Clipmarks | wildcat's society,lifestyle,civilization collection

The Cultural Evolution Of Religion

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:15:46 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

First off, let me clear the field of an obvious source of what I think is rather fruitless discussion. The authors begin by summarizing three models of the evolution of religion: the evolutionary group selection scenario (religion as an adaptation for group living), the cultural by-product scenario (religion derives from the necessity of a theory of others’ mind and sensitivity to one’s reputation), and the cultural group selection scenario (where competition among social groups favors the spread of costly practices to maintain in-group cohesion).

To begin with, they debunk the oft-repeated claim that religiosity increases charitability. It turns out studies that have made that link are entirely based on self-reporting, a notoriously unreliable source of behavioral evidence

A series of “Good Samaritan” studies found that people’s actual (as opposed to self-reported) charitable behavior shows no correspondence whatsoever with the degree of religious belief

Tags: culture, evolution, religion

In Search of Wisdom: What is the Root Cause of Inequality?

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:00:16 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: When there is nothing quantifiable to possess, we would neither know what the share of each individual is nor think of equality; if there was no notion of equality, we would not care that some have more than the others. Fortunately or unfortunately, there is always something to be possessed and our mind is naturally keen on the subject of equality

Clip Source: www.nepalnews.com

The most profound factor in perpetuating human inequality is the inequity in the opportunity to develop and then utilize the intellectual capacity of individuals. The “capacity” and “courage” of individuals and equity in the available “conditions” together determine how solid our fundamentals are in building an equitable society.

s not it the desire of each of us to live with growing wealth that surpasses everyone else’s? Yet, the same "we" seek justice, equality, and social responsibility when we are in the receiving end. We want us to be treated with equal dignity when we run into profound difficulties like natural disaster, illness, unemployment, failure, or injustice. The duality of prosperity and equality is such that they are irreducibly distinct yet one gains significance only in the existence of the other.

They are like body and mind, which are distinct but one could not have existed without the other

Tags: inequality, society

We'll all be citizens of virtual worlds

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:13:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: What is the point of all this? It is quite likely that it will be a natural thing for future generations to meet their friends in worlds such as these, where they can watch the same music or videos while chatting to each other. And if that is where youngsters will be hanging out, then brands and media, including newspapers, will have to be there. Other life-mimicking worlds about to be released include shopping malls such as themall.tv, which aims to emulate an entire shopping mall with scores of high street shops. It claims to have signed up 500 brands.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Most people still look askance if you admit to using virtual worlds where you move around with an avatar or 3D version of yourself. It recalls the technophobic reactions in the early days of the internet. But attitudes may now change for two reasons. First, children are piling into their own virtual worlds, so their parents can get a glimpse of what it is all about. And second, a huger user base is being created, one that is accustomed to virtual worlds and is ready to trade up to more sophisticated ones as they grow older.

Some of the kids' sites have more registered (but not necessarily active) members than countries have citizens. These include Habbo Hotel (more than 100 million registered users), Neopets (45 million) and Disney's Club Penguin (20 million). Up the scale there are spaces such as Second Life and hipihi.com from China. Kzero reckons that there are about 100 million active users of virtual world.

Second, virtual worlds are changing fast

Tags: virtual worlds

The Physiology And Psychology Of Voting

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:04:16 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The researchers used a multiple regression analysis to compare the effects of change in skin conductance levels in response to threatening images, gender, age, education, and income on support for socially “protective” policies such as the ones listed above. The only two statistically significant effects were those of education (less education translated into more support for conservative policies) and skin conductance. That in itself means that -- within the confines of this study -- physiology trumps gender, age and income, traditionally considered highly relevant causal factors in politics by social scientists. Moreover, the regression coefficient associated with skin conductance was more than 56 times that of education! !!!

Clip Source: www.scientificblogging.com

In case you haven’t noticed, election season is upon us! Ok, it has been upon us for almost two years, but never mind that. Pollsters are busy trying to determine why people might be voting for one candidate or another, with special attention being paid to the so-called undecided voters, on whose last-minute whim the fate of the nation -- and the world -- seems to hinge.

