RSSWhat does a critical theorist drive?
Jun 26
In Sheffield, they drive this SUV
Quote #239
Jun 26
…unless you saddle yourself with all the problems of making a concrete agent take care of itself in the real world, you will tend to overlook, underestimate, or misconstrue the deepest problems of design
Dan Dennett on the unreliability of simulations and imagination, and hence the need for (a theory-motivated?) robotics (via Tom Walton)
Quote #238
Jun 22
People don’t change, but – if they’re lucky – they get better at being themselves.
Quote #237
Jun 17
Yes my little snail climb
up the fujiyama
but slowly slowly
Haiku by Kobayashi Issa, trans. R.H.Blyth and freely retranslated by M.K. (and I put in the line breaks)
I am on twitter
Jun 14
For what it is worth twitter.com/tomstafford
I’m still trying to work out what it is good for
Quote #236
Jun 14
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett, in Worstward Ho
Second-order action slips
Jun 02
An action slip is when, due to a failure of attention, you accidentally perform an action out of context or out of sequence. For example, you poor milk on your toast or you forget to add the tea bag when making a cup of tea. Making action slips is common. Lately I have realised that I also make ‘second order’ action slips. These are where I perform the correct action, or the correct sequence of actions, but in the state of absent-mindedness whereby I might be more likely to make an action slip. I catch myself in the middle of some mundane and appropriate behaviour and with a start think to myself “Oh no what have I done!”. Usually this is during sudden, irreversable actions which would be bad if done out of context, such as urinating on things (ok for toilets, bad for most other things), getting into the shower and turning it on full (ok if clothes off, bad otherwise), pouring boiling water on things (ok for making hot drinks, bad for most foods, pets and family members). Of course with this kind of action I have, so far, always managed to do the right thing, but something about the consequences, and my lack of attention, causes a brief moment of panic. A chasm of intentional vertigo opens up as I ask myself exactly what I’m doing and how I know it is the right thing to do.
File under ‘perils of metacognition’?
links for may 09
Jun 02
- Why randomisation is vital to infer causality (bacon and colorectal cancer edition)
- Shalizi on an information theoretic test for archaeological signs of literacy
- Decriminalising does not raise drug use (at least in Portugal)
- The Man is Seat 61 brings you Trains vs Planes in time and CO2
- Two improvisation games taught at RADA
- Mindhacks.com on psychohistory (“The story of our lives”)
- Mindhacks.com on the neuroscience of hypnosis
- What a pitch to the New Yorker looks like
- ‘What happens when millions of youngsters in a notoriously ADHD generation start getting programmed by these new toys? What happens when they start being rewarded for very long periods of intense concentration? Nobody in the toy industry seems to know. ‘
- Telegraph 2007 Professor pans ‘learning style’ teaching method
- The Onion: Parents Of Nasal Learners Demand Odor-Based Curriculum
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