Typeodd What Is Meditation
zendoc / May 2024 (537 Words, 3 Minutes)
When I was about 14 years old, I had a meditation experience called samadhi. I was curious about what it was, so I majored in medicine and became a doctor to find out. To this day, I am still obsessed with this question and developing apps on related topics.
There may be various definitions and topics regarding meditation, recently released typing practice game ‘typeodd – typing game as meditation’ is focused on immersion and inspiration. In other words, problem solving and creativity.
brain fMRI image above shows that when the yellow-red attention/task area becomes active, the green-blue default mode network (discrimination/censorship center) area becomes inactive.
The brain’s default mode network provides efficiency in living with self-awareness formed through learning and experience, but it can also hinder flexible response/thinking when faced with a new environment/problem.
Eureka Moment
Archimedes’ Eureka anecdote tells us that in order to solve a problem, you must immerse yourself in the problem. Whether you are eating or taking a bath, you must focus on the problem and embrace it.
Immersion means mobilizing all of your subjective brain resources to make judgments and inferences, and then the default mode network weakens, reducing the friction of subjective bias, and the central executive network becomes more active, speeding up your thinking.
https://zendoclab.github.io/typeodd/
typeodd is a reinterpretation of typing practice game and combines it with meditation. If you don’t type quickly, the letters will become blurred. However, if you type quickly to get points, you will make a typo and lose half of your score, so you must concentrate (attention) from beginning to end.
And in order to type quickly and accurately, you must have some memory (working memory) of the upcoming text.
Additionally, in addition to attention/working memory, the visual and musical stimulation of games also affects the weakening of the default mode network.
The above paper shows that connectivity to the default mode network is weakened across the brain in US cannabis users.
(With habitual long-term use, connections may be strengthened as compensation and the brain may become dumb in response, so frequent use of cannabis for creativity and problem solving is not recommended)
Endogenous cannabinoid anandamide
Just because you are immersed (flow, zoned) does not mean that the problem will be solved automatically. Moments of inspiration and creativity appear in a split second, and what creates that gap may be! It’s anandamide. Anandamide is the same as the psychoactive substance THC in cannabis and is a substance naturally produced in the body to protect against stress caused by psychological stress, pain, and heat.
It is named after Ananda, the greatest disciple who had a close relationship with Buddha, and is called the bliss molecule. Finally, the default mode network is deactivated, the ego disappears, and you are filled with joy and excite, able to break the mold and engage in new thoughts and actions. This is the point where brain science and meditation meet.
In typeodd, attention concentration, working memory, and Salience Network visual and auditory stimulation are used to weaken the default mode network, and in addition, it is intended to induce anandamide release by causing psychological aggravation and anxiety. There is room for further development on this topic, including the use of traces of text flowing in the background.
Anguish for problem solving and creation
Assuming that the person suffering is still immersed in the problem even when he or she takes a breather (Archimedes’ bath, typing practice game), what device should be developed to add psychological stress and anxiety through a web application? I am most concerned about this issue
If you think about 3 to 7 things at the same time, you reach the limit of your brain capacity, and you may experience the same experience as your computer being reset because the memory capacity is suddenly full.
I think it is a combination of anandamide secretion and mild vasovagal syncope, but in addition to this, the meditation experience involves various topics such as blood oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration, melatonin depending on light intensity, posture and pain, stages of consciousness and sleep, fear and anxiety, etc. is related
In this way, I study medicine and meditation, organize my thoughts, write, and develop software solutions.