WiMAX Coming To Australia, Sooner

According to this article, "Australia will become the world's testbed for WiMAX". If you haven't heard of it, WiMAX allows wireless networks covering very large areas. Brisbane, where I live, is one of the locations for the testbed. (via Slashdot)

Positive and Negative Processes, Outcomes as Substances, And Function/Purpose

More as notes for myself than anything else, and probably not that comprehensible to anyone else, coz a lot of the stuff left unexplained... an example that brings together some different threads I've picked up on.

Degree of intelligence and depth/accuracy of understanding about how things are and work is commonly seen as the result of a positive, or constructive, process. That is, you gain intelligence and understanding by thinking about things, by reading, solving problems etc. The level of the results is seen as proportional to the amount of time you invest in these activities.

I suspect that this is incorrect. I suspect that 'negative' processes are very important as well, perhaps more so. The 'negative' processes work to avoid certain beliefs and ways of thinking, rather than to explicitly add new ones. They are filters, that (hopefully) weed out poor ideas and poor ways of reasoning.

This seems to be the case because of the following reasons. It takes a lot of time to develop ideas. Anyone who's done any research -- spent time working on a PhD, for example -- ought to know this. We might imagine that we get our views about things by sitting down and thinking them through, but who actually does this except on rare occasions?

I think that we tend to either get our knowledge from others, or by seeing what our intuitions tell us (as opposed to explicit reasoning). If this is the case, being able to fiter out bad reasoning is important. This includes spotting assumptions and avoiding them. I think there's more than enough correct ideas out there - if only you can avoid the bad ones and spot the good ones.

There is an asymmetry between developing ideas and filtering them out -- which is esentially the assymetry that Karl Popper noted between verifying statements and falsifying them. Without going into details, it's much easier to falsify things. You can shoot down an argument by spotting a single flaw in it.

Another reason why a negative, filtering process is important is that -- I strongly suspect -- bad ideas and bad forms of reasoning do a lot more damage than good ones do good, and that there are more ways of having bad ideas than good ones (more bad ideas out there). For example, I think that bad ideas that you may hold may be better at stopping you from picking up correct ideas, than is the case vice-versa.

(you might find it of interest that I think this stuff applies to the problem of understanding what information is, which is what I'm doing my PhD on. I think the main difficulty does not concern any positive process of gaining some major new insight, but in a negative process of filtering out all of the presuppositions and red-herrings)

Now, actually the main thing I want to point out is how this is an example of where when people imagine something they, unless they know better and are aware of avoiding it, tend to only consider the positive, constructive, factors influencing an outcome. Thinking about intelligence/knowledge is an example of this.

And I think this 'habit' comes from seeing such outcomes as 'things' or 'substances'. If intelligence is a substance, then it comes about from positive processes that create it, and this view is less conducive to seeing it as being influenced by negative processes. Whereas it can be a property of some process, a differential relative to some typical value in a population, a perceptual thing etc.

And I think that relates to what seems to be the very common 'habit' of seeing the world solely in terms of the functions and purposes of things. The functions/purposes are seen as like essences. That is, their are functions for bringing about that outcome (spending time thinking of things has the function of increasing knowledge/intelligence) - that is the positive, constructive processes have the function of producing the outcome. Whereas under this sort of view, it is hard to conceptualise such negative, filtering process, in terms of that function.

That Sweet Siren Sound

Sirens are designed to capture our attention, which is why a good siren makes us feel uncomfortable, and why a good siren sounds annoying. Those effects are reallly enhanced when that siren is ringing every two minutes, all frigging day long.

Like the one that’s been asserting itself on my existence today. It’s been a fixture in my day since it woke me up in the morning, and a constant companion as I’ve been trying to do work throughout the day (loud music unfortunately does not drown it out).

I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but I suspect one of the local schools, and a sportsday or something. I’m starting to have fantasies of baseball bats and smashed-up siren speakers.

Article: The Monster That Wouldn’t Die

[Update: the article is now located here.]

Not a bad article on the uncritical use of the frankenstein myth. (via ALDaily)

Turn Any Flickr Photo Into a Magazine Cover

This page can turn any flickr photo into a magazine cover, with the text of your choosing. Very nice. (via Robotwisdom)

The Size of Populated Australia?

Just a thought. Australia is a pretty large country, but most of the population is dotted around the coastline. A lot of it is desert or otherwise uninhabited, or quite sparsely populated. I wonder how large an area is taken up by just the parts that are at least moderately populated? If we considered just those parts, how big a land mass would we have? What countries would it be comparable in size to?

The Differences Betweeen Fictionalised and Real Police Investigation?

There's all these police investigation shows on tv at the moment (all the different CSIs, etc). I'd like to see a documentary that looks at how their potrail of police investigation differs from the reality.

I think that could be quite interesting (and I say this even as someone who's not really into those shows). Surely, there are differences; but how many, and in what ways? It would be interesting to know this in concrete detail.

