27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
The Magic Circle
The term magic circle is appropriate because there is in fact something genuinely magical that happens when a game begins. A fancy Backgammon set sitting all alone might be a pretty decoration on the coffee table. If this is the function that the game is serving-decoration-it doesn't really matter how the game pieces are arranged, if some of them are out of place, or even missing. However, once you sit down with a friend to play a game of Backgammon, the arrangement of the pieces suddenly bec...Folksonomies: gameplay
Folksonomies: gameplay
1 
notes
notes06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
Considering Art Creative but Engineering Not as a Questio...
In retrospect, Cohen and MacKeith made a number of questionable assumptions that undermine that conclusion. To be fair, these assumptions were quite common among psychologists at the time and still persist to a significant degree among the public. One of these assumptions is that some activities, such as the arts, are inherently creative, whereas others, such as science or engineering, are not. Another assumption is that creativity is a function of one's ability to fantasize, which is to say,... 1 notes
notes12 DEC 2017 by ideonexus
Formalized Thinking is Non-Intuitive for Humans
Ancient scribes learned not merely to read and write, but also to use catalogues, dictionaries, calendars, forms and tables. They studied and internalised techniques of cataloguing, retrieving and processing information very diFolksonomies: intuition formalized thinking
Folksonomies: intuition formalized thinking
1 notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
König’s paradox: Ordinals
Let’s start by turning back the clock. It is India in the fifth century BCE, the age of the historical Buddha, and a rather peculiar principle of reasoning appears to be in general use. This principle is called the catuskoti, meaning ‘four corners’. It insists that there are four possibilities regarding any statement: it might be true (and true only), false (and false only), both true and false, or neither true nor false.
[...]
To get back to something that the Buddha might recognise,...Folksonomies: mathematics paradox
Folksonomies: mathematics paradox
1 notes
notesAlso Betrand Russel's "Set of All Sets that Do Not Contain Themselves"
22 APR 2014 by ideonexus
How Big Ideas are Revealed
Big ideas are typically revealed via:
• Core concepts (migration, function)
• Focusing themes (good vs. evil)
• Ongoing debate/issues (nature vs. nurture)
• Illuminating paradox/problem (freedom vs. responsibility)
• Organizing theory/principle (less is more)
• Underlying assumption/perspectives (Occam’s Razor)
• Key questions
• Insightful inferences from facts 1 notes
notesWays to teach.
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Making Forced Connections
The basic process for making forced connections, as outlined by Koberg and Bagnall, is simple and sound.
List possible features of the object you are trying to creatcte, one le feature per column. For example, the features might include cololor, size, anc shape.
2. In the column under each feature variable, list as many values for that variable as you can. For example, under color you might list all the colors of the rainbow, as well as black, white, gold, and silver.
3. Finally, random...Folksonomies: ideas creativity
Folksonomies: ideas creativity
1 A technique for coming up with new ideas. This could be done with the mxplx rand() function, using it to find random memes and then forcing onseself to find connections between the ideas.
29 SEP 2013 by ideonexus
The World is a Function
Kakeru Seki: A fact is somehow related to another fact. Unless you understand these relationships, you won't be a real reporter.
Noriko Hikima: True journalism!
Kakeru Seki: Well, you majored in the humanities.
Noriko Hikima: Yes! That's true--I've studied literature since I was in high school.
Kakeru Seki: You havea lot of catching up to do, then. Let's begin with functions.
Noriko Hikima: Fu...functions? Math? What?
Kakeru Seki: When one thing changes, it influences another thing. A ... 1 notes
notesAs a programmer I know that algorithms can relate to the real world, and since these algorithms are constructed in computers that ultimately run on bits and boolean logic, then the real world may be imagined to deconstruct to pure mathematics.
08 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Roger Ebert on What to Make of Life
What I expect to happen is that my body will fail, my mind will cease to function and that will be that. My genes will not live on, because I have had no children. I am comforted by Richard Dawkins’ theory of memes. Those are mental units: thoughts, ideas, gestures, notions, songs, beliefs, rhymes, ideals, teachings, sayings, phrases, clichés that move from mind to mind as genes move from body to body. After a lifetime of writing, teaching, broadcasting and telling too many jokes, I will l...
1 He knows that his ideas will live on, if not forever, and that the most important thing to contribute to the world in life is to make others a little happier.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Art Imitates Nature
The function of Art is to imitate Nature in her manner of operation. Our understanding of "her manner of operation" changes according to advances in the sciences.And our understanding of nature changes through science. So science informs art.
16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Clarification of the Term "Vestigial"
Opponents of evolution always raise the same argument when vestigial
traits are cited as evidence for evolution. “The features are not
useless,” they say. “They are either useful for something, or we haven’t
yet discovered what they’re for.” They claim, in other words, that a trait
can’t be vestigial if it still has a function, or a function yet to be found.
But this rejoinder misses the point. Evolutionary theory doesn’t say
that vestigial characters have no function. A trai... 1 notes
notesA trait is vestigial not because it no longer serves a purpose, but because it no longer serves its original purpose.
