922 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2018
    1. Log Studies collect the most natural observations of people as they use systems in whatever ways they typically do, uninfl uenced by experimenters or observers. As the amount of log data that can be collected increases, log studies include many different kinds of people, from all over the world, doing many different kinds of tasks. However, because of the way log data is gathered, much less is known about the people being observed, their intentions or goals, or the contexts in which the observed behaviors occur. Observational log studies allow researchers to form an abstract picture of behavior with an existing system, whereas experimental log stud-ies enable comparisons of two or more systems.

      Benefits of log studies:

      • Complement other types of lab/field studies

      • Provide a portrait of uncensored behavior

      • Easy to capture at scale

      Disadvantages of log studies:

      • Lack of demographic data

      • Non-random sampling bias

      • Provide info on what people are doing but not their "motivations, success or satisfaction"

      • Can lack needed context (software version, what is displayed on screen, etc.)

      Ways to mitigate: Collecting, Cleaning and Using Log Data section

    2. Two common ways to partition log data are by time and by user. Partitioning by time is interesting because log data often contains signifi cant temporal features, such as periodicities (including consistent daily, weekly, and yearly patterns) and spikes in behavior during important events. It is often possible to get an up-to-the- minute picture of how people are behaving with a system from log data by compar-ing past and current behavior.

      Bookmarked for time reference.

      Mentions challenges of accounting for time zones in log data.

    3. An important characteristic of log data is that it captures actual user behavior and not recalled behaviors or subjective impressions of interactions.

      Logs can be captured on client-side (operating systems, applications, or special purpose logging software/hardware) or on server-side (web search engines or e-commerce)

    4. Table 1 Different types of user data in HCI research

    5. Large-scale log data has enabled HCI researchers to observe how information diffuses through social networks in near real-time during crisis situations (Starbird & Palen, 2010 ), characterize how people revisit web pages over time (Adar, Teevan, & Dumais, 2008 ), and compare how different interfaces for supporting email organi-zation infl uence initial uptake and sustained use (Dumais, Cutrell, Cadiz, Jancke, Sarin, & Robbins, 2003 ; Rodden & Leggett, 2010 ).

      Wide variety of uses of log data

    6. Behavioral logs are traces of human behavior seen through the lenses of sensors that capture and record user activity.

      Definition of log data

    1. The distinct sorts of questions asked of science and design manifest the different kinds of accountability that apply to each - that is, the expectations of what activities must be defended and how, and by extension the ways narratives (accounts) are legitimately formed about each endeavour.science is defined by epistemological accountability, in which the essential requirement is to be able to explain and defend the basis of one’s claimed knowledge. Design, in contrast, works with aesthetic accountability, where ‘aesthetic’ refers to how satisfactory the composition of multiple design features are (as opposed to how ‘beautiful’ it might be). The requirement here is to be able to explain and defend – or, more typically, to demonstrate –that one’s design works.

      Scientific accountability >> epistemological

      Design accountability >> aesthetic

    2. The issue of whether something ‘works’ goes beyond questions of technical or practical efficacy to address a host of social, cultural, aesthetic and ethical concerns.

      Intent is the critical factor for design work, not its function.

    3. To be sure, the topicality, novelty or potential benefits of a given line of research might help it attract notice and support, butscientific researchfundamentally stands or falls on the thoroughness with which activities and reasoning can be tied together. You just can’t get in the game without a solid methodology.

      Methodology is the critical factor for scientific study, not the result.

  2. Nov 2018
    1. “When the IOM report came out, it gave us a focus and a language that we didn’t have before,” says Dr. Wachter, who served as president of SHM’s Board of Directors and to this day lectures at SHM annual meetings. “But I think the general sensibility that hospitalists are about improving quality and safety and patients’ experience and efficiency—I think that was baked in from the start.”
    2. Dr. Wachter and other early leaders pushed the field to become involved in systems-improvement work. This turned out to be prophetic in December 1999, when patient safety zoomed to the national forefront with the publication of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “To Err Is Human.” Its conclusions, by now, are well-known. It showed between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year die from preventable medical errors, the equivalent of a jumbo jet a day crashing. The impact was profound, and safety initiatives became a focal point of hospitals.
    1. “Our biggest opportunity is leaning into that. It’s either embracing the qualitative nature of that and designing systems that can act just on the qualitative nature of their experience, or figuring how to quantitate some of those qualitative measures,” says Chang. “That’ll get us much further, because the real value in health care systems is in the human interactions. My relationship with you as a doctor and a patient is far more valuable than the evidence that some trial suggests.”