Two recent studies, however, provide much food for thought about why people vote one way or the other, and about the reasons they give to themselves and others. A paper by Douglas Oxley and collaborators in Science (19 September) investigated the effect of physiological reactions to a perceived threat on people’s political opinions

Oxley and colleagues discovered that people who react physiologically (as measured by changes in their skin conductance) to sudden noises or to threatening images are much more likely to support conservative issues like gun control, the war in Iraq, restrictions in immigration and so forth.

Tags: voting, education, elections, physiology, psychology

Richard Dawkins- the believer

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:33:37 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.believermag.com

Dawkins has achieved not only recognition but considerable notoriety—the result, it sometimes seems, of having proposed or defended one controversial idea after another. Over the course of his career he has become associated with, and at times served as a spokesperson for, views and positions including sociobiology, biological reductionism, the gene-centered view of evolution, memetics, atheism, and secular humanism. While he is a prominent Darwinist, Dawkins entirely eschews so-called “Social Darwinism.” He is deeply committed to a progressive agenda that aims to decrease violence and oppression and improve the quality of people’s lives, not only by employing the means of science but by encouraging a better understanding of science.

THE BELIEVER: Why do you think it is that in the United States in particular, the level of ignorance about, and resistance to, Darwinian evolution is so high?

Tags: richard dawkins, believer

Social media: Social Approximity?

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:06:58 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Now that bit about the telegraph may be a bit out of dot dot dash date, so simply substitute in "social media" for telegraph and you're back in the present tense. Social media are a recontextualization of old print forms and contents within a new distribution and communication framework (social web). It's not surprising that so many of our social practices (tools and uses) echo, if not amplify, their old media (broadcast) forebears: celebrity, self-promotion, news, anchoring, commentary, top tens, ratings, rankings, and polls (diggs, votes).

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

We have moved beyond "generation gap" differences in technology use and moved into the "experiential gap" in terms of use and understanding. Your experience with an application such as Twitter provides an understanding that cannot be communicated by reading about it or even being told about it.

Tom Foremski recently penned on twitter in which he notes the growing experiential gap that separates those who use new social media tools from those who don't. Those who use, get it, and those who don't, don't. Well, not surprisingly, this digitally dividing line is also the void that old media needs to bridge, if it, like its users, are to join the ranks of the initiated. The adoption curve sweeps like the arc of a #suspension bridge (!) plotting the line of escape from the old and tired traditional media landscape to the bright and shiny shores of the new.

The "content" of any medium is always another medium

The content of writing is speech

just as the written word is the content of print

Tags: generation gap, context, twitter, social networks

Grouping Recent Net Books: Internet Optimists vs. Pessimists

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:10:14 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: techliberation.com

A number of very interesting books have been released over the past year or two which debate how the Internet is reshaping our culture and the economy. I’ve reviewed a couple of them here but I have been waiting to compile a sort of mega-book review once I found a sensible way to conceptually group them together. I’m not going to have time to cover each of them here in the detail they deserve, but I think I have at least found a sensible way to categorize them. For lack of better descriptors, I’ve divided these books and thinkers into two camps: “Internet optimists” versus “Internet Pessimists.” Here’s a list of some of the individuals and books (or other articles and blogs) that I believe epitomize these two camps of thinking:

Adherents & Their Books / Writings

Internet Optimists

Internet Pessimists

Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks

Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amateur

Chris Anderson, The Long Tail and “Free!”

Lee Siegel, Against the Machine

Tags: net books, internet

The Landscape of Possible Intelligences

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:50:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: If we imagine the levels of intelligence as a ladder with unevenly spaced rungs, there may be jumps that some intelligences are not able to complete, or their derivatives are not able to jump. So a type 3 mind may be able to jump up four levels of bootstrapping intelligence, but not five. Since I don't believe intelligence is linear (that is I believe intelligence grows in many dimensions), a better illustration may be to view the problem of bootstrapping super intelligence as navigating across a rugged evolutionary landscape.

