02 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Chess is the Drosophila of Reasoning
Much as the Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly became a model organism for geneticists, chess became a Drosophila of reasoning. In the late 19th century, Alfred Binet hoped that understanding why certain people excelled at chess would unlock secrets of human thought. Sixty years later, Alan Turing wondered if a chess-playing machine might illuminate, in the words of Norbert Wiener, “whether this sort of ability represents an essential difference between the potentialities of the machine and ... 1 
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notes27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Rules are the Persistent Identity of a Game Across Cultur...
There are at least two senses in which the RULES schemas offer a "formal" way of looking at games. First, the term formal is used in the sense of "form": rules constitute the inner form or organization of games. In other words, rules are the inner, essential structures that constitute the real-world objects known as games. For example, consider two games of Go that differ in a variety of ways. They might differ in terms of:
Material: one version is played with stones on a wooden board; the o... 1 notes
notes27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
We Need Play to Learn the Rules of the Game for the Civil...
The Real Significance of Play.—This scheme is, doubtless, imperfect, as critics of Groos’s book have taken occasion to point out, but the idea which underlies it all is a most suggestive and illuminating one, when rightly understood. In his latest work on the play of man, which has recently appeared, Groos makes clear this point (253, p. 492), when he observes: ‘I presuppose everywhere the existence of innate impulses (Triebe), and assume that these have only led to play-exercise (Spiel... 1 notes
notes22 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
Myths About Learning Quiz
True or false: When it comes to learning, metacognition (e.g., thinking about thinking) can be just as important as intelligence.
RIGHT! True
Research on growth mindset by Carol Dweck and others shows that people’s beliefs about the nature of intelligence affect their level of effort and in turn their performance.
False
What is the best way to learn from some text?
Read and reread the text.
RIGHT! Explain key ideas of the text to yourself while reading.
Restating the text in... 1 notes
notes15 JUN 2016 by ideonexus
Greek Philosophical Science of Categorization was Aesthetic
It is not meant that the Greeks had more respect for the function of perception through the senses than has modern science, but that, judged from present practice, they had altogether too mucfy respect for the material of direct, unanalyzed sense-perception.
They were aware of its defects from the standpoint of knowledge. But they supposed that they could correct these defects and supplement their lack by purely logical or "rational" means. They supposed that thought could take the material...Folksonomies: knowledge categorization
Folksonomies: knowledge categorization
1 notes
notes08 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Individual Cannot Escape Reliance on Society
The individual cannot escape his dependence on society even when he acts on his own. A scientist who spends his lifetime in a laboratory may delude himself that he is a modern version of Robinson Crusoe, but the material of his activity and the apparatus and skills with which he operates are social products. They are inerasable signs of the cooperation which binds men together. The very language in which a scientist thinks has been learned in a particular society. Social context also determin... 1 notes
notesEveryone is connected to everyone else, no matter how secluded. Even our motivations, to become a CEO or a Scientist, stem from the society in which we are born.
07 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Old Kepler On Reading His Young Work
I myself, a professional mathematician, on re-reading my own work find it strains my mental powers to recall to mind from the figures the meanings of the demonstrations, meanings which I myself originally put into the figures and the text from my mind. But when I attempt to remedy the obscurity of the material by putting in extra words, I see myself falling into the opposite fault of becoming chatty in something mathematical. 1 notes
notesHe has a hard time understanding them, but when he tries to work in easier explanations, he finds himself being verbose.
18 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
1847 Speculation About Extraterrestrials
In general I would be cautious against … plays of fancy and would not make way for their reception into scientific astronomy, which must have quite a different character. Laplace's cosmogenic hypotheses belong in that class. Indeed, I do not deny that I sometimes amuse myself in a similar manner, only I would never publish the stuff. My thoughts about the inhabitants of celestial bodies, for example, belong in that category. For my part, I am (contrary to the usual opinion) convinced ... th...Folksonomies: xenobiology
Folksonomies: xenobiology
1 On the sun trees would be larger, but would break apart if made of the same material as those on Earth.
17 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Engineering Requires Science
Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress invention. To embody an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms, and design something that people can use. That something can be a device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an improvement on what is existing. Since a design has to be concrete, ...Folksonomies: science engineering
Folksonomies: science engineering
1 notes
notesScience passively observes, but Engineering must discover what it needs in order to make progress.
13 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Scientific Investigation is Benefited by the Familiar
More discoveries have arisen from intense observation of very limited material than from statistics applied to large groups. The value of the latter lies mainly in testing hypotheses arising from the former. While observing one should cultivate a speculative, contemplative attitude of mind and search for clues to be followed up. Training in observation follows the same principles as training in any activity. At first one must do things consciously and laboriously, but with practice the activi... 1 notes
notesWhen the investigation involves a small area of knowledge, the scientist's familiarization with it makes discovery easier because they will notice something unusual or unexplained.
