The New Ideas Blog

Time once again to round up the latest pages and posts covering creative and interesting new ideas. Here are some of what I have written in the last two weeks:

A Cybernetic Brain -  Some speculation on the technology coming to a brain near you (the one behind your eyes).  (Brain Power News Blog)

Some Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence – How close are we, and what will it mean? (Increase Brainpower Website)

Mind Power Techniques – One specific one explained with an example.  (Brain Power News Blog)

Truly Radical Welfare Reform – This is an idea you probably haven’t heard of. (999 Ideas)

Fast Thinker – Are you a fast thinker? We all are at a level below consciosuness.  (Brain Power News Blog)

The Psychology of Bribery – Why do some cultures have more bribery [Read the rest of this entry...]

We can easily imagine the dangers of technology. Just think of nuclear explosions and video games that suck the time out of life (or is it the life out of time?) But technology is neutral in a moral sense. It can be use for good purposes, bad ones, and everything in-between. The more important questions are perhaps not about the dangers of various technologies, but about how we choose which to use.

It is clear that our minds are very powerful. We are capable of creating amazing things, some of which are very beneficial to humans. But the pursuit of knowledge and the use of that knowledge is not motivated only by a desire to do the most real good, is it? With all the potential motivations operating in the minds of humans, how do we know that we are pursuing actual values?

For example, we can design an economy that [Read the rest of this entry...]

What is Weber’s Law, and why should you know about it?

Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795–1878) studied human response to a physical stimulus in a quantitative fashion. In one experiment, he blindfolded a man and gradually increased the weight he was holding. The subject was told to respond as soon as he felt the increase. It was found that the smallest difference a person can perceive as a difference, is proportional to the starting value of the weight. In other words, start at an ounce and a half-ounce difference is easy to detect, but start at ten pounds and you won’t notice a difference of several ounces.

Weber actually created an exact formula describing this. A century later scientists in the field of behavioral economics applied the idea to the “money decisions” that [Read the rest of this entry...]

It is accepted by almost everyone that the licensing of doctors and other professionals by governments is necessary. Without getting into a long argument for or against professional licenses, I want to get you thinking abut this.

We should note that a license given by a government only requires a minimum standard that is primarily measured in terms of education and training, not performance. While the stated purpose is public safety, the practice of licensing leads the public to be complacent. In fact, people are complacent to the point where most will spend twice as much time researching which computer to buy than researching which doctors or lawyers or financial planners to use.

The premise that licensing encourages is that all who have a license are roughly equal in ability. This is clearly not true, and nobody would even claim it to be, but people do [Read the rest of this entry...]

Many extreme advocates of the rights of individuals think taxation is theft. The basic reasoning is that to take from a person without that person’s permission is stealing, regardless of the purpose. If I don’t have the right to take my neighbor’s money without his permission–for any purpose–I don’t gain that right by getting together with others and doing it as a group or “society.” The consensus of the mob does not make an action right.

The principle doesn’t really change if we elected others (government) to steal the money for us. After all, I could hire someone to steal from my neighbor and people would still call this a theft. Nor does it change anything to claim that it is for the victim’s own good. That’s for him to decide, isn’t it?

Well, that’s the theory, anyhow. Most people accept that some degree of government taxation and control is morally justified. They almost never [Read the rest of this entry...]

In life, risk taking is inevitable, but we each gravitate toward that level of risk we are willing to tolerate. That’s what the science–and our experience–shows. Scientists refer to this self-regulatory process as risk homeostasis. It’s not an expression you hear often, but it’s an important idea.

It’s a phenomenon that has not been fully accounted for in safety design and legislation. The problem is that when people tend to gravitate towards a set level of perceived risk, they negate much of the benefit of any safety improvements.

For example, I was reading about the introduction of anti-lock brakes, and some of the original testing done on them. As a technology, they work. But interestingly, when they were introduced, the accident rate [Read the rest of this entry...]

Today I have a very short post on maturity and authority. It is meant to raise questions more than to answer them, so you can decide for yourself what a mature approach to dealing with authorities consists of. The questions at the end are borrowed from The Radical Thinking Course.

We can see from history and experience that unthinking obedience to authority can have tragic consequences. A mature person sees that the verdict of ones own mind can’t be safely ignored. On the other hand, we can see that fighting every battle makes no sense either, so we may sometimes cooperate with authorities, perhaps even when they are doing something that is wrong or unproductive.

So maturity is not about mindlessly rebelling against authority, nor does it mean [Read the rest of this entry...]

Can we develop a new kind of consciousness right now, in this lifetime? Some would argue that people are doing it all the time with meditative practices. This is a good example, and meditation may even be a part of the process I envision. But my goal here is to suggest a new way to recreate one’s consciousness in a more active way.

We see the difference between our human consciousness and that of other animals. Some claim that our consciousness gives us nothing superior to animals in terms of happiness, peace of mind, spirituality or even long-term survival. True or false, that is a separate issue. With or without any value judgments–without calling it superior–we can plainly see that our conscious life is very different from that of a chipmunk or a lizard.

What is the reason for that difference? How did this human consciousness [Read the rest of this entry...]

Today’s post covers inventions and ideas; a few pages, videos and such that I have discovered around the internet. I really liked the video I watched yesterday, for example, about a new idea–which has been tested–for roads made up of solar cells. You read that right. A glass road with solar cells to generate power (and the LED lights in it can spell out words, warn you if there is someone stepping onto a crosswalk ahead, and do other nifty things. You can see the video here:

http://www.wimp.com/solarhighways/

I also found a god blog post on inventions that we don’t think about much. Some of these have been around for generations now. That post can be found here:

Inventions We Take for Granted

Then there is the invention for traveling salesmen and others who would like a convenient way to [Read the rest of this entry...]

Today’s post is a simple one; a collection of creativity quotes. Enjoy!

During those rare moments of creativeness, when an ordinary person has something in common with the making of the universe, he feels a sense of transcendence, of moving beyond his daily life. What could be a greater reward? – Joseph Zinker

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative Painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. – Henri Matisse

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head almost nothing. – Marc Chagall

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to [Read the rest of this entry...]