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kahn_artist

Powerful Ideas Need Love Too! - 0 views

worrydream.com/...Ideas%20Need%20Love%20Too.html

ideas exchangingideas

shared by kahn_artist on 29 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Slowly, and only in a few, I watched them struggle to realize that having opposite seasons in the different hemispheres could not possibly be compatible with their "closer to the sun for summer" theory, and that the sun and the moon in the sky together could not possibly be compatible with their "Earth blocks the suns rays" theory of the phases.
  • Why more serious? Because the UCLA students and professors (and their Harvard counterparts) knew something that contradicted the very theories they were trying to articulate and not one of them could get to that contradictory knowledge to say, "Hey, wait a minute..."! In some form, they "knew" about the opposite seasons and that they had seen the sun and the moon in the sky at the same time, but they did not "know" in any operational sense of being able to pull it out of their memories when thinking about related topics. Their "knowings" were isolated instead of set up to be colliding steadily with new ideas as they were formed and considered.
  • kahn_artist on 29 Jun 14
     
    Suggested by Gardner Campbell!
wstrahan

Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah - 0 views

www.marxists.org/...introduction.htm

#neocolonialism #taboo

shared by wstrahan on 25 Jun 14 - No Cached
    • wstrahan
      wstrahan on 25 Jun 14
       
      Neo-colonialism isn't a problem until it's being used to impoverish less developed countries, rather than help develop them.
  • Non-alignment, as practised by Ghana and many other countries, is based on co-operation with all States whether they be capitalist, socialist or have a mixed economy. Such a policy, therefore, involves foreign investment from capitalist countries, but it must be invested in accordance with a national plan drawn up by the government of the non-aligned State with its own interests in mind.
    • wstrahan
      wstrahan on 25 Jun 14
       
      Countries like Ghana choose not to align with an economic policy like capitalism or socialism in order to trade with all countries based on their own national plan.
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • The growth of nuclear weapons has made out of date the old-fashioned balance of power which rested upon the ultimate sanction of a major war. Certainty of mutual mass destruction effectively prevents either of the great power blocs from threatening the other with the possibility of a world-wide war, and military conflict has thus become confined to ‘limited wars’. For these neo-colonialism is the breeding ground.
    • wstrahan
      wstrahan on 25 Jun 14
       
