Musings on the effects of media on cognition.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
I’ve been away from the blog a bit working on an academic project for graduate school, but how could I not take time out of my day to comment on Google Glass? This blog is subtitled “Your mind on media,” isn’t it? And the idea of this project couldn’t be closer to that theme. So here’s my comment: I would rather have my eyes removed than put Google in charge of them. Their wonderful little concept video (seriously, Google, do you even make things anymore?) is nothing what this interface will ultimately look like. After the advertisers and marketers and spammers and trolls have had their way with this project, it will likely look much more [like this](https://vimeo.com/8569187 and that concept video should make you want to shed virtual tears. This is Google we’re talking about. They don’t say it outright, but openness to them means curated as little as possible. Anyone can put their software on the Android system and if it happens to exploit your phone and steal your information, that’s your problem. Do they really believe that they can create a clean, curated augmented reality experience? They simply don’t possess the corporate psychology to do so; they’re motives are simply not aligned with such a design project. First known for search, their search results aren’t even that great anymore. Why? Because they are an advertising company, plain and simple. What they are motivated to do is put ads in front of you. Aren’t we kidding ourselves a little bit when the concept video for this technology contains no ads served by the Google Goggles? Yes. We are.
Update: Someone has created a more genuine version of the Google Goggles project video.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Yeah. Social-Butterfly-no-more should be the name of this category. When I signed up for your stupid service—which you only goaded me into signing up for by getting all my friends to sign up—you didn’t know I was watching. But that’s right, when I signed up for your service, I used an email address specific to you. Like yourservice@mydomain.com
So guess what? When you sold my email to cybercoders.com or some other crap web site, I knew about it. And that is why we are parting ways. You treat my privacy like you own it. But I’m one step ahead of you.
And that, friends of mine, is why I am not on Friendster or Linkedin or Facebook anymore and won’t be signing up again to get your invitations. Sorry if my email address is too inconvenient, but as they say, if you’re not paying someone for the product, then the product is you. The best social network is the one you build yourself.
Don’t believe me? Ask Chris Hardwick
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
“Aaron” can paint works of art for you. It’s just that Aaron is not a person. And this haiku isn’t by a person either:
Sashay down the page
through the lioness
nestled in my soul.
Both art and poetry were created by machines—artful machines. Add to that list, “Emily Howell,” a computer program that writes modern—and sometimes haunting—orchestral music. You can read more about her development and her designer, David Cope, in this solid article from Miller-McCune.com and author Ryan Blitstein. I, for one, have been put off most A.I. generated music. It’s always felt stilted or overly repetitious, or just too close to noise. “Emily Howell” is different. The two examples you can listen to in the article are really quite different. And for piano solos, they are uncharacteristically nuanced for a machine.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Woah. I don’t often bother with movie reviews, but “Never Let Me Go” will affect the way you live your life. Part ethereal, part horrifying. Are you part of the machine or will you demand more? I won’t do spoilers, but this is the best kiss you will see in a long time. This kiss tempers time and longing and finality. An amazing a plot line unfolds through the lives of humans who are ultimately limited. But aren’t we all? It is an alternate history that begins in 1967. It is Orwellian in nature with buzzers and misplaced technology. It’s a story of love unvanquished; it is ungrim given the climate created. It is also awful, the results of a wayward history. From the moment that the pastel colors are put on the screen, you will be transported to a world that never was; is horrible—and love survives it. It is not just science fiction of the past, it is a fairy tale the likes of which the Brothers Grimm could not have imagined. Watch this movie and then go to the closest park you can get to and watch the trees in the breeze.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
We’ve all found some article that we wanted to share with others, and what simpler way could their be than to just copy the URL from the browser and paste it in an email! Just like this:
http://www.good.is/post/at-this-vending-machine-swapping-is-
the-new-buying?utm_campaign=daily_good2&utm_medium=email_daily_good2
&utm_source=headline_link&utm_content=At%20This%20Vending
%20Machine%2C%20Swapping%20is%20the%20New%20Buying
Yuck! Well, I’m here to tell you how to solve this hobgoblin by giving you some information about the question mark “at the end.”—the one that I’ve highlighted in black. For that is not a question mark for the title of the article, but rather the gate to server world.
