837 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2020
    1. but then have a tool that will show you each of the change sites one at a time and ask you either to accept the change, reject the change, or manually intervene using your editor of choice.
  2. Mar 2020
    1. They are in place to prevent brute forcing a password. If you had to complete these every time you login, a person has to be there to answer it. This makes it so you can’t leave a guessing software to break your password. So, in short, it's for your account’s safety.
  3. Feb 2020
    1. We believe load test scripts should be plain code to get all the benefits of version control, as opposed to say unreadable and tool generated XML.

      Saw another comment lamenting the use of ugly/unreasonable XML files:

      https://github.com/flood-io/ruby-jmeter

      Tired of using the JMeter GUI or looking at hairy XML files?

    1. my Mind

      http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/90

      • That item is simply a portrait of John Locke. The relation is that the word "mind" is very relevant to all the work accomplished by Locke, as he spent most of his life as a renowned philosopher.

      Mowat, Diane, and Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford University Press Canada, 2008.

    2. came now fresh into my Mind, and my Conscience,

      The words conscience and mind bring about ideas that can be noted in John Locke’s text: *An essay concerning Human Understanding.* In book two, Locke explains how thoughts come to be. He believes that “All ideas come from sensation or reflections”. In this specific case, the ideas being expressed in this excerpt are rooted in reflection, as Crusoe is thinking on how and why he dared to actually leave his parents the way that he did. Much of this is seen throughout the whole narrative as it is written in the view of Crusoe. Nonetheless, it demonstrates how this story is evolving from simple story telling in the perspective of an outsider to the actual recount of the person living it in their own words.

      John Locke, The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, (London: Rivington, 1824 12th ed.). Vol. 1. 2/12/2020. https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/761 Mowat, Diane, and Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford University Press Canada, 2008.

  4. Jan 2020
    1. What I’m seeing here is the consistent “eliminating the human” pattern.

      This seems as apt a name as any.

    2. The consumer technology I am talking about doesn’t claim or acknowledge that eliminating the need to deal with humans directly is its primary goal, but it is the outcome in a surprising number of cases. I’m sort of thinking maybe it is the primary goal, even if it was not aimed at consciously.
    1. Damage to water sources that residents attribute to mining, as well as increased demand due to population migration to mining sites, reduces communities’ access to water for drinking, washing and cooking. Women, who are primarily responsible for fetching water, are forced to walk longer distances or wait for long periods to obtain water from alternative sources. The dust produced by bauxite mining and transport smothers fields and enters homes, leaving families and health workers worried that reduced air quality threatens their health and environment.

      Mining is contaminating our water sources and water is one of the most important things for survival.

  5. Dec 2019
    1. With a computer manipulating our symbols and generating their portrayals to us on a display, we no longer need think of our looking at the symbol structure which is stored—as we think of looking at the symbol structures stored in notebooks, memos, and books. What the computer actually stores need be none of our concern, assuming that it can portray symbol structures to us that are consistent with the form in which we think our information is structured.

      Separation of model and view

    1. Thompson’s point is that “artificial intelligence” — defined as machines that can think on their own just like or better than humans — is not yet (and may never be) as powerful as “intelligence amplification,” the symbiotic smarts that occur when human cognition is augmented by a close interaction with computers.

      Intelligence amplification over artificial intelligence. In reality you can't get to AI until you've mastered IA.

    2. Like a centaur, the hybrid would have the strength of each of its components: the processing power of a large logic circuit and the intuition of a human brain’s wetware. The result: human-machine teams, even when they didn’t include the best grandmasters or most powerful computers, consistently beat teams composed solely of human grandmasters or superfast machines.

      This is what is most needed: the spark of intuition coupled with the indefatigably pursuit of its implications. We handle the former and computers the latter.

  6. Oct 2019
    1. Eyewitness News has learned that the organisation that runs the Spar supermarket franchise has instructed that a human resources audit be conducted at all the Spars owned by Chris Giannakopoulos, who has been accused of assaulting staff and unfair labour practice.Giannakopoulos first started making headlines in October last year when he was accused of beating a female employee at the Food Lover's Market store in Hartebeespoort. He was scheduled to appear in court a week ago, but that the matter was struck from the role.The Giannakopoulos Group owns and operates more than two dozen Spars and also has interests in Food Lover's Market and OK Foods.Eyewitness News has seen a Spar guild letter to Giannakopoulos in which it states that he will no longer be allowed to play in role in the management and control of the Spars in the Giannakopoulos Group.The guild says that a human resources audit will be conducted at their Spars twice a year and the group is to dispose of its interests in Food Lover's Market and OK Food.The guild warns that if the Giannakopoulos Group fails to adhere to these instructions, it will remove all the Spars from the group.Spar’s Mandy Hogan declined to answer questions related to the content of the letter but says the company does not condone criminal behavior by any person and will take appropriate action where a person is found guilty.

      https://ewn.co.za/2019/01/14/spar-issues-ultimatum-to-franchise-owner-over-compliance-with-hr-audit Eyewitness News has learned that the organisation that runs the Spar supermarket franchise has instructed that a human resources audit be conducted at all the Spars owned by Chris Giannakopoulos, who has been accused of assaulting staff and unfair labour practice.

      Giannakopoulos first started making headlines in October last year when he was accused of beating a female employee at the Food Lover's Market store in Hartebeespoort. He was scheduled to appear in court a week ago, but that the matter was struck from the role.

      The Giannakopoulos Group owns and operates more than two dozen Spars and also has interests in Food Lover's Market and OK Foods.

      Eyewitness News has seen a Spar guild letter to Giannakopoulos in which it states that he will no longer be allowed to play in role in the management and control of the Spars in the Giannakopoulos Group.