      Nuclear weapons have increased the growth in neo-colonialism. Larger economic countries such as the U.S. and Russia would rather avoid a world war and nuclear mass destruction by fighting "limited wars"
  • Limited war, once embarked upon, achieves a momentum of its own. Of this, the war in South Vietnam is only one example. It escalates despite the desire of the great power blocs to keep it limited. While this particular war may be prevented from leading to a world conflict, the multiplication of similar limited wars can only have one end-world war and the terrible consequences of nuclear conflict.
  • Neo-colonialism is also the worst form of imperialism. For those who practise it, it means power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress.
  • In the days of old-fashioned colonialism, the imperial power had at least to explain and justify at home the actions it was taking abroad.
  • Neo-colonialism, like colonialism, is an attempt to export the social conflicts of the capitalist countries.
  • The problem which faced the wealthy nations of the world at the end of the second world war was the impossibility of returning to the pre-war situation in which there was a great gulf between the few rich and the many poor. Irrespective of what particular political party was in power, the internal pressures in the rich countries of the world were such that no post-war capitalist country could survive unless it became a ‘Welfare State’. There might be differences in degree in the extent of the social benefits given to the industrial and agricultural workers, but what was everywhere impossible was a return to the mass unemployment and to the low level of living of the pre-war years.
  • In the past it was possible to convert a country upon which a neo-colonial regime had been imposed — Egypt in the nineteenth century is an example — into a colonial territory.
  • The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.
  • e, but neo-
  • Where neo-colonialism exists the power exercising control is often the State which formerly ruled the territory in question, but this is not necessarily so. For example, in the case of South Vietnam the former imperial power was France, but neo-colonial control of the State has now gone to the United States.
  • The neo-colonial State may be obliged to take the manufactured products of the imperialist power to the exclusion of competing products from elsewhere. Control over government policy in the neo-colonial State may be secured by payments towards the cost of running the State, by the provision of civil servants in positions where they can dictate policy, and by monetary control over foreign exchange through the imposition of a banking system controlled by the imperial power.
  • The control of the Congo by great international financial concerns is a case in point.
  • The struggle against neo-colonialism is not aimed at excluding the capital of the developed world from operating in less developed countries. It is aimed at preventing the financial power of the developed countries being used in such a way as to impoverish the less developed.
  • The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world.
  • The system of neo-colonialism was therefore instituted and in the short run it has served the developed powers admirably. It is in the long run that its consequences are likely to be catastrophic for them
  • Neo-colonialism is based upon the principle of breaking up former large united colonial territories into a number of small non-viable States which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon the former imperial power for defence and even internal security. Their economic and financial systems are linked, as in colonial days, with those of the former colonial ruler.
  • In the neo-colonialist territories, since the former colonial power has in theory relinquished political control, if the social conditions occasioned by neo-colonialism cause a revolt the local neo-colonialist government can be sacrificed and another equally subservient one substituted in its place.
  • The introduction of neo-colonialism increases the rivalry between the great powers which was provoked by the old-style colonialism. However little real power the government of a neo-colonialist State may possess, it must have, from the very fact of its nominal independence, a certain area of manoeuvre. It may not be able to exist without a neo-colonialist master but it may still have the ability to change masters.
  • The ideal neo-colonialist State would be one which was wholly subservient to neo-colonialist interests but the existence of the socialist nations makes it impossible to enforce the full rigour of the neo-colonialist system. The existence of an alternative system is itself a challenge to the neo-colonialist regime. Warnings about ‘the dangers of Communist subversion are likely to be two-edged since they bring to the notice of those living under a neo-colonialist system the possibility of a change of regime.
  • In fact neo-colonialism is the victim of its own contradictions. In order to make it attractive to those upon whom it is practised it must be shown as capable of raising their living standards, but the economic object of neo-colonialism is to keep those standards depressed in the interest of the developed countries.
  • Their manufacturers naturally object to any attempt to raise the price of the raw materials which they obtain from the neo-colonialist territory in question, or to the establishment there of manufacturing industries which might compete directly or indirectly with their own exports to the territory.
  • In the end the situation arises that the only type of aid which the neo-colonialist masters consider as safe is ‘military aid’.
  • Once a neo-colonialist territory is brought to such a state of economic chaos and misery that revolt actually breaks out then, and only then, is there no limit to the generosity of the neo-colonial overlord, provided, of course, that the funds supplied are utilised exclusively for military purposes.
  • Military aid in fact marks the last stage of neo-colonialism and its effect is self-destructive. Sooner or later the weapons supplied pass into the hands of the opponents of the neo-colonialist regime and the war itself increases the social misery which originally provoked it.
  • Nowhere has it proved successful, either in raising living standards or in ultimately benefiting countries which have indulged in it.
  • This book is therefore an attempt to examine neo-colonialism not only in its African context and its relation to African unity, but in world perspective. Neo-colonialism is by no means exclusively an African question. Long before it was practised on any large scale in Africa it was an established system in other parts of the world
  • ‘The industrial nations have added nearly $2 billion to their reserves, which now approximate $52 billion. At the same time, the reserves of the less-developed group not only have stopped rising, but have declined some $200 million. To analysts such as Britain’s Miss Ward, the significance of such statistics is clear: the economic gap is rapidly widening “between a white, complacent, highly bourgeois, very wealthy, very small North Atlantic elite and everybody else, and this is not a very comfortable heritage to leave to one’s children.”
  • ‘For the vast majority of mankind the most urgent problem is not war, or Communism, or the cost of living, or taxation. It is hunger. Over 1,500,000,000 people, some-thing like two-thirds of the world’s population, are living in conditions of acute hunger, defined in terms of identifiable nutritional disease.
  • What is lacking are any positive proposals for dealing with the situation. All that The Wall Street Journal’s correspondent can do is to point out that the traditional methods recommended for curing the evils are only likely to make the situation worse.
anonymous

