tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7206373238418288113.post7058790027345130404..comments2023-08-19T10:04:08.922+01:00Comments on Thought • Art • Representation: The Aesthetics of Crime (and a petty misdemeanor)Jim Hamlynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16488331333061422244noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7206373238418288113.post-80821457347887246182011-05-30T22:59:19.278+01:002011-05-30T22:59:19.278+01:00Hi Tom,
That chemistry teacher sounds like a very...Hi Tom,<br /><br />That chemistry teacher sounds like a very wise teacher – it also reminds me of this:<br /><br />http://danariely.com/2009/05/03/the-first-2-questions-of-my-exam/<br /><br />On the subject of extended cognition I certainly share many of your concerns. Here’s a really interesting article on the same subject that I read not so long ago: <br /><br />http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/out-of-our-brains/<br /><br />But perhaps better still is this very recent radio broadcast that discusses the intelligence of computers but also the extent to which human nature is evolving in response to them: <br /><br />http://www.abc.net.au/rn/futuretense/stories/2011/3211726.htmJim Hamlynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16488331333061422244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7206373238418288113.post-40920961274252117672011-05-27T13:46:52.648+01:002011-05-27T13:46:52.648+01:00This is a very thought provoking post! A chemistry...This is a very thought provoking post! A chemistry teacher I once had comes to my mind. He was so strict that even some older students genuinely feared him because he enforced a lot of discipline and expected a lot of knowledge. At the same time he did say before every exam, that if we cheat, we must do so in a way he has never seen before in order to avoid punishment (receiving 0 points on the exam). Although I have no recollection of anyone ever testing this, I do believe that he would have actually been true to his word and acknowledge our creativity. <br />I am not quite sure how rhetoric your question on the necessity of data retention is, but as it hits quite a core interest for me, I feel a strong urge to address it. Of course I seriously despise the necessity of retaining unnecessary information for the mere sake of doing so (but I also used to teach mathematics to high school students and ever so often had to answer the question "what good will this be in my future life." But discussing the evaluation of information belongs to another post.) I do not fear dependence on technology per se, I believe that it brought and brings us towards further development - without the atomic clocks in gps satellites our economy would be a very different one and our almost necessary luxuries of cherry tomatoes would disappear. Ironically I have an urge to look up the name of these atomic clocks on wikipedia to add eloquence to this response. My physics teacher did tell me once - but this data was obviously not saved and the internet would be a fantastic tool to retrieve it.<br />Technological advances that do fill me with fear are exemplified by two of google's new innovations. I have seen commercials on the tube (the analogue underground, not the you-type), which advertise the new audio search system with slogans like "koh-vunt gar-duhn. Say it to get it." This in part reminded me of one of my older phones which had Czech T9 on it. I never went to Czech school and never learned to write correctly, but I communicate on a daily basis with family in this language. Although my spoken vocabulary is large, my writing is poor, but understandable. With this phone, I would theoretically be able to write in (almost) perfect Czech, as it would not allow me to write a word incorrectly and I could get through a text message by guessing. Now Google and the T9 developers would make the necessity retaining the data of spelling redundant. I would never really learn anything and only use someone else's programming to cheat on my behalf - similarly as others might use your method to lower their word counts. Also I wonder how would we fill the space in our brains that we use to read and write according to the set rules? I cannot help thinking of how many people have fought to spread literacy throughout our population and now our technology is slowly making this advance redundant.<br />Furthermore I have heard that google is finalising their automatic live audio translators, which can translate from one spoken language to another in realtime. Will the result of this make learning foreign languages unneeded? Or will there be only one real language - the programming of google? I believe in common understanding, but this does put a whole new twist on the idea of the tower of Babel. Besides that, google is making my hard work of learning all these languages redundant! <br />But on a serious note, I do believe in advances through technology but I think it is crucial for individuals and society to scrutinise our so called progress to avoid a negative outcome. This is, in my view, anything that leads to lethargy of the mind.T. Horaknoreply@blogger.com