{"items": [{"author": "Paul", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/182303068531842?comment_id=182303705198445", "anchor": "fb-182303705198445", "service": "fb", "text": "A massively complex neural interface.", "timestamp": "1323877334"}, {"author": "Victor", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/182303068531842?comment_id=182349915193824", "anchor": "fb-182349915193824", "service": "fb", "text": "I'm amazed that anyone would think an owl's head could just keep turning. Perhaps cartoons have had an effect.", "timestamp": "1323883218"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/182303068531842?comment_id=182393431856139", "anchor": "fb-182393431856139", "service": "fb", "text": "@Victor: my guess is that someone was pulling their leg as a child and they hadn't really thought about it since.", "timestamp": "1323888897"}, {"author": "Paul", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/182303068531842?comment_id=182401738521975", "anchor": "fb-182401738521975", "service": "fb", "text": "I think people hear that \"an owl can turn it's head all the way around,\" meaning 180 degrees in either direction, and think it means they can turn it all the way to face the front again.", "timestamp": "1323889950"}, {"author": "Chris", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/117346402173047680184", "anchor": "gp-1323899805815", "service": "gp", "text": "Yeah, multiplexing a standard nervous system across this barrier would be a complete disaster biologically. However, if you imagine the two parts with separate nervous systems that simply communicate with one another over a somewhat lower bandwidth connection, this becomes a lot more feasible.\n
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\nThe nervous systems don't have to be completely separate, but there will probably be two \"brains\". You might even get something similar to what we have in having separate brain hemispheres. Having ones corpus callosum removed definitely has side effects, but if the system were to evolve, there would be solutions.\n
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\nI'm also thinking that instead of just doing temporal multiplexing, you could also have different radial patterns. As a simple example, imagine you have a ring of nervous connection. You could get three different values through for any particular timeslice by having the whole ring on, none of the ring on, or half the ring on. It doesn't give you four different values like it would if they were connected, but it's more than on/off. Divide the ring into 4 quadrants and you get 6 possible values. More slices gives you more possibilities: (slice,values) = (1,2) (2,3) (3,4) (4,6) (5,12) (6,14) (7,20).\n
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\nAnother way to get more information across a neural boundary is level of activation. I believe our neurons are either on or off, but I don't see a fundamental reason there couldn't be other levels of electrical transmission in needed.\n
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\nYour list of other requirements may also be cut down. There's no reason air or food have to come through the head. Alternatively, if the lungs/heart are moved above the neck, you don't have to worry about air flow between the two sections.\n
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\nAnother option that might help would be to move the point where the pharynx splits into the larynx and esophagus below the rotational joint letting you combine air and food into one system.\n
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\nAnother combination you might be able to pull off is blood in/out. Just put one way valves both directions both above and below the neck. During systole (heart contraction), the one way valves pointing upward open and increase the blood pressure in the head as they increase it in the rest of the body. During diastole (heart relaxation), the opposite happens. Above all the valves, you have a standard artery/capillary/vein system.\n
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\nAlternatively, you could have many pairs of valves above the neck and have an artery/vein system per section of the head or some combination thereof.\n
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\nI had a thought about an even crazier system which basically emptied the head of blood during the diastole. I think this would work very poorly.\n
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\nSo this should get us down to three connections: air/food, blood, neural. However, the one you didn't mention was structural. How does the head stay connected while still being able to rotate? How does the rotational force get applied? I think you could probably conflate the neural system I described above to some degree with the structural connection.", "timestamp": 1323899805}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103013777355236494008", "anchor": "gp-1323901050235", "service": "gp", "text": "@Chris\n \"There's no reason air or food have to come through the head.\"\n
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\nI was thinking of something that still looked like an owl. If we're modifying it a lot, really the only reason we want rotation of the head is for sensory organs. So putting the eyes and ears on independently rotating stalks is probably best.\n
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\n\"move the point where the pharynx splits into the larynx and esophagus below the rotational joint\"\n
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\nNice. You might get more choking, though.\n
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\n\"Just put one way valves both directions both above and below the neck.\"\n
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\nI think this might work. In general, is it safe to combine veins and arteries as long as you have all the appropriate one way valves in place? Something like a capital I.\n
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\n\"How does the head stay connected while still being able to rotate?\"\n
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\nI think this one is probably the easiest. Consider a wheel. We have lots of physical systems that already do this.\n
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\n\"How does the rotational force get applied?\"\n
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\nThere are several options. Permanently attached muscles -- what we normally use -- are out. Something like using your fingers to turn your head, but on a tiny scale, might work. Maybe an electric motor?", "timestamp": 1323901050}]}