Clip Source: www.kk.org

We can distinguish several categories of elementary minds in relation to bootstrapping:

1) A mind capable of imagining, or identifying a greater mind.
2) A mind capable of imaging but incapable of designing a greater mind.
3) A mind capable of designing a greater mind.

We fit the first criteria, but it is unclear whether we are of the second or third type of mind. There is also a fourth type, which follows the third:

4) A mind capable of generating a greater mind which in turn itself creates a greater mind, and so on.

This is an cascading, bootstrapping mind. Once a mind reaches this level, the recursive mind-enlargement can either keep going ad infinitum, or it might reach some limit. On the other hand, there may be more than one threshold in intelligence. Think of it as quantum levels. A mind may be able to make a mind smarter than itself, but the offspring mind may not be smart enough to make the next leap, and so gets stuck.

Tags: intelligence, limits, smarts, minds

The second enlightenment project

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:29:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: just discovered and exploring

Clip Source: www.2enlightenment.com

The following table suggests an evolution of key principles of how society has been organized in the Industrial Age and how we expect these principles to morph as society becomes more complex, integrated and constantly changing. These undergird the basis for the idea of a need for a Second Enlightenment.

Independent

(Either/Or)

Interdependent

(And/Both) Systemic

Self-interest

Help
Each Other Succeed

Concomitant

Good Linear
Thinking Connective
Thinking Synthesis
& Generation Static
Structures Modules,
Webs and Networks Dynamic
Adaptability Reductionism
Holism Connective
Analysis Standard
Education and Accountability Unlearning,
Uplearning and Non-Linear Transformative
Learning

Meaning
from Materialism
Meaning from Creativity/Spiritualism Balance
of Values Competition
Collaboration Generative
Development Prediction
and Certainty Anticipation
and Ambiguity Parallel

Strategic and

Ecological

Planning

Tags: second enlightenment

The Coming Convergence

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:13:34 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The message is clear: the choices we make now will converge to create a near and distant future that will be almost unbelievably wonderful or unimaginably catastrophic, or both. This knowledgeable, fascinating glimpse into the future is a must read for everyone interested in technology, upcoming innovations in business, science fiction, and the future.

Clip Source: www.sfwa.org

The Coming Convergence
The Surprising Ways Diverse Technologies Interact to Shape Our World and Change the Future

Imagine direct communication links between the human brain and machines, or tailored materials capable of adapting by themselves to changing environmental conditions, or computer chips and environmental sensors embedded into everyday clothing, or medical technologies that eliminate currently untreatable conditions such as blindness and paralysis. Now imagine all of these developments occurring at the same time. The stuff of science fiction?

Not So. These are actually the reasonable predictions of scientists attempting to forecast a few decades into the future based on the rapid pace of innovation.

Longer, healthier lives

Cheap, generally available food, energy, and technology

Reduced pollution and environmental stress

Economic disruption during transitional periods

Excessive power in too few hands

Increased vulnerability from overdependence on technology.

Tags: convergence, technologies, future, singularity

Nonviolent Communication (NVC)

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:16:06 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The goal of NVC is to get one's own needs met while also meeting others' needs. A key principle of nonviolent communication that supports this is the capacity to express oneself without use of good/bad, right/wrong judgment, hence the emphasis on expressing feelings and needs, instead of criticisms or judgments.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a process developed by Marshall Rosenberg and others which people use to communicate with greater compassion and clarity.^[1] It focuses on two things: honest self-expression — exposing what matters to oneself in a way that's likely to inspire compassion in others, and empathy — listening with deep compassion. Formal NVC self-expression includes four elements: observations (distinguished from interpretations/evaluations), feelings (emotions separate from thoughts), needs (deep motives) and requests (clear, present, doable and without demand). ^[2]

Those who use nonviolent communication (also called "compassionate communication") describe all actions as motivated by an attempt to meet human needs. However, in meeting those needs, they seek to avoid the use of coercion (e.g., inducing fear, guilt, shame, praise, blame, duty, obligation, punishment, or reward

Tags: non violence, communication, social networks

Appreciative Inquiry

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:32:28 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: positive change

Clip Source: appreciativeinquiry.case.edu

Welcome to the "AI Commons"--a worldwide portal devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. This site is a resource for you and many of us--leaders of change, scholars, students, and business managers--and it is proudly hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.

