03 DEC 2025 by ideonexus
SF's Extension of Semiotic Possibilities in Language
Delany—in his equally famous and oft-cited definition of science fiction—argues that science fiction is characterised by an extension of semiotic possibilities in language: that is, he argues that words can simply mean more in science fiction than they can in realist fiction. Delany sees this as a function of the heightened realism of SF, and the materialisation of metaphor involved therein: he uses the phrases “Then her world exploded” and “He turned on his left side” to demonstr...Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
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notes30 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
How the Tarot Works
The Tarot is where the past and the present meet, where pictures and stories come together—that is how it works its magic. We tell stories about our lives constantly—both to other people and ourselves. Just remembering what happened last night or talking about your day involve storytelling. What's more difficult is understanding what is going on below the surface of these stories. One of the most difficult things any of us can do is to get a perspective on our lives from outside of our co...Folksonomies: tarot
Folksonomies: tarot
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notes14 JUL 2025 by ideonexus
Breaking out of Symbology
A monk asked Ts'ui-wei, "For what reason did the First Patriarch come from the West?"
Ts'ui-wei answered, "Pass me that chin-rest."
As soon as the monk passed it, Ts'ui-wei hit him with it.
Another master was having tea with two of his students when he suddenly tossed his fan to one of them, saying, "What's this?"
The student opened it and fanned himself. "Not bad," was his comment. "Now you," he went on, passing it to the other student, who at once closed the fan and scratched his neck w...Folksonomies: zen
Folksonomies: zen
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notes06 MAY 2025 by ideonexus
Grammatical Conventions Delineate Reality
Thus the task of education is to make children fit to live in a society by persuading them to learn and accept its codes-the rules and conventions of communication whereby the society holds itself together. There is first the spoken language. The child is taught to accept "tree" and not "boojum" as the agreed sign for that (pointing to the object). We have no difficulty in understanding that the word "tree" is a matter of convention. What is much less obvious is that convention also governs t...Folksonomies: mindfulness zen
Folksonomies: mindfulness zen
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notes01 JAN 2025 by ideonexus
ChatGPT is a bullshit machine
The idea of ChatGPT as a bullshit machine is a helpful one when combined with the distinction between hard and soft bullshit. Reaching again for the example of the dodgy student paper: we’ve all, I take it, marked papers where it was obvious that a dictionary or thesaurus had been deployed with a crushing lack of subtlety; where fifty-dollar words are used not because they’re the best choice, nor even because they serve to obfuscate the truth, but simply because the author wants to convey... 1 notes
notesThere were issues with this book, but I appreciate how the Critical Theory aspects of it serve as a sort of "red pill" to break us out of our complacent acceptance of the world--specifically in video games. Many reviews complain about the erudite verbiage, but all Critical Theory makes use of newly-invented words in order to circumvent our preconceptions about the social constructs that rule our lives. I appreciated the concept of the "allegorithm" of how the programming of games is used to define a world, the questioning of "play" in games when really many games are actually work, criticizing the concept of "flow" and calling it "non-contemplation," and the idea that the best gamers are merely the ones who most internalize the algorithms. This book is not for everyone. It is dense and obtuse, but also highly effective and will be very enjoyable for the right readers.
07 MAY 2024 by ideonexus
How the Powerful Influence Culture
Signification, which is the only function of a word admitted by semantics, reaches perfection in the sign. Whether folk-songs were rightly or wrongly called upper-class culture in decay, their elements have only acquired their popular form through a long process of repeated transmission. The spread of popular songs, on the other hand, takes place at lightning speed. The American expression “fad,” used for fashions which appear like epidemics – that is, inflamed by highly-concentrated ec...Folksonomies: culture critical theory
Folksonomies: culture critical theory
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notes20 JUN 2017 by ideonexus
Pattern-Building When Learning a New Word
Words are fundamentally conceptual—although they are physical objects, they represent something ideational. Just giving students definitions of words or having them evaluate the context of word use does not fully use the brain’s patterning style of identifying information. Th e value of word pattern sorting extends beyond their defi nition to relating words to the pattern of categorization where they fi t. Students attend to how words relate to other words through a number of types of cat... 1 notes
notes20 JUN 2017 by ideonexus
Blending and Segmenting Sounds to Instill Phoneme Awareness
One activity is segmenting sounds and then blending them together using both real words and nonsense words. This activity gives students practice manipulating phenomes and is consistent with the research supporting stimulation of both posterior processing systems (McCandliss, Cohen, & Dehaene, 2003).
Another activity is oral blending and segmenting paired with letters. This process may help students practice the alphabetic principle (the establishment of a correspondence between a phonem... 1 notes
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