Monthly Archives: March 2008
1,000 True Fans
Kevin Kelly does the math for artists in a networked age, and makes it all seem possible:
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Are Our Brains Wired for Math?
An interesting summary of Stanislas Dehaene's research in our numbers sense that has implications for how we teach math: The fundamental problem with learning mathematics is that while the number sense may be genetic, exact calculation requires cultural tools—symbols and algorithms—that have been around for only a few thousand years and must therefore be absorbed by areas of the brain that evolved for other purposes.
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Scents and Sensibility
Taste is mainly smell. And smell is a profound mystery...
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Netflix Algorithms
The quest for Netflix's prize to whomever creates a movie-recommending algorithm 10 percent better than its own reveals some interesting ideas about what constitutes a better algorithm. Rogue contestant Gavin Potter:
The 20th century was about sorting out supply. The 21st is going to be about sorting out demand.Hence, demand is characterized by finely tuned algorithms and human behaviourial economics theories.
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Magical Thinking
We are wired to find meaning in the world, and emotional stress and events of personal significance push us strongly toward magical meaning-making. We incorporate superstition and other explanations into our world view. Susan Gelman explains it this way:
God puts you in the path of an HIV-positive lover, but biology causes you to contract the virus from his semen.
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The Wisdom of the Chaperones
Is Web 2.0 democracy a myth? Is it more a case of wisdom of the chaperones than wisdom of the crowds? Chris Wilson concludes,
Digg and Wikipedia would do well to stop pretending they're operated by the many and start thinking of ways to rein in the power of the few.
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