27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Redundancy of English language is a Goldilocks zone for C...
In Shannon’s terms, the feature of messages that makes codecracking possible is redundancy. A historian of cryptography, David Kahn, explained it like this: “Roughly, redundancy means that more symbols are transmitted in a message than are actually needed to bear the information.” Information resolves our uncertainty; redundancy is every part of a message that tells us nothing new. Whenever we can guess what comes next, we’re in the presence of redundancy. Letters can be redundant: because Q ... 1 
notes
notes20 MAR 2018 by ideonexus
Use of an Umpire to Hide Troop Movements in a War Game
Three maps should be provided, either in separate rooms or separated from each other by screens: one for each player, and one in the centre for the Umpire.* Each Commander and his subordinates will be allowed access only to their own map, the Umpire and his assistants moving from one side to the other.
[...]
Whenever any portion of OIK; of the opposing forces comes within the view of the other, the corresponding blocks of the former must be placed on the map of the latter and rice ver... 1 notes
notes20 JUN 2017 by ideonexus
Be Part of Where You Live
What concerns me is how our information networks have enabled us to become hyper-connected to geographically distant communities, while at the same time disconnected from our local ones. Virtual and long-distance relationships can enrich our lives in myriad ways, but I fear that our reliance on them has the potential to erode our physical communities and diminish our sense of place.
Wendell Berry once said that “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.” Knowing where you ...
1 24 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Enthusiasm Improves Productivity
When we are engaged in what we are
doing, all sorts of things happen. We
persist longer at difficult problems—and
become more likely to solve them. We
experience something that psychologist
Tory Higgins refers to as flow, a presence
of mind that not only allows us to extract
more from whatever it is we are doing but
also makes us feel better and happier: we
derive actual, measurable hedonic value
from the strength of our active
involvement in and attention to an activity,
even if the activity...And it creates a cycle of enthusiasm as our accomplishments increase our positive outlook on the task, increasing our focus.
31 OCT 2012 by ideonexus
The Difference Between Pretend and Simulation
To dissimulate is to pretend not to have what one has. To simulate is to feign to have
what one doesn't have. One implies a presence, the other an absence. But it is more
complicated than that because simulating is not pretending: "Whoever fakes an illness can
simply stay in bed and make everyone believe he is ill. Whoever simulates an illness
produces in himself some of the symptoms" (Littré). Therefore, pretending, or
dissimulating, leaves the principle of reality intact: the difference is ...Folksonomies: post modernism hyperreality
Folksonomies: post modernism hyperreality
1 notes
notesWhen a person pretends to be ill, they just lie in bed; but when they simulate illness, they produce actual symptoms, thus blurring the lines of reality.
22 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Seneca on Ancient Forests
When you enter some grove, peopled with ancient trees, such as are higher than ordinary, and whose boughs are so closely interwoven that you cannot see the sky; the stately loftiness of the wood, the privacy of the place, and the awful gloom, cannot but strike you, as with the presence of a deity. Folksonomies: nature
Folksonomies: nature
1 Standing in one is like being in the presence of a deity.
23 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Why a Machine Cannot Fully Imitate a Man
I specifically paused to show that, if there were such machines with the organs and shape of a monkey or of some other non-rational animal, we would have no way of discovering that they are not the same as these animals. But if there were machines that resembled our bodies and if they imitated our actions as much as is morally possible, we would always have two very certain means for recognizing that, none the less, they are not genuinely human. The first is that they would never be able to u...Folksonomies: artificial intelligence
Folksonomies: artificial intelligence
Descartes reasoning sounds like a precursor to the Turing Test.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
We Have Announced Our Presence to the Stars
There are those who predict a dire catastrophe if we broadcast our presence to
another star. The extraterrestrials will come and – eat us, or something equally
unpleasant. (Actually, if we are especially tasty, they need only sample one of us,
determine what sequence of our amino acids makes us appetizing, and then
reconstruct the relevant proteins on their own planet. The high freightage makes
us economically, if not gastronomically, unappetizing.) The message aboard Pioneer
10 was criticize... 1 notes
notesJazz-band radio broadcasts are our first emissaries into space, now nearly 100 light years out.
27 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
No Commercial Product is Shown to Improve Baby Cognitive ...
Believe it or not, no commercial product has ever been shown in a scientifically responsible manner (or even in an irresponsible non-scientific manner) to do anything to improve the brain performance of a developing fetus. There have been no double-blind, randomized experiments whose independent variable was the presence or absence of the gadget. No rigorous studies showing that an in utero education curriculum produced long-term academic benefits when the child entered high school. No twins-...Folksonomies: evidence-based medicine child development
Folksonomies: evidence-based medicine child development
1 notes
notesThere is no research supporting any product doing anything.
21 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Get Babies Used to Strangers
Grandmother says, "You had them and you should never leave them." Such martyrdom is selfish and harmful to both you and the child. Someday such clinging, dependent children will have to be torn from their mothers and get the rude shock that there are other people m the world—on the first day at school, for instance. This shock will be far less and the adjustment to the presence of other residents of this planet far better if they get a sneak preview in advance that there are others. There is ...Folksonomies: child rearing
Folksonomies: child rearing
To prevent them from being to clingy later in life.
