What Is This Thing Called Happiness? by Fred Feldman

A review of the book “What is This Thing Called Happiness?” by Fred Feldman

Extensions to the Syrjala Test with Eye-Tracking Data Analysis Applications in R

Eye tracking is a process for measuring the movement of an individual’s eye(s) when that individual is looking at something. Many eye-tracking technologies exist to aid in calculating and recording data associated with what a person focuses their visual attention on. For example, eye-tracking technology can record points on an image that a person is looking at. Often the question arises as to whether two people, or groups of people, are looking at the same thing(s). This dissertation presents a new way (or test) to quantify those differences while taking into consideration the randomness associated with such data. Hence, the test can help to determine if the differences between what the two people, or groups of people, are looking at are caused by chance or not. However, the test is also useful to many other kinds of data similar to but outside of eye-tracking research. While this test takes longer for standard household computers to run than other alternative tests currently available, it is shown to be better in many cases at correctly identifying differences when those differences were not caused by randomness. The test is also better at identifying when the differences are caused by chance, and not necessarily by the people. The test is applied to eye-tracking data from a study held at Utah State University (USU), called the USU Posture Study, where many differences are found. The test is available online, and comes with a user manual and some examples of how to use it

Creating Reality

Our commonsense notion of reality is supported by two critical assumptions for which we have little understanding: The conscious experience which underpins the observations integral to the scientific method and language, which is the method by which all theories, scientific or otherwise, are communicated. This book examines both of these matters in detail and arrives at a new theoretical foundation for understanding how nature undertakes the task of building the universe. Creating Reality is a synthesis of Darwin’s The Origin of Species and Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach (GEB). It is an intellectual journey that addresses the most profound questions facing science and philosophy today and delivers the greatest transformation in the way we view the world since Darwin’s masterpiece. The book is targeted at anyone up for the cerebral challenge of thinking deeply about how we make sense of the world and our existence. The book is thoroughly researched and referenced, drawing from the most highly credential sources. When we take stock of where we are in our understanding of nature, it seems that three important questions stand out for which we have few answers. More than just questions, they represent gaps in our comprehension of what makes the universe tick. These are the thematic focal points of this book: • What is the nature of belief? (An examination of truth as a function of language). • What is consciousness? • What is the relationship between mathematics and the physical world? The exploration of these three questions unravels the mystery behind the principal means by which we come to have knowledge of the world. So our journey begins by asking the more generic question: How do we come to know the world? The book makes no assumptions about this thing called ‘reality’ and takes a fresh look at the presuppositions underlying commonsense notions of reality

Wittgenstein and Communication Technology : A conversation between Richard Harper and Constantine Sandis

Special Issue: PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH WITTGENSTEIN SOCIETY 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE: WITTGENSTEIN IN THE 21ST CENTURY © 2018 John Wiley & Sons LtdThis paper documents a conversation between a philosopher and a human computer interaction researcher whose research has been enormously influenced by Wittgenstein. In particular, the in vivo use of categories in the design of communications and AI technologies are discussed, and how this meaning needs to evolve to allow creative design to flourish. The paper will be of interest to anyone concerned with philosophical tools in everyday action.Non peer reviewe

Discovering communities of social e-learning practice

Teaching and Professional Development Fellowship Report 201

Impressive. Memory, Matter and Mind

This paper will set out a dualistic pattern, exemplified by (1) a neurobiological account of memory and (2) a short segment of the work of an Austrian avantgarde film-maker. This segment is chosen to simultaneously show a possible proximity as well as the presumable incompatibility of neurological and artistic approaches. The inevitable question of how those points of view relate to each other is taken up in the final section

Calvin Massey, Gentleman Farmer

[Excerpt] “So much of Calvin’s work was intelligible as work about freedom and independence, preventing aggregations of government power that threatened individual freedom. Calvin didn’t love federalism because he had a romanticized view of statehood, he believed in it because he thought centralized power in the federal government was a bigger threat to individual freedom than states were. In most states, a tin-pot governor and amateur hour legislators just aren’t going to be as effective at coercing beliefs as an Executive Branch that contains the U.S. Treasury, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the CIA, not to mention the Pentagon and the Department of Education to tell us all how to teach our classes. Some colleagues thought that Calvin was a libertarian, and I honestly can’t remember whether he embraced that label or not, but he sure as hell didn’t want the government telling people what to think or how to behave in their private lives.

The Truth About Soviet Whaling

I have always condemned (and to do anything more was not within our power or abilities) the illegal and sometimes destructive whaling by the Soviet Union. This opinion was expressed in numerous documents, including reports and records of presentations at scientific and other meetings; these documents are the witnesses to this condemnation. However, none of these documents ever saw the light of day: all of them were marked with the sinister stamp “secret.” When necessary in this memoir, my opinion of the whaling will be supported by data drawn from these docum