Category: random ideas

Why are news outlets biased? You might think it’s some kind of sinister conspiracy, or the result of powerful people controlling what the masses think. I have a different opinion–it’s what the market wants.

People (conservatives, liberals, moderates, you, me, etc.) don’t like to hear stories that disagree with what they already believe. Whenever they do, they immediately get angry and suspect they are being lied to. Everyone knows this reaction as confirmation bias. If a news outlet violates a person’s confirmation bias enough times, they’ll stop going to a news source. Therefore, to be successful, a news outlet needs to cater to specific points of view.

If your sources of news don’t make you angry on a regular basis, you’re guilty of contributing to this effect. If you get all your news from John Stewart or Rush Limbaugh, you’re even worse. What can we do to combat bias in the media? Fight confirmation bias in ourselves.

If you’re a liberal, watch Fox news first. If you’re a conservative, watch a liberal show. Look for bias in what they say and what they omit. When you hear something that supports your beliefs, question it. If you’re a liberal who thinks conservatives are evil, or a conservative who thinks liberals are evil, hit yourself on the head until the bias goes away.

Cameras have become relatively cheap, and most new cars have a backup camera. However, we all still have rather primitive sideview and rearview mirrors that suffer from blind spots. It seems to me that it must be relatively cheap to install a handful of cameras around the perimeter of a car and combine the feeds to construct a 360 degree display. If this was done properly, it would give a view low enough to the ground so that people could see a toddler walking across the driveway when backing up. It would also make checking the blindspots as easy as glancing at the dashboard. That would probably cut down on a lot of accidents on the highway.

Oh, and it would also make parallel parking a lot easier. I realize that this probably won’t save lives, but it might lower the blood pressure of a few people.

My guess is that, given how inexpensive cameras and computers are, this will become required on all new vehicles in a few years. What do you think?

Many believe that human consciousness is algorithmic, that self-awareness is simply the emergent property of a large number of logic gates. It must at least be partially true. Our brains do share a great deal of common traits with computers, and efforts to mimic neurons have yielded useful algorithms in computer science. Yet this misses a critical aspect of our self-awareness: our ability to feel. Are logic gates adequate to create the quality of the experience of seeing a color, hearing a note, feeling pain or pleasure? They seem more appropriate when considering our faculty of reason than when we ponder feeling.

It is important to distinguish the experience from the behavior. One could easily imagine a robot that perfectly duplicates the pain reaction without actually feeling anything.

I think that when we use the term “consciousness” we are describing a fusion of the ability to process logic and to feel, to attach emotional content to ideas. I think the ability to feel is the more fundamental mystery to consider when trying to understand consciousness, and the more difficult thing to define or explain.

Harry Potter was born on July 31, 1980. That makes him 30 today. Wow, he’s really getting old! You know, I always thought we’d get a series of books entitled “Harry Potter, the Aurer.” Maybe it will still happen.

One often sees studies claiming that even talking on a hands-free cell phone impairs driving. The next logical question one asks is whether talking to a passenger presents the same problem.

The answer, apparently, is no, and there’s a study to back up that assertion (citation below).

It seems that actual passengers have a tendency to talk about the traffic situation, helping the driver to focus rather than distracting him/her. Perhaps also, knowing that another person is watching the road provides an incentive to drive better.

Curiously, one of the signs of “bad driving” in the study is leaving extra space between your car and the car in front of you. In my opinion, that’s a sign of better driving — but I don’t believe my difference of opinion on this point affects the conclusion of the study.

This study and its results suggest other follow-up studies:

1. Would it help to equip cell-phones with cameras, allowing the caller to see the road?
2. If a passengers are blind-folded, do conversations with them suddenly become distractions?

In any event, I believe that when I tell my wife or daughter that they’re doing something incorrectly, it helps them to drive more safely (even if they think it is annoying).


Article: "Passenger and Cell Phone Conversations in Simulated Driving," Frank A. Drews, PhD, Monisha Pasupathi, PhD, and David L. Strayer, PhD; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 14, No. 4. k


I’ve started to listening to books on CD in an effort to ease the monotony of driving to and from work. My present choice is “Wyrms” by Orson Scott Card. So far I like the book quite a bit, but this one quote is priceless:

Here’s the Google book search result.

For a long time I’ve had an idea for a themed hotel — one that simulates life on a starship. During the course of your stay you would have the option to play various roles: commander, foot soldier, fighter pilot, etc.

One floor of the hotel would be a laser tag arena where ground battles could be enacted on fake alien terrain. Another floor would be filled with fighter ships — small cars that slide through a tube into a wall compartment filled with video screens. The command personal would direct the movements of fighters and deployment of ground troops through a higher level strategy game. The simulation would be running non-stop, so you might hear alarms in the middle of the night calling you to battle stations. If you could not afford a cabin, you might stay in the barracks — a large room filled with bunk beds.

There would be two basic dining choices:

1. “The mess hall” which would provide basic grub, usually disguised in some way to look like exotic alien food.
2. “The star base,” a slowly rotating restaurant with a view of space (i.e. large screens with stars, planets, nebulae, etc.) and more expensive food.

The hotel would have three sections, themed for either the Stellar Alliance, the Outer Colonies, or the Overlords. The Alliance section would have decor resembling Star Trek, the Colonies would have decor resembling Battlestar Galactica, and the Overlords would have decor similar to the Empire from Star Wars.

Naturally, anyone staying at the hotel (i.e. the recruits) would need proper attire (i.e. uniforms), so everyone would need to begin by going to the gift shop.

If this hotel existed, I would save to go. It might become a place of pilgrimage for sci fi fans everywhere. How about you?