Building "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer"

Neil Stephenson's book "The Diamond Age" presents a fascinating piece of educational technology called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (See diagram below).

The primer is an interactive book that can answer a learner's questions (spoken in natural language), teach through allegories that incorporate elements of the learner's environment, and presents contextual just-in-time information.

The primer includes sensors that monitor the learner's actions and provide feedback. The learner is in a cognitive apprenticeship with the book: The primer models a certain skill (through allegorical fairy tale characters) which the learner then imitates in real life.

The primer follows a learning progression with increasingly more complex tasks. The educational goals of the primer are humanist: To support the learner to become a strong and independently thinking person.

A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer Diagram [Click to Enlarge]

Currently, educational technology has early examples of adaptive tutoring systems. However, an artificial (pseudo-) intelligence that can mentor a learner in real-life complex problems is still far away.

For example, the IBM Watson computer can understand natural spoken language and give simple answers. Educational toy company LeapFrog developed the LeapPad - a tablet computer for children that resembles the "Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" - except for the goal of subversive critical thinking.

Microsoft Vision of the Future Video (2011 edition)

This video shows Microsoft's technocratic vision of the future: Augmented reality and technology embedded in glasses, tables, and refrigerators.

Does the internet make schools obsolete?

The internet makes many kinds of information available in an instant. As as result, memorising facts and figures seems to become more and more obsolete. The internet became an integral part of our distributed cognition.

The instant availability of digital information poses fundamental questions for education: What do we still need to learn in schools?

Raymond Nickerson (1996) offers the following answer:

"One might ask at this point: if information does indeed become much more accessible in the future than it is now, will learning still be necessary? If answers to questions can be obtained much more readily through new information resources, will it be so important to have knowledge in one's head? I believe the answer is unequivocally yes. I believe this is the several reasons, but it will suffice to mention one. The asking of questions, except of the most superficial kind, is a knowledge-based activity. Only someone who knows quite a bit about biology is going to ask what is new in the sequencing of bases in the DNA molecule. And even if one were able to ask the question, say because one got it from someone else already formed, without some knowledge of the subject one would not understand the answer. In general, the more one knows, the more useful a powerful information-finding resource is likely to be." (p. 258)

Reference:

Nickerson, R. (1996). On the distribution of cognition: some reflections. In G. Salomon (Ed.), Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations (pp. 229-262). Cambridge University Press.  

What are websites made of? (Infograph)

Found here: what_websites_madeof_infographic_full-e1313087947326.jpg (600×4002)

Students' use of technology (Infograph)

Found here: students-love-tech1.jpg (800×2797)

Infograph: How inter-connected are major software companies?

How inter-connected are major software companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and eBay?

Optimized-mashable_infographic_interconnected-tech-companies-2-1.jpg (972×5125)

IBM aims to develop real-life Harry Potter memory storage "Pensieve"

IBM research labs are working developing a real-life "Pensieve" using GPS-enabled smartphones. They hope that you will never forget anything ever again. See video below.

IBM Press room - 2008-07-29 Made in IBM Labs: IBM Research Develops Technology to Aid Human Memory - United States

How Much Digital Data Will Humans Create This Year?

Found here: How Much Data Will Humans Create & Store This Year? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Transparent Airbus Airplane of the Future

Airbus showed off their concept airplane that will be efficient and environmentally friendly. By 2050, air travelers can enjoy bio-morphing seats, automated luggage handling, high-tech holographic amenities at your fingertips, acupressure seats, and oh, yeah, a see-through airplane skin.





This goes along well with the airport check-in of the future:





Sources: Airbus 2050 Concept Cabin Has Transparent Skin | Geekosystem
Sources: IATA Checkpoint of the Future (Geekosystem)

What happens in 60 seconds on the Internet?

This infographic illustrates what happen every 60 seconds on the Internet. [Click to enlarge].

Source: 60 Seconds on the Internet [Infographic]

UN considers internet access a human right

Internet access is a human right, according to a United Nations report released on Friday.

"Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress, ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states," said the report from Frank La Rue.

This report by the UN is particularly important in view of the recent incidents when governments shut down internet access nationwide during political uprisings in the Middle East.

