Friday, August 30, 2013

My share of bad luck

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130827-why-other-queues-move-faster
Sometimes I feel like the whole world is against me. The other lanes of traffic always move faster than mine. The same goes for the supermarket queues. While I’m at it, why does it always rain on those occasions I don't carry an umbrella, and why do wasps always want to eat my sandwiches at a picnic and not other people's?
It feels like there are only two reasonable explanations. Either the universe itself has a vendetta against me, or some kind of psychological bias is creating a powerful – but mistaken – impression that I get more bad luck than I should. I know this second option sounds crazy, but let's just explore this for a moment before we get back to the universe-victim theory.
My impressions of victimisation are based on judgements of probability. Either I am making a judgement of causality (forgetting an umbrella makes it rain) or a judgement of association (wasps prefer the taste of my sandwiches to other people's sandwiches). Fortunately, psychologists know a lot about how we form impressions of causality and association, and it isn't all good news.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Will the internet be intelligent?

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121121-will-the-net-become-conscious

The internet is a new lifeform that shows the first signs of intelligence. So says brain scientist and serial entrepreneur Jeff Stibel.
He argues that the physical wiring of the internet is much like a rudimentary brain and some of the actions and interactions that take place on it are similar to the processes that we see in the brain.
At the same time, he says, it is forcing us as humans to interact and think in new and different ways.

And voice recognition, you know... if you're in a lift, and...
http://dotsub.com/view/6c5d7514-5656-476a-9504-07dd4e2f6509