The cognitive science of the effects of media.
Friday, July 30, 2010
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/my-first-act-of-free-will/
On the idea of this matter of influence of desires and beliefs, it is possible to build an endless construction of beliefs and desires about beliefs and desires.
Favorite succinct comment from the article:
I posit that free will does not exist.
.
1.) All that exists in the universe is comprised of matter and/or energy.
2.) Nothing that exists outside the universe can affect anything that exists within.
3.) All interactions of matter and energy, including on the quantum scale, are governed by immutable laws, whether these laws are known or unknown.
4.) Consciousness is a product of interactions between matter and energy within the brain subject to the aforementioned laws.
If one accepts the enumerated statements above as true, then the only logical conclusion is that the fate of every individual in history, and indeed that of every particle of matter in the universe, was irrevocably fixed at the very moment the universe was first conceived.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Only in this case, the desktop is not a metaphor. Rather, this Luxo-style robotic-arm-projector called LuminAR—why the capital AR and not go whole-hog for Luminarm?—will actually light up your desktop as a screen. Here’s a video. Clearly, the projector needs some more muscle, but just the fact that you can get something like this working in a regular adjustable lamp is intriguing. This is another great example of the fact that augmenting a reality that we are familiar with is a potentially more powerful tool that fully realized virtual environments. One more small step towards Second Earth.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
I can’t say that I’m at all shocked by the fact that Hollywood is a male-driven industry or that the content of the movies they make are male-dominated, but I thought that more progress than this had been made. I’m not sure how I feel about this with regard to my own work though. On the one hand, my novel (and several short stories) pass the test. On the other hand, it’s much easier to have more characters in general in a novel and also I use the word “whores” a lot.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Reverend Billy (a.k.a. Bill Talen) and his wife Savitri D. organize protests (they call actions) that attempt to create a “radical instability” in the hopes that they will punch a hole in the matrix-like reality that is the average consumers’ existence. In an interesting interview over at Reality Sandwich, Jonathan Talat Philips, director of Evolver.net asks some pertinent questions of the anti-consumption duo. You’ll even find some handy tips for yourself about getting off the grid.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
In a small but valiant effort to get the Skeptic’s Dictionary higher up in the PageRank system (at Google) I am linking to their entry on Deepak Chopra today. Consider the following statement:
“Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a quantum level. That means from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level. Our bodies ultimately are fields of information, intelligence and energy.”
I think we all have to look at men and women who make these kinds of (outrageous) claims—who offer no evidence but their own opinions and magical powers—in one of two lights. They are either so arrogant as to believe that their is no virtue in presenting evidence for their claims to fellow humans, in which case they think you are an idiot. Or they know (or suspect) that they are full of it and they are cynical enough to believe that you will listen to whatever they say, in which case they think you are an idiot.
You know what? I know you’re not an idiot.