And it would probably do us some good, as I imagine that for a lot of us, our main conception of police investigation comes from such shows.

I have no idea whether there is anything like this out there.

(and of course, a similar idea could be applied to medical dramas, etc).

Living the Dream

Oh man, talk about living the dream! Most of us may dream of packing up our jobs, setting off on an around the world trip and doing funky dancing at the major tourist sites, but Matt Harding has actually done it, and has compiled his experiences in a video.


 

Fulltext of Brights Press Release

The fulltext of this press release.

CITIZENS WITHOUT A PRAYER SPEAK OUT
Individuals unite via Internet to press their case for civic justice

CONTACT: Mynga Futrell
The Brights' Net
Phone: 916-447-2170
Email: the-brights@the-brights.net

July 12, 2005 (Sacramento, CA, USA) -- The Brights’ Network recently launched its revised website ( http://www.the-brights.net ). The new information and action hub serves people in 115 nations. It links to "Brights sites" in five languages. Brights have a naturalistic worldview, free of supernatural and mystical elements. The international Internet constituency of Brights is speaking up for civic justice.

Brights advocate "a level playing field" for citizens having a religious or a naturalistic worldview. A just society welcomes the presence and participation of both. The noun "Bright" resonates with the Enlightenment. In that optimistic era, people had confidence that, with reason and science, we could create a just society.

WHO ARE THE BRIGHTS?

The Brights' Network hub registers as Brights persons who are free of belief in any supernatural forces. The U.S. alone has millions of such individuals — skeptics, humanists, agnostics, atheists, Christians (who follow Jesus’ moral dicta free of supernatural belief), rationalists, secularists, and many others. http://www.the-brights.net/people/.

People who have naturalistic worldviews bring thoughtful and principled actions to bear on matters of civic importance. The Internet constituency of Brights wants public recognition of that reality.

NO-PRAYER POLITICS

Society has progressively become more civically inclusive regarding ethnicity and sexual orientation. Still, deep prejudice exists at all levels of society regarding those who do not claim to be religious.

Math professor Herb Silverman ran for governor of South Carolina, USA, in 1990. He jokingly called himself "the candidate without a prayer." By making known his naturalistic worldview, he had zero chance of being elected. Being a straightforward fellow, Herb made his outlook clear, faced the slings and arrows, and lost honorably.

Herb's campaign slogan was funny, but the situation is not. No matter how excellent a candidate's character and qualifications, divulging a naturalistic worldview is politically fatal. (In some nations, revealing a naturalistic worldview is fatal, period.) Hope of winning elective office hinges on utmost silence or, worse, a violation of conscience to imply, however mildly, that one is a "persons of faith."

Herb Silverman is one of the Brights seeking change in the civic values that lead to such situations. http://the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/

WHAT DO BRIGHTS WANT?

It is time to open access to political office and usual forms of societal and civic participation to all deserving persons. No religious litmus test is acceptable or appropriate for civic suitability. Ethical actions are not a monopoly of the religious.

Paul Geisert, Co-Director of the Brights' Net states: "In the United States, capable citizens like Herb Silverman are socially and politically marginalized. Many would like to contribute in leadership capacities. But they 'don't have a prayer' unless they conceal their views or feign a modicum of religious belief. We believe many religious people will recognize this problem and support change. It's reasonable. It's fair. It's necessary. We know there are principled people who hesitate to speak out. We invite them to learn more about the Brights."

Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell
Co-Directors, The Brights' Net
Phone: 916-447-2170
Email: the-brights@the-brights.net (media kit available upon request)
URL: http://the-brights.net

The Ubituitous Twentieth Century Collection

update, 7.12.08: related: Brewster Kahle's TED talk (video) about "building a truly huge digital library -- every book ever published, every movie ever released, all the strata of web history [...] all free to the public"

---

Something to ponder. I imagine that data storage will become so cheap, and so large in capacity, and that data transfer will become so quick, that someone will end up building a collection of every single song recorded in the twentieth century, and that everyone will end up with a copy of that collection. Or access to it that is equivalent to having a copy of it. Imagine if you could have a copy of something like this and easily give a friend a copy -- it could spread pretty quickly, I think. And of course the same reasoning doesn’t apply to just songs, or just stuff from the twentieth century.

Avocado and Sweet Chilli Tuna Sandwich

Having discovered the wonders of sweet chilli sauce with avocado, here's some recipes from the world-renound kitchens of explorer street.

Add layers of these ingredients in this order:

• avocado slices
• sprinkle with salt and pepper
• some sliced spanish olives; not a major ingred, so easily optional
• cheese
• tuna mixed with sweet chilli sauce

Cheese-divided Avocado Salad, with Sweet Chilli Sauce

• cut an avocado in half lengthwise, place each half cut down and cut each of them into vertical slices across their width.
• make the slices, say, about 1/2 cm thick
• the next step is to place slices of cheese between the slices of avocado
• you can make the cheese slices approx the same size as the avocado slices
• and probably a bit thinner, so they don’t overwhelm the milder avocado
• tasty cheese works fairly well for this, and I imagine that mild cheese would as well
• sprinkle some sliced spanish olives on top
• sprinkle a little salt and pepper, then drizzle some sweet chilli sauce on top of it all

F. Scott Fitzgerald Line on What Makes Intelligence

An F. Scott Fitzgerald line that I saw mentioned -- in an incdental way -- on Slashdot:

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."

