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Jeffrey Chen

The impact of modern opinion - 0 views

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    Health care today is impacted not only by technology, but also by modern opinion. here is a brief abstract
Brian Earley

Rene Descartes perceptions of philosophy - 0 views

  • As Descartes said, “Those who set about giving precepts must esteem themselves more skilful than those to whom they advance them”
  • In other words, someone might alter the truth solely so they could come up with something to say, while the real truth might not be capable of being expressed so easily, it can only be observed. Some things in life are too complicated to express, but however there are going to be people who believe they can express those things, even though they cannot accurately do so.
    • Brian Earley
       
      I have read scientific journals wherein the author reports on complex interactions or relationships on the molecular level. Often I believe that they really cannot accurately do so. Perhaps scientific journals would be better if they were accompanied by videos. That would make them more like blog posts.
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  • are the emotions which are based off of your opinions even real, since they are based off of opinions?
  • Your perception is going to determine what it is that you feel, that is, your conscious and unconscious perception of what is going on is
  • For it seemed to me that I might meet with much more truth in the reasonings that each man makes on the matters that specially concern him, and the issue of which would very soon punish him if he made a wrong judgment, than in the case of those made by a man of letters in his study touching speculations that lead to no result, and that bring about no other consequences to himself excepting that he will be all the more vain the more they are removed from common sense, since in this case proves to him to have employed so much more ingenuity and skill trying to make them seem probable.
  • More especially did I reflect in each matter that came before me as to anything that could make it subject to suspicion of doubt, and give occasion for mistake, and I rooted out of my mind all the errors that might have formerly crept in. Not that indeed I imitated the skeptics, who only doubt for the sake of doubting, and pretend to by always uncertain; for, on the contrary, my design was only to provide myself with good ground for assurance, and to reject the quicksand and mud in order to find the rock or clay.”
  • since emotional intelligence is not completely concrete, it can be subject to skeptics
  • “how do I know that anything is even real”
  • Accordingly I shall now suppose, not that a true God, who as such must be supremely good and the fountain of truth, but that some malignant genius exceedingly powerful and cunning has devoted all his powers in the deceiving of me; I shall suppose that the sky, the earth, colors, shapes, sounds and all external things are illusions and impostures of which this evil genius has availed himself for the abuse of my credulity…”
  • I am, I exist. This is certain. How often? As often as I think. For it might indeed be that if I entirely ceased to think, I should thereupon altogether cease to exist. I am not at present admitting anything which is not necessarily true; and, accurately speaking, I am therefore [taking myself to be] only a thinking thing, that is to say, a mind, an understanding or reason-terms the significance of which has hitherto been unknown to me. I am, then a real thing, and really existent. What thing? I have said it, a thinking thing
  • So it really is thought that makes him who he is, since he is thinking about himself all of the time, in addition to thinking about and in regular life.
  • Thought determines who someone is because your thoughts are controlled, and all your thoughts over your lifetime caused your emotional development, which causes you to be who you are.
  • So it is easy to say that your thoughts understand and/or control who you are, but it is much harder to say that your emotions understand and/or control who you are.
  • I recognize it is impossible that He should ever deceive me, since in all fraud and deception there is some element of imperfection. The power of deception may indeed seem to be evidence of subtlety or power; yet unquestionably the will to deceive testifies to malice and feebleness, and accordingly cannot be found in God.
    • Brian Earley
       
      I think people in "The Matrix" would love Descartes
  • “To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded”
  • conclusive as to whether or not pleasing other people infinitely is going to be self-beneficial, it could be considered a perfect thing to do since it is positively contributing to life.
    • Brian Earley
       
      The conclusion for me from this commentary is that thoughts are what make us who we are. Therefore, we must put a lot of our energy into controlling our thoughts so we can become what we want to be.
    • Brian Earley
       
      On my mission, I taught a lady that was offended to the point of tears when a member called the Prophet, the 'mouthpiece' of the Lord. She thought it as a very degrading term to call such a respectable man. Perceptions determine feelings.
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    This commentary explains the unique observations that Rene Descartes made of observations. I feel like I have had similar thoughts at times. I feel comforted knowing a dead French guy thought the same way that I think.
Kevin Watson

Top Ten Inventions - 1 views

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    An opinion of the top ten inventions of all time. Some I agree with. Other's I don't.
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    This was really cool to read.
Jake Corkin

Freud's Influence Has Waned But Many Ideas Hold Sway - 0 views

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    another opinion essay on the relevance of freud in modern psychology
Jake Corkin

Freud's Theories About Sex As Relevant as Ever - 0 views

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    an opinion essay on Freud's relevance today
Gideon Burton