      The guild says that a human resources audit will be conducted at their Spars twice a year and the group is to dispose of its interests in Food Lover's Market and OK Food.

      The guild warns that if the Giannakopoulos Group fails to adhere to these instructions, it will remove all the Spars from the group.

      Spar’s Mandy Hogan declined to answer questions related to the content of the letter but says the company does not condone criminal behavior by any person and will take appropriate action where a person is found guilty.

    1. Annotations

      https://ewn.co.za/2019/01/14/spar-issues-ultimatum-to-franchise-owner-over-compliance-with-hr-audit

      Eyewitness News has learned that the organisation that runs the Spar supermarket franchise has instructed that a human resources audit be conducted at all the Spars owned by Chris Giannakopoulos, who has been accused of assaulting staff and unfair labour practice.

      Giannakopoulos first started making headlines in October last year when he was accused of beating a female employee at the Food Lover's Market store in Hartebeespoort. He was scheduled to appear in court a week ago, but that the matter was struck from the role.

      The Giannakopoulos Group owns and operates more than two dozen Spars and also has interests in Food Lover's Market and OK Foods.

      Eyewitness News has seen a Spar guild letter to Giannakopoulos in which it states that he will no longer be allowed to play in role in the management and control of the Spars in the Giannakopoulos Group.

      The guild says that a human resources audit will be conducted at their Spars twice a year and the group is to dispose of its interests in Food Lover's Market and OK Food.

      The guild warns that if the Giannakopoulos Group fails to adhere to these instructions, it will remove all the Spars from the group.

      Spar’s Mandy Hogan declined to answer questions related to the content of the letter but says the company does not condone criminal behavior by any person and will take appropriate action where a person is found guilty.

    1. A former union boss jailed over receiving a coal exploration licence from his friend, former NSW Labor minister Ian Macdonald, was an "entrepreneur" who found a "willing buyer" in the disgraced politician, a court has heard.

      This is a flawed proposition and both misleading and deceptive in relation to the subject matter, considering its prominence in a court media report of proceedings which largely centre on the propriety or otherwise of an approvals process.

      Using a market analogy mischaracterises the process involved in seeking and gaining approval for a proposal based on an innovative occupational health and safety concept.

      In this case, the Minister was the appropriate authority under the relevant NSW laws.

      And while Mr Maitland could indeed be described as a "entrepreneur", the phrase "willing buyer" taken literally in the context of the process to which he was constrained, could contaminate the reader's perception of the process as transactional or necessitating exchange of funds a conventional buyer and seller relationship.

      Based on evidence already tendered in open court, it's already known Mr Maitland sought both legal advice on the applicable process as well as guidance by officials and other representatives with whom he necessarily engaged.

      But the concept of finding a "willing buyer", taken literally at it's most extreme, could suggest Mr Maitland was presented with multiple approvals processes and to ultimately reach his goal, engaged in a market force-style comparative assessment of the conditions attached to each of these processes to ultimately decide on which approvals process to pursue.

      Plainly, this was not the case. Mr Maitland had sought advice on the process and proceeded accordingly.

      The only exception that could exist in relation to the availability of alternative processes could be a situation silimilar to the handling of unsolicited proposals by former Premier Barry O'Farrell over casino licenses which were not constrained by any of the regular transparency-related requirements including community engagement, notification or competitive tender.

      Again, this situation does not and could not apply to the process applicable to Mr Maitland's proposal.

      The misleading concepts introduced from the outset in this article also represent an aggravating feature of the injustice to which Mr Maitland has been subjected.

      To be found criminally culpable in a matter involving actions undertaken in an honest belief they were required in a process for which Mr Maitland both sought advice process and then at no stage was told anything that would suggest his understanding of the process was incorrect, contradicts fundamental principles of natural justice.

    1. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide readers with an opportunity to reassess their work and life in the face of an inevitable near-term social collapse due to climate change.
  7. Jul 2019
    1. across ecosystems? To take just one example, when fish stocks fall in Ghanaian seas, hunting of bushmeat goes up and 41 land-based species go into decline. As hyperkeystones, we unite the entire world in a chain of falling dominoes
    2. humans, the hyperkeystone

    1. Fear of humans as apex predators has landscape-scale impactsfrom mount ain lions to mice (2019)

      Apex predators such as large carnivores can have cascading, landscape-scale impacts across wild-life communities, which could result largely from the fear they inspire, although this has yet to be experimentally demonstrated.

      Humans have supplanted large carnivores as apex predators in many systems, and similarly pervasive impacts may now result from fear of the human ‘superpredator’.

      We conducted a landscape-scale playback experiment demonstrating that the sound of humans speaking generates a landscape of fear with pervasive effects across wildlife communities.

      • Large carnivores avoided human voices and moved more cautiously when hearing humans,
      • medium-sized carnivores became more elusive and reduced foraging.
      • Small mammals evidently benefited, increasing habitat use and foraging.

      Thus, just the sound of a predator can have landscape-scale effects at multiple trophic levels.

      Our results indicate that many of the globally observed impacts on wildlife attributed to anthropogenic activity may be explained by fear of humans.

    1. In 1996 and 1998, a pair of workshops at the University of Glasgow on information retrieval and human–computer interaction sought to address the overlap between these two fields. Marchionini notes the impact of the World Wide Web and the sudden increase in information literacy – changes that were only embryonic in the late 1990s.

      it took a half a century for these disciplines to discern their complementarity!

    1. Another prominent conclusion is that joint asset ownership is suboptimal if investments are in human capital.

      Does that have to be the case?

