4
POPSFree will or free won't? A well written (apart from some typos towards the end), balanced and thoughtful piece on Mind/brain and free will/decision making, with a handful of Buddhism thrown in for good measure (which there should be, given the nature of the blog). The only bit which I balked at, but which has a grain of truth, was the comment that the scientists found a particular result because it was the one they wanted to find. Certainly often true, but in this case I am not sure that it is an entirely fair criticism.
4
POPSKnowledge is a verb? I describe meaning as a verb in my work, but I am not so sure about knowledge being one. I will have to read this, I think.
3
POPSGlad to see someone else mentioning it... Too many people seem to believe science gets hard objective answers. It doesn't. And even if it did, the interpretation of the communicated results would necessarily be subjective, based on the previous experience of the recipient.
2
POPSResearch shows people have offline lives too Amazing. Apparently, one can't assume everyone is the same - some people use Facebook and others don't. And people from different social groupings tend to use similar social networking sites. Shock. What is interesting, to my mind, is that correlation between college educated parents and facebook use. Getting a degree condemns your kids to a lifetime of facebooking ;-)
2
POPSRobert Wright on his interview with Dan Dennett I confess to having a problem with this. There is no reason to suppose that there is a 'higher' purpose just because something heads in a particular direction. It is fair to say that if something has a purpose it will head in one direction, as otherwise it probably isn't well designed. But if something is not designed, it can still have directionality. To ascribe the idea of design purely on the basis of directionality is the same as ascribing the quality of being a football to things just because they are more or less round. Heads up, people.
2
POPSDistributed Self Ahhh good stuff. Thanks to George Siemens who referenced this blog on his. If we are distributing self, and the components of our self are locally similar to components of other selves, can we, or someone else, aggregate new selves from the parts? :-)
2
POPSOptimism on the climate crisis? Reasons to be optimistic - bascially you have the chance to be a hero. You will be remembered for being the generation which saved the world from climate crisis - basically because if we don't save it, there won't be anyone around to remember us...
2
POPSLearn to learn OK, I really like the look of this (not so much the visual style, but the course material etc) - v.useful for adult learners and community based learning, I think
2
POPSLeontyev, 1981, Problems of the Development of the Mind Looking good there, until the last two sentences. Meaning is the ideal mental form of the crystallization of mankind's social experience and social practice, and therefore can only exist in a subjective reality born of consensual negotiation, albeit to facilitate communication about objective phenomena.
2
POPSConnectivism, Facebook, Informal learning All good stuff, even if I probably shouldn't clip google results (I must work out whether this is allowable etiquette or not one day!) Anderson has poorly designed slides (!) but covers a lot of important topics, and rather nicely draws out the differences between groups, networks and collectives, I feel. Vive la revolution!
2
POPSInstant Syndicating Worth a look at some point. The guy behind it added me as a friend on Facebook, which piqued my interest mildly, but a raging headache means I am not going to follow it up right now!
2
POPSConzilla Shame about the license, and personally I get timeouts when trying to launch it via Java web start, but apart from that it looks cool.
1
POPSLearning 2.0 I think I would rate this as a "must read" (the eBook, that is. The blog is also good)
1
POPSOne rule for you... OK, cards on the table, I think this is patently ridiculous. However, if people like the Archbishop think we should have separate laws for separate groups, can I show my stark hypocrisy and demand a law that says that everyone called Pat must be tithed 10% of the state's total tax revenue? I think that is only fair...
1
POPSHow the mind produces optimism Of course, a problem with the mind modeling the future based on past events is that, as we haven't died yet, it is reasonable to have the "it won't happen to me" attitude, which means that we are, naturally, invincible. On the other hand, this same mechanism explains why I will never have a wonderful loving relationship - because all the ones I have been in the past have ended, and thus my mind is happy to tell me that such things can never work out properly. Only if we have a mechanism for deciding to try things despite them being destined to fail in our mental models can we get on and do things - that, or losing our memories might just work too!
1
POPSTechnology Stewards My only real problem with this definition is that a nascent community tends to need a technology steward, but when it is just forming, nobody can really have enough experience of the way it works. At this point, it is crucially important for the Technology Steward to make sure that the technology can support the developing nature of the community, and where it doesn't, it should support migration to one which is better suited.
1
POPSPerspective I wish I could read German so I could try to read the original, despite the obvious caveats. This blog is particularly good.
1
POPSCompulsory volunteering Apart from the small issue that clearly this Scotsman doesn't speak English terribly well (although he also probably believes in the concept of honest politicians or intelligent government), the general concept of encouraging people to do some community service is good. Apart from a couple of issues - people who insist others should do some community work should, and I really mean should, do at least as much comunity work first to prove they aren't just seeing it as a means of gaining cheap labour. The entirity of our political system should do at least 50 hours community work before they pass this bill. The other thing is that "community service" is a well established punishment. How would you feel if JohhnyX, 21, down the road got sentenced to 30 hours community service for some misdemeanour, whilst you as an innodent, fresh faced young 17yr old suddenly got sentenced to 50 hours because some idiot in Government thought it would bring in a few votes?
1
POPSLess HE students likely over next 15 years Of course, that is not necessarily true, as it depends on immigration and emigration. But if we assume for the moment that those will balance each other out, the 18-21yr old band is set to shrink dramatically over the next 15 years in the UK. Of course, there is also the issue of all those pensioners - life expectancies are rising fairly rapidly, so there is a good chance that we will have increasing numbers of pensioners, in good health, kicking their heels looking for something to do. As their pensions will probably allow them to afford, say, a nice pack of rich tea biscuits once a fortnight, they may well want to go to university to cross skill so they can get some sort of exciting and stimulating job to help them afford the ever rising energy bills. If they are allowed to retire, that is.
1
POPSMore on modelling the 'other' More I haven't had time to read, but which I want to get hold of, based on the comments on this page. And, of course, I want to track down the author of this comment, and the others who have replied to this blog. Does anyone else have the increasing problem of there being far too much to read and far too little time?
Most Pops
see Most Pops
3
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update