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Category: communication

Next discussion meeting Apr 2: Brain-Computer Interface, now and future

Next discussion meeting Apr 2: Brain-Computer Interface, now and future

During our next discussion meeting, we’ll explore the status, future potential, and human implications of neuroprostheses–particularly brain-computer interfaces. If you are local to Albuquerque, check our Meetup announcement to join or RSVP. The announcement text follows. Focal questions What are neuroprostheses? How are they used now and what may the future hold for technology-enhanced sensation, motor control, communications, cognition, and other human processes? Resources (please review before the meeting) Primary resources • New Brain-Computer Interface Technology (video, 18 m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgFzmE2fGXA • Imagining…

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Query on interest in concept mapping

Query on interest in concept mapping

I like using concept maps to organize my thoughts and to plan articles and projects. I would like to share member-editable concept maps through this website. I’ve used the free Cmap Tools program for many years. Unfortunately, Cmap Tools is developed on the Java platform and I have been unable to get it to work on my Mac for about two years. (Apparently, it needs an older version of the Java Runtime Environment and several other tools I use need a…

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A dive into the black waters under the surface of persuasive design

A dive into the black waters under the surface of persuasive design

A Guardian article last October brings the darker aspects of the attention economy, particularly the techniques and tools of neural hijacking, into sharp focus. The piece summarizes some interaction design principles and trends that signal a fundamental shift in means, deployment, and startling effectiveness of mass persuasion. The mechanisms reliably and efficiently leverage neural reward (dopamine) circuits to seize, hold, and direct attention toward whatever end the designer and content providers choose. The organizer of a $1,700 per person event…

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Dumpsters are the biggest consumers and promoters of fake news

Dumpsters are the biggest consumers and promoters of fake news

Continuing this prior post,  this new study by Oxford University confirms the phenomenon. And no, this study is not confirmation bias but scientific reality.  The abstract: “What kinds of social media users read junk news? We examine the distribution of the most significant sources of junk news in the three months before President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union Address. Drawing on a list of sources that consistently publish political news and information that is extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary, fake news…

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Persuasion: Do you want to be effective or just feel righteous?

Persuasion: Do you want to be effective or just feel righteous?

A recent article in The Atlantic reports fascinating research on the relative effectiveness of typical and moral-framing based approaches to persuading people of an opposing political orientation to see value in alternative positions. The upshot is that there are verifiably effective methods for getting around entrenched, reflexive opposition.

Roger McNamee on brain hacking and Facebook

Roger McNamee on brain hacking and Facebook

Brain hacking is using social media and your smart phone to addict people and implant ideas. The advertisers put us in filter groups to feed addiction to our ‘likes,’ giving us a dopamine rush. It creates a sense of belonging with others who agree with us while further isolating human relations in real life. These filter groups are also geared to feed our fear and anger, which makes us more receptive to notice the ads and buy their products. While…

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Lakoff introduces FrameLab

Lakoff introduces FrameLab

In this FB post, copied below. The first podcast can be found here. “By popular demand, it’s the FrameLab Podcast — a podcast about politics, language, and your brain. In Episode 1, [I] discuss the conservative moral hierarchy and how Republicans really think. And I answer some of the questions you submitted via Facebook and Twitter. Excerpt: This is a fight for freedom. Conservatives want to take the words ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ and say that they mean that you’re free to take advantage of…

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The non-conscious nature of being

The non-conscious nature of being

 Recent paper by that name in Frontiers in Psychology. The abstract follows. Since I’ve long thought the opposite of what the paper claims I’ll have to read and ponder this one for a bit. The introduction follows: “Despite the compelling subjective experience of executive self-control, we argue that ‘consciousness’ contains no top-down control processes and that ‘consciousness’ involves no executive, causal, or controlling relationship with any of the familiar psychological processes conventionally attributed to it. In our view, psychological processing and…

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