Clipmarks | wildcat's clips

Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn?

Sun, 11 May 2008 22:14:31 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you're about to forget. Unfortunately, this moment is different for every person and each bit of information. Imagine a pile of thousands of flash cards. Somewhere in this pile are the ones you should be practicing right now. Which are they?

Fortunately, human forgetting follows a pattern. We forget exponentially. A graph of our likelihood of getting the correct answer on a quiz sweeps quickly downward over time and then levels off. This pattern has long been known to cognitive psychology, but it has been difficult to put to practical use. It's too complex for us to employ with our naked brains.

Tags: memory, supermemo, ideal moment, practice

Is Evolution Exponential?

Sun, 11 May 2008 21:44:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.jumpthecurve.net

When Charles Darwin first proposed writing his landmark book on evolution, The Origins of Species, his editor suggested writing a book on pigeons because, in his words, “Everyone is interested in pigeons.” Fortunately, Darwin chose to ignore the advice. I am reminded of the story because even though Darwin’s theory was proposing only that species make modest, incremental changes over long periods of time, it was—and in many circles still is—a revolutionary idea.

What then happens if evolution is not just incremental in nature but rather exponential? That, too, is a revolutionary idea—especially since it could impact us within our lifetimes.

Well, we are now approaching a time when this exponential theory of evolution will be put to the test.

If you accept the notion of evolution, you will agree that the earliest life appeared on earth approximately 4 billion years ago. Complex cellular organisms showed up 2 billion years ago, and the first multicellular organism about 1 billion years ago

Tags: evolution, darwin, exponential

The Stupidity of Dignity

Sun, 11 May 2008 11:27:22 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Steven Pinker, a modern most advanced thinker, a must read

Clip Source: www.tnr.com

This spring, the President's Council on Bioethics released a 555-page report, titled Human Dignity and Bioethics. The Council, created in 2001 by George W. Bush, is a panel of scholars charged with advising the president and exploring policy issues related to the ethics of biomedical innovation, including drugs that would enhance cognition, genetic manipulation of animals or humans, therapies that could extend the lifespan, and embryonic stem cells and so-called "therapeutic cloning" that could furnish replacements for diseased tissue and organs. Advances like these, if translated into freely undertaken treatments, could make millions of people better off and no one worse off. So what's not to like? The advances do not raise the traditional concerns of bioethics, which focuses on potential harm and coercion of patients or research subjects. What, then, are the ethical concerns that call for a presidential council?

Tags: steven pinker, bioethics, genetics, dignity

Virtual Reality Could Explain the Fermi Paradox

Sun, 11 May 2008 11:22:28 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "What I’m thinking of could probably be called ‘mind uploading’."

Clip Source: michaelgr.com

A recent article in Technology Review by Nick Bostrom generated a lot of discussion about the Fermi paradox, which states:

I’ll add my 2 cents to this discussion by saying that there’s a possibility that any civilization that becomes advanced enough discovers that physical reality can’t hold a candle to virtual reality and makes the transition (alien transubstantiation, to coin a phrase). This could explain why they haven’t colonized the galaxy, or why we aren’t bathed in their radio communications.

Virtual worlds can be, in theory, both much more pleasant to inhabit, with unlimited freedom and none of the downsides of an existence based on crude physical processes, and also much more energy-efficient. Even without cold computing, it would take a lot less energy for an advanced civilization to do all that it wants to do within a simulation than by moving atoms around.

As I mentioned before, they could also think much faster, subjectively pushing back the heat death of the universe

Tags: vr, mind upload, fermi paradox

Dip in brainpower may follow drop in real power

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:54:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The researchers argued that this dip in overall “executive function” among low-status people results from a loss of focus on overall goals

Clip Source: www.world-science.net

Modern, open and democratic societies are supposed to reward brains and hard work with success, at least somewhat fairly.

But what if failure degrades brainpower, creating a vicious loop in which success slips inexorably further away for an unlucky group that started out worse off?

A group of researchers claims this may be exactly what happens, so rosy views on the benefits of advanced societies must be reappraised as simplistic.

“Powerless people often achieve less because lacking power itself fundamentally alters cognitive functioning,” wrote the scientists in a paper describing their research findings.

The results highlight the importance of “empowering” employees to stimulate better work, especially in industries where errors can be fatal

Tags: brain, social status