16 APR 2018 by ideonexus
Early Attempts to Replace Teachers with Games
The current push to bring digital games into school is, strictly speaking, not the first, nor even the second time that educators have pushed for individualized instruction via machines. But it is decidedly the most nuanced, humanistic, and thoughtful. The first actually took place in the 1950s and early 1960s, when a small group of educational psychologists proposed doing away with teachers altogether and replacing them with self-paced, preprogrammed instruction on so-called "teaching machin... 1 
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notes21 NOV 2017 by ideonexus
The Attention Arms Race
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google have produced amazing products that have benefited the world enormously. But these companies are also caught in a zero-sum race for our finite attention, which they need to make money. Constantly forced to outperform their competitors, they must use increasingly persuasive techniques to keep us glued. They point AI-driven news feeds, content, and notifications at our minds, continually learning how to hook us more deeply—from our own behavior.
Unfortuna... 1 notes
notes25 FEB 2016 by ideonexus
Old Media is Text-Centric; New Media is a Collage
Modern literacy has always meant being able to both read and write narrative in the media forms of the day, whatever they may be. Just being able to read is not sufficient.
For centuries, this has meant being able to consume and produce words through reading and writing and, to a lesser extent, listening and speaking. But the world of digital expression has changed all of this in three respects:
New media demand new literacies. Because of inexpensive, easy-to-use, widely distributed new med...
1 24 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
There is Too Much Art to Consume It All
So I have a counterclaim that exists today - Deviantart.
Why can't everyone be an artist? Because you can only consume so much art. I have a page group that is currently ~45 pages of artists on that website whose galleries I need to review and potentially watch. They total up to around 15k works of art, and that pool just grows, I can never get it under wraps, because it would take me probably a full workweek just to get through half of that.
On that, I'm already following nearly one thousa... 1 notes
notes13 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Bypass Traditional Media to Avoid Divisions
There's no incentive for most members of Congress, on the House side at least, in congressional districts, to even bother trying to appeal. And a lot of it has to do with just unlimited money. So people are absorbing an entirely different reality when it comes to politics, even though the way they're living their lives and interacting with each other isn't that polarizing. So my advice to a future president is increasingly try to bypass the traditional venues that create divisions and try to...Folksonomies: new media
Folksonomies: new media
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notes03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
Why Social Networks Fail
Identity management is what we all do, every day, consciously or unconsciously. We do it in-person, in face-to-face meetings at work, with our friends, and yes, even with our partners and lovers.
But we do the vast majority of it consciously online. Identity management is simply the curation of the details of your life — what you choose to share, when and with whom. We’re doing it when we share a link on Facebook, or a video on YouTube. What network do we share this with? Who will see it...Folksonomies: social networking
Folksonomies: social networking
1 notes
notesBecause eventually you have so many friends that you can't post anything without fear of offending someone and the image-management becomes to stressful.
22 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Game That Adds 7.5 Minutes to Your Life
Now, I could tell you what these four types of strength are, but I'd rather you experience them firsthand. I'd rather we all start building them up together right now. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to play a quick game together. This is where you earn those seven and a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody read...Quick game that hits on four aspects of a healthy life. The speaker then suggests using those seven minutes on actions that will get you even more longevity.
11 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
WWW Makes the Improbable Normal
Cops, emergency room doctors, and insurance actuarists all know it. They realize how many crazy impossible things happen all the time. A burglar gets stuck in a chimney, a truck driver in a head on collision is thrown out the front window and lands on his feet, walks away; a wild antelope knocks a man off his bike; a candle at a wedding sets the bride's hair on fire; someone fishing off a backyard dock catches a huge man-size shark. In former times these unlikely events would be private, know...YouTube and other videos capture the many unusual occurrences happening all over the world out of sheer statistical probability, making them seem average.
24 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Information Aggregation as Oppression
More and more ordinary people are thrust into a winner-take-all economy. It is a 21st century reprise of the Horatio Alger stories from the 19th century. A token few will find success on Kickstarter or YouTube, while overall wealth is ever more concentrated and social mobility rots. Social media sharers can make all the noise they want, but they forfeit the real wealth and clout needed to be politically powerful. Real wealth and clout instead concentrate ever more on the shrinking island occ... 1 notes
notesProvocative idea from Lanier that by contributing to social networking sites and financial aggregates we are enslaving ourselves for other's gain.
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Encapsulation Serves a Purpose
The quintessential example of the open ideal showed up in Freeman Dyson’s otherwise wonderful piece about the future of synthetic biology in the New York Review of Books. MIT bioengineer Drew Endy, one of the enfants terribles of synthetic biology, opened his spectacular talk at Sci Foo with a slide of Dyson’s article. I can’t express the degree to which I admire Freeman, but in this case, we see things differently.
Dyson equates the beginnings of life on Earth with the Eden of Linux. ... 1 notes
notesUsing the promise of synthetic biology as an illustration, Lanier explains why the ability to infinitely trade ideas or genes results in normalized unremarkableness.
