Mar 22

One of the benefits of writing short stories is that I get to deal with a lot of different editors.

One of the benefits of writing short stories is that I get to deal with a lot of different editors. That can also be a problem, if they enter the relationship with too much ego. Or if you do.

Originally shared by David Farland

An editor can be your best friend or your worst enemy. In truth, I don’t think that you want him or her to be either. 

https://mystorydoctor.com/dealing-with-editors
Mar 22

An amazing interview with an angry, generous old artist.

An amazing interview with an angry, generous old artist.

Originally shared by Daniel Swensen

“The fight in order to make a real art movie is enormous because everything is against that. It is an awakening of consciousness and all of the industry is against the awakening of consciousness.”

http://www.theawl.com/2016/03/an-eagle-fighting-with-flies-an-interview-with-alejandro-jodorowsky

http://www.theawl.com/2016/03/an-eagle-fighting-with-flies-an-interview-with-alejandro-jodorowsky
Mar 22

Now this is off the wall.

Now this is off the wall. This ecological scientist believed the orthodoxy that the way to save grasslands and prevent them turning to desert was to reduce livestock numbers. He eventually realized he was wrong, and that using larger herds (as in nature) would revitalize the land and reverse its trend towards desert – which is significant in climate change. 

It’s one of those counter-intuitive things that’s reasonable when you think about it – but does anyone know if it’s widely supported, or if he’s regarded as something of a crank in the field?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI&feature=share

Mar 22

Because our brains can process any sensory inputs they’re given, we’re not limited to the senses we have.

Because our brains can process any sensory inputs they’re given, we’re not limited to the senses we have. Not only can we substitute for senses that we’ve lost; we can integrate new sources of data into our sensorium and learn to experience it and respond intuitively. 

(20 minutes.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1lqFXHvqI&feature=share

Mar 21

Facial and vocal indicators of emotion are constant between cultures, and there’s now a body of research which…

Facial and vocal indicators of emotion are constant between cultures, and there’s now a body of research which enables computers to read them with good accuracy.

This panel (a venture capitalist, an academic, and several entrepreneurs working to develop emotional computing applications) discuss the implications. For example, we’re good at being aware of others’ emotions, but not our own. Could a computer assistant help us with our lifestyle choices and guide us towards practices and ways of living that put us in a better mood and in better health overall? Could we assess mental health and physical pain more accurately? (Answer: it looks highly likely.)

On the other hand, will the use of emotion tracking while people consume media and experience products put us into the hands of manipulators? (Answer: not yet, but perhaps soon. However, the payoff for users will need to be there for this to gain acceptance.)

There are cultural differences in the expression of emotion, too, which show up in aggregated data. 

(1 hr 18 min)

My speculations:

1. We’ve already heard about the “bubble”, where FB or Google will show you things they think you’ll respond positively to, and you end up not aware of contrasting viewpoints. What happens if they start only showing you things that make you happy? How does that affect online activism, for example? (I have in mind Paulo Bacigalupi’s short story “The Gambler”, in which click-driven journalism drowns out serious and important issues with a tide of celebrity scandal.)

2. It’s already possible to assess a crowd’s predominant affect in near-real time (this video shows an example near the end). If this became real-time, and you played it back concurrently to, say, a political speaker – the kind of person who’s currently driven by polls, but has the mental agility to adapt his or her speech based on what people are responding to – what kind of politics would you get? I’m envisioning a standard app for speakers here, designed to prompt a boring executive to hurry through the PowerPoint when the audience starts to disengage, but repurposed for mass manipulation by a clever and adaptable demagogue. Instead of a teleprompter, the speaker watches an affect evaluation screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSj26ncU_po&feature=share