Clipmarks | Djiezes's Science collection

No Time to Think (As We May)

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:46:52 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

No Time to Think

[Video]

March, 5 2008

Vannevar Bush's 1945 article, "As We May Think," has been much celebrated as a central inspiration for the development of hypertext and the World Wide Web. Less attention, however, has been paid to Bush's motivation for imagining a new generation of information technologies; it was his hope that more powerful tools, by automating the routine aspects of information processing, would leave researchers and other professionals more time for creative thought. But now, more than sixty years later, it seems clear that the opposite has happened, that the use of the new technologies has contributed to an accelerated mode of working and living that leaves us less to think, not more. In this talk I will explore how this state of affairs has come about and what we can do about it.

Tags: david levy, levy, vannevar bush, thinking, creativity, knowledge, technology, science, video, google

Computing Machinery and Intelligence (by Alan Turing, 1950)

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:15:11 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Full Text @ Source

Clip Source: loebner.net

COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE

By A. M. Turing

Turing, A.M. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.

I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think?"

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Alan Turing

is often considered to be the father of modern computer science. Turing provided an influential formalisation of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine. With the Turing test, he made a significant and characteristically provocative contribution to the debate regarding artificial intelligence:

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Computing Machinery and Intelligence, written by Alan Turing and published in 1950 in Mind, is a seminal paper on the topic of artificial intelligence in which the concept of what is now known as the Turing test was introduced to a wide audience.

Clip Source: www.turing.org.uk

Alan Turing's papers

full listing

Mechanical Intelligence has everything related to electronic computing and to Artificial Intelligence

Pure Mathematics

Morphogenesis

Mathematical Logic

Tags: turing, cyberspace, history, future, literature, toread, technology, computing, computers, ai

Top 100 Liberal Arts Professors' Blogs

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:36:44 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.universityreviewsonline.com

Academics are flocking to the Internet like never before, particularly to start a blog. Faculty members in colleges across the world are connecting with people on a whole new level. Let's face it – academia can actually be very lonely at times. Not only can a blog be cathartic for professors, it can allow for valuable feedback from students and/or colleagues.

Liberal arts subjects are wildly varied. From art to science, the major disciplines have long been considered part of the liberal arts. Below are 100 of the most interesting and popular blogs written by liberal arts professors.

Art

Economics

Education

English

History

Math

Media / Technology

Music

Philosophy

Psycholog

Political science

Science

Sociology

Theology

Tags: humanities

Why men think with their ...

Sat, 03 May 2008 12:21:49 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Evidence that Men Think With Their Junk

Us dudes are always accused of thinking with our dicks. Perhaps it's because the genes expressed in our brains are similar to those expressed in our 'nads:

Among the 17 tissues, the highest similarity in gene expression patterns was between human brain and testis, based on DDD and clustering analysis. Genes contributing to the similarity include ribosomal protein (RP) genes as well as genes involved in transcription, translation and cell division.

Tags: science, paper, brains, genes, evolution

The Economic Causes of Monogamy

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:45:59 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

The Economic Causes of Monogamy

In a paper in this month's AER, Eric Gould, Omer Moav and Avi Simhon undertake to address the mystery of why the developed world is so uniformly monogamous, when the developing world (and much of human history) is polygynous.

Throughout much of human history, this has been the case. George Murdock recorded in his ethnographic atlas that 850 of the 1,170 societies he provided data on practiced polygyny. It is therefore something of a puzzle why modern industrialized societies are so monogamous.

Tags: science, monogamy, polygamy, society, economy, evolution, industry, paper, psychology, economics

The Paranoid Style in American Science

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:37:47 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.slate.com

The Paranoid Style in American Science

This is the first installment of a three-part series on radical skepticism and the rise of conspiratorial thinking about science.

Science
entries

1 2 3

Like the recent crop of global-warming skeptics, AIDS denialists, and biotech activists, Berlinski uses doubt as a weapon against the academy—he's more concerned with what we don't know than what we do. He uses uncertainty to challenge the scientific consensus; he points to the evidence that isn't there and seeks out the things that can't be proved. In its extreme and ideological form, this contrarian approach to science can turn into a form of paranoia—a state of permanent suspicion and outrage.

