Phil and Stephen, from The Speculist, talk about the importance of Memes and ask "How important are ideas in shaping the future"?
Tagged with “thought”
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Do Memes Shape Our Future? (part 1 Of 2)
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KQED Forum - The End Of Solitude
The advent of new technologies like text messaging and online social networking makes it easier to connect with friends far and wide, but at what cost? We talk with literary critic William Deresiewicz about the repercussions of hyper-connectivity and a generation that, he argues, seems unable to tolerate solitude and quiet reflection.
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Aloud: How We Decide
In conversation with Dr. Larry Swanson, Appleman Professor of Biological Sciences, USC, Jonah Lehrer, the author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist and creator of the Frontal Cortex blog draws on cutting-edge research and the real-world experience of a wide range of "deciders" to arm us with the tools we need to think harder (and smarter) about how we think.
http://kcet.org/local/podcasts/aloud/2009/03/how-we-decide.html
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Karl Fast—Is Interaction Necessary (IAS09)
Karl Fast’s talk from IA Summit 2009. Awesome, thought-provoking stuff.
Tagged with ias09 cognition thought interaction design epistemic value usability
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Steven Pinker on The Bat Segundo Show
In this heady conversation, noted cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers a number of questions about phrases, languages, and other topics pertaining to The Stuff of Thought.
Subjects Discussed: The Starbucks coffee cup size hierarchy, L.A. Story, “divorce project” and unusual noun phrase connotations, perceptive illusions in language, connotation and denotation, polysemy, campus slang and being hip, euphemisms, the unpredictable nature of words and terminology, the origins of “spam,” the absence of specific terms, locative elements of verbs, meanings and brute memorization, “giggle” vs. “Google,” profanity, offensive language, the difficulties of the surname “Koch,” groups adopting pejorative terms, Lenny Bruce’s infamous routines, dysphemisms, whether the Internet truly reflects language, Overheard in New York, William Safire’s columns, linguists being forever behind the language curve, the origins of “not” (from Wayne’s World) and “my bad,” Jerry Fodor’s extreme nativism vs. reductionism, cultural colloquies vs. cultural status, George Lakoff and language as metaphor, the inevitability of metaphor within certain occupations, language and politics, the brain as a computer, the Declaration of Independence, syntactical memes just under the radar, spatial elements and morphemes, memorization, rigid designators and Saul Kripke, given names that are already in the human continuum, and causation within language.
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Big Ideas: Minding Memory
What’s in a memory? An original in the field of memory research, Endel Tulving shares his insights. Mental time-travel through what he terms "episodic memory" may have been one of "the drivers of the evolution of culture". A free-wheeling conversation with Marilyn Powell about memory and the mind.
Tagged with cognition science memory endel tulving thought brain humanity episodic memory
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Simon Critchley: To Philosophize is to Learn How to Die
English philosopher Simon Critchley, chair and professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research, discusses his 2009 New York Times bestseller, The Book of Dead Philosophers.
Starting with Cicero’s axiom, "To philosophize is to learn how to die," Professor Critchley leads us to his conclusion that to die is to learn how to live. The Daily Telegraph called the book "rigorous, profound, and frequently hilarious" and described Critchley as "an engaging and deadpan guide to the metaphysical necropolis" as well as "bracingly serious and properly comic." Date: Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700 Location: New York, NY, The New School,
Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2009/10/09/Simon_Critchley_To_Philosophize_is_to_Learn_How_to_Die
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TTBOOK: Hive Mind
Many animals, from fish to bees and ants, cannot survive alone. They need to live in groups, and these groups have a kind of collective intelligence. You might say the internet has developed its own "hive mind." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll tell you how the modern science of complexity is unlocking the secrets of the hive mind. We’ll also hear from E.O. Wilson about the marvelous world of ants.
SEGMENT 1: Thomas Seeley is a professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University. He talks about the social organization of a bee colony with Steve Paulson. And intrepid TTBOOK intern John Pederson visits local bee keeper Mary Seeley as she’s setting up some new hives.
SEGMENT 2: Len Fisher is the author of "The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life." He talks with Anne Strainchamps about "swarm intelligence" and how it differs from "group think." Also, E.O. Wilson may know more about ants than anyone else on the planet. He and his colleague, Bert Holldobler, are the authors of "The Superorganism." It’s a book about the organization and communication among the millions of members of the colonies of certain species of ants. Wilson tells Steve Paulson they do it all with chemical signals secreted by their bodies.
SEGMENT 3: Jaron Lanier is a Silicon Valley visionary and a virtuoso musician and composer. His new book is "You Are Not A Gadget." The man who popularized "virtual reality" in the 80s tells Anne Strainchamps why he thinks Web 2.0 technology is erasing our sense of our own identity.