10 FEB 2018 by ideonexus
Game Play Informs Real World Play
For Molly, computer play in a simulated world connected strongly with off-line play. It reinforced her desire to create fictional worlds of her own. And it helped sharpen her understanding of that creative endeavor. In evaluating the imaginative and creafive worth of childhood activities, of course, this is the gold standard: that reading or watching television, that trips to the theater, to art and science ce museuns, an and id yyes, that play with computer games should stimulate personal en... 1 
notes
notesThis is like how Sagan incorporates game rules in his imaginative play or how playing Skyrim inspired me to go hiking.
26 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Rolling Triggers and Social Multipliers Explain the Flynn...
The most potent facet of our environment is other people. When something, perhaps the popularity basketball got from television, triggered greater participation in basketball, the average performance rose as individuals played more and got better. Initially, a few people learn to shoot with either hand, then others imitate them. The rise in average performance feeds back into a new challenge for each individual. Those who want to excel have to learn to pass with either hand and this spreads a...
1 19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Mind Needs Stimulation
A human totally deprived of bodily senses does not do well. After 12 hours in a sensory deprivation tank (where one floats in a body-temperature saline solution that produces almost no skin sensation, in total darkness and silence, with taste and smell and the sensations of breathing minimized) a subject will begin to hallucinate, as the mind, somewhat like a television tuned to a nonexistent channel, turns up the amplification, desperately looking for a signal, becoming ever less discriminat...Folksonomies: cognition perception
Folksonomies: cognition perception
1 notes
notesFrom Hans Moravec's "Pigs in Cyberspace"
15 SEP 2013 by ideonexus
Bill Nye the Science Guy Show: "Rules"
Bill Nye the Science Guy Show: "Rules"
Objective: Change the world.
Produce a TV show that gets kids and adults excited about science, so that the United States will again be the world leader in technology, innovation, and sound management of the environment.
For example, when our audience is of age, we'd like them to produce the best transportation systems in the world, e.g. cars, electric cars, trains, and aircraft.
Rules of the Road
- The show is entertainment first; curriculum conten...Folksonomies: science entertainment
Folksonomies: science entertainment
1 notes
notesCould be summed up as "Keep it real."
19 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Technology Manufactures Social Change
The main thing, it seems to me, is to remember that technology
manufactures not gadgets, but social change. Once the first tool
was picked up and used, that was the end of cyclical anything. The
tool made a new world, the next one changed that world, the one
after that changed it again, and so on. Each time the change
was permanent. Using the tool changes the user permanently,
whether we like it or not. Once when I was in Moscow talking
to academician Petrov, I said, “Why don’t you buy Am... 1 notes
notesExamples of technology changing society, unintended consequences.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Putting Statistics in Perspective
Now let's get a handle on what it really means to have a 1-in6,500 or a 1-in-13,000 chance of dying. It's as if you lived on an island in the South Pacific with a population of 650. You make your living by swimming around in the azure waters around your idyllic paradise and spearing fish for dinner. Yum, yum. About once every ten years, a stray shark happens by and eats a swimmer. That's a 1-in-6,500 chance of any one person being eaten by a shark, just the same as the odds of dying in an aut...Folksonomies: statistics fear
Folksonomies: statistics fear
1 notes
notesA great way to think about cause of death statistics.
28 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Decline of Science in Media
A 2008 analysis by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that if you tune for five hours' worth of cable news you will probably catch only one minute's coverage of science and technology—compared with ten minutes of "celebrity and entertainment," twelve minutes of "accidents and disasters," and "26 minutes or crime." As for newspapers, from 1989 to 2005 the number featuring weekly science or science-related sections shrank by nearly two-thirds, from ninety-five to thirty-four. Thes... 1 notes
notesNewspapers killing their science sections and television showing less and less science content.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Skepticism and Wonder.
Both scepticism and wonder are skills that need honing and
practice. Their harmonious marriage within the mind of every
schoolchild ought to be a principal goal of public education. I'd
love to see such a domestic felicity portrayed in the media,
television especially: a community of people really working the
mix - full of wonder, generously open to every notion, dismissing
nothing except for good reason, but at the same time, and as
second nature, demanding stringent standards of evidence; a...Folksonomies: skepticism wonder
Folksonomies: skepticism wonder
1 notes
notesWe must cultivate both virtues.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Written Worlds May Not be Memes
Think of the number of things you are likely to say to someone else today -- or the number of words you will hear other people speak. You might listen to the radio, watch television, have dinner with other people, help your children with the homework, answer the phone to people far away. Most of what is said in these conversations will never be passed on again. Most of it will not reappear as 'Then he said to her...' or 'And did you know...' Most will die at birth.
Written words may not fare ...Folksonomies: memetics
Folksonomies: memetics
1 notes
notesSome examples of ideas that won't become memes, with the surprising inclusion of books.
12 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Twitter, Celebrity, Asymmetric and Symmetric Social Conne...
Asymmetric attention is the key to another important concept, celebrity. Being famous means that a lot of people pay attention to you--after all, by definition it is famous people who appear on the cover of magazines, which are purchased because lots of people want to know what's happening with their favorite celebrities. But the celebrity doesn't, for the the most part, pay any attention to the fans (at least, not individually). Asymmetric attention ties in Twitter allows people like Oprah W...Folksonomies: web science social networking
Folksonomies: web science social networking
3 Twitter provides for asymmetric connections, where individuals follow others, making the people who don't follow back are celebrities; however, the system has been hacked with @replies, which make asymmetric connections symmetrical.