Tags: science, denialism, us, usa, skepticism, uncertainty, ideology

The Role of Intimacy in the Evolution of Technology

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:02:04 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: jetpress.org

The Role of Intimacy in the Evolution of Technology

Alessandro Tomasi

Abstract

In this article, Georges Bataille’s notion of intimacy will be re-interpreted to show that it has a role to play in the evolution of technology. The specifically human form of intimacy can be experienced through the successful adoption of technological devices that have the qualities necessary to fit in and work out in our life context. If they manage to become part of our life, then we experience them as projections of our psychophysical personality, and, as such, they escape our positing, objectifying consciousness. Intimacy can be seen as the organizing principle that shapes the evolution of technology towards an ideal end that promises at least an approximation to the absolute intimacy that is unique to the gods.

Tags: journal, article, evolution, technology, bataille, intimacy, tomasi, psychology

Tim Harford on "The Logic of Life" (at Google Talks)

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:40:29 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: youtube.com

Authors@Google: Tim Harford

Tim Harford discusses his book "The Logic of Life" as part of the Authors@Google series.

[Video]

Why do some neighborhoods thrive and others become ghettos? Why is racism so persistent? Why is your idiot boss paid a fortune for sitting behind a mahogany altar? Thorny questions--and you might be surprised to hear the answers coming from an economist. But Tim Harford, award-winning journalist and author of the bestseller The Undercover Economist, likes to spring surprises. In this deftly reasoned book, Harford argues that life is logical after all. Under the surface of everyday insanity, hidden incentives are at work, and Harford shows these incentives emerging in the most unlikely places. Using tools ranging from animal experiments to supercomputer simulations, an ambitious new breed of economist is trying to unlock the secrets of society.

Tags: google video, video, harford, economics, logic, rationality, egonomics

Michael Shermer on "The Mind of the Market" (at Google Talks)

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:35:55 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: youtube.com

Authors@Google: Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer discusses his book "Mind of the Market" as part of the Authors@Google series.

[Video]

How did we evolve from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumer-traders? Why are people so irrational when it comes to money and business? Bestselling author Dr. Michael Shermer argues that evolution provides an answer to both of these questions through the new science of evolutionary economics. Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Shermer explores what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics, Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies, why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. Employing research from complexity theory, Shermer shows how evolution and economics are both examples of a larger phenomenon of complex adaptive systems.

Tags: google video, video, shermer, michael shermer, skeptic, science, market, evolution, economics

Comparative Planetology: An Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:28:30 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: see source for the interview

Clip Source: bldgblog.blogspot.com

Comparative Planetology: An Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson

According to The New York Times Book Review, the novels of Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson "constitute one of the most impressive bodies of work in modern science fiction." I might argue, however, that Robinson is fundamentally a landscape writer.

That is, Robinson's books are not only filled with descriptions of landscapes – whole planets, in fact, noted, sensed, and textured down to the chemistry of their soils and the currents in their seas – but they are often about nothing other than vast landscape processes, in the midst of which a few humans stumble along.

Across all his books, Robinson is never afraid to imagine these radical alternatives. Indeed, in the interview posted below he explains that "I’ve been working all my career to try to redefine utopia in more positive terms – in more dynamic terms."

Tags: scifi, interview, robinson, planets, literature, writer, writing

Lectures on Quantum Theory by David Deutsch

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:11:32 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: 6 one hour lectures

Clip Source: www.quiprocone.org

This is a series of lectures designed as an introduction to the quantum theory of computation.

As each lecture becomes available it will be linked below.