  8. May 2019
    1. Problems stemming from artisanal mining include disruption of families, mining-related illnesses, environmental damage, child labor, prostitution and rape.

      problems

  9. Apr 2019
    1. The idea was to reward video stars shorted by the system, such as those making sex education and music videos, which marquee advertisers found too risqué to endorse. 

      This is an interesting concept. Too often, too many people are "shorted by the system".

  10. Mar 2019
    1. 1 Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours." That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday

      Spoken by Mersault’, the novels narrator. He shows no remorse that his mother died. By him saying "that does not mean anything" in the reading introduces the idea of meaninglessness of human existence. Albert Camus moral philosophy.

    1. As several speakers noted at the Symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the famous “Mother of All Demos,” networked digital computing, at scale, amounts to one of the most powerful and potentially dangerous experiments we have ever performed on ourselves.
    1. McCulloch was a confident, gray-eyed, wild-bearded, chain-smoking philosopher-poet who lived on whiskey and ice cream and never went to bed before 4 a.m.

      Now that is a business card title!

    1. setting up objectives

      How do we augment our ability as humans to set objectives? How do we observe that process? How do we gain insight into hidden aspects and drivers of setting intention? How do we recognize our own framings? How do we re-frame? If the Anthropocene Epoch means anything, it is that our own emoto-cognitive lenses make all the difference.

    2. A composite process, remember, is organized from both human processes and computer processes

      Human-system/Tool-system fine-grained intersections and compositionalities. There are UX and UI levels here. There are likely further levels having to do with intentionalities of (semi-) autonomous Tool Systems, how they are to be guided by Human intentionalities, and - most importantly - how humans fully ascertain and guide their own intentionalities.

  11. Feb 2019
    1. You know very well 'tii-inlinitcly better lo be good than to .�eem so.

      This separation of the inner self (human) versus how others interpret your humanity is still audience focused (as mentioned above), but seems antithetical to feminism. One of the ways to receive equal treatment is to be respected--to "seem" good or, at least, worthy of respect.

    2. disuse of our Faculties we seem to have lost them if we ever had uny arc sunk into an Animal life wholly taken up with sensible objects

      She's making a cut here, where the use of certain faculties are what separate Human life from Animal life.

      By "sensible objects" does she mean those which can be sensed (tangible, concrete, as opposed to the other connotation of sensible as reasonable)? If so, then Animals are distinguished by living in a world of senses where Humans live in a world of both physical sensation and mental faculties (?).

    1. Learned vanity, which exceeds that of every other kind, still takes up arms against any thing that is offered as new

      Thinking we know everything also makes us think there's nothing left to learn.

      This has really important consequences in terms of post-humanist thinking! If we presume that there is a true definition of anything, we are allowing experience, culture, language to limit us. It is better to presume an every shifting definition of the human that responds to the situation at hand. Starting a discussion of the human with the idea that we all obviously know what a human is, is extremely limiting.

    2. or language, in its full extent, means, any way or method whatsoever, by which all that passes in the mind of one man

      A somewhat indirect construction of human? Language is located in the mind? Therefore, humans have minds that they use for language? Or language that they use for minds?

    3. articulate

      Articulate:

      Definition: (noun) Having or showing the ability to speak fluently and coherently; having joints or jointed segments; (verb) pronounce (something) clearly and distinctly; express (an idea or feeling) fluently and coherently; form a joint.

      Origin: Mid-16th century: from Latin articulatus, past participle of articulare ‘divide into joints, utter distinctly’, from articulus ‘small connecting part.

    4. he same in all nations, and consequently can e

      So while words vary widely and have no direct relation to the ideas they represent, tone is universal. Here we have another claim about the human: it is one who uses tone in a certain way.

    5. ing from what

      This seems like a break from Locke, and possibly even from Hume.

      A hu(man) has things other than ideas running through its mind.

    6. For they who are born deaf, can make themselves understood by visible signs; and we have it on the best authority, that the Mimes of the Ancients, were perfectly intelli-gible, without the use of words.

      Sheridan looks for a definition of language that holds weight across multiple types of humans and cultural techniques (people who are deaf, mimes, the literate). Is he then perhaps exploring the question "which languages?" instead of "what is language?"

    1. of nonverbal communication.

      Watzlawick, Bavelas, and Jackson in "The pragmatics of Human communication lists five axioms. The first axiom is "one cannot not communicate" or that every human behavior is a form of communication. Nonverbal communication is its own discipline in communication studies.

    1. fcction

      The idea of or desire for perfection is common through this week's readings. What impact does that desire have on these authors' views on humanity and what's human?

      How also does that desire war (agonisticly?) with the idea that man is flawed ("No doubt all that man is given to know is, like man himself, limited and imperfect," below)?

    2. \·e11.m.\· c·o1111111111i

      Oxford reference: "Not common sense in its ordinary meaning, but in Aristotle (De Anima, II, 1–2) and following him Aquinas and others, a central cognitive function that integrates and monitors the delivery of the other distinct senses, as when a shape is both seen and felt."

      Kant discusses this concept extensively, but his definition is closer to "common sense" than Aristotle's.

    1. Perfect or Right Orations, but Adulterated, or rather Hermophrodites.

      Like Hume's use of pervert, deform, and defect, there's an assumption of the human and the ideal here

    1. affect the mind of a peasant or Indian with lhe highest admiration

      Another set of cuts here (and with the "person, familiarized to superior beauties").

      Those who have limited exposure to observe or practice (and thereby to increase refinement of taste) are in another category altogether.

      Who is cut off by the inability to increase taste and whose voices are silenced?

    2. And if the same qualities, in a continued composition and in a smaller degree, affect not the organs with a sensible delight or uneasiness, we exclude the person from all pretensions to this delicacy.