The digital age an age of stagnation? - 2 views

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    When Will This Low-Innovation Internet Era End?
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    Fascinating article. Thanks for sharing this, Dr. Burton. Do you think it's because internet technologies are mainly looked at as entertainment sources and not utilized as educational, academic, and research empowering tools? Is there something about the facility of information that hampers one's creativity, kind of like the cat and mouse game of dating that heightens one's mojo? Or could it possibly just be the result of a nation that has become exhausted with the competitive level necessary to transform this into what it may become? Or finally, do you think it's just a matter of time like the economic historian, Paul David said?
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    I do think it is a matter of time. People fall into ruts, even with revolutionary technologies. But enough is happening to keep this sphere innovating on the large scale even if it appears same-old in the short term. Nice to hear from you, Sean.
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    Very interesting! Nice to hear from you too, Dr. Burton.
Gideon Burton

Op-Ed Contributor - How the Internet Got Its Rules - NYTimes.com - 2 views

  • We thought maybe we’d put together a few temporary, informal memos on network protocols, the rules by which computers exchange information
  • Less important than the content of those first documents was that they were available free of charge and anyone could write one. Instead of authority-based decision-making, we relied on a process we called “rough consensus and running code.”
  • Still fearful of sounding presumptuous, I labeled the note a “Request for Comments.”
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  • the R.F.C.’s themselves took root and flourished. They became the formal method of publishing Internet protocol standards
  • Our intent was only to encourage others to chime in, but I worried we might sound as though we were making official decisions or asserting authority.
  • It probably helped that in those days we avoided patents and other restrictions; without any financial incentive to control the protocols, it was much easier to reach agreement.
  • This was the ultimate in openness in technical design and that culture of open processes was essential in enabling the Internet to grow and evolve as spectacularly as it has
  • we always tried to design each new protocol to be both useful in its own right and a building block available to others. We did not think of protocols as finished products, and we deliberately exposed the internal architecture to make it easy for others to gain a foothold.
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    Stephen D. Crocker explains the early planning documents ("Requests for Comments") and how they exemplified and made possible the open nature of the web.
Greg Williams

Connectivism - 1 views

  • Do we acquire it throu
  • These theories, however, were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology.
  • In many fields the life of knowledge is now measured in months and years.
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  • The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD). To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.
  • Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking
  • learning as a lasting changed state (emotional, mental, physiological (i.e. skills)) brought about as a result of experiences and interactions with content or other people.
  • Objectivism (similar to behaviorism) states that reality is external and is objective, and knowledge is gained through experiences. Pragmatism (similar to cognitivism) states that reality is interpreted, and knowledge is negotiated through experience and thinking. Interpretivism (similar to constructivism) states that reality is internal, and knowledge is constructed.
  • Behaviorism states that learning is largely unknowable, that is, we can’t possibly understand what goes on inside a person (the “black box theory”)
  • Cognitivism often takes a computer information processing model. Learning is viewed as a process of inputs, managed in short term memory, and coded for long-term recall.
  • Constructivism suggests that learners create knowledge as they attempt to understand their experiences
  • Constructivism assumes that learners are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Instead, learners are actively attempting to create meaning. Learners often select and pursue their own learning. Constructivist principles acknowledge that real-life learning is messy and complex.
  • learning that occurs outside of people
  • The ability to synthesize and recognize connections and patterns is a valuable skill.
  • In today’s environment, action is often needed without personal learning – that is, we need to act by drawing information outside of our primary knowledge.
  • An entirely new approach is needed.
  • How can we continue to stay current in a rapidly evolving information ecology?
  • We can no longer personally experience and acquire learning that we need to act. We derive our competence from forming connections.
  • Unlike constructivism, which states that learners attempt to foster understanding by meaning making tasks, chaos states that the meaning exists – the learner's challenge is to recognize the patterns which appear to be hidden
  • The capacity to form connections between sources of information, and thereby create useful information patterns, is required to learn in our knowledge economy.
  • A network can simply be defined as connections between entities.
  • Nodes that successfully acquire greater profile will be more successful at acquiring additional connections
  • Finding a new job, as an example, often occurs through weak ties. This principle has great merit in the notion of serendipity, innovation, and creativity. Connections between disparate ideas and fields can create new innovations.
  • Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.
  • Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
  • Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
  • The starting point of connectivism is the individual.
  • This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed.
  • the internet leverages the small efforts of many with the large efforts of few.
  • example of a Maricopa County Community College system project that links senior citizens with elementary school students in a mentor program. The children “listen to these “grandparents” better than they do their own parents, the mentoring really helps the teachers…the small efforts of the many- the seniors – complement the large efforts of the few – the teachers.” (2002). This amplification of learning, knowledge and understanding through the extension of a personal network is the epitome of connectivism.
  • Implications
  • The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. A real challenge for any learning theory is to actuate known knowledge at the point of application.
  • acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity
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    "Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking." . . . or so this fellow argues in a pretty detailed paper
Kristen Nicole Cardon