Commenting on her assessment of AI's uniqueness, a senior executive at one company recently said: "I know what Ai is about...it is about creating a positive revolution in change". And in words that echo the same thing, University of Michigan Professor Robert Quinn, in his acclaimed book Change the World writes: " Appreciative Inquiry is currently revolutionizing the field of organizational development."

Tags: appreciative inquiry, ai, commons

Globalisation as the great unbundling(s): What should governments do?

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:38:53 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: go read

Clip Source: www.voxeu.org

Today’s globalisation is operating with higher resolution. It is not enough to think of skill groups and sectors; the impact is more unpredictable, sudden and individual than in the past. This column assesses how high-resolution globalisation differs and how governments need to respond to make it work.

The Kiel Institute’s Global Economic Symposium – something like a New Century Davos – is being held in a Northern German castle and it is open to the web community. Globalisation is on the agenda. Alan Blinder has contributed his thoughts on “Offshoring, Workforce Skills, and the Educational System.” Here are my comments on the subject.

The new ‘new wave of globalisation’ in perspective

Globalisation is the great unbundling, or rather many.¹

In the late 19th Century and first three-quarters of the 20th, globalisation meant the spatial unbundling of factories and consumers.

These revolutions also transformed the skill mix a nation needed for success;

Social consequences

Tags: globalization, market, economy

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:15:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: It is easy to become unsettled by privacy-eroding aspects of awareness tools. But there is another — quite different — result of all this incessant updating: a culture of people who know much more about themselves. Many of the avid Twitterers, Flickrers and Facebook users I interviewed described an unexpected side-effect of constant self-disclosure. The act of stopping several times a day to observe what you’re feeling or thinking can become, after weeks and weeks, a sort of philosophical act. It’s like the Greek dictum to “know thyself,” or the therapeutic concept of mindfulness. (Indeed, the question that floats eternally at the top of Twitter’s Web site — “What are you doing?” — can come to seem existentially freighted. What are you doing?) Having an audience can make the self-reflection even more acute, since, as my interviewees noted, they’re trying to describe their activities in a way that is not only accurate but also interesting to others: the status update as a literary form.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

On Sept. 5, 2006, Mark Zuckerberg changed the way that Facebook worked, and in the process he inspired a revolt.

Pundits predicted that News Feed would kill Facebook, but the opposite happened. It catalyzed a massive boom in the site’s growth. A few weeks after the News Feed imbroglio, Zuckerberg opened the site to the general public (previously, only students could join), and it grew quickly; today, it has 100 million users

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In essence, Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive. Why?

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.

Tags: brave new world, digital intimacy

Brain and Creativity Institute

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:24:53 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The mission of the Brain and Creativity Institute is to gather new knowledge about the human emotions, decision-making, memory, and communication, from a neurological perspective, and to apply this knowledge to the solution of problems in the biomedical and sociocultural arenas.

Clip Source: www.usc.edu

The Brain and Creativity Institute was founded by Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio in 2006. Since ancient times, thinkers and scientists have sought to explain how we perceive, interpret, and shape our existence. However, until very recently, researchers interested in these questions have had to rely entirely on conjecture or indirect evidence. Now, recent technological advances in brain imaging and fresh insights into the functioning of the human brain at the level of systems, cells and molecules, provide extraordinary new opportunities for uncovering the neurological underpinnings for a large array of mental functions – from emotion and decision-making to innovation and creativity.

It is also apparent that emotion, decision-making, memory and communication, are central to our most fundamental socio-cultural endeavors

The Institute is a groundbreaking effort to make use of important new discoveries from the mind and brain sciences and confront pressing issues of our time.

Tags: brain and creativity, antonio damasio