      Limitations are being set. If organs cannot be affected or if the affect isn't "sensible", what of the one experiencing it?

    3. o far only as it is beneficial {l,16�(' or hurtful to the true believers.

      By nature, humans are selfish. We're always thinking, whether consciously or not, "what's in it for me?" We deem actions that have a potential benefit to us as praiseworthy, while label unbeneficial actions as hurtful.

    1. he fault of the man,

      And now back to flaws in comprehension (instead of language), so what is the implication of that 'man's' failing? There's the caveat "yet" leaving open the possibility that the 'man' has simply not encountered the name or devoted time to learning it, but what of the 'man' who has attempted both and still fails?

    2. an imperfection rather upon our words than understandings

      Hm, okay. So what I took (above) as comments on humanity, Locke is saying are comments on language. (Or is it both?)

    3. Who ever that had a mind to under· stand them mistook the ordinary meaning

      Locke assumes that such a person does not exist, defining human as "one who understands all simple modes/ideas."

    4. much easier got, and more clearly retained

      And if one does not "get" or "retain" what's deemed a "simple idea," what does that mean for that one's sense of self or personhood?

      Does that mean the concept of the simple changes or does the person's status change?

    5. which another has not organs of faculties to attain; as the names of colours to a blind man, or sounds to a deaf man, need not here be mentioned.

      Restrictions on intelligibility and comprehension, which by extension imply a restriction on what's human or universal

    1. hound up in human reason. pas­sion, and imagination; that human beings function in social groups an<l arc limited by historical circumstances

      Sounds like the human-measure doctrine and casuistry. Vico = 18th C sophist. He's a bit dour, though:

  12. Jan 2019
    1. The machine-beings that emerge from these couplings thus demon-strate a different form of identity, o

      I had to come back to this when I had a memory flash-back. My oldest daughter had Polio before we adopted her from China. For years she had to wear a full leg brace (KAFO) to keep her from hyper-extending her weak and somewhat underdeveloped leg. At first people assumed the brace was temporary, but eventually she started calling it her "bionic leg." It worked. People laughed. It opened up a conversation about her leg rather than making it an object of negative conjecture.

      So, to diffuse ideas about disability, difference, and "other," she took on the identity of a cyborg, which acted rhetorically and psychologically on herself and others to diminish the "other" distinction. Calling herself a cyborg became a rhetoric of inclusion.

    2. . In eXistenZ, however, the characters are notall cyborg-style hybrids, wherein the category of the human must first beimagined as relatively discrete in order for it to be connected to (andpotentially troubled by) its Others (human plus machine). Many of thehuman characters in this film exist simply as sites of information ex-change—material entities produced by and teeming with swarms ofothers (codes, identities, technologies, knowledges, and so forth). In

      As opposed to the robots in WestWorld: they look human, they have skin and blood, but the emphasis is mostly on the code that makes them behave in certain ways.

      I wouldn't say that I consider the "hosts" in WestWorld to be cyborgs--they are not part machine, part human-- they are all machine. Or is skin the definition of human? How much human material does it take to be cyborg?

    3. to foreclose any easy distinctio

      Foreclose: To bar, exclude, shut out completely, but also many other senses, including to take away the power of redeeming or to close beforehand http://www.oed.com.ezp.slu.edu/view/Entry/72991?redirectedFrom=foreclose#eid

      I think this phrase lies at the heart of where I'm wrapping my head around what posthumanism means. As Dr. Rivers said in class, there's this assumption of the human (the 'easy distinction' of what the human is), but when we foreclose--when we do away with--that ease, we might consider posthumanism as "post (the assumption of what it means to be) human". Instead of assuming we have a good/clear/universal understanding of what it is to be "human," posthumanism does away with that assumption and instead seeks to explore, to ask questions, to address multiple and varied possible definitions (like we do with rhetoric).

    4. nt fear of biological and software infecti

      The fear of infection and death is still present in the post human world.

    5. require a different kind of response.

      Perhaps this is akin to asking "which one?" instead of "what is?"

    6. hile posthuman reinscriptions of thebody and subjectivity do not return us to the category of the human, theydo not function as a refusal of that category either. Tha

      A great distinction to make--we're not refusing or negating the socially-accepted idea of human; rather, we are challenging its narrowness and examining it as a "carrier bag," asking ourselves "which one?"

      SHAMELESS PLUG FROM LAST WEEK'S DISCUSSION.

    1. they were human, fully human, bashing, sticking, thrusting, killing

      One definition of being human

    2. if to do thatis human, if that's what it tak§, tnen I am a human being after all. 'Fully, freely, gladly, for tneficst time.

      I have to bring up James Cone and Albert Camus again -- but this time I'm reminded of Camus' The Rebel) and this paragraph from Cone's Black Power and Black Theology: "The crucial question, then, for the black man, is 'How should I respond to a world which defines me as a nonperson?' That he is a person is beyond question, not debatable. But when he attempts to relate as a person, the world demands that he respond as a thing. In this existential absurdity, what should he do? Should he respond as he knows himself to be, or as the world defines him?" Rebellion is what Cone, Camus, and Le Guin decide to do when they redefine what it means to be a person, to be human.

    3. heroes rhey have people in them.

      Is she saying that heroes are not human (people)?

    4. It is the story that hid my humanity from me

      i.e. one story's version of being human compared to another.Similar to what I was saying in the prior paragraph.

    5. f to do thatis human, if that's what it tak§, tnen I am a human being after all. 'Fully, freely, gladly, for tneficst time.

      This brings us back to the point that the definition of human is similar to the definition of rhetoric. The more you try to define either, the more confusing and exclusionary each can get. Just like rhetoric, there is no one way to define human, but instead you stack all definitions on top of each other, without one superseding the others. The definitions are also situational, like Le Guin being human by this definition, but not by the previous one about killing.

