How To Become The Best Spy Ever?

  After the NSA scandal let me tell you something; you could tap any NSA agent's phone calls any time. Even the FBI wouldn't be secure from your itching ears. Sounds compelling, right?

  Umwelt. The term starts to come into view in intellectual culture and what stands behind it is quite an unusual perspective. We, humans, are self-centred, it's not even a question. We were made to be the base of every scale describing nature yet we can only perceive a certain percentage of reality. Umwelt is the slice of the world a particular organism experiences. The rest is imperceptible... From the tiniest insects to the greatest mammals every being senses in different ways. It may make us feel uneasy to realise that what we experience every day isn't the full picture. Sight is a most important part of perception for us. It just takes a bunch of electromagnetic waves that bounces off objects and hits your retina stimulating your receptors and you see a quite beautiful spectrum, right? But in fact we process less than a 10 trillionth of the radiation that goes through our body. To give an instance, radio waves are partially used to communicate so there are thousands of phone calls passing through you yet you're perfectly unaware of it.

The EM spectrum's ratio to the visible range

  More interestingly our brain is great at recognising patterns and assigning meaning to data even if the incoming signal is made up of nothing but electrochemical impulses. Although the brain can't see, smell or hear by itself and just floats around in the liquor in your skull, in complete darkness and silence, the different ways it can sense is amazing. It's not objective, as we believe, nor does it grant us exclusive experience, however the plasticity of processing is impressive. I read an article a few years ago about a device that lets you see with your tongue (it's an electrode array which creates impulses based on light and dark pixels). Without a surgery this invention helps the blind regain optical sensation. Their cerebral cortex figures out what to do with the sensation of that champagne-like effervescence. It's not done consciously, it's too complicated for that.

Another fascinating device is made by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist from the USA, and his team. They made a vest for the deaf which produces different vibration patterns to different sound waves. After four days, and two hours of training daily, people could understand simple words and start to regain that part of their umwelt.

Check out this remarkable invention in practice!

  Well, that's truly amazing but we still use our accessible receptors and the obtainable cortexes of the brain. It doesn't count as a new sense, does it?

It's still not echolocation or magnetoception but we don't know the limits of these kind of sensory additions. Maybe it's not even about having completely brand new senses. We live in a world of information where it's physically impossible to be up to date in every aspect of life. Let's say you're a factory inspector. Now imagine you could just feel the state of your factory without constantly manually monitoring data. You would be able to tell what's wrong just by a strange vibe on your back. Wouldn't it be awesome to have the ability to feel the stats of your car on a long way instead of randomly stalling at a crossroad and not knowing what the matter is? 

  

  Maybe near future isn't about having new extensions for a bigger umwelt and more precise senses, but is being able to make a call without a phone that far away from now?

  Anyway, here are your promised 5+1 easy steps to become the spy you always wanted to be:

1. Have the required receptors to perceive VHF or UHF signals -- hardest step, I know, but most necessary
   Very High Frequency to Ultra High Frequency is the range you want to monitor EM waves in. It's the best if you have your enviable sensors in a protected area in your body. I bet it's quite vulnerable and of course you don't want anyone to notice your super spy pursuit, do you.
2. Learn to filter out unwanted noise -- you don't want recipes from Aunt Mary, you want Government secrets
   The key here is concentration. You have to find the way that works for you best. Try meditation, listen to classical music or just play Skyrim on easy mode.
3. Give yourself time!
   The brain has to figure out what to do with those signals. Don't rush, take your time. No one became a super spy in one day.
4. Practice is everything -- but don't stop when you get it right, go on until you can't get it wrong
   "There is no glory in practice, but without practice, there is no glory..."
5. Decide which agency you want to work for
   Here's Forbes' article about what to consider before accepting an offer.
6. Watch your back!
   Being James Bond isn't always that much fun! Learn from Batman and always have some backup plan for those nasty worst-case scenarios!

Let me know what you think in the comment section below!