Power Valued Over Truth Dear Ed and All, “We are the ones that create human nature by inculcating cooperation and care over selfishness and power.” The view you express, Ed, contesting Harari’s claim in Homo deus, seems to edge up closely to the “pre-modern” standard social science of model of human nature, i.e., that it is almost solely a product of culture, with no or minimal influence of naturally selected genes and very fancy naturally selected epigenetic mechanisms for gene…
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.11.1″ background_color=”rgba(0,42,255,0.39)” next_background_color=”#ffffff”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.11.1″] An experiment in a remote Ethiopian village demonstrates the potential of mobile devices to enable children to learn and teach each other how to read without traditional schooling. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_video src=”https://tnp_encoded_videos.s3.amazonaws.com/web_videos/121006_TNP_BREAZEAL_720_9100.mp4″ _builder_version=”3.11.1″] [/et_pb_video][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.11.1″] See also: How Reading Rewires Your Brain for Empathy [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.11.1″ prev_background_color=”rgba(0,42,255,0.39)”][/et_pb_section]
In her new book, Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, author Maryanne Wolf explores how reading affects the brain and mind. What different effects result from consuming digital media rather than print media and long forms rather than tweets, posts, and other microcontent? In her excellent recent article, she says, Will new readers develop the more time-demanding cognitive processes nurtured by print-based mediums as they absorb and acquire new cognitive capacities emphasized by digital media? For example, will…
During our recent meeting to discuss animal intelligence, Eve mentioned elephants communicating over large distances by transmitting and receiving low-frequency waves through their skeletons and feet. This was in the context of my question, “Is physical embodiment necessary to higher cognition?” This article and video from KQED show and explain the phenomenon.
Some excerpts in Scientific American from John Horgan’s experience. The retreat cost was $1800, plus a teacher donation, an expensive lesson. “But enlightenment, I decided by the end of the retreat, is banal. It means simply appreciating each moment, no matter how mundane and annoying, as an end in itself, not as a means to another end, like making money or impressing others. Like, be here now, Dude.” “Is it worth devoting weeks, months, years, decades to cultivating hyper-attentiveness? Is…
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/computer-programs-can-learn-what-other-programs-are-thinking?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2018-07-27&et_rid=17392990&et_cid=2218108 Implies that if we get multiple AI’s on-line, they will become one quickly? — PJW
Listen to this 3-part podcast entitled “Solving the generator problems of existence” with Daniel Schmachtenberger, co-founder of the Neurohacker Collective and founder of Emergence Project. A few brief excerpts from the blurb follow. See the link to listen if you feel it’s to your taste and passes the smell test. Had to get all the senses in there. “In order to avoid extinction, we have to come up with different systems altogether, and replace rivalry with anti-rivalry. One of the…
See this report. While it also applies to ignorant Dems, however “studies have shown that Democrats now tend to be generally more educated than Republicans, making the latter more vulnerable to the Dunning-Kruger effect.” “Perhaps this helps explain why Trump supporters seem to be so easily tricked into believing obvious falsehoods when their leader delivers his ‘alternative facts’ sprinkled with language designed to activate partisan identities. Because they lack knowledge but are confident that they do […] they are less…
Charles Cockell’s The Equations of Life: How Physics Shapes Evolution argues physics sets the boundaries and shape possibilities for what evolution can produce in the universe. Read a review here. Chapter by chapter, he aims his lens at all levels of biological organization, from the molecular machinery of electron transport to the social organisms formed by ant colonies. In each instance, Cockell shows that although these structures might be endless in their detail, they are bounded in their form.
NS has several articles on the topic in their new issue, like “What is it really?” and “Do IQ tests really work?” See the link to explore it. For example, from the first article: “When researchers talk about intelligence, they are referring to a specific set of skills that includes the abilities to reason, learn, plan and solve problems. The interesting thing is that people who are good at one of them tend to be good at all of them….