    6. The society, the civilization they were talking about, these theoreti-cians, was evidently theirs; they owned it, they liked it; they were human, fully human, bashing, sticking, thrusting, killing. Wanting to be human too, I sought for evidence that I was; but if that's what it took, to make a weapon and kill with it, then evidently I was either extremely defective as a human being, or not human at all. That's right, they said. What you are is a woman. Possibly not human at all, certainly defective. Now be quiet while we go on telling the Story of the Ascent of Man the Hero

      Le Guin gives a definition of what it means to be human; the idea of theorists that humans must kill. Then, she makes it clear that this isn't the only definition of human, considering she's human and wouldn't/couldn't act in such a way. Then there's this awesome and gross little paragraph about women possibly not being human, but rather, defective and unworthy of having a say. Ouch.

    7. home being another, larger kind of pouch or bag, a con-tainer for people, and then later on you take it out and eat it or share it or store it up for winter in a solider container or put it in the medicine bundle or the shrine or the museum, the holy place, the area that contains what is sacred,

      These places, these larger containers, have their own purposes and functions, and, according to Rickert's Ambient Rhetoric, they also have a rhetoric of their own. They speak to us in various ways. For Le Guin, these containers speak of her status as human, enable her to feel part of humankind.

    1. we are partofthe worldin its ongoing intra-activity

      This brings to mind Protagoras's human-measure doctrine. The only way to know the world is through the lens of our humanity; we are inherently part of the world and are literally unable to remove ourselves from it in order to see it any other way.

    2. But representationalism (like “nature itself,” notmerely our representations of it!) has a history.

      Is it our human nature to always perform our identity? can we ever separate ourselves from it?

    1. With approximately half of variance in cognitive task performance having non-g sources of variance, we believe that other traits may be important in explaining cognitive performance of both non-Western and Western groups.

      Another important implication of the study.

    2. Although we believe that this study establishes the presence of g in data from these non-Western cultures, this study says nothing about the relative level of general cognitive ability in various societies, nor can it be used to make cross-cultural comparisons. For this purpose, one must establish measurement invariance of a test across different cultural groups (e.g., Holding et al., 2018) to ensure that test items and tasks function in a similar way for each group.

      This is absolutely essential to understanding the implications of the article.

    3. Two peer reviewers raised the possibility that developmental differences across age groups could be a confounding variable because a g factor may be weaker in children than adults.

      Colom also suggested this (see link above). The fact that three people independently had this concern that age could be a moderator variable is telling. I'm glad the peer reviewers had us do this post hoc analysis.

    4. some of these data sets were collected by individuals who are skeptical of the existence or primacy of g in general or in non-Western cultures (e.g., Hashmi et al., 2010; Hashmi, Tirmizi, Shah, & Khan, 2011; O’Donnell et al., 2012; Pitchford & Outhwaite, 2016; Stemler et al., 2009; Sternberg et al., 2001, 2002). One would think that these investigators would be most likely to include variables in their data sets that would form an additional factor. Yet, with only three ambiguous exceptions (Grigorenko et al., 2006; Gurven et al., 2017), these researchers’ data still produced g.

      This is particularly strong evidence for me. If g doesn't exist, these researchers would be the most likely ones to gather data to show that.

    5. The mean sample size of the remaining data sets was 539.6 (SD = 1,574.5). The large standard deviation in relationship to the mean is indicative of the noticeably positively skewed distribution of sample sizes, a finding supported by the much smaller median of 170 and skewness value of 6.297. There were 16,559 females (33.1%), 25,431 males (48.6%), and 10,350 individuals whose gender was unreported (19.8%). The majority of samples—62 of 97 samples (63.9%)—consisted entirely or predominantly of individuals below 18. Most of the remaining samples contained entirely or predominantly adults (32 data sets, 33.0%), and the remaining 3 datasets (3.1%) had an unknown age range or an unknown mix of adults and children). The samples span nearly the entire range of life span development, from age 2 to elderly individuals.

      My colleague, Roberto Colom, stated in his blog (link below) that he would have discarded samples with fewer than 100 individuals. This is a legitimate analysis decision. See his other commentary (in Spanish) at https://robertocolom.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/la-universalidad-del-factor-general-de-inteligencia-g/

    6. Alternatively, one could postulate that a general cognitive ability is a Western trait but not a universal trait among humans, but this would require an evolutionary model where this general ability evolved several times independently throughout the mammalian clade, including separately in the ancestors of Europeans after they migrated out of Africa and separated from other human groups. Such a model requires (a) a great deal of convergent evolution to occur across species occupying widely divergent environmental niches and (b) an incredibly rapid development of a general cognitive ability while the ancestors of Europeans were under extremely strong selection pressures that other humans did not experience (but other mammal species or their ancestors would have experienced at other times). We find the more parsimonious model of an evolutionary origin of the general cognitive ability in the early stages of mammalian development to be the more plausible one, and thus we believe that it is reasonable to expect a general cognitive ability to be a universal human trait.

      It was this reasoning that led to the decision to conduct this study. There is mounting evidence that g exists in other mammalian species, and it definitely exists in Western cultures. It seemed really unlikely that it would not exist in non-Western groups. But I couldn't find any data about the issue. So, time to do a study!

    7. Investigating cultural beliefs about intelligence may be mildly interesting from an anthropological perspective, but it sheds little light on the nature of intelligence. One undiscussed methodological problem in many studies of cultural perspectives on intelligence is the reliance on surveys of laymen to determine what people in a given culture believe about intelligence. This methodology says little about the actual nature of intelligence.