      Biggest challenges to redesigning the health care system in a way that would work better for patients and improve health

  3. Oct 2018
    1. As the power is unleashed, computers on the Semantic Web achieve at first the ability to describe, then to infer, and then to reason. The schema is a huge step, and one that will enable a vast amount of interoperability and extra functionality. However, it still only categorizes data. It says nothing about meaning or understanding.

      The author presents an interesting progression for the Web to eventually learn to reason. The picture he paints of more accessible content on the internet hinges on the internet learning to reason, which is a human characteristic. It seems we need to apply human characteristics to all of our mechanics for them to progress in their usefulness.

    1. For the age of biotechnology is not so much about technology itself as it is about human beings empowered by biotechnology.

      From this sentence, my personally understanding is that biotechnology really matters with human being. Biotechnology is "not about technology itself" but "about human beings empowered by biotechnology." In the later passages, author talked about "desire for better children, superior performance..." From this, I can get the message that biotechnology is nothing without making people's life have some changes. And at the same time, author talked about concerns from biotechnology. In fact, what people actually worry about is not just the technology, but the effects that the biotechnology will bring to the human beings based on this sentence I annotated.

  4. Sep 2018
    1. People who take pills to block out from memory the painful or hateful aspects of a new experience will not learn how to deal with suffering or sorrow. A drug that induces fearlessness does not produce courage.

      He does a really good job pointing out some of the dangers of effortlessly overcoming fear at the cost of learning courage and struggle at the cost of learning discipline but he doesn't really touch on how in time we might recognize the side effect these biomedical technologies bring and human nature might push back against it. Kind of like with genetically modified foods now all people want is organic food.

    1. Instead of taking these characteristics and saying that they are the basis for “human dignity,” why don’t we simply accept our destiny as creatures who modify themselves?

      He mentioned several times that human nature can be the basis for values and morality, but here he says that human nature is subject to change. In that case It sounds like he believes that the standards of morality and value which are based on human nature should also change and that doesn't sound like very firm ground to stand on.

    2. What is so important about being a human being in the traditional way that Huxley defines it? After all, what the human race is today is the product of an evolutionary process that has been going on for millions of years, one that with any luck will continue well into the future. There are no fixed human characteristics, except for a general capability to choose what we want to be, to modify ourselves in accordance with our desires. So who is to tell us that being human and having dignity means sticking with a set of emotional responses that are the accidental byproduct of our evolutionary history? There is no such thing as a biological family, no such thing as human nature or a “normal” human being, and even if there were, why should that be a guide for what is right and just?

      I think is so important way to have human being characteristics. For example, as the writer said every human being is unique, their race, personality, the way that human react. All of these characteristic is a way to define the difference between every human.

    1. But in this brightest and kindest world, the philosophical problems themselves become intimidating. A mind that stays at the same capacity cannot live forever; after a few thousand years it would look more like a repeating tape loop than a person. (The most chilling picture I have seen of this is Larry Niven’s story “The Ethics of Madness.”) To live indefinitely long, the mind itself must grow … and when it becomes great enough, and looks back … what fellow-feeling can it have with the soul that it was originally? The later being would be everything the original was, but vastly more. And so even for the individual, the Cairns-Smith or Lynn Margulis notion of new life growing incrementally out of the old must still be valid.

      This idea that the mind must continuously and infinitely expand is the essence of progression and, seemingly, immortality. As humans, we are constantly growing whether its physically, mentally, emotionally. We are constantly learning and progressing while shedding some old ideas, thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, perceptions to become better and more than we once were as individuals and humanity as a whole. It is possible for humans to evolve later into beings that can grow in all aspects, but it is difficult to say that humans could do so in order to breach our minds' capacity and go beyond to reach infinite knowledge and infinite life itself. We are limited by human condition and always capable of more; however, no more matter how much we creep upon it, the infinite will always be out of reach.

    2. And its very likely that IA is a much easier road to the achievement of superhumanity than pure AI. In humans, the hardest development problems have already been solved. Building up from within ourselves ought to be easier than figuring out what we really are and then building machines that are all of that.

      The authors of the text are proposing a radically different approach to the inevitable "singularity" event. They propose the research and development IA, or Intelligence Amplification, is developing computers with a symbiosis with humans. Noting that IA could be easier to develop than AI algorithms, since humanity had to probe what their true weaknesses and strengths are. In turn, developing an IA system that could cover humanities' weaknesses. This would summarily prevent an IA algorithm from getting over itself, which could potentially slow a point when we reach singularity.

    1. Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral;

      Technology has the human enslave. Giving great thought to this if you look around most humans cannot "live" without technology. Is as if technology has become the oxygen to human life. Parents now a days has use technology to do the parenting and the babysitting for them. You see 2-3 year old toddler glued to the phone. But if technology were to vanish human life would be a lot more difficult than it already is.

