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developed by JhackAbout Skeptikai
Skeptikai defends science and exposes pseudoscience. Living in Japan also allows for an interesting opportunity to discuss fascinating stories that go unnoticed elsewhere. Psychological phenomena and intriguing cases from around the globe are also regularly highlighted.
The Psychological Science of StorytellingIt hit me about two years ago, sometime after I started this blog. Somewhere between the…
Islamic Blasphemy and the “Freedom” to Choose your Own ReligionIn the last few weeks, Muslims from Bangladesh have been going crazy trying to fight back…
Inattentional Blindness and the Invisible ViolinistIf a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? It…
Hamas-Israel Ceasefire Ends as Gaza Schools Drop Sports for Military TrainingI have been following the news regarding the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza that…
Are Vocal Homophobes Really Just Homosexuals in the Closet?Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who…
Why Haven’t We Found the Missing Link in the Fossil Record? Science Answers!War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. -George Orwell If evolution is…
Bollywood Zombies and The Westernization of Indian Pop CultureGo Goa Gone, the first Western-style zombie flick to be made in Bollywood, was just…
Hungary Solves Homelessness by Finding Places for All… in Jail?The brilliant move of Hungary lawmakers to criminalize the act of being a homeless person…
The 2013 Pigasus AwardsEvery year, the James Randi Educational Foundation gives awards to recognize the special…
Did Jesus ‘Want’ to be Nailed to a Cross?I'm pretty sure the answer to the question in the title is "no," but there are many things…
Tag Archives: robotics
Relax! Because video games will soon react to your physiological arousal
As technologies multiply, so too do our uses for them. In fact, video games in particular started out as nothing more than a form of entertainment – some would say “mindless entertainment.” But especially in recent years, games have turned from “fun” to “therapeutic” and “educational,” among having other cognitive and social benefits. This article won’t be about these benefits, though, but about where the industry is headed in terms of its biggest new hardware innovations, and why non-gamers should care about them. So far, it looks like the next big thing is a controller that can actually sense your physiological arousal.
Posted in Culture, Medicine & Health, Technology, Video Games
Tagged history, robotics, video games
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Stanford offers free education online, over 125,000 sign up
In a little over one month, a little-known Artificial Intelligence (AI) course has skyrocketed in popularity, since the two professors announced that anyone anywhere in the world could take their course. Three days after the announcement, 10,000 people signed up, and a month later, the number has increased tenfold. The Stanford University School of Engineering has decided not just to show videos of the classes – a practice which has been going on for around a decade in some of the most reputable universities in the world (especially in America) – but to allow students to take tests, watch lectures, and participate in class discussions. As said in a recent article from SingularityHub “Classes of 1 million or tens of millions may be in our future. If Stanford can succeed in teaching classes of 100k+ students at a time, what will it mean for education in general?”
Posted in Media, Science, Technology
Tagged artificial intelligence, driverless car, education, online education, peter norvig, robotics, sebastian thrun, Stanford
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Skeptikai Notices (Aug9) – Video games, news, hacking, Japan, science
Video Games:
Robots use Kinect to understand our world – Robots can’t view the world like we do, but technology is advancing, and soon they may be able to understand it enough to convince us that they can experience it similar to us. Researchers at Cornell University’s Robot Learning Lab have manipulated the Kinect system – created essentially for entertainment purposes for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game console – so that the robots could image their environments in “colored 3D pointclouds.” The accompanying video shows the world as they see it. The robots can locate objects, and robotics will probably be advancing exponentially, now that we have examples of robots learning skills through reinforcement – such as the robotic arm that learned to flip pancakes after 50 trials.
Posted in Aggregators/lists/rankings
Tagged Anonymous, coffee, crime, economy, Fukushima, hacker, kinect, Korea, LulzSec, North Korea, politics, psychiatry, riot, robotics, sex, sex research, video games
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Skeptikai Notices (July11) – Psychology, robotics, Japan, & more
Psychology:
Monkey Business – From the creators of Freakonomics, this article talks about what happens when you teach monkeys how to use money. It’s just another link showing how similar we are to them… they gambled poorly, started stealing, and – that’s right – engaged in prostitution. (And I bet they all said the graphic above would be a waste!)
You Are What You (Think) You Eat – Researchers gave participants two milkshakes on different weeks, though they were the same concoctions. The only difference was that they were labeled differently. It turns out that the label influenced how hungry they were afterwards. Click the link to find out why.
Posted in Aggregators/lists/rankings
Tagged diet, exercise, monkeys, Olympics, prostitution, RoboCup, robotics, sex research, Tokyo
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