Read more…
Monday, January 16, 2012
Complete Title: “The Impact of an Octopus Can Potentially Change Your Artistic Trajectory”
It hasn’t happened to me, mind you, but it could. It could happen to any one of us. Think about it! And where will we be then? I don’t think life continues on normally after a celphlapod assaults you.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Feel free to try these yourself.
Search: Fox
Google:
FOX Broadcasting Company – FOX Television Shows
www.fox.com/
Search: What! No, fox the fucking animal!
Google:
5 Lovable Animals You Didn’t Know Are Secretly Terrifying …
www.cracked.com/…/5-lovable-animals-you-didnt-know-are-secretly…
Search: Fuzzy. Red. Foxes!
Google:
Steiff 1542/35 Curled Up Ringel Fuzzy Red Fox 1977 35cm KFS …
www.ebay.com/itm/Steiff…Fuzzy-Red-Fox…-/150716495372
Search: What the hell does that even mean!?
Google:
What the hell does this even mean? – Yahoo! Answers
answers.yahoo.com › … › Education & Reference › Quotations
Search: Well, that was close.
Google:
Well That Was Close! – YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGhKw5rew1Q
Search: You don’t really get me, do you?
Google:
miserable at my best
gummychocolates.tumblr.com/
Search: Aw, poor Google.
Google:
Loren Feldman – Google+ – Aww is everybody crying about google …
https://plus.google.com/117245298692605482770/…/KMsENb2ke9…
Search: Wow. That’s a lot of sympathy. You should be proud.
Google:
Hunter S. Thompson Quotes (Author of Fear and Loathing in Las …
www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5237.Hunter_S_Thompson
Search: I like him too! What a coincidence!
Google:
He SaId:-”I love yOu” I rEpLiEd “WhAt A cOiNcIdEnCe.!! I love …
www.facebook.com/…cOiNcIdEnCe…Too-/202517949818580?…
Search: Love? Seriously, Google. I was just looking for a fox.
Google:
Did you mean: Love? Seriously, Google. IT was just looking for a fox.
Search: No, Google. It’s over. I have to go now.
Google:
Logitech CEO: Google TV ‘cost us dearly,’ no Revue replacement …
www.theverge.com/…/logitech-ceo-google-tv-cost-us-dearly-no-revu…
Search: Don’t be so dramatic. I just wanted to see the wikipedia entry on foxes.
Google:
The Dark Knight – Wikiquote
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight
Search: I loved Batman, too, Google. But… I gotta go
Google:
Showing results for I loved Batman, to, Google. But…
I gotta go?Search instead for I loved Batman, too, Google.
But… I gotta go
Search Results
1. Blades of Glory (2007) – Memorable quotes
www.imdb.com/title/tt0445934/quotes
Search: That’s just pathetic, Google. Blades of Glory was medium talent.
Google:
wedding – alanahines – Google Sites
sites.google.com/site/alanahines/wedding
Search: Good NIGHT, Google!
Google:
Google Maps Mania: Good Night Google Maps!
googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2006/…/good-night-google-maps.ht…
Search: …
Google:
Your search – … – did not match any documents.