    1. Becoming posthuman means exceeding the limitations that define the less desirable aspects of the “human condition.” Posthuman beings would no longer suffer from disease, aging, and inevitable death (but they are likely to face other challenges). They would have vastly greater physical capability and freedom of form

      Posthuman beings contradict the human conditions that apply to my life, and every living being for that matter: immortality is non-existent. The passage alludes that the posthuman evolution will oppose the current human condition, and humanity will be redefine its physical form. A reformation in the modern humans understanding of scarcity is entirely different than that of the posthuman. With increased control over the posthumans physical capability are differing in juxtaposition to the human condition in the twenty first century: Prompting our modern society with the question of whether the human condition makes significant biological changes. The change from the former to the latter intertwines technological advancements with physical capabilities, although to what end? The human condition will be a backbone to the technology that manages the posthumans interpretation of reality.

  5. Aug 2018
    1. We want towns and cities in Slovakia to be towns and cities for the people. This concept, known abroad as SMART Cities, defines a new approach to the management (control) of towns based on four priorities, namely investment in human and social capital, investing in transport and communication infrastructure, smart management of natural resources and a participatory approach.
    1. Another way to use a classification system is to consider if there are other possible values that could be used for a given dimension.

      Future direction: Identify additional sample values and examples in the literature or in situ to expand the options within each dimension.

    2. For researchers looking for new avenues within human computation, a starting point would be to pick two dimensions and list all possible combinations of values.

      Future direction: Apply two different human computation dimensions to imagine a new approach.

    3. These properties formed three of our dimensions: motivation, human skill, and aggregation.

      These dimensions were inductively revealed through a search of the human computation literature.

      They contrast with properties that cut across human computational systems: quality control, process order and task-request cardinality.

    4. A subtle distinction among human computation systems is the order in which these three roles are performed. We consider the computer to be active only when it is playing an active role in solving the problem, as opposed to simply aggregating results or acting as an information channel. Many permutations are possible.

      3 roles in human computation — requester, worker and computer — can be ordered in 4 different ways:

      C > W > R // W > R > C // C > W > R > C // R > W

    5. The classification system we are presenting is based on six of the most salient distinguishing factors. These are summarized in Figure 3.

      Classification dimensions: Motivation, Quality control, Aggregation, Human skill, Process order, Task-Request Cardinality

    6. "... groups of individuals doing things collectively that seem intelligent.” [41]

      Collective intelligence definition.

      Per the authors, "collective intelligence is a superset of social computing and crowdsourcing, because both are defined in terms of social behavior."

      Collective intelligence is differentiated from human computation because the latter doesn't require a group.

      It is differentiated from crowdsourcing because it doesn't require a public crowd and it can happen without an open call.

    7. Data mining can be defined broadly as: “the application of specific algorithms for extracting patterns from data.” [17]

      Data mining definition

      No human is involved in the extraction of data via a computer.

    8. “... applications and services that facilitate collective action and social interaction online with rich exchange of multimedia information and evolution of aggregate knowledge...” [48]

      Social computing definition

      Humans perform a social role while communication is mediated by technology. The interaction between human social role and CMC is key here.

    9. The intersection of crowdsourcing with human computation in Figure 1 represents applications that could reasonably be considered as replacements for either traditional human roles or computer roles.

      Authors provide example of language translation which could be performed by a machine (when speed and cost matter) or via crowdsourcing (when quality matters)

    10. “Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.” [24

      Crowdsourcing definition

      Labor process of worker replaced by public.

    11. modern usage was inspired by von Ahn’s 2005 dissertation titled "Human Computation" [64] and the work leading to it. That thesis defines the term as: “...a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve.”

      Human computation definition.

      Problem solving by human reasoning and not a computer.

    12. When classifying an artifact, we consider not what it aspires to be, but what it is in its present state.

      Criterion for determining when/if the artifact is a product of human computation.

    13. human computation does not encompass online discussions or creative projects where the initiative and flow of activity are directed primarily by the participants’ inspiration, as opposed to a predetermined plan designed to solve a computational problem.

      What human computation is not.

      The authors cite Wikipedia as not an example of human computation.

      "Wikipedia was designed not to fill the place of a machine but as a collaborative writing project in place of the professional encyclopedia authors of yore."

    14. Human computation is related to, but not synonymous with terms such as collective intelligence, crowdsourcing, and social computing, though all are important to understanding the landscape in which human computation is situated.

  6. Jul 2018
    1. Actually, no, it hasn't, no matter what the Bunny's sign says. The scientific method is designed specifically to root out bias and false assumptions, including political ones. Sure, individual scientists can be political, but the scientific method is not. Its ideological agnosticism is why it works so well. In fact, the self-correcting nature of science means it is the best source of secular knowledge that humankind possesses.
    1. Kahneman concluded his aforementioned presentation to academics by arguing that computers or robots are better than humans on three essential dimensions: they are better at statistical reasoning and less enamoured with stories; they have higher emotional intelligence; and they exhibit far more wisdom than humans.

