29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Douglas Engelbart's Idea of Small Changes
I'm reminded of Douglas Engelbart's classic paper "Augmenting Human itellect,"2 on his belief in the power of computers. He wrote this in 1962, way before the PC, and argued that it's better to improve and facilitate the tiny things we do every day than it is to attempt to replace entire human jobs with monolithic machines. A novel-writing machine, if one were invented, just automates the process of writing novels, and it's limited to novels. But making a small improvement to a pencil, for ex... 1 
notes
notesMake a change to novel-writing and you've affected a small, specific domain, but improve the pencil, and you've impacted a wide range of domains.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Journal Papers Don't Trigger Revolutions
It appears that the extremely important papers that trigger a revolution may not receive a proportionately large number of citations. The normal procedures of referencing are not used for folklore. A real scientific revolution, like any other revolution, is news. The Origin of Species sold out as fast as it could be printed and was denounced from the pulpit almost immediately. Sea-floor spreading has been explained, perhaps not well, in leading newspapers, magazines, books, and most recently ...Folksonomies: science popularization
Folksonomies: science popularization
1 notes
notesScience that makes the news does.
23 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
If You Can Outlaw Teaching Evolution in Public School
If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers... Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers ... 1 notes
notesYou can ban it everywhere and society will descend into darkness.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
A Good Number of Scientists are Stupid
Of course there were scientists who thought the evidence favoring DNA was inconclusive and preferred to believe that genes were protein molecules. Francis, however, did not worry about these skeptics. Many were cantankerous fools who unfailingly backed the wrong horses. One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of. scientists are not only narrowminded and dull, but al... 1 notes
notesJames Watson describing scientists who did not believe in the existence of DNA.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Smaller Fragments of Information Command Attention
I do find that smaller and smaller bits of information can command the full attention of my over-educated mind. And not just me; everyone reports succumbing to the lure of fast, tiny, interruptions of information. In response to this incessant barrage of bits, the culture of the Internet has been busy unbundling larger works into minor snippets for sale. Music albums are chopped up and sold as songs; movies become trailers, or even smaller video snips. (I find that many trailers really are be...
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1 Kevin Kelly describes how he his attention is grabbed by smaller bits of information and his mind more active as a result.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Written Worlds May Not be Memes
Think of the number of things you are likely to say to someone else today -- or the number of words you will hear other people speak. You might listen to the radio, watch television, have dinner with other people, help your children with the homework, answer the phone to people far away. Most of what is said in these conversations will never be passed on again. Most of it will not reappear as 'Then he said to her...' or 'And did you know...' Most will die at birth.
Written words may not fare ...Folksonomies: memetics
Folksonomies: memetics
1 notes
notesSome examples of ideas that won't become memes, with the surprising inclusion of books.
03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
How People are Paid for Their Attention
The result of the new economics is that people are often paid for their attention, implicitly or explicitly. They get to see television free in return for watching commercials. Their magazines and newspapers are subsidized or supplied free by advertisers. Nowadays bus shelters, baseball stadiums, and even those little refresher towelettes on airlines such as Lufthansa are supported by advertisers eager for your attention.
You are also rewarded with content according to the "quality" of attent... 1 notes
notesConsumers are rewarded by advertisers and companies for the attention and quality of attention they pay to products.
