23 JAN 2017 by ideonexus
Science VS Conspiracy Information Dissemination Online
Digital misinformation has become so pervasive in online social media that it has been listed by the WEF as one of the main threats to human society. Whether a news item, either substantiated or not, is accepted as true by a user may be strongly affected by social norms or by how much it coheres with the user’s system of beliefs (32, 33). Many mechanisms cause false information to gain acceptance, which in turn generate false beliefs that, once adopted by an individual, are highly resistant t...Folksonomies: social networks misinformation
Folksonomies: social networks misinformation
1 
notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Life with Metabolism VS Replication
It is logically possible to postulate organisms composed of pure hardware, capable of metabolism but incapable of replication. It is possible to postulate organisms composed of pure software, capable of replication but incapable of metabolism. And if the functions of life are separated in this fashion, it is to be expected that the latter type of organism will become an obligatory parasite upon the former. This logical analysis of the functions of life helps to explain and to correct the bias... 1 notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Did Lower Testosterone Help Civilize Humanity?
A new study appearing Aug. 1 in the journal Current Anthropology finds that human skulls changed in ways that indicate a lowering of testosterone levels at around the same time that culture was blossoming.
“The modern human behaviors of technological innovation, making art and rapid cultural exchange probably came at the same time that we developed a more cooperative temperament,” said lead author Robert Cieri, a biology graduate student at the University of Utah who began this work as a sen...Folksonomies: human evolution anthropology
Folksonomies: human evolution anthropology
1 notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
The Problem of Inferring Anything about the Star Trek Uni...
The second problem has more to do with using Starfleet as the lens through which we draw conclusions about Federation society. If I were to show some alien society a documentary about the United States, set primarily on a US aircraft carrier, with ~90% of the situations and characters taking place in a military context, my alien viewers would draw some very interesting inferences about the US (or, more broadly, all of human society). They'd think we were a rigidly hierarchical society. They'd... 1 notes
notes24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
All Human Acheivement is the Result of Networking
Human achievement is entirely a networking phenomenon. It is by putting brains together through the division of labor—through trade and specialization—that human society stumbled upon a way to raise the living standards, carrying capacity, technological virtuosity, and knowledge base of the species. We can see this in all sorts of phenomena: the correlation between technology and connected population size in Pacific islands; the collapse of technology in people who became isolated, like nativ...
1 Matt Ridley observes that isolated societies collapse, while networked societies succeed.
08 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
We are Ultimately Responsible for Our Fate
Thus it is that (to ensure feeding and breeding), "Nature" during the aeons of experimentation which we call "Evolution" has developed a variety of fixed preservative instincts, traits, and characteristics in the animal world. From the animal world, we as animals have inherited such of these instincts, traits, and characteristics as were necessary or most favorable to Man's survival and present dominance.
"Gifts": Peculiarly Human.
In addition to these, man lias acquired, attained, or bee... 1 notes
notesIf we choose to interfere with evolution and nature, then we are responsible for the consequences, but if we choose not to, then we are also responsible for the consequences.
08 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
What's Good for a Business Can be Bad for Society
Every bit in a computer is a wannabe Maxwell’s Demon, separating the state of “one” from the state of “zero” for a while, at a cost. A computer on a network can also act like a wannabe demon if it tries to sort data from networked people into one or the other side of some imaginary door, while pretending there is no cost or risk involved. For instance, a Siren Server might allow only those who would be cheap to insure through a doorway (to become insured) in order to make a supernaturally ide... 1 notes
notesBusinesses that refuse to insure high-risk individuals leave the burden of those individuals on the whole community.
16 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
What is a Person?
What is a person?
This seems like an easy question, but appearances
can be deceiving. Throughout the long sweep of
human history, the answer to the question of what
a person is has continually changed. Was a woman
a person, or was she a piece of property? Or was she
even a liability, something that had to be compensated
for with a dowry before a man’s family would agree to take her on? Was a man alien to their immediate
culture a person? Not if you were of African descent
in the United State...A great passage on the history of personhood and its possible future.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Education is a State of Mind
Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being do...Folksonomies: education
Folksonomies: education
1 notes
notesNot facts learned, but the character of learning for oneself.
12 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Intelligent Life May Have Appeared in the Universe Billio...
[W]e might expect intelligent life and technological communities to have emerged in the universe billions of years ago. Given that human society is only a few thousand years old, and that human technological society is mere centuries old, the nature of a community with millions or even billions of years of technological and social progress cannot even be imagined. ... What would we make of a billion-year-old technological community? Folksonomies: extraterrestrials alien life
Folksonomies: extraterrestrials alien life
Considering the age of the universe. The technological progress of such extraterrestrials would make them godlike.
