06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
The Personal Equation
Sounds like a "fuzzy set." Which comes into play when you try to categorize things that vary continuously into discrete groups. Can't be done without ambiguruity and bias. As a geneficist by the name of Pearl demonstrated when he had 15 scienfists sort the same 532 com kernels into yellow-starchy, yellow-sweet, white-starchy or whitesweet groupings. Each scientist came up with a different count. Instead of objectivity. Pearl discovered "personal equation," the slight nuance in perception each...Folksonomies: perception
Folksonomies: perception
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notes29 SEP 2017 by ideonexus
It’s Okay to “Forget” What You Read
What we get from books is not just a collection of names, dates and events stored in our minds like files in a computer. Books also change, via our mental models, the very reality that we perceive.
You can think of mental models as psychological lenses that color and shape what we see. Some of this is genetic or cultural (Americans focus on very different parts of a picture than the Japanese do), but much of our perception is also shaped by experience — and experience includes the book...
1 15 JUN 2016 by ideonexus
The Noosphere
Under the impact of this passage from simple to squared numbers, we all become aware that the entrance is open for the hominised consciousness into a new inner world: the world of the Universe as thought. But do we sufficiently notice that simultaneously, in the realm of the measurable and tangible, another form of ' generalisation '—also as the result of reflexion — becomes possible and outlines itself: no longer simply for our knowledge, the systematised perception of total time and tot... 1 notes
notes15 JUN 2016 by ideonexus
How Science Resists the Philosophical Concept that Percep...
In the traditional theory, which still is the prevailing one, there were alleged to exist inherent defects in perception and observation as means of knowledge, in reference to the subjectmatter they furnish. This material, in the older notion, is inherently so particular, so contingent and variable, that by no possible means can it contribute to knowledge; it can result only in opinion, mere belief. But in modern science, there are only practical defects in the senses, certain limitations of ...Folksonomies: knowledge perception
Folksonomies: knowledge perception
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notes19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Umwelt Bubble
The biologist Jakob von Uexküll’s term Umwelt refers to a concept about the subjective world of an organism. The world can be imagined as a soap bubble, which surrounds each individual and contains signifying markers relevant only to the world of that specific creature. This soap bubble, or Umwelt, is actively created by the individual organism in a process of forming a perception of reality, which is guided by the organism’s design, its physiology, and its needs.
According to Uexküll,...Folksonomies: perception transhumanism
Folksonomies: perception transhumanism
1 notes
notesBy Laura Beloff's "The Hybronaut Affair: A Ménage of Art, Technology, and Science"
26 SEP 2013 by ideonexus
Popular Science Shuts Down Comments
Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off.
[...]
...even a fractious minority wields enough power to skew a reader's perception of a story, recent research suggests. In one study led by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Dominique Brossard, 1,183 Americans read a fake blog post on nanotechnology and revealed in survey questions how they felt about the subject (are they wary of the benefits or supportive?). Then, through a randoml...
2 Comments on articles erode the public's trust in science.
06 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Humans See the World Through Mathematical Spectacles
Kant, discussing the various modes of perception by which the human mind apprehends nature, concluded that it is specially prone to see nature through mathematical spectacles. Just as a man wearing blue spectacles would see only a blue world, so Kant thought that, with our mental bias, we tend to see only a mathematical world. Folksonomies: mathematics perception
Folksonomies: mathematics perception
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notesBut what is the alternative?
29 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Thermodynamics Deals with Quantities
The laws of thermodynamics, as empirically determined, express the approximate and probable behavior of systems of a great number of particles, or, more precisely, they express the laws of mechanics for such systems as they appear to beings who have not the fineness of perception to enable them to appreciate quantities of the order of magnitude of those which relate to single particles, and who cannot repeat their experiments often enough to obtain any but the most probable results. Folksonomies: thermodynamics
Folksonomies: thermodynamics
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notesAt the microscopic level, things are much more complex.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Using Google is Like Watching Fox News or MSNBC
That's something I picked up in science, I suppose -- wanting to know the other side of the story, testing one's ideas against the alternative. Of course, one is naturally predisposed to what one already believes. Early nurturing and education is not to be discounted. One might even have a genetic nudge toward liberality or conservatism. Still, it behooves one to approach alternative views with an open mind, or at least as open as one can manage.
[...]
And now I read Sue Halpern reviewing ...Folksonomies: bias
Folksonomies: bias
1 notes
notesThe search engine caters its results to your biases.
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
How File Structure Affects Our Perception of the World
The file is a set of philosophical ideas made into eternal flesh. The ideas expressed by the file include the notion that human expression comes in severable chunks that can be organized as leaves on an abstract tree—and that the chunks have versions and need to be matched to compatible applications. 1 notes
notesFiles are compact chunks that can be categorized, have versions, and can be matched to applications. But don't we do this with taxonomy in biology? Species are defined, but they are flowing degrees of characteristics that we semi-artificially categorize.