      After the manuscript was accepted for publication and the proofs turned in, I re-discovered the following from Gottfredson (2003, p. 362): ". . . lay beliefs are interesting but their value for scientific theories of intelligence is limited to hypothesis generation. Even if the claim were true, then, it would provide no evidence for the truth of any intelligence theory . . ."

      Gottfredson, L. S. (2003). Dissecting practical intelligence theory: Its claims and evidence. Intelligence, 31, 343-397. doi:10.1016/S0160-2896(02)00085-5

    8. Panga Munthu test of intelligence

      To me, this is the way to create tests of intelligence for non-Western cultures: find skills and manifestations of intelligence that are culturally appropriate for a group of examinees and use those skills to tap g. Cross-cultural testing would require identifying skills that are valued or developed in both cultures.

    9. Berry (1986)

      John W. Berry is a cross-cultural psychologist whose work stretches back over 50 years. He takes the position (e.g., Berry, 1986) that definitions of intelligence are culturally-specific and are bound up with the skills cultures encourage and that the environment requires people to develop. Therefore, he does not see Western definitions as applying to most groups.

      After this study, my position is more nuanced approach. I agree with Berry that the manifestations of intelligence can vary from culture to culture, but that underneath these surface features is g in all humans.

    1. We regularly, in the interests of Plato-worship, disembody language and reason, with the narrow-mindedness Mark Johnson points out in an important recent book, The Body in the Mindl3 Our persistent evasion of the "Q" question makes for a great deal of self-centered, self-serving preaching and a great deal of self-satisfied practice. We do sometimes follow that master of contemptuous, self-satisfied self-absorp-tion, the Platonic Socrates, closely indeed.

      This reminds me of Albert Camus' thoughts on absurdity, and what James Cone says in his book Black Theology and Black Power: "All aspects of this society have participated in the act of enslaving blacks, extinguishing Indians, and annihilating all who question white society's right to decide who is human....Absurdity arises as the black man seeks to understand his place in the white world. The black man does not view himself as absurd; he views himself as human. But as he meets the white world and its values, he is confronted with an almighty No and is defined as a thing. This produces the absurdity."

    2. Train someone in it and, according co Quintilian's way of thinking, you have trained that person to be virtuous. "Virtuosity is some evidence of virtue." To chink of this at/through toggle switch as "virtuous," as implicitly moral, is to com-prehend the deeply felt "reasoning" behind Quintilian's evasive answer to his own question and to glimpse, perhaps, the beginnings of a legitimate explanation of, and justification for, what the humanities do--or at least can do.

      The image of Lady Justice popped into my head as I was reading this, and I was particularly thinking about her blindfold and how it's meant to represent impartiality, the philosphical ideal that "justice should be applied "without regard to wealth, power, or other status." Upon looking at her Wikipedia page, I discovered that Lady Justice did not originally wear a blindfold because her "maidenly form" guaranteed her impartiality. If we're "toggling" between rhetoric and philosophy here, then it must also be argued that we're "toggling" between the feminine and the masculine. And If sex/gender was once what qualified someone to be impartial, how does this complicate the idea of virtue/training someone to be virtuous? How does it complicate our understanding of what the humanities do/can do? How does it help us work at/through what/who was/is/could be considered human?

    3. his great curricular judgment Day when all things rruu human-ist specialization has rent apart will come together, though we continually believe in and plan on it, continues to elude us.

      If such an event did occur, would we even be able to handle it as humans, as we are now? Do we fear that this would too explicitly showcase the complexities we try so hard to ignore, as well as our own limitations?

    4. As with Ramus, reason is one thing, and primary; rhetoric is another, derivative and cosmetic. Permitted in the service of n ch, it is otherwise an abomination.

      I read this as: Reason = primary = (hu)man/masculine Rhetoric = other = woman/feminine

      To be a woman is to be other. To be other is to be an abomination and, therefore, not human.

    1. We believe that members of the public likely learn some inaccurate information about intelligence in their psychology courses. The good news about this implication is that reducing the public’s mistaken beliefs about intelligence will not take a massive public education campaign or public relations blitz. Instead, improving the public’s understanding about intelligence starts in psychology’s own backyard with improving the content of undergraduate courses and textbooks.

      To me, this is the "take home" message of the article. I hope psychology educators do more to improve the accuracy of their lessons about intelligence. I also hope more programs add a course on the topic to their curriculum.

    2. This means that it is actually easier to measure intelligence than many other psychological constructs. Indeed, some individuals trying to measure other constructs have inadvertently created intelligence tests

      When I learned this, it blew my mind.

    3. many psychologists simply accept an operational definition of intelligence by spelling out the procedures they use to measure it. . . . Thus, by selecting items for an intelligence test, a psychologist is saying in a direct way, “This is what I mean by intelligence.” A test that measures memory, reasoning, and verbal fluency offers a very different definition of intelligence than one that measures strength of grip, shoe size, hunting skills, or the person’s best Candy Crush mobile game score. (p. 290)

      Ironically, there is research showing that video game performance is positively correlated with intelligence test scores (e.g., Angeles Quiroga et al., 2015; Foroughi, Serraino, Parasuraman, & Boehm-Davis, 2016).

      Not every inaccurate statement in the textbooks was as silly as this one. Readers would benefit from browsing Supplemental File 2, which

    4. Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study

      This is a study begun in the 1970s of African American, interracial, and other minority group children who had been adopted by White families in Minnesota. The 1976 results indicated large IQ boosts (about 12 points) for adopted African American children at age 6, compared to the average IQ for African Americans in general. However, the 1992 report shows that the advantage had faded to about 6 points when the children were aged 17 years. Generally, intelligence experts see this landmark study as supporting both "nature" and "nurture."