Read more here: United Nations report: Internet access is a human right - latimes.com

Panasonic wants to build eco-friendly city Fujisawa SST by 2018

Panasonic, along with eight partner companies, have announced plans to construct the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (Fujisawa SST) by 2018 - an eco-friendly city for 1000 residents. Fujisawa SST will combine a number of energy-saving methods:  A smart power grid; solar cells and batteries in every home; roads designed for bikes, walkers, and electric vehicles; networked public lighting, and more.



Panasonic Plans Bottom-Up Green City Fujisawa SST in Japan | Geekosystem

Goodbye Food Pyramid, Hello Food Plate

The first food pyramid was introduced in 1992 by the USDA, which replaced it now with MyPlate (see below).

Below is the new MyPlate. It shows a plate with the recommended distribution of different nutrients. In my opinion, the plate is much easier to understand than the pyramid as it shows you what your plate should look like. One only wonders if the powerful US dairy industry shoehorned in "Dairy" as being separate from "Protein".

USDA Ditches Food Pyramid for a Food Plate | Geekosystem

Japanese company developed car that runs on nothing but water

Japanese company Genepax developed an eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water. The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car’s tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. The electric powered car can run on any type of water. The car can run for an hour at about 80 km/h on just one liter of water. The Genepax car does not require that batteries be recharged and has no emission.

Read more here: Car that runs on nothing but water unveiled in Japan. No gasoline, no battery recharging and no emissions. | PRESS Core – Evidentiary News, World News, Special Reports, Technology, Health, Videos, Polls

Emotions and Decision-Making

I came across two seemingly unrelated articles and noticed an interesting connection.

-First, an article in the New York Times  celebrated the 300th birthday of philosopher David Hume. The article cited the following quote by Hume: "Hume argued that “reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will.” Desire, for example, “arises not from reason.” And yet it can (and ought to be) “directed by it.”

-> Hume points out that an entirely rational model of decision-making is not feasible.

-Second, a blog entry on geekosystem described a new computer simulation that aims to model schizophrenia. There are multiple definitions of schizophrenia. This simulation builds upon the hyperlearning theory of schizophrenia, which holds that the disease springs from an inability to forget or ignore non-essential information. The human brain uses dopamine to mark certain information as essential. Dopamine is commonly associated with the reward system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities. In other words, the brain connects emotions to certain information to mark them as important. The computer simulation increased the virtual dopamine release which reduced the programs ability to distinguish important from unimportant information. 

Both articles address the same idea: Emotions are an important part of human thinking and decision-making. An entirely rational computer program without emotions can therefore never simulate human thought processes. Instead of seeing emotions as an opposition to rational thought processes, they should be seen as complementary (read more here about using emotions for decision making).

My model of decision-making includes five elements: 1) Rational, 2) Emotional, 3) Socio-cultural conventions, 4) available resources, and 5) political strategic. Both "conventions" and "strategic" factors are socio-cultural as we make different decisions depending in which social setting we are.

Failed Technology Predictions Infograph

#E2sday: Failed Tech Predictions (And Some That Came Close) | The Future of Work

DNA Infograph

17 Things You Should Know About DNA [Infographic]

Geek Zodiac

The Geek Zodiac: Concept by James Wright. Design by Josh Eckert.
Source: geekzodiac.jpg (2000×1517)

You might also like:
-The Geek hirarchy chart:
-The Geek Maslow Pyramid of Needs
-The Evolution of Geek

US colleges plan differential tuition for different majors

Different college majors require different kind of infrastructure. While humanities majors only need seminar rooms and libraries, engineering and science majors require expensive laboratories.

Several US universities consider charging higher tuition for undergraduates depending on their major - a system called "differential tuition".

According to the Omaha World Herald, 57% of 162 public research universities employ some form of differential tuition.

Some universities defend the practice of differential tuition by arguing that "studies where students will have strong earnings and the capacity to take on more debt, or where there’s a special case for investing more in a particular field" (from the World Herald).

Charging science and engineering students higher tuition could be counterproductive to encouraging more students to enter these fields.

Should Universities Base Tuition Off of a Student’s Major? | Geekosystem

Mac People vs. PC People Comparison

Mac People vs. PC People - Infographic | Geekosystem

Chinese Government bans Science Fiction and Fantasy TV shows

New guidelines set forth by the Chinese State Administration of Radio Film and Television plans banning science fiction, supernatural, and fantasy television shows. They consider “fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking" to be in conflict with Chinese heritage.