Spot-on, I think. Or, at least, I think it's a good test.

I think that, to a large extent at least, intelligence involves an ability to control and manipulate your thought processes -- and that test checks for a high-level of that. It tests your ability to be able to hold an idea, not simply as a belief which is directly connected up to your attitudes, opinons and actions, but as a piece of passive information that you can subject to evaluation and thought.

Difficulties in Later Learning of 'Technical' Languages?

I'm wondering, since we have trouble mastering a spoken language if we start learning it after the end of puberty (or thereabouts, as I understand it), does this apply to what you might call 'technical languages' such as the concepts in something like statistics or other branches of maths? Is it that if we learn them later in life we are not able to think with them as dexterously? Even though we treat these things as distinct from spoken language, it's not obvious (to me at least) that the brain necessarily should. I'm wondering what research has been done into this, or what knowledge might give us clues to the answer?

'Inner voice' as General purpose Intra-brain Communication Mechanism?

No time to write this up properly.... I wonder if one of the major reasons for our 'inner voice' is as a general purpose means by which information can be communicated between the various brain 'modules'?

It seems likely to me that the information 'vocalise' through our 'inner voice' is processed and filtered through to all parts of the brain that would normally receive information about the sounds (and thus speech) that we would hear through our ears. This would mean that if the brain can internally produce information and turn it into speech the 'inner voice' that all these areas of the brain can be informed of that.

Though I don't have time to try and think of what the reasons for this are, this seems more likely to me than always having all of these special purpose communication channels through the brain (perhaps it is because that might be duplication? Also, note that I'm not trying to deny the existence of special purpose communication channels).

I have heard that the 'inner voice' was likely to have been a later evolutionary development than the ability to hear and process language or language-like statements, and this intra-brain communication usage would thus have been one of the benefits it could have brought.

I don't know what might have been written about this idea already, and all I can say is that I have read a few things that I think ought to have mentioned such an idea if the author had been aware of it.

Example of Thought Substituted With Judgements Based on Perceived Characteristics

The italicised text in the following quoted passage is pointing out an example of the lazy substitution of thought with judgements based on perceived characteristics.

It's showing a case where, rather than thinking about whether a certain classification (in this case ‘art’) is appropriate in a particular case, this decision is made only by looking for certain characteristics that we take as markers for that classification.

We'll automatically perceive something as being, or not being, of that classification on the basis of the presence or absence of these characteristics.

Howard Jacobson writes:

We are right to shrink from the very idea of a "funny" book. There should be no such genre. We should expect laughter to be integral to the business of being serious. We are back in a new dark age of the imagination. We read to sleep. Either we refuse the idea of art altogether (something we do with every page of a Dan Brown novel we turn), or we confer integrity on it from outside, allowing it to be art only by virtue of the pre-determined importance of its subject matter, or the acceptability of its attitudes. This is a species of censorship to which we have all acceded. (my emphasis)

---

The article this passage is quoted from is here. I actually have only skimmed through it -- it's just that that sentence caught my eye.

""

All times come

(...sounded nice...no idea whose lines I might be repeating here)

Venter, Kurzweil and Brooks on the Cutting Edge of Biology

A long but exciting article on how Craig Venter, Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks envisage the cutting-edge path being marked out in the combination of biology and information technology. For example, Venter talks about some very interesting techniques being developed to attack cancer.

Room for Rent - Toowong

Large room in furnished two bedroom unit

• Room has built-in wardrobe / storage space, nice views from window
  
• Unit furnishings: fridge, microwave, stove, utensils/cooking equipment, espresso machine, couch, dining table, washing machine; (single bed for room can be supplied if required).
  
• Located in Explorer Street, 10 mins walk from buses, trains and shopping center
  
• Share with PhD student in mid twenties - i.e. me :-)

Availability

• Male or female
  
• Students from abroad welcome
  
• Non-smoker preferred
  
• Available 21 July

$115 / week, plus bond and utilities

Contact: 0403 939 167 / 3371 8052 / gmail: james.cole

Facade - a one-act interactive drama

Facade - a one-act interactive drama. Sounds interesting.

"Facade calls itself a one-act interactive drama, and is an attempt to create realistic 3D AI characters acting in a real-time interactive story, where you can talk to them via a natural language text interface. The player is cast as a visiting longtime friend of Grace and Trip, a couple in their early thirties, and ends up in a verbal crossfire resulting from their failing marriage." (via Slashdot)

It's available as a free 800MB download, or on 2 CDs by mailorder.