    5. the Stanford-Binet intelligence test

      Although the Stanford-Binet is historically important, the Wechsler family of intelligence tests have been more popular since the 1970s.

    6. Some readers will also be surprised to find that The Bell Curve is not as controversial as its reputation would lead one to believe (and most of the book is not about race at all).

      I wrote this sentence. Two coauthors, three peer reviewers, and an editor all read it multiple times. No one ever asked for it to be changed.

    7. Gardner’s multiple intelligences

      I have a Twitter moment that analyzes Gardner's book "Frames of Mind" and shows why this theory is poorly supported by empirical data. https://twitter.com/i/moments/1064036271847161857

    8. Most frequently this appeared in the form of a tacit acknowledgment that IQ test scores correlate with academic success, followed by a quick denial that the scores are important for anything else in life
    9. this study highlights the mismatch between scholarly consensus on intelligence and the beliefs of the general public

      Christian Jarrett of the The British Psychological Society found this as the main message of the article. Read his blog post at https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/03/08/best-selling-introductory-psychology-books-give-a-misleading-view-of-intelligence/

    10. Judged solely by the number of factually inaccurate statements, the textbooks we examined were mostly accurate.

      A blog post by James Thompson (psychology professor emeritus at University College London) has a much more acerbic response to the study than this. See his blog post for a contrasting viewpoint: http://www.unz.com/jthompson/fear-and-loathing-in-psychology/

    11. We found that 79.3% of textbooks contained inaccurate statements and 79.3% had logical fallacies in their sections about intelligence.
    12. Gottfredson’s (1997a) mainstream statement on intelligence

      This article is a classic, and it is required reading in my undergraduate human intelligence course. If you only have time to read 1 article about intelligence, this should be it.

    1. Reflective Design Strategies In addition shaping our principles or objectives, our foundational influences and case studies have also helped us articulate strategies for reflective design. The first three strategies identified here speak to characteristics of designs that encourage reflection by users. The second group of strategies provides ways for reflecting on the process of design.

      verbatim from subheads in this section

      1.Provide for interpretive flexibility.

      2.Give users license to participate.

      3.Provide dynamic feedback to users.

      4.Inspire rich feedback from users.

      5.Build technology as a probe.

      6.Invert metaphors and cross boundaries.

    2. Some Reflective Design Challenges

      The reflective design strategies offer potential design interventions but lack advice on how to evaluate them against each other.

      "Designing for appropriation requires recognizing that users already interact with technology not just on a superficial, task-centered level, but with an awareness of the larger social and cultural embeddedness of the activity."

    3. Principles of Reflective Design

      verbatim from subheads in this section

      1. Designers should use reflection to uncover and alter the limitations of design practice

      2. Designers should use reflection to re-understand their own role in the technology design process.

      3. Designers should support users in reflecting on their lives.

      4. Technology should support skepticism about and reinterpretation of its own working.

      5. Reflection is not a separate activity from action but is folded into it as an integral part of experience

      6. Dialogic engagement between designers and users through technology can enhance reflection.

    4. Reflective design, like reflection-in-action, advocates practicing research and design concomitantly, and not only as separate disciplines. We also subscribe to a view of reflection as a fully engaged interaction and not a detached assessment. Finally, we draw from the observation that reflection is often triggered by an element of surprise, where someone moves from knowing-in-action, operating within the status quo, to reflection-in-action, puzzling out what to do next or why the status quo has been disrupted

      Influences from reflection-in-action for reflective design values/methods.

    5. In this effort, reflection-in-action provides a ground for uniting theory and practice; whereas theory presents a view of the world in general principles and abstract problem spaces, practice involves both building within these generalities and breaking them down.

      A more improvisational, intuitive and visceral process of rethinking/challenging the initial design frame.

      Popular with HCI and CSCW designers

    6. CTP is a key method for reflective design, since it offers strategies to bring unconscious values to the fore by creating technical alternatives. In our work, we extend CTP in several ways that make it particularly appropriate for HCI and critical computing.

      Ways in which Senger, et al., describe how to extend CTP for HCI needs:

      • incorporate both designer/user reflection on technology use and its design

      • integrate reflection into design even when there is no specific "technical impasse" or metaphor breakdown

      • driven by critical concerns, not simply technical problems

    7. CTP synthesizes critical reflection with technology production as a way of highlighting and altering unconsciously-held assumptions that are hindering progress in a technical field.

      Definition of critical technical practice.

      This approach is grounded in AI rather than HCI

      (verbatim from the paper) "CTP consists of the following moves:

      • identifying the core metaphors of the field

      • noticing what, when working with those metaphors, remains marginalized

      • inverting the dominant metaphors to bring that margin to the center

      • embodying the alternative as a new technology

    8. Ludic design promotes engagement in the exploration and production of meaning, providing for curiosity, exploration and reflection as key values. In other words, ludic design focuses on reflection and engagement through the experience of using the designed object.

      Definition of ludic design.

      Offers a more playful approach than critical design.

    9. goal is to push design research beyond an agenda of reinforcing values of consumer culture and to instead embody cultural critique in designed artifacts. A critical designer designs objects not to do what users want and value, but to introduce both designers and users to new ways of looking at the world and the role that designed objects can play for them in it.

      Definition of critical design.

      This approach tends to be more art-based and intentionally provocative than a practical design method to inculcate a certain sensibility into the technology design process.

    10. value-sensitive design method (VSD). VSD provides techniques to elucidate and answer values questions during the course of a system's design.

      Definition of value-sensitive design.

