21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Technology VS Nature is a False Dichotomy
The way to solve the conflict between human values and technological needs is not to run away from technology, that's impossible. The way to resolve the conflict is to break down the barriers of dualistic thought that prevent a real understanding of what technology is—not an exploitation of nature, but a fusion of nature and the human spirit into a new kind of creation that transcends both.
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The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer o... 1 
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notes22 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Observing Human Body-Language is Like Birdwatching
As we approach the end of the twentieth century, we are witnessing the emergence of a new kind of social scientist-the non-verbalist. Just as the birdwatcher delights in watching birds and their behaviour, so the non-verbalist delights in watching the non-verbal cues and signals of human beings. He watches them at social functions, at beaches, on television, at the office or anywhere that people interact. He is a student of behaviour who wants to learn about the actions of his fellow humans s...Folksonomies: anthropology body language
Folksonomies: anthropology body language
1 notes
notesThe science of body language is relatively young, despite the communication form going back millions of years.
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
We Are Moving to a World Where Only Advertising is Worth ...
If you want to know what’s really going on in a society or ideology, follow the money. If money is flowing to advertising instead of musicians, journalists, and artists, then a society is more concerned with manipulation than truth or beauty. If content is worthless, then people will start to become empty-headed and contentless.
The combination of hive mind and advertising has resulted in a new kind of social contract. The basic idea of this contract is that authors, journalists, musicians... 1 notes
notesArtists are being forced to give away their content for free, making it essentially worthless. When content is worthless, people will become contentless.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Description of Humphrey Davy's Safety Lamp
The final version of the lamp was wonderfully simple and surprisingly small. It was a standard uninsulated oil lamp, approximately sixteen inches high, with an adjustable cotton wick, enclosed in a tall column or ‘chimney’ of fine iron mesh. Astonishingly, the lamp required no other protection. In later models Davy added various improvements, largely designed to withstand rough use in the mine.
Yet the fundamental notion that flame would not pass through gauze appeared so unlikely, so co...Folksonomies: engineering invention
Folksonomies: engineering invention
1 The flame was exposed, but surrounded by a wire mesh that acted as a heat sink to prevent the flame from igniting the gases surrounding it.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Davy Poem Using Laws of Conservation and Thermodynamics
In a thoughtful mood Davy wrote a new kind of metaphysical poem, ‘The Massy Pillars of the Earth. It reflects on the human condition, and suggests that since nothing is ever destroyed in the physical universe, only transformed (the First Law of Thermodynamics), then man himself must be immortal in some spiritual sense. It also returns in a new way to Davy’s early Cornish beliefs about starlight as the source of all energy in the universe:
Nothing is lost; the ethereal fire,
Which from th...A poem found in Humphry Davy Works.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Garden of the Night Sky
This method of viewing the galaxies (‘to continue the simile I have borrowed from the vegetable kingdom’) presented the entire universe in a new kind of light, with the most radical implications. ‘The heavens are now seen to resemble a luxuriant garden which contains the greatest variety of productions, in different flourishing beds … and we can extend the range of our experience [of them] to an immense duration.’ In a garden we may live ‘successively to witness the germination, b... 1 notes
notesA description of the variety found in the night sky through the newly invented telescope.
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Baby Naming Explosion
Initially children use just a few names, mostly for familiar things and people. But when they are still just beginning to talk, many babies will suddenly start naming everything and asking for the names of everything they see. In fact, what'sat? is itself often one of the earliest words. An eighteen-monthold baby will go into a triumphant frenzy of pointing and naming: "What'sat! Dog! What'sat! Clock! What'sat juice, spoon. orange, high chair, clock! Clock! Clock!" Often this is the point at ... 1 notes
notesWhen babies start to learn to talk, they embark on a naming-spree where it is easy for a parent to imprint names onto things that the child will remember.
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
When Babies Learn Categorization
However, there is some surprising evidence that young babies are actually not particularly interested if a blue toy car goes in one edge of the screen and a yellow toy duck emerges at the far edge on the same trajectory! A grown-up would assume the duck that came out was brand-new and the other toy was still there behind the screen. But young babies seem content to think the toy somehow magically became a new kind of thing behind the screen. The particular kind of category-crossing magic tric... 1 notes
notesBy three years of age, children develop a fairly sophisticated sense of categorization. Perhaps a playing close attention to taxonomy will benefit the child at this stage in their development.