Storytelling Theory and Practice - YouTube - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

storytelling theory practice media education #ThoughtVectors robot socially assistive

shared by anonymous on 29 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 29 Jul 14
     
    Sturm argues that storytelling provides something larger: a way of organizing information. He says we can look at these characteristics as dots of data on a screen, where the story is the way we connect the dots. And how we connect the dots, changes the kinds of stories we create. Storytelling ethics and the need for trust and truth are discussed. Comments include his Story Listening Experience Model http://ils.unc.edu/~sturm/storytelling/storyexperience.pdf I wonder if this model could be used to create better programming routines for socially interactive storytelling robots? I have no idea how it would be possible to create a script for conveying ethics and the need for trust and truth using artificial intelligence. I think such activities require mediation by authoritative human participants to connect the dots and to establish a teaching presence that can address issues of ethics, trust, and truth for the listening audience upon reflection. I can easily see teachers, parents, caregivers "remix" what a storytelling robot presents to facilitate deeper reflection by young children in early childhood classrooms.
anonymous

Whiten (1991): Natural Theories of Mind - 0 views

www.sscnet.ucla.edu/...Whiten_91.html

#ThoughtVectors technology media augmented reality virtual reality augmentedreality visualculture natural theories mind

shared by anonymous on 11 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 11 Jul 14
     
    Inspired by Will Sullivan Diigo Link added to Thoughtvectors on 27 Jun 14 Simulacra and Simulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/...Simulacra_and_Simulation visualculture augmentedreality See CogSci Bibliography; CogSci Index, and CogWeb for excellent review of developmental psychology research (last updated online 2007)
Will Sullivan

Player-Avatar Identification in video gaming: Concept and measurement - 1 views

www.sciencedirect.com/...S0747563212002592

shared by Will Sullivan on 28 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • identification is a process that involves perception toward the character, adopts goals of the character, and consists of “increasing loss of self-awareness and its temporary replacement with heightened emotional and cognitive connections with a character”
  • However, the difference between video games and the traditional media must be noted before applying Cohen’s theory in video game research. For one thing, the audience and the media are two different social entities in the traditional media, but the boundary is vague in video games (Klimmt et al., 2010). Video games with avatars provide higher levels of interactivity, selectivity and personalization (Bryant & Love, 1996). When the avatar encounters a situation, socializes, achieves or fails, it is the player behind the avatar who is making the move and experiencing the emotions attached.
anonymous

Taylor & Francis Online :: A Less Toxic Feminism: Can the Internet Solve the Age Old Qu... - 0 views

www.tandfonline.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/...14680777.2014.909169

feminism social media

shared by anonymous on 27 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Bonnie Boaz on 30 Jun 14
     
    I couldn't follow the link Justin, but I'm in Thailand and the internet here has a mind of its own. The title "A Less Toxic Feminism" -- really makes me want to read this. I'll Google!
perezmv

HowStuffWorks "How Pandora Radio Works" - 0 views

computer.howstuffworks.com/...pandora.htm

technology howstuffworks symbiosis music attributes musical songs humans computers Pandora

shared by perezmv on 06 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Pandora has no concept of genre, user connections or ratings. It doesn't care what other people who like Gomez also like. When you create a radio station on Pandora, it uses a pretty radical approach to delivering your personalized selections: Having analyzed the musical structures present in the songs you like, it plays other songs that possess similar musical traits
  • Pandora relies on a Music Genome that consists of 400 musical attributes covering the qualities of melody, harmony, rhythm, form, composition and lyrics. It's a project that began in January 2000 and took 30 experts in music theory five years to complete. The Genome is based on an intricate analysis by actual humans (about 20 to 30 minutes per four-minute song) of the music of 10,000 artists from the past 100 years. The analysis of new music continues every day since Pandora's online launch in August 2005. As of May 2006, the Genome's music library contains 400,000 analyzed songs from 20,000 contemporary artists. You won't find Latin or classical yet: Pandora is in the process of developing a specialized Latin music Genome and is still deep in thought about how to approach the world of classical composition.
Will Sullivan

