Theodore (Ted) Stark’s Post

Deliberate practice, as described by Anders Ericsson, is a specific type of practice focused on improvement and mastery in a particular skill. Find out more about this concept in this insightful article: https://bit.ly/3VW3GG4 @ysamphySelfImprovement

Deliberate practice, as described by Anders Ericsson, is a specific type of practice focused on improvement and mastery in a particular skill. Find out more about this concept in this insightful article: https://buff.ly/3Kujcml @ysamphySelfImprovement

Our daily exposure to the constant stimulation offered by electronic devices and music and entertainment in all public settings is having a powerful effect on our society - people cannot bear to be silent and quiet. The article below, in Scientific American, reports on a study by psychologist Timonthy Wilson that shows many would rather give themselves an electric shock than sit silently with their own thoughts for 10 minutes. (Check out the article to see the interesting and significant split based on sex - a much higher percentage of men gave themselves shocks than women.) This represents a significant shift from the interiority and contemplative states that reading texts encourages. When we are unable to sit silently with our own thoughts and be present in the moment without external stimulation, it is challenging, if not impossible, to develop the capacity to pray deeply, to learn about our own internal states, or to enter the natural altered states that allow us to connect with the invisible fabric of life around us. We cannot find our own centers. We are much more susceptible to outside messages, particularly emotionally charged ones, and the manipulation of others. This also means that in the world of trials, which is my professional world, there is a significant mismatch between the traditional habits and practices of courtroom presentation - which derive from a world of books and writing and linear and analytical thinking, with a little frosting of visual presentation - and the cognitive and emotional habits of jurors. I am seeing the ways that this shift in the general collective habits of body-mind is changing the justice system and leading to unexpected results in trials. What about you? What are you observing, feeling and thinking as our society continues on this massive experiment with electronic technology? https://lnkd.in/gsBHw_Sx

Artificial Intelligence is transforming every sector, and higher education is no exception. In this post, I explore the critical importance of ethical considerations as emerging technologies shift traditional paradigms.

Centuries before audio deepfakes and text-to-speech software, inventors in the eighteenth century constructed androids with swelling lungs, flexible lips, and moving tongues to simulate human speech. Jessica Riskin explores the history of such talking heads, from their origins in musical automata to inventors’ quixotic attempts to make machines pronounce words, converse, and declare their love. #ai #robots #robotics #llm

What does Interactive Metronome Measure? Auditory-Motor Synchronisation 1. Ability to tap in sync to the millisecond with an auditory beat is directly correlated to 2. Consistency of auditory brainstem responds to sound, ability to read, phonological awareness 3. Degree of neural jitter (noise): the greater the jitter, the more trouble tapping in sync with the auditory beat #interactive metronome #auditory #sound #cognition

Using our imaginations , including science fiction, to shape the future we want. These two programmes from "Spark", the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) radio programme/ podcast on technology and culture, explore this theme. The links below provide both audio content , and selected text ighlighting the key areas discussed in each programme. https://lnkd.in/gx3GumBb How to set our imagination free to build the technological futures we want Broadcast on 4 February, 2024. Imagination is often dismissed as childish, or a frill. But it also lets us picture alternative futures, and technologies that haven't been invented yet. So how do we harness our imagination? And in an age where Big Tech promises to solve our problems for us, how do we use our imaginations to build the futures we want? AND looking to science fiction for ideas. https://lnkd.in/gEvmV5RR Sci-fi storytelling gives us the tools to imagine better futures, says researcher. 'We need many more people to feel invited and empowered and inspired to imagine their own futures' Samraweet Yohannes · CBC Radio · Posted: June 02, 2023 4:50 PM EDT | Last Updated: January 6, 2024 From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Black Mirror, science fiction has long predicted technological innovations. But the power of the genre doesn't necessarily lie in being literally prescient ( that is, , Having knowledge of coming events; foreseeing; conscious beforehand), say researchers. ...Can we use the power of storytelling about the future as a toolkit to create experiences of the future?" said Ed Finn, founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) at Arizona State University. He also co-leads the Applied Sci-Fi Project at CSI, which invites science fiction writers, futurists and technologists to investigate how science fiction stories can shape the development of real-world technologies — what he calls the "science fiction feedback loop."

The following is an exploration of one of my recent transformative creative expression and contemplation experiments that turned into a new form of AI-assisted lived creative inquiry.  This journey began when I attempted to capture an altered state of consciousness via photographic and then AI-assisted art enhancement technologies as a form of creative contemplation. I then extended this contemplation using ClaudeAI as a contemplation partner, having him review and reflect on my final creative expression (the piece below) and my creative contemplation process behind it.  What unfolded was the emergence of a new form of what feels like a “Human-AI Transformative Creative Praxis”.

A Fun-loving Scientist When we think of a scientist, do we expect him to be lonely scholar working in a monk-like mode in the corner of a room, or see in him the flamboyance of an artist? In a party you meet a scientist. This fun-loving person loves music and films, wears jeans, plays guitar, and can sing. Beside these things he can do many other things that are normally not associated with science. Would you be disappointed after meeting this person? Would you wonder how a fun-loving and animated person can be a scientist? Would you wonder how 'cool’ people can do really interesting stuff in the labs? I hope you won't. Someone rightly pointed out that there is a huge divide between how people perceive of what happens in science and what actually happens. Scientists are known to be serious types. Artists, on the other hand, are more playful. Does playful approach diminish seriousness? Is science only a mechanical endeavour, because its emphasis is more on norms and methodologies? Some think it is tough to break the barrier between science and art, but more and more scientists now are trying to break this barrier. More and more scientists are excited about collaborating with artists. Collaborations in science are usually short-lived than collaborations in visual arts and humanities. In the sciences, collaborators share conceptual or experimental approaches, whereas in arts, it also includes personal tastes, values and the style of expression. The need for such deeper shared characteristics explains why there is less collaboration in arts, and the collaborations that do exist are long lasting and often combined with a personal partnership.