      A little over-the-top?

    2. ‘omniscience in the observer’
    3. To illustrate, consider Isaac Newton.

      But there are examples of where our theory has led us astray, the heliocentric vision of the universe being an example. If not for that attachment to previous thinking, we might have learned more quickly about the heliocentric truth.

      'Even as He hath revealed: "As oft as an Apostle cometh unto you with that which your souls desire not, ye swell with pride, accusing some of being impostors and slaying others."' - Kitab-i-Iqan

    4. However, computers and algorithms – even the most sophisticated ones – cannot address the fallacy of obviousness. Put differently, they can never know what might be relevant.

      One goal of systems science and modelling, to explore what might be relevant and give us better heuristics.

    5. At the other extreme we have behavioural economics, which focuses on human bias and blindness by pointing out biases or obvious things that humans miss.
    6. So, given the problem of too much evidence – again, think of all the things that are evident in the gorilla clip – humans try to hone in on what might be relevant for answering particular questions. We attend to what might be meaningful and useful

      Consumat, heuristics - actually, this does work with thinking fast and slow. But maybe the divide isn't so clear - a spectrum?

    7. ‘blind to the obvious, and that we also are blind to our blindness’
    8. building on Herbert Simon’s 1950s work on bounded rationality
  7. Jun 2018
    1. One consequence of thisposition is a more radical understanding of the sense in whichmateriality is discursive (i.e., material phenomena are inseparable from theapparatuses of bodily production: matteremerges out of and includes as part of itsbeing the ongoing reconfiguring of boundaries), just as discursive practices arealways already material (i.e., they are ongoing material (re)configurings of theworld) (2003: 822).Brought back into the world oftechnology design, this intimate co-constitution ofconfigured materialities with configuring agencies clearly implies a very differentunderstanding of the ‘human-machine interface’.
  8. Mar 2018
    1. John Hockenberry

      In the film John Hockenberry talks about how human enhancement changed through science and technology. Scientist invented robotic human parts connecting to a human’s nervous system that allows a person to move their body parts. Scientist have been concerning cosmetic surgery because the rate in males and females getting cosmetic surgery is increasing as technology is scientifically improving. I think this all relates to transhumanism because it is showing how science and technology is evolving overtime and the physical and mental limitations among humans. Disabled people are starting to live normal lives through scientifically advanced technology that will allow human hand to fix the nervous system.

    1. Where do they speak about the ups and downs of human existence in academic publications?

      HUMAN INTERACTION

    1. The serendipity of networked practice together with a heightened attention to the importance of protecting the place of human interaction in education resulted in many conference presentations and publications

      Reflective practice, research, publication

  9. Feb 2018
    1. Indeed, perhaps the most obvious thing to send (though it’s a bit macabre) would just be whole cryonically preserved humans (and, yes, they should keep well at the temperature of interstellar space!). Of course, it’s ironic how similar this is to the Egyptian idea of making mummies—though our technology is better (even if we still haven’t yet solved the problem of cryonics).

      Interesting idea. This would tell aliens a lot about us.

  10. Jan 2018
    1. Climate science details the threats that climate change poses to the livelihoods and well-being of present and future human generations and ecosystems, while policy approaches increasingly recognize the growing social risks of climate-change-driven vulnerabilities. 8

      This is interesting!

  11. Nov 2017
    1. improves what in his nature was vicious & perverse, into qualities of virtue and social worth;

      The writers of this document seem to view education not only as a means of expanding one's knowledge but as a means of improving one's inherent nature from one of evil and corruption to one of goodness and virtue. I find this notion classist and fallacious, as it seems to suggest that those who are not educated (including those who cannot afford education) are inherently worse as people than those who are educated and also that education can fundamentally change who a person is.

    1. Since October 2016, security forces have carried out a series of brutal crackdowns on ethnic Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, including extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, and widespread arson, leading to hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border to Bangladesh

      the violence of human right in Myanmar make the people decided to immigration to other country.

    1. On5July2012,theUNHumanRightsCouncilalsoadoptedaresolutiononthepromotion,protection,andenjoymentofhumanrightsontheInternet,affirmingthathumanrightsapplytobothonlineandofflineactivities.

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  12. Oct 2017
    1. Or, as a soldier of a desert war wrote in last autumn’s New York Times, is our central task the task of learning how to die—not (as he put it) to die ‘as individuals, but as a civilization’ (Scranton, 2013), in the Anthropocene?

