27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
The Information Age has Increased Abstract Intelligence
Most dramatically, an increase in one kind of abstract intelligence is visible all over the world: mastery of digital technology. Cyberspace is the ultimate abstract realm, in which goals are achieved not by pushing matter around in space but by manipulating intangible symbols and patterns. When people were first confronted with digital interfaces in the 1970s, like videocassette recorders and ticket machines in new subway systems, they were baffled. It was a running joke of the 1980s that mo...Folksonomies: intelligence iq
Folksonomies: intelligence iq
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notes21 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
Essay Writing is About Figuring Things Out
To understand what a real essay is, we have to reach back into history again, though this time not so far. To Michel de Montaigne, who in 1580 published a book of what he called "essais." He was doing something quite different from what lawyers do, and the difference is embodied in the name. Essayer is the French verb meaning "to try" and an essai is an attempt. An essay is something you write to try to figure something out.
Figure out what? You don't know yet. And so you can't begin with a ... 1 notes
notes31 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Flatland
Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows—only hard with luminous edges—and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe:" but now my mind has been opened to higher views...Folksonomies: speculation science fiction
Folksonomies: speculation science fiction
1 notes
notes05 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Monte Carlo Method and Evolutionary Algorithms
Back then, I thought of one thing: Have you heard of the Monte Carlo method? Ah, it’s a computer algorithm often used for calculating the area of irregular shapes. Specifically, the software puts the figure of interest in a figure of known area, such as a circle, and randomly strikes it with many tiny balls, never targeting the same spot twice. After a large number of balls, the proportion of balls that fall within the irregular shape compared to the total number of balls used to hit the ci...Folksonomies: algorithms evolutionary algorithms
Folksonomies: algorithms evolutionary algorithms
1 notes
notes03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
An Alien United Nations
figure out how to live with high technology, how to avoid nuclear war, then tehre are at this moment a million advanced civilizations in the Milky Way.
This place was built to help get us through this dangerous time. it would be good to know if there are other civilizations out there, if their United Nations have succeeded. it's something to think about when you stare up at the stars on a clear autumn night.Folksonomies: speculation science fiction
Folksonomies: speculation science fiction
1 notes
notesWhat would life be like for extraterrestrial civilizations that survived their infancy?
22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
With the Seed We May Deduce the Animal
If we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, by reasons entirely mathematical and certain, deduce the whole conformation and figure of each of its members, and, conversely if we knew several peculiarities of this conformation, we would from those deduce the nature of its seed. 1 notes
notesInteresting idea, if wrong for not understanding how environment affects growth, but the idea that we could one day take a seed and predict the full-grown organism that will result from it is intriguing.
22 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Dominance Battles in a Hand Shake
For some people, the car becomes a protective cocoon in which they can hide from the outside world. As they drive slowly beside the kerb, almost in the gutter, they can be as big a hazard on the road as the driver with the expanded personal space.
These attitudes are transmitted unconsciously and, with practice and conscious application, the following hand shaking techniques can have an immediate effect on the outcome of a face-to-face encounter with another person. The information in this c...Folksonomies: body language dominance
Folksonomies: body language dominance
1 notes
notesPalm-down signals an intent to be dominant in a relationship, palm-up signals submission. How to shake hands with someone and be an equal.
20 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
I Think; Therefore, I Am
I suppose, then, that all the things that I see are
false; I persuade myself that nothing has ever existed of all
that my fallacious memory represents to me. I consider that I
possess no senses; I imagine that body, figure, extension,
movement and place are but the fictions of my mind. What,
then, can be esteemed as true? Perhaps nothing at all, unless
that there is nothing in the world that is certain.
But how can I know there is not something different from
those things that I have just... 1 notes
notesDescartes most important contribution to philosophical thought.
13 APR 2011 by ideonexus
The Circle of the Brain cannot be Squared
A Circle round divided in four partsHath been great Study 'mongst the men of Arts;Since Archimed's or Euclid's time, each BrainHath on a Line been stretched, yet all in Vain;And every Thought hath been a Figure set,Doubts Cyphers were, Hopes as Triangles met;There was Division and Subtraction made,And Lines drawn out, and Points exactly laid,But none hath yet by Demonstration foundThe way, by which to Square a Circle round:For while the Brain is round, no Square will be,While Thoughts divi...
1 A poem about the brain, quantification, and human curiosity.
30 NOV -0001 by ideonexus
Spelling is the Problem
Now let me get to a lower level still in this question. And that is, all the time you hear the
question, "why can't Johnny read?" And the answer is, because of the spelling. The
Phoenicians, 2000, more, 3000, 4000 years ago, somewhere around there, were able to
figure out from their language a scheme of describing the sounds with symbols. It was
very simple. Each sound had a corresponding symbol, and each symbol, a corresponding
sound. So that when you could see what the symbols' sounds w...Folksonomies: phoenetics
Folksonomies: phoenetics
Putting letters together into words is one of the most basic skills required for literacy. If this basic skill is so hard for so many people to grasp, then, Feynman argues, there is a problem with the way words are spelled.