Suggested alternatives are reproductions of the Chinese revolution and historical pieces with an emphasis on construction and reform.

Read more here: “No Time-Travel,” Says Chinese Government

Car powered by aluminum

Aleix Llovet and Xavier Salueña

Inspired by the fusion-powered DeLorean from "Back to The Future", Aleix Llovet and Xavier Salueña from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya built a remote control car, called the dAlh2Orean, that captures hydrogen created by the interaction of sodium hydroxide and aluminium. The hydrogen is then used to power an on-board fuel cell, leaving no polluting waste material. Additionally, the remaining fuel material can be reprocessed. See more info in the press conference.

See a demonstration in the video below.

dAlH2Orean H2 R/C Car powered by Aluminium from Aleix Llovet on Vimeo.

Found here: Aleix Llovet - Xavier Salueña - dAlh2Orean | Geekosystem

Internetic (Technologic Remix)

Secret Messages in Company Logos

Did you ever notice that the well-known FedEx logo has an arrow between the E and the X?

Or that the Amazon logo has a yellow arrow that implies that they deliver from "A->Z"?

See more fascinating hidden messages in logos in this blog entry: Logos' Secret Messages | Geekosystem

Genetically Modified Cows produce "Human" Breast Milk

Scientists from he China Agricultural University have introduced human genes into 300 dairy cows to produce milk with the same properties as human breast milk. Using cloning technology, scientists brought human genes into the DNA of Holstein dairy cows before genetically-modified embryos were implanted into surrogate cows.

So far, the Chinese scientists successfully created cows that contains human milk proteins lysozyme, lactoferrin, and alpha-lactalbumin. It might take more than ten years until this cow-produced human milk will be commercially available.

Read full article here: Scientists Genetically Modify Cows to Produce 'Human' Milk

How Technology Innovation works

Tech Innovation Explained [Comic] | Geekosystem

Can you figure out these movie titles?

See some solution suggestions here: A question for Math Geeks: Can you figure out these movie titles?

Radiation Dose Chart

Randall Munroe (from xkcd) created this interesting chart about radiation dosage.

How Much Radiation a Person Can Absorb | Geekosystem

History of Science Fiction Flowchart

This flowchart shows the history of science fiction. [click to enlarge].

See the original here: no empire no longer

Fungus that can turn ants into zombies

Wired reports that scientists have reported that they have discovered 4 new kinds of fungus in Brazil that infect ants, effectively turning them into zombies that serve the will of the fungal infector. Once an ant is infected, the fungus starts controlling the ant's behavior: The ant leaves the colony, climbs up a tree, anchors itself by biting into a leaf, and then dies. The body of the ant is consumed by the fungus and used to disperse spores for up to a year.


These fungi have had a great effect on the human world as well, primarily in the field of medical science. The mind-controlling fungus is in a group related to the fungus that produces LSD, and another fungus used to suppress the immune system to prevent organ transplant rejection, and still yet another used as an antibiotic.

Read full article here: Scientists Find Four New Kinds of Fungus That Zombify Ants | Geekosystem

Pixar Up Balloon House In Real Life

The team of the new National Geographic show How Hard Can It Be? created a real-life version of the flying house from the Pixar movie "UP". They managed to take a 16×16x18′ house aloft using 300 8′ helium balloons. The house reached an altitude of over 10,000 feet and flew for about an hour. See video below:

Up Balloon House In Real Life | Geekosystem

Which is the best tablet? Infograph

Which is currently the best tablet, as of March 2011? [Click on the infograph to enlarge].

Or see this comparison [Click to enlarge]:

80% of US college admissions departments check your Facebook Profile

A recent Kaplan survey found that admissions departments at 80% of US top colleges “visit potential students’ online Facebook profiles during their recruiting process.” The obvious advice is to keep your Facebook profile private.

Read more here: Report: 80% of College Admissions Departments Check Applicants’ Facebook Pages | Geekosystem

How to beat the IBM Watson supercomputer

How to beat our new computer overlord Watson:

Found on: 

Geekolinks: 2/24 | Geekosystem

Geek Hierarchy Chart

Funny geek hierarchy chart: Which geeks consider themselves less geeky than other geeks.