      I found this statement incredibly depressing yet profound. Depressing in the idea that our central task is learning how to die (really who wants to be that morbid and think like that) (potentially digital humanists?), yet profound, because the soldier is not talking about us as individuals, but as a human civilization, as a whole, as a group, as a collective.

    1. Education, in like manner engrafts a new man on the native stock, & improves what in his nature was vicious & perverse

      This section reminded me of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes who believed the nature of man is inherently bad and the purpose of government and education is to control man's selfish desires. In my opinion, I side more with John Locke's philosophy that the nature of man is inherently good but society is corrupted by certain negative people. Education's purpose should be to remind people of their virtuous nature and not become distracted by the inequalities and failures of society.

    1. without being conscious of it, have stored up in idea the greater part of those strong marked varieties of human character,

      Unconscious knowledge of human character described by Joanna Baillie, Introductory Discourse

  13. Sep 2017
    1. Well, I don’t think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before  and it has always been due to human error.

      this was left on the cutting room floor, but Hal's behavior can actually be attributed to human error. In the novelized version written by co-screenplay author - the famous Arthur C. Clarke - it is stated that Hal is briefed on the mission, but told to lie about it and obfuscate the facts about the mission and it's details to the crew. It is implied that this is what ultimately makes Hal malfunction. This helped me to understand this movement in the context of the film far more easily, and it also highlights Heidegger's focus on mankind's responsibility to it's technology and those unintended consequences.

    2. Open the door, Hal. Rotate pod, please, Hal. Stop pod rotation, please, Hal. Rotate the pod, please, Hal. Rotate the pod, please, Hal.

      This movie took place in the future. However there are many parallels it has to present day. Hal, the artifical intellegence on the spaceship, reminds me of A.I personal assistance that we have today. For example, Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Siri. They all were created by humans, for the sole purpose of making life easier. These personal assistance devices can play music, turn off lights, and adjust the temperature in a house. Which is similar to Hal on a spaceship. With that it in mind it is terrifying to see how technology could turn against us and malfunction, like how the director portrayed Hal. Hal seemed perfect at first, but later on in the movie he began to malfunction. This portrays that humans can try to make technology perfect, but there is always human error which makes it vulnerable to malfunctions.

    1. At some point, we may be able to make extensive modifications to human DNA, body tissues, or neurophysiological functioning, or to merge our bodies with sophisticated cybernetic devices.

      In this passage the author is allowing his intended audience, people who are curious in transhumanism, a glimpse into the future when technology merges with the human body. At this point one must question at what point does technology becomes a prosthesis? The author uses this imagery of technology merging with our body to form prosthesis, devices that function as a artificial body part, to suggest that technology at one point may be an extension of the human body. This extension of the human body supports his trans humanist ideas because it may allow a person to reach beyond their human potential.

  14. Jun 2017
    1. his expert group sends to companies are 'taken very seriously' by both States and businesses. As such they can be key channels for human rights defenders to leverage the UN experts to contribute to their protection, and help respond to situations where human rights defenders are stigmatised, criminalised, attacked or killed. 
  15. May 2017
  16. Apr 2017
    1. it quickly becomes apparent that people are frequently persuaded by things that most of us would not readily call arguments (and that certainly are not pri-marily linguistic). For instance, we are often persuaded by images, or sounds, or even by physical structures.

      Ah ha! I was wondering how this was related to post-humanism. Maybe I'm slow on the uptake, but I'm only finally making these connections. So by expanding this view of rhetoric, "things" can persuade, too.

    1. it really so easy, forexample, to distinguish between a speaker, an audience, a message, anda context?

      After last week, we can probably agree that "no"--it isn't. Vatz and Bitzer were talking inside the same "box," regarding the speaker, audience, and context as discrete parts, and the post-human is part of the movement which pushes us outside that box, wanting to argue that the parts are not, in fact, discrete.

  17. Mar 2017
  18. Feb 2017
    1. Oakwood International offers the best Human Resources training courses in the UAE! They are specialized in HR training courses that will prepare you well for a successful HR career and will enable you to progress to management with ease. For more information visit them today!

    1. The contagious euphoria you felt has a name: “collective effervescence,” coined a century ago by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim. It’s that glowy, giddy feeling where your sense of self slackens, yielding to a connection with your fellow, synchronized humans.
  19. Dec 2016
  20. Oct 2016
    1. I speak as one who knows your nature because I understand the fabric of life into which your life is interwoven, and I do not see you as separate or apart from this. I see you as part of a greater tapestry of life, a greater tapestry of life in this time, in this world, in this place, in these circumstances, for the tapestry is changing. Let us not confuse, then, your life within the world withyour life beyond, for they are different. If you think they are the same, you will underestimate your life beyond the world, and you will overestimate your life within the world, and you will make some grave misinterpretations of your abilities and your nature while you are here. You are working in a very limited context. You have physical and mental limitations while you are here. You have experienced these limitations, perhaps painfully, but you need to understand them, and you need to recognize them without self-condemnation, for you have limits. You are working through a limited vehicle in your body and a limited vehicle in your mind. The spirit of you, which we call Knowledge, must exercise its Wisdom and its beneficence and its purpose through these limited vehicles and through the circumstances that you face in everyday life.
      • "we are spirits in the material world"
      • "We are spiritual beings having a human experience"

      or as I jokingly say:

      • 'I am a Pleiadian being having a Human experience.'

