02 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
New Kind of Memory for AI
AI researchers have typically tried to get around the issues posed by by Montezuma’s Revenge and Pitfall! by instructing reinforcement-learning algorithms to explore randomly at times, while adding rewards for exploration—what’s known as “intrinsic motivation.”
But the Uber researchers believe this fails to capture an important aspect of human curiosity. “We hypothesize that a major weakness of current intrinsic motivation algorithms is detachment,” they write. “Wherein the a... 1 
notes
notes16 APR 2018 by ideonexus
Facebook is a Game
Game designer Robin Hunicke has noted that Facebook is actually a complex, massively multiplayer online game, with challenges, rewards, and levels just like any other. Think about it for a second and you'll realize that the rules are simple: be the most fun, intelligent, witty, caring version of yourself. The benefits are obvious, Hunicke observed: Facebook "makes people feel like they matter, like they have friends and family across all kinds of distances," she said. "How many games make you...Folksonomies: social media gamification
Folksonomies: social media gamification
1 10 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
Games Use Constant Feedback
Moreover, games use systems of points, scores, leaderboards, achievement walls, and other clever mechanisms to reinforce how well you are playing (or not playing). Feedback should force us to face reality and redirect our efforts where they are needed. Regular, systemic feedback is a rarity in the traditional school; it is, however, de rigueur in even the most poorly designed game. It is this regular, rapid feedback that not only stimulates persistence and self-direction but also gets people ...Folksonomies: education gamification
Folksonomies: education gamification
1 notes
notes21 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Science Makes Scientists Virtuous
Part of the strength of science is that it has tended to attract individuals who love knowledge and the creation of it. Just as important to the integrity of science have been the unwritten rules of the game. These provide recognition and approbation for work which is imaginative and accurate, and apathy or criticism for the trivial or inaccurate .... Thus, it is the communication process which is at the core of the vitality and integrity of science .... The system of rewards and punishments ... 1 notes
notesThe nature of the art forces its practitioners to behave ethically or attracts the intellectually-minded.
16 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
"Real Life" General Game Play
The first thing you'll notice about Real-life is that it about 9 months to start a new character, mainly because two other players have to "register" for a new player to enter the game, fortunately now-a-days "registering" is happening more and more frequently, unfortunately this means that the "sever" getting overcrowd. But back to starting a new character, after waiting 9 months, you enter the game (in a pretty graphic way) but after the tutorial begins, with learning about the breathing an...
1 It takes nine months to spawn and everything is a mini-game.
24 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Directing Focus
When psychologist Peter Gollwitzer
tried to determine how to enable people to
set goals and engage in goal-directed
behavior as effectively as possible, he
found that several things helped improve
focus and performance: (1) thinking
ahead, or viewing the situation as just one
moment on a larger, longer timeline and
being able to identify it as just one point to
get past in order to reach a better future
point; (2) being specific and setting
specific goals, or defining your end point
as discre...Folksonomies: mindfulness focus
Folksonomies: mindfulness focus
Peter Gollwitzer's rules for maintaining focus.
09 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
The Naturalist's Concern for Death
But just because naturalists do not believe in a life after death does not mean that they don't care what happens after they die. I am deeply concerned, for instance, about whether my family members will be happy and successful after I am gone, whether my friends will continue the traditions we have established, and whether the world will be a better place because of my actions. I hope that what I do in this life will make a long-term difference in the world, though I will never know whether ... 1 notes
notesThey are concerned about the welfare of their loved ones, and the causal effects of their life rather than rewards in an afterlife.
10 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The Efforts and Rewards of Naturalism
One day I buried myself, prone, in the muck
of a muskrat house. While my clothes
absorbed local color, my eyes absorbed the
lore of the marsh. A hen redhead cruised by
with her convoy of ducklings, pink-billed
fluffs of greenish-golden down. A Virginia
rail nearly brushed my nose. The shadow of
a pelican sailed over a pool in which a
yellow-leg alighted with warbling whistle; it
occurred to me that whereas I write a poem
by dint of mighty cerebration, the yellow-leg
walks a better one just by...This passage describes the lengths the naturalist will go to in order to witness nature's miracles.
04 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Carl Sagan on the Belief in God
I think it's impossible to be a scientist and to confront, even occassionally, the grandure, subtlety, elegance and magnificience of the universe without feeling a sense of reverence and awe, but that's very different from concluding that there's a god who issues punishments and rewards after your dead or that prayer works or that the bible is written by anybody but fallible human beings.
[...]
The word god is used to cover so many different points of view... First of all, you can be religi...A very political commentary on the subject. Beautiful rhetorically.