      (verbatim from the paper)

      *"VSD employs three methods :

      • conceptual investigations drawing on moral philosophy, which identify stakeholders, fundamental values, and trade-offs among values pertinent to the design

      • empirical investigations using social-science methods to uncover how stakeholders think about and act with respect to the values involved in the system

      • technical investigations which explore the links between specific technical decisions and the values and practices they aid and hinder" *

    11. From participatory design, we draw several core principles, most notably the reflexive recognition of the politics of design practice and a desire to speak to the needs of multiple constituencies in the design process.

      Description of participatory design which has a more political angle than user-centered design, with which it is often equated in HCI

    12. PD strategies tend to be used to support existing practices identified collaboratively by users and designers as a design-worthy project. While values clashes between designers and different users can be elucidated in this collaboration, the values which users and designers share do not necessarily go examined. For reflective design to function as a design practice that opens new cultural possibilities, however, we need to question values which we may unconsciously hold in common. In addition, designers may need to introduce values issues which initially do not interest users or make them uncomfortabl

      Differences between participatory design practices and reflective design

    13. We define 'reflection' as referring tocritical reflection, orbringing unconscious aspects of experience to conscious awareness, thereby making them available for conscious choice. This critical reflection is crucial to both individual freedom and our quality of life in society as a whole, since without it, we unthinkingly adopt attitudes, practices, values, and identities we might not consciously espouse. Additionally, reflection is not a purely cognitive activity, but is folded into all our ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

      Definition of critical reflection

    14. Our perspective on reflection is grounded in critical theory, a Western tradition of critical reflection embodied in various intellectual strands including Marxism, feminism, racial and ethnic studies, media studies and psychoanalysis.

      Definition of critical theory

    15. ritical theory argues that our everyday values, practices, perspectives, and sense of agency and self are strongly shaped by forces and agendas of which we are normally unaware, such as the politics of race, gender, and economics. Critical reflection provides a means to gain some awareness of such forces as a first step toward possible change.

      Critical theory in practice

    16. We believe that, for those concerned about the social implications of the technologies we build, reflection itself should be a core technology design outcome for HCI. That is to say, technology design practices should support both designers and users in ongoing critical reflection about technology and its relationship to human life.

      Critical reflection can/should support designers and users.

  13. Dec 2018
    1. Outliers : All data sets have an expected range of values, and any actual data set also has outliers that fall below or above the expected range. (Space precludes a detailed discussion of how to handle outliers for statistical analysis purposes, see: Barnett & Lewis, 1994 for details.) How to clean outliers strongly depends on the goals of the analysis and the nature of the data.

      Outliers can be signals of unanticipated range of behavior or of errors.

    2. Understanding the structure of the data : In order to clean log data properly, the researcher must understand the meaning of each record, its associated fi elds, and the interpretation of values. Contextual information about the system that produced the log should be associated with the fi le directly (e.g., “Logging system 3.2.33.2 recorded this fi le on 12-3-2012”) so that if necessary the specifi c code that gener-ated the log can be examined to answer questions about the meaning of the record before executing cleaning operations. The potential misinterpretations take many forms, which we illustrate with encoding of missing data and capped data values.

      Context of the data collection and how it is structured is also a critical need.

      Example, coding missing info as "0" risks misinterpretation rather than coding it as NIL, NDN or something distinguishable from other data

    3. Data transformations : The goal of data-cleaning is to preserve the meaning with respect to an intended analysis. A concomitant lesson is that the data-cleaner must track all transformations performed on the data .

      Changes to data during clean up should be annotated.

      Incorporate meta data about the "chain of change" to accompany the written memo

    4. Data Cleaning A basic axiom of log analysis is that the raw data cannot be assumed to correctly and completely represent the data being recorded. Validation is really the point of data cleaning: to understand any errors that might have entered into the data and to transform the data in a way that preserves the meaning while removing noise. Although we discuss web log cleaning in this section, it is important to note that these principles apply more broadly to all kinds of log analysis; small datasets often have similar cleaning issues as massive collections. In this section, we discuss the issues and how they can be addressed. How can logs possibly go wrong ? Logs suffer from a variety of data errors and distortions. The common sources of errors we have seen in practice include:

      Common sources of errors:

      • Missing events

      • Dropped data

      • Misplaced semantics (encoding log events differently)

    5. In addition, real world events, such as the death of a major sports fi gure or a political event can often cause people to interact with a site differently. Again, be vigilant in sanity checking (e.g., look for an unusual number of visitors) and exclude data until things are back to normal.

      Important consideration for temporal event RQs in refugee study -- whether external events influence use of natural disaster metaphors.

    6. Recording accurate and consistent time is often a challenge. Web log fi les record many different timestamps during a search interaction: the time the query was sent from the client, the time it was received by the server, the time results were returned from the server, and the time results were received on the client. Server data is more robust but includes unknown network latencies. In both cases the researcher needs to normalize times and synchronize times across multiple machines. It is common to divide the log data up into “days,” but what counts as a day? Is it all the data from midnight to midnight at some common time reference point or is it all the data from midnight to midnight in the user’s local time zone? Is it important to know if people behave differently in the morning than in the evening? Then local time is important. Is it important to know everything that is happening at a given time? Then all the records should be converted to a common time zone.

      Challenges of using time-based log data are similar to difficulties in the SBTF time study using Slack transcripts, social media, and Google Sheets

    7. 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

    8. 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.

    9. 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)

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

    11. 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

    12. 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.

  14. 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

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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
  19. 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’.
  20. 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

  21. 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.

  22. 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!

  23. 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.

    Tags

    Annotators

  24. 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

  25. 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.

  26. 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. 
  27. May 2017
  28. 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.

  29. Mar 2017
  30. 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.
  31. Dec 2016