      Of course you're in a limited state. Being in a body is a limited state. It's a great nuisance carrying around this hunk-feeding it, housing it, keeping it clean, clothing it, making it beautiful, keeping it comfortable and attending to its many aches and pains. A nuisance, my God! Don't you just want to fly away sometimes? But the body is the garment you wear in being in this world, and it enables you to communicate here. You don't get much attention if you don't have a body and you want to communicate. Then it is hard to get people's attention. And if you do get their attention, you scare the daylights out of them, and they never want to have an experience like that again! So, obviously, our ability to communicate with people in the world seems very limited. We still give them something, but it will arise from within them and they will think it is from themselves.

      https://hyp.is/CxRY8prCEeafH6-CvEocWw/gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmPmEFwAKZTkEDca6uRR4VwkHwmmrdFuuBvopgfGPmKEsg

  21. Aug 2016
    1. A team at Facebook reviewed thousands of headlines using these criteria, validating each other’s work to identify a large set of clickbait headlines. From there, we built a system that looks at the set of clickbait headlines to determine what phrases are commonly used in clickbait headlines that are not used in other headlines. This is similar to how many email spam filters work.

      Though details are scarce, the very idea that Facebook would tackle this problem with both humans and algorithms is reassuring. The common argument about human filtering is that it doesn’t scale. The common argument about algorithmic filtering is that it requires good signal (though some transhumanists keep saying that things are getting better). So it’s useful to know that Facebook used so hybrid an approach. Of course, even algo-obsessed Google has used human filtering. Or, at least, human judgment to tweak their filtering algorithms. (Can’t remember who was in charge of this. Was a semi-frequent guest on This Week in Google… Update: Matt Cutts) But this very simple “we sat down and carefully identified stuff we think qualifies as clickbait before we fed the algorithm” is refreshingly clear.

  22. May 2016
  23. hum1online.wordpress.com hum1online.wordpress.com
    1. Homi Bhabha

      Homi Bhabha is an academician who is currently the Director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University as well as the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language. He is a significant figure in the contemporary post-colonial studies and had contributed key ideas to the school such as Third-space, Hybridity, Ambivalence, and Mimicry to name a few.

    2. Who is Zinedine Zidane?

      Short Answer: A football (or as Americans like to say, soccer) player.

      Long Answer: Born in Marseille, France to Algerian immigrants, Zidane is most well known for being a three-time FIFA World Player of the Year who led France to victory in the 1998 World Cup. He has played for clubs in France, Italy and Spain, but his career ended when he was expelled from the 2006 World Cup final for headbutting an opponent.

    1. relievedfromstrainorstress

      Rather than saying the relief is what makes the situation humorous, I would be more willing to believe that the humour makes me feel more relieved about the situation.

      Or maybe seeing something unexpected would cause you to be relief, and because you're not as tense as before, you're able to laugh and see the humour in it?

    2. ambivalencetheories

      So in other words, a situation is humorous if it evokes conflicting emotions within the person viewing it.

      Key and Peele - I do feel conflicted about this sketch because on one hand, it's a serious and pertinent problem in reality as the sombre tone of the first few seconds of the sketch conveyed while it was still being pretty normal. However, as it continued on, it got increasingly interrupted by amateur magic tricks by the cop, who also had the most hilarious impressions thanks to Key, that did make me want to laugh. However, I felt that I shouldn't laugh - this conflicting emotions just make me feel guilty, not humorous. Am I misinterpreting this category?

  24. hum1online.wordpress.com hum1online.wordpress.com
    1. Why do you think Serena Williams danced at the end of her 2012 Olympics final? Do you believe this was a “tasteless” act? Why or why not?

      Because she just won the Olympics final and since - very uderstandably - it is an amazing and wonderful accomplishment, she danced in this manner to express her joy in celebration.

      The way the act was described covers a layer of deliberate prejudice over her actions, however. "...Crip-Walking all over.." implies a certain amount of chaos or scene being made when in reality, it barely lasted a few seconds, contained within her little spot at her side of the court. And watching her move like that with a huge smile on her face, as well as her sister's, anyone would be hard pressed or extremely biased to interpret this action as anything other than just an automatic reaction borne out of happiness and joy.