You might also be interested in the Geek Maslow pyramid of needs and the Evolution of Geek.

NY Times Geek Flowchart (Click to Enlarge)

Geek Diagram

[Source: BCO | Via Geeks are Sexy]

Map of the Fantasy Worlds

Cartoonist Dan Meth has completed what he regards as the complete map of the Fantasy Universe. I wonder how Dan Meth decided that Wonderland shares borders with Middle earth.
Found here: Map of the Fantasy World | Geekosystem

Geek Maslow Pyramid of Needs

(by loulouk)

Robots Share Knowledge to Learn from Experience

Dr. Markus Waibel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) believes that what’s holding robots back is their inability to send and receive new information over the internet like humans do. To combat this problem, and hopefully propel robot development in the process, the Swiss team are developing RoboEarth — a repository of data that robots can use to learn new tasks and expand through their own experiences. At its core, RoboEarth is a World Wide Web for robots: a giant network and database repository where robots can share information and learn from each other about their behavior and their environment. RoboEarth is part of the Cognitive Systems and Robotics Initiative from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme.

Read more here: Robots Share Knowledge On Robot Wikipedia RoboEarth | Geekosystem

The Human Radio Bubble in the Milky Way

The first AM radio broadcast was on Christmas Eve, 1906, and the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics is regarded as the first video signal powerful enough to be carried into space.


How far did human-generated radio and video signals travel since then? Our radio bubble is about 200 light years (the diameter of the small blue dot in the enlarged section below). Compared to the vast size of the Milky Way (which is just one of many galaxies in the universe), our own presence seems rather insignificant. 


[Click on picture to see it full size.]

Read more here: The Extent of Human Radio Broadcasts in the Milky Way | Geekosystem

Indian Supreme Court declares Astrology a Science

According to The Times of India, an Indian NGO called Janhit Manch filed the public interest litigation. But as the Supreme Court of India has already ruled that astrology is a science, the Mumbai High Court dismissed the case on February 3rd 2011. So far as prayer related to astrology is concerned, the Supreme Court has already considered the issue and ruled that astrology is a science. The Court had in 2004 also directed the universities to consider if astrology science can be added to the syllabus. The decision of the apex court is binding on this court.

This incidence reflects the struggle India finds itself in: Establishing India as an urban technology and science power, while large parts of the population are strongly religious and believe in astrology (including Supreme Court judges).

Read more here: Short Sharp Science: Indian court considers astrology a science

Does the Internet make children more gullible?

Professor Donald Leu, University of Connecticut, and colleagues showed teenagers a fictional website about a "tree octopus" and many took it for fact. The authors of the study conclude that schools need to teach students how to critically evaluate the trustworthiness of internet ressources.

The question arises how do you effectively judge the trustworthiness of a website? Do you trust information because it's being presented by a major website (for example the New York Times or BBC)? Do you trust a site that has a professional layout? To what degree can you trust information on Wikipedia? How do you find out about hidden agendas behind certain websites (for example pharmaceutical companies which host medical information websites)?

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Video shows Scale of Planets

Brad Goodspeed wondered what the sky would look like if the planets in our solarsystem were as close to Earth as the moon is and revolved around us. [Watch fullscreen for best effects].


Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.
Scale Video Shows Planets in Sky | Geekosystem

Jane Espenson: Science Fiction Writer and Nerd

Jane Espenson (46) is writer and/or co-executive producer of some of the biggest cult science-fiction shows of the past decade, including Star Trek The next generation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica and Gilmore Girls.


Jane studied computer science and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Go Bears!


Read more about Jane Espenson here: Jane Espenson: Writer, sci-fi thriller, one nerdy lady - CNN.com

Science Tattoo Collection

For hard-core science geeks: Click here to see a collection of evolution-themed tattoos: Visualizing Evolution

Additionally, you can visit the Science Tattoo Emporium that has a large collection of tattoos featuring scientific visualizations from different disciplines (chemistry, physics, biology, computer science, earth science, math, engineering).

The History of Social Media

Social media aim to fulfill different human needs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77813293@N00/4926795330/

The History of Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]