Suggestions:
• Try different keywords.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
I love this poster because the intended message gets so overwhelmed and even contradicted by aspects of it’s design. Despite a US literacy rate of 99%, the US adult population can be categorized into “half readers and half non-readers.” Reading is not exactly an American past time, is what I’m saying, and Britney Spears (as opposed to some famous author) is not exactly the best spokesperson choice for literacy, IMHO. And I wouldn’t have pointed out the U states reading stats but it’s sort of irresistible given the symbolic patriotism stretched across Britney’s boobs.1 And I suppose that Harry Potter is the pop fiction of the age, but aren’t there really more literate choices?2
“Hey!” (sounds out the inevitable disagreement) “Other options wouldn’t make reading as exciting and cool for kids.” Yeah! I agree! In fact, we should put the word “Read” right in the poster in an over-used trajan-like movie poster font that looks like daggers, cuz reading will cut ya’, man! And Britney Spears is more than an awesome spokesperson—–she is so radical that she should have an angelic gaussian light spilling down on her! We could even present the book over Britney’s nether-regions as if to say, boys, if you you finish this book, guess what else you’ll get? And don’t tell kids to go to the library tell them it’s “@ your library,” because @ is cool or something. Yes, I am certain—certain, I tell you—that kids read because of this poster’s placement in children’s libraries.3
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Advertising is a strange beast. It seems odd to think that thirty second blips of entertainment would ever actually persuade us to buy products. Surely we’re not that gullible. Regardless, most advertising isn’t an attempt to persuade, but rather an attempt to get the consumer to associate a product with a feeling like being cool or happy (see Madmen). Surely we’re not that manipulatable! So it would seem that simply broadcasting even a well-crafted message should never really be capable of compelling behavior in people. Even the urban myths about subliminal advertising have been greatly exaggerated. Wouldn’t a business be better off focusing on its product design and customer service than spending millions on funny but ultimately goofy cartoons? Or hyperbolic schlock? Do advertisers really think they’re fooling consumers or is something else at work? The answer those questions comes in two parts. First, corporations can afford advertising as a trade-off against the quality of their products. Two, the existence of a recognition heuristic in cognitive science argues that we are subtly susceptible to advertising, albeit not in a way that you might initially suspect.
Read more…
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Artists like Radiohead, with their digitally distributed and variably priced album “In Rainbows,” have gotten the gist of direct distribution (or disintermediation for you nerds1) for a few years now. Aside from the movie Bubble—not a financial success from what I can tell—I can’t think of many disruptive digital distribution events that will be as big as this one. Louis C. K. is letting you buy his latest comedy special directly from him, “No DRM, no regional restrictions, no crap.” More awesome words have never existed in a legal statement. I hope this crushes. And if you’re like me and don’t really think a movie ticket is worth nine bucks, then do like me and buy this twice!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Remember when Amazon reviews were used as a form of absurdist humor? The reviews for Tuscan milk alone kept me laughing for hours. But that was just a joke. Let’s use Amazon reviews to protest something instead! Hey, remember on the news how all of those UC Davis students were “protected and served” the shit out of with pepper spray? No? Because you can watch the absolute abuse of power from multiple angles. And, guess what? Amazon sells the pepper spray used in the videos, and you can review it. Have fun.
Monday, November 21, 2011
My definition of war has always been fairly myopic. Perhaps never having been involved in a war (only protesting unjustified ones) I’ve never possessed a need to see it as anything but a bad thing for everyone involved. In fact, I’ve often wished that soliders just wouldn’t sign up. (It’s not unlike how I feel about actors that do commercials—please, do something else.) But having poured for weeks and months over research about game theory, sociology and the cognitive science of decision-making (for a research paper) I am surprised to now possess the realization that the volunteer who signs up for the military is really engaging in a very altruistic and cooperative decision. It is the cognitive equivalent of the instinct of the worker bee, who protects the hive, even though the act of stinging will kill him. Frankly, the old me would have thought that there was no justification for becoming a soldier that could not be explained as being due to familial tradition or jingoism. I now see that I was wrong on that count, and that the rabbit hole goes even deeper.
For instance, if the act of signing up for war could be considered altruistic, certainly the opportunity for altruism disappears the moment you’re “in the shit.” Not so. Consider some stories from David Axelrod’s “The Evolution of Cooperation
.” In it he talks about how British and German troops “regularized” their firing on each to such a degree that injury could be easily avoided by both sides. “These rituals of perfunctory and routine firing sent a double message. To the high command they conveyed aggression, but to the enemy they conveyed peace.” (on Page 86) Peace in the midst of gunfire! We are a bizarre species.