    2. What does “playful mocking” mean?

      I think it refers to when someone makes fun of certain characteristics or features of another person with the intent to tease or amuse but without any malicious intentions. By this I mean, they did not do it to hurt the other, or would/should not have done it if they knew it would've hurt the person they were mocking regardless of it giving others enjoyment.

    1. Slavery is the price I paid for civilization,

      Does she mean the western civilization? That she would not have been part of the USA as she was then had it not been for slavery?

    2. but I was their Zora nevertheless

      They were protective of her, then? They cared for her in a more sincere way separate from the superficial way the whites treated her despite the treatment being more "positive" towards her "joyful tendencies".

    3. They deplored any joyful tendencies in me

      I wonder why though - is it because they felt the coloredness clearly and constantly unlike Zora and therefore could not share the joy she freely did in her childlike innocence?

    4. warranted not to rub nor run.

      I honestly don't understand what she means by this. Help?

    5. queer exchange of compliments

      I wonder what about the exchanges were queer to her. Did they compliment each other out of politeness about things they didn't really mean, which struck her, even as a young child, to be strange?

    6. I became colored

      I can imagine this statement being very powerful in the social context of that time. When "people of color" was thrown around normatively, this sentence would have made many reconsider their idea of colored was and how one can be considered as such.

      On a personal level, I can relate to this very well. As someone who grew up in Asia, I never considered myself a person of color or a minority or any other label that would not only distinguish but also made me inferior in one phrase. We had different ethnicities and different races, sure, but it didn't give me the feeling of somehow being less than "poc" in the USA does, even as the people of color themselves are trying to reclaim these terms as empowerment.

      I can't decide if this is a sign of my privilege and luck previously as I am part of the major ethnic group in Burma while Singapore takes extraneous pains to ensure racial harmony and balance, or if it's just an imbalance in the part of the United States.

    7. I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances

      The instructions above used this as an example of how Zora Neale Hurston was not ashamed to be colored when to me, I interpreted it as her highlighting some sort of shortcoming on her part at that point of time that didn't make her "colored-ness" less severe.

  25. Apr 2016
    1. in an unprovoked attack

      The saddest and scariest thing to me about these hate crimes is that it has all to do with something beyond your own control. The perpetrators hate you, hurt you not for something you have done or can do, but rather for the sake of you simply being you. I can only imagine how much worse it would be for those who actually have experienced it and have this threat looming over them every day. It's unbelievably scary to me that we live in a world - no, a society - like this. But perhaps we can be empowered by the the fact that the fault lies in the beliefs and norms we have built around ourselves when it comes to race, and not something that is set in stone. I believe this means that we still have the power to turn these assumptions and harmful stereotypes around.

  26. Dec 2015
    1. self-acting

      We're essentially creating things on purpose that are going to have the ability to make their own decisions, possibly be smarter than us, and also have a chance of malfunctioning... Why?

    2. a sophisticated creation thatseems to simultaneously extend but also threaten our understanding of what it means tobe human.

      So if it threatens our understanding of what it means to be human.. is that beneficial to our ongoing research of essentially what makes us humans by constantly pushing our understanding to be deeper? or is harmful and uprooting of the interpersonal/cultural norms we've established?

  27. Nov 2015
    1. The machine, of course, is not complete without a third party, the (human) operator, and it is within this triad that the text takes place.

      It reminds me of the machine performance, the human performance and the idea of the text as a performative event (as in Johanna Drucker's theory of performative materiality).

  28. Jul 2015
    1. national security initiatives are solely needed in order to tighten stability

      Funny how he feels a need to sell this point to his own staff

    2. For “activists working for no-profit organizations … directing their efforts towards small, possibly foreign, technology companies is easy; directing their efforts toward local agencies is hard and risky,” he wrote. “I have a question for you all: PLEASE NAME a single really ‘democratic’ country, a country which does not violate anybody’s rights and has a TOTALLY clean human rights record.”
    3. The company has long denied any implication in human rights abuses, regularly pointing reporters to a policy on its website that says it only sells to governments, investigates allegations of human rights abuses and complies with international blacklists.
  29. Jun 2015
    1. our lack of hardwired patterns of behavior

      This passage reminds me of Lyotard's introduction to The Inhuman, and this Onion article.