Does the Internet Make You Dumber? - WSJ - 2 views

online.wsj.com/...748704025304575284981644790098

shared by Will Sullivan on 24 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Ms. Greenfield concluded that "every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others." Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can improve the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of simultaneous signals, like air traffic control. But that has been accompanied by "new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes," including "abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination." We're becoming, in a word, shallower.
    • Will Sullivan
      Will Sullivan on 09 Jul 14
       
      This is similar to Engelbart's comments in his essay about Whorfian theories. How does the use of digital media affect our minds?
  • Sarah008 Burley on 24 Jun 14
     
    A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Internet, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers, says Nicholas Carr.
  • Sarah008 Burley on 24 Jun 14
     
    A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Internet, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers, says Nicholas Carr.
  • Bonnie Boaz on 30 Jun 14
     
    I need to know if you find anyone else besides Nicolas Carr who is saying this!! : /
anonymous

DARPA's Robot Olympics » Cyborgology - 0 views

thesocietypages.org/...darpas-robot-olympics

#ThoughtVectors technology media education robot augmented visualculture augmentedreality

shared by anonymous on 11 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Schraube’s materialized action approach combines Actor Network Theory with Critical Psychology. From the latter, Schraube uses the idea of objectification which argues that technology is always imbued with human intention. From the former, he takes the idea that technologies always act back upon humans. In short, the materialized action approach says that technologies and humans have a mutually constitutive relationship, but this relationship is lopsided. Although both humans and technologies each act upon the other, humans take the primary position. Humans construct technologies in response to human problems. They build into these technologies cultural values and intentions. Technology is the material form of human action, but one without definitive consequences.
  • anonymous on 11 Jul 14
     
    See article link to Schraube's technology as materialized action approach and comments about automation of physical tasks vs automation of mental tasks.
yusraahmed

Science and Technology-Artificial Intelligence: A Virtual Reality? - 4 views

www.vision.org/...article.aspx

#ThoughtVectors #tv008 #future #AI #reality

shared by yusraahmed on 24 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • thomasnv2 on 24 Jun 14
     
    Incredible advances are taking place in computer science and information theory.
kahn_artist

This Is How The Internet Is Rewiring Your Brain - 5 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...t-rewires-brain_n_4136942.html

websurfing internet

shared by kahn_artist on 26 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Fact #1: The Internet may give you an addict's brain.
    • majeeds
      majeeds on 26 Jun 14
       
      Technology is addicting!
  • act #2: You may feel more lonely and jealous.
    • majeeds
      majeeds on 26 Jun 14
       
      Another brain stressor. 
  • Fact #4: Memory problems may be more likely.
    • majeeds
      majeeds on 26 Jun 14
       
      And here begins our ultimate problem with technology - the deterioration of brain function.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Fact #5: But it's not all bad -- in moderation, the Internet can actually boost brain function.
    • majeeds
      majeeds on 26 Jun 14
       
      Here come in brain games to boost cognitive function - technology reversing its own side effects.
    • kahn_artist
      kahn_artist on 26 Jun 14
       
      That's an interesting way to look at it, as a "side effect". I am actually trying to work against that theory but all of the articles are pushing for it. Hm.
  • A 2008 study suggests that use of Internet search engines can stimulate neural activation patterns and potentially enhance brain function in older adults. "The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults," the study's principal investigator, Dr. Gary Small, professor of neuroscience and human behavior at UCLA, said in a written statement. "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."
  • kahn_artist on 26 Jun 14
     
    Mostly this article works against my topic, but Fact 5 could prove useful. "Use of internet search engines can stimulate neural activation patterns and potentially enhance brain function..."
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