Clip Source: www.quiprocone.org

Introducing quantum theory, the quantum theory of computation, physical systems, observations, and the simplest quantum physical system,
the qubit.

click to launch Lecture 1.

click here to view worked examples in .pdf format

Clip Source: www.quiprocone.org

Performing and analysing a single-photon interference experiment.

click to launch Lecture 2

click here to view worked examples in .pdf format

Clip Source: www.quiprocone.org

How to analyse pairs of interacting quantum systems.

click to launch

click here to view worked examples in .pdf format

Clip Source: www.quiprocone.org

Introducing the Schroedinger Picture, density matrices, state vectors, pure states and the Schroedinger equation.

click to launch

Clip Source: www.quiprocone.org

The Deutsch Algorithm and how it works.

click to launch

Clip Source: www.quiprocone.org

How to use quantum computation to search through N possibilities in a
time proportional to the square root of N.

click to launch

Tags: deutsch, david deutsch, science, lecture, video, quantum theory, computation, computers, physics, education

MindPapers - on the Philosophy of Mind and the Science of Consciousness

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:15:27 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: A wonderful resource by David Chalmers

I clipped the Table of Contents, followed by some specific sub-topics which I think are crucial and of the utmost importance.

Clip Source: consc.net

This is a bibliography of work in the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of cognitive science, and the science of consciousness. It consists of 18112 entries, and is divided into 8 parts, each of which is further divided by topic and subtopic. Both online and offline material is included, with links wherever possible.

Part 1: Philosophy of Consciousness

Part 2: Intentionality

Part 3: Perception

Part 4: Metaphysics of Mind

Part 5: Miscellaneous Philosophy of Mind

Part 6: Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

Part 7: Philosophy of Cognitive Science

Part 8: Science of Consciousness

subtopic

1.4	Specific Views on Consciousness [496]

1.7	Qualia [210]

4.5	Reduction [188]

5.4	Free Will [793]

6.1	Can Machines Think? [464]

6.4	Special Topics in AI [158]

6.5	Computationalism [160]

7.1	Folk Psychology and Theory of Mind [305]

7.3	Philosophy of Neuroscience [192]

7.4	Philosophy of Cognitive Science, General [258]

8.1	Consciousness and Neuroscience [793]

8.8	Consciousness and Biology [207]

Tags: mindpapers, resource, philosophy, science, mind, brain, consciousness, bibliography, literature, chalmers

Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:51:01 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: w5.cs.uni-sb.de

Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies

Science Fiction movies have been a source for speculation about the future of technology and human computer interaction. This paper presents a survey of different kinds of interaction designs in movies during the past decades and relates the techniques of the films to existing technologies and prototypes where possible. The interactions will be categorized with respect to their domain of real-life applications and also evaluated in regard to results of current research in human computer interaction.

1.		Introduction
2.		Factors of interaction designs in movies
3.		Movies without concepts
4.		Visionary movies (realistic vs idealistic)
	4.1	"Neuro technology"
	4.2	Identification
	4.3	Speech recognition
		Intelligent assistants / Avatars
	4.4	Displays
	4.5	Other I/O technologies
5.		Satiric movie scenes
6.		Conclusion
7.		References

Tags: scifi, technology, computers, interaction, article, literature

A Field Guide to the Philosophy of Ecology

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:26:39 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.lclark.edu

Jay Odenbaugh

Work in Progress:

"A Field Guide to the Philosophy of Ecology" (Mark Colyvan, Stefan Linquist, William Grey, Paul E. Griffiths,
Jay Odenbaugh, and Hugh P. Possingham (in progress)

Publications:

A Philosophy for Biodiversity?, Biology and Philosophy (to appear)

Tags: philosophy, ecology, guide, resource, publications, literature, pdf, science, odenbaugh, biology

The Neuropsychology of Synaesthesia

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:21:01 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

The neuropsychology of synaesthesia

In the 1880s, Francis Galton described a condition in which "persons...almost invariably think of numerals in visual imagery." This "peculiar habit of mind" is today called synaesthesia, and Galton's description clearly defines this condition as one in which stimuli of one sensory modality elicit sensations in another of the senses.

There are several different kinds of synaesthesia

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, who reported seeing equations in colour, was a grapheme-colour synaesthete, while the expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky, in whom musical tones elicited specific colours, was a tone-colour synaesthete.

There are a number of theories which seek to explain synaesthesia in terms of neurobiological mechanisms.

Mirror-touch synaesthesia

People with this type of synaesthesia experience tactile sensations when they observe another person being touched.

mirror-touch synaesthetes are more empathetic than non-synaesthetes.

Tags: science, neuroscience, psychology, synaesthesia, brain, galton, color, music, touch, empathy