  30. Apr 2015
    1. Name /yal05/27282_u00 01/27/06 10:25AM Plate # 0-Composite pg 6 # 6  1 0  1 “Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.” “Such are the differences among human beings in their sources of plea- sure, their susceptibilities of pain, and the operation on them of differ- ent physical and moral agencies, that unless there is a corresponding di- versity in their modes of life, they neither obtain their fair share of happiness, nor grow up to the mental, moral, and aesthetic stature of which their nature is capable.” JohnStuartMill, On Liberty (1859
  31. Mar 2015
    1. Therefore, I learned — and learned well — that forgiveness is an essential key to healing. The opposite of forgiveness is judgment, and judgment always creates separation and guilt. Judgment will evoke a sense of guilt in the one who has been judged, unless, of course, they are perfectly awake. But more than this, each time that you judge anything or anyone, you have literally elicited guilt within yourself, because there is a place within you, yet still, that knows the perfect purity of your brother and sister, and sees quite clearly that all things within the human realm are either the extension of Love, or a cry for help and healing.
  32. Feb 2014
    1. But at the level of the capability hierarchy where we wish to work, it seems useful to us to distinguish several different types of structuring--even though each type is fundamentally a structuring of the basic physical processes. Tentatively we have isolated five such types--although we are not sure how many we shall ultimately want to use in considering the problem of augmenting the human intellect, nor how we might divide and subdivide these different manifestations of physical-process structuring. We use the terms "mental structuring", "concept structuring", "symbol structuring", "process structuring," and "physical structuring."

      The 5 structuring types outlined by Doug Engelbart:

      • mental
      • concept
      • symbol
      • process
      • physical
    2. The fundamental principle used in building sophisticated capabilities from the basic capabilities is structuring--the special type of structuring (which we have termed synergetic) in which the organization of a group of elements produces an effect greater than the mere addition of their individual effects. Perhaps "purposeful" structuring (or organization) would serve us as well, but since we aren't sure yet how the structuring concept must mature for our needs, we shall tentatively stick with the special modifier, "synergetic." We are developing a growing awareness of the significant and pervasive nature of such structure within every physical and conceptual thing we inspect, where the hierarchical form seems almost universally present as stemming from successive levels of such organization.
    1. Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it. In minor ways he may even improve, for his records have relative permanency. The first idea, however, to be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. Selection by association, rather than indexing, may yet be mechanized. One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of the items resurrected from storage.

      Selection by association, rather than indexing.

    2. The real heart of the matter of selection, however, goes deeper than a lag in the adoption of mechanisms by libraries, or a lack of development of devices for their use. Our ineptitude in getting at the record is largely caused by the artificiality of systems of indexing. When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass. It can be in only one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path. The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.

      With the advent of Google Docs we're finally moving away from the archaic indexing mentioned here. The filesystem metaphor was simple and dominated how everyone manages their data-- which extended into how we developed web content, as well.

      The declaration that Hierarchical File Systems are Dead has led to better systems of tagging and search, but we're still far from where we need to be since there is still a heavy focus on the document as a whole instead of also the content within the document.

      The linearity of printed books is even more treacherously entrenched in our minds than the classification systems used by libraries to store those books.

      One day maybe we'll liberate every piece of content from every layer of its concentric cages: artificial systems of indexing, books, web pages, paragraphs, even sentences and words themselves. Only then will we be able to re-dress those thoughts automatically into those familiar and comforting forms that keep our thoughts caged.

  33. Jan 2014
  34. Oct 2013
    1. if he is unwilling to learn, let another be taught before him, of whom he may be envious.

      This aligns with Confucius thinker Xunzi's attitude on properly cultivating morality in others. We are guided by our desires: whatever we feel a sense of lack in, we desire that object. It is the role of those with cultivated morality (gentlemen, sages) to act as an exemplar of moral goods, so that others who have yet to be cultivated desire what they have.

    2. We are by nature most tenacious of what we have imbibed in our infant years, as the flavor with which you scent vessels when new remains in them, nor can the colors of wool, for which its plain whiteness has been exchanged, be effaced. Those very habits, which are of a more objectionable nature, adhere with the greater tenacity, for good ones are easily changed for the worse, but when will you change bad ones into good? Let the child not be accustomed, therefore, even while he is yet an infant, to phraseology which must be unlearned.

      Claim on early development (and an accurate one, by contemporary standards).

    3. As birds are born to fly, horses to run, and wild beasts to show fierceness, so to us peculiarly belong activity and sagacity of understanding

      This little diddy here smacks of Aristotle: what distinguishes humans from all other creatures are their cognitive faculties.

    1. Again, (4) it is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason, when the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.

      Again, rhetoric as what sets humans apart from other animals.

  35. Sep 2013
    1. I find this quote to fascinating. Isocrates isn't necessarily a cynic, but he certainly is not the happiest of philosophers.

    1. persuasion is the chief end of rhetoric

      Is rhetoric just the title we give to innate, self-interested, behavior? Is the term 'rhetoric' to blame, or is it simply just a label we give to human interactions?