles/2010/04/27/bad-health-habits-rob-12-
years-from-life-span-6-ways-to-boost-willpower


“In a behavioral delay-of-gratiﬁcation task with 8th
graders, (willpower) accounted for more than twice as
much variance as IQ in ﬁnal grades, high school
selection, school attendance, hours spent doing
homework, hours spent watching television and the hour
of the day students began their homework.”1

1. Duckworth, Angela L., and Martin EP Seligman. "Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents." Psychological Science 16.12 (2005):
939-944.


WILLPOWER = The Key to Success


So WHY Aren’t We All MEDITATING?


Chicken Or the Egg Problem:

Don’t Have the Willpower to Start Building Our
Willpower


Making Meditation Seductive and Effective

• Making Meditation Measurable
(Can I eliminate the Woo Woo?)

• Recording Physiology of Users
(Quantify Changes in Physiology So We Can Improve)

• Providing Direct Feedback
(Am I meditating properly? -> Via Audio, Visuals)

• Social Feedback
(How Am I Doing Relative to My Peers?)


So What Happens When We Meditate?

• Skin Temperature Raised
(Master Monks, Up to 17 Degrees in Fingers and Toes)1

• Decreases Galvanic Skin Response2

• Heart Rate Variance Goes Up3

• Increases Gamma Waves on an EEG4

• Lowers Blood Pressure5

1. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/04.18/09-tummo.html 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21417807 3.http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~ssp/Reports/2003/Matzner.pdf 4. http://
www.businessinsider.com/how-scientists-ﬁgured-out-who-the-worlds-happiest-man-is-2012-11 5. Alexander C.N., et al. Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness, and longevity: An experimental study with the elderly.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57:950-964, 1989.


Building the Platform to Measure Meditation


Building the First Prototype

• Measures Galvanic Skin
Response, Skin Temperature,
and Heart Rate

• Provides Audio Feedback
When a Deeper Meditative
State Is Reached

• Records All Data, So
Meditation Can Be Tracked
Over Time


Measuring Your Meditation

• By Measuring Your Physiology,
We Can Track Your Focus
Levels Through Time

• You Can Become Aware of
What Deeper Levels of
Relaxation Feel Like

• Making It Easier for You To
Recreate the Deepest Levels of
Meditation Later


Drawbacks From Initial Prototype

• Must Be Attached to Computer

• Wires Can Be Uncomfortable,
Easy to Get Tangled

• Setting Up Computer is
Distracting

• Too Much Eﬀort to Get Going

• Not Easy Enough


A Second Approach: Meditation on the iPhone

+

Measure Heart Rate
Variance


Accountability and Simplicity In One


Meditation on the iPhone

• Using New Heart Rate Monitors, We Can Now Get Medical Quality Readings
on Our Heart Rate Variance for Around $70

• We Can Use This Data to Get 80% of the Way There With Reading Your
Physiology During Meditation

• New Heart Rate Only Works with iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, New iPad, and New
iPod Touch and Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Monitors

• Direct Audio Feedback and Visualization in Portable Form Factor

• Turns iPhone into Portable Personal Psychology Lab


Medical Quality Biofeedback
Before vs After App

Expensive ($15,000.00 for model above) $70 for Heart Rate Monitor

Real medical quality devices only available for $5 for App
purchase to doctors ($5-$15k)
$300 for iPod Touch If You Don’t Have an iPhone
Only raw data available from them, specialization or New iPad
required
Medical Quality Data1, Easy to Read

1. http://www.sportexperts.org/pdf/PDF%2017.pdf


Look for Software In App Store By End of
December


Attaining Self-Knowledge
Past vs Present

Trip to India, Contracting Scabies, Lice, Practice Anywhere, In Direct Comfort, No Need
Dysentery, Getting Head Shaved By a Stranger, for Physical Threats
and Almost Getting Murdered By a Mob

Information and Feedback Bad, And Trip Life Information and Feedback Good and Immediate,
Threatening Permanent Information Trail


“People who are willpower depleted cannot be
called on to make good decisions for society.”


“People who meditate... over time their brains
become ﬁnely tuned willpower machines.”
- The Willpower Instinct


Let’s Build A Better Future Together.


Questions? Comments? Offers of Help?
http://www.kpkaiser.com to Sign Up for Updates
kirk@zothcorp.com to Contact Me


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