Op-Ed Playlist - Video Library - The New York Times - 0 views

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    Course content quality vs. course content quantity.  Remember AP classes?  I loved them!  This is a new perspective.
Kristi Koerner

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman., by Laurence Sterne - 0 views

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    The book mentioned by Dr. Burton on Tuesday.
Gideon Burton

Digital Age Damaging Learning | Nicholas Carr - 2 views

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    Carr's contrarian ideas are discussed here. He obviously overstates concerns but the points are each worth debating. 
Megan Stern

American Thinker: The Disappearing Middle Class - 0 views

  • The government is helping out, "redistributing" money to the bottom. "The Rich" can use their money and influence to get in. The middle class gets no special consideration or privilege. Because they do work hard, they get to work harder -- and the Ruling Class calls this "justice."
    • Megan Stern
       
      So. True.
  • And this is what the Tea Party is really mad about.
  • And the balance between the lower class and their upper-class leaders is upset by the injection of the middle class and its struggles to carve out its niche.
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  • His Communist Manifesto is nothing more than a rant about the evils of this group and how they have inflicted harm and damage to everyone around them through colonialism and ingenuity.
  • Marx and Engels envisioned a return to the simpler time, where a vast lower class was ruled by its betters. Not surprisingly, they saw themselves as leading the underlings to the new paradise.
  • their opinions are tainted by "greed" (the single biggest sin of the bourgeoisie).
  • The byproduct of this Socialization is the shrinking of the middle class. When you punish people for working hard, those people will stop working so hard.
  • se bailouts are transfers of wealth -- not from the rich to the poor, but from the working middle class to both the upper and lower classes.
  • True: all the
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    Concisely presents the consensual argument most conservatives adopt against Marx's principles in our day.
Jeffrey Chen

Future of the internet - 0 views

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    A educational and descriptive future of the internet from the opinion of Sir Timothy Berners-Lee of MIT
Shaun Frenza

Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1) - 1 views

  • holy alliance to exorcise
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Religious diction
  • All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Man is responsible for technology which is responsible for a fast paced world, which they don't like
  • It compels all nations, on pain of extinction,
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Japan
    • Shaun Frenza
       
      Seems a little singular - is there a specific reason why you only say "Japan"
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  • The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Capitalism has taken over the world, and those that were slow to buy into the idealology are being left in the dust, and dependant on others, which they don't like.
  • Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Communists retaliate by not producing enough goods.
  • He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Paints these people as the suffers, clearly appealing to them to call for "equality"
  • Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      In Communism all become slaves of the state and the state leaders, how is that better?
    • Shaun Frenza
       
      Or they become the machine - They are not the slave, they are the mechanizm together... at least that is what they tell themselves.
  • All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Conflicts with the MIT lesson, except for those that have to work. (in regard to females working) again an appeal to the working class people, who are the masses to revolt. This works less well in America because of the American dream and the possibility for change fostered by it.
  • At this stage, the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, they hope lies in the masses of uncontrolled people
  • Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations (Trades’ Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      The working class fights back
  • so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat,
    • Erin Hamson
       
      they aren't alone in their cause
  • The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations;
    • Erin Hamson
       
      The shear fact of having money and therefore time to spend with children brings these differences.
  • The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.
  • Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Doesn't believe capitalism can survive.
    • Rhett Ferrin
       
      Wait, all these sound like good things. Is he saying its bad to have Toyotas? Is it bad to have bannanas in December?
  • rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.
    • Rhett Ferrin
       
      Can someone help me out here? Is he being sarcastic? He says capitalizm is bad then says that the bourgeoisie 'rescued' people from the 'idiocy of rural life' Thomas Jefferson thought the rural life was the ideal and to be sought after. I can't tell if Marx is for or against it.
  • By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour
  • By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.
  • immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation
    • Shaun Frenza
       
      Notice how we are in the same situation now as were were then - the facilitation of communication with the internet and how it shapes the world to become more homogenous.
Bri Zabriskie

Spectacles, testicles, mobile wallet, watch :: StopPress :: Breaking news from New Zeal... - 1 views

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     Paying with our cell phones as of next year, thank you nokia
David Potter

"The Kindle Swindle" - 1 views

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    Editorial by the President of the Authors Guild talking about because Kindle does not own the audio rights to the books, they shouldn't allow the text to speech function. However, this is a big blow to the disabled communties abilitiy to consume Kindle media.
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