02 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Logic as Magical Thinking
These battles over definition are not taking place in the same universe as the one in which men throw around these terms online. But for the Logic Guys, the purpose of using these words — the sacred, magic words like “logic,” “objectivity,” “reason,” “rationality,” “fact” — is not to invoke the actual concepts themselves. It’s more a kind of incantation, whereby declaring your argument the single “logical” and “rational” one magically makes it so — and by e... 1 
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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
notes27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
The Great Lifespan Escape
At the time when the lines begin, in the mid-18th century, life expectancy in Europe and the Americas was around 35, where it had been parked for the 225 previous years for which we have data.3 Life expectancy for the world as a whole was 29. These numbers are in the range of expected life spans for most of human history. The life expectancy of hunter-gatherers is around 32.5, and it probably decreased among the peoples who first took up farming because of their starchy diet and the diseases ... 1 notes
notes12 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Decline of US Religion Between 2007 and 2014
To be sure, the United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith.1 But the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally mass...
1 27 APR 2015 by ideonexus
Math Problem: How Long Until the Earth Falls Into the Sun?
Our earth has orbital motion, revolving once around the sun in about 365 days. Suppose that this orbital motion suddenly stopped completely, but everything else remained the same. How long would it take for the earth to plunge along a straight line into the sun?
[...]
Kepler's law applies to planetary orbits, whether they be of circular, or elliptical shape. It says that T22/T12 = R23/R13, where T is the period of an orbit and R is its semi-major axis. The semi-major axis is the average... 1 notes
notes18 OCT 2014 by ideonexus
The Quiet
‘What was it like? Being Quiet?’ I try my food. The zebra is indeed excellent, dark and juicy: she has good taste. Perhaps she picked it up from me.
She crumbles a piece of bread on her plate, lost in thought. ‘It’s difficult to explain. It’s very abrupt: when your Time runs out, the transition happens. The Resurrection Men just come to pick your body up, but you are already there. It’s like having a stroke. Suddenly, your brain works differently, in a different body, with differ... 1 notes
notesA post-singularity society where people are with the living for a period of time and use time as currency, and when they die they become "quiet" robotic laborers and servants for a time.
13 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
Phased Retirement
We should establish a new concept of retirement: phased retirement or part-time
retirement. This would permit those persons who want to work and are able to do so
to phase into total retirement over a period of years. Working part time or part year
and “retired” part of the time, they could engage in new learning ventures in an
educational environment, or in travel and group discussions. Educational institutions
should take the leadership in fashioning different kinds of programs for...Folksonomies: retirement planning
Folksonomies: retirement planning
1 notes
notesImportant concept.
30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Reading a Novel Causes a Temporary Boost in Brain Power
We sought to determine whether reading a novel causes measurable changes in resting-state connectivity of the brain and how long these changes persist. Incorporating a within-subjects design, participants received resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans on 19 consecutive days. First, baseline resting state data for a “washin” period were taken for each participant for 5 days. For the next 9 days, participants read 1/9th of a novel during the evening and resting-state dat... 1 notes
notesStudy finds that reading an engaging novel that puts the reader in the perspective of another person creates new brain connections that last for days, but the effect is not reproduced in ebooks.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Science and Education Feed One Another
The progress of the sciences secures the progress of the art of instruction, which again
accelerates in its turn that of the sciences; and this reciprocal influence, the action of
which is incessantly increased, must be ranked in the number of the most prolific and
powerful causes of the improvement of the human race. At present, a young man,
upon finishing his studies and quitting our schools, may know more of the principles
of mathematics than Newton acquired by profound study, or discovere... 1 notes
notesProgress in one secures progress in the other.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Why There Cannot be a Language of Science
We may show that, as it was impossible to make the Latin a vulgar tongue common to
all Europe, the continuance of the custom of writing in it upon the sciences would
have been attended with a transient advantage only to those who studied them; that
the existence of a sort of scientific language among the learned of all nations, while
the people of each individual nation spoke a different one, would have divided men
into two classes, would have perpetuated in the people prejudices and errors, ... 1 notes
notesLatin could not become the language of science, common to all educated people, while the countries continued to speak different languages, would create a class division.
