“It’s an ongoing experiment,” [Ronald Hoeflin, a “severely gifted” man cited in the Voice this past week] says. “It has a certain science fiction quality — what is the maximum boundary of the human brain?”
I started reading Ender’s Game Saturday. Along with The Diamond Age, it’s got me thinking about models of intelligence, particularly in science fiction.
Serious Games Source has finally published my article on the Games For Change conference last month. The meat of the article is on the recommendations that were made for seeking grant funding for social change games, and also on Raph Koster’s rather scathing comments at the final keynote.
I just got word that I’ve been added as a speaker on a panel entitled Hackers and Academia this Friday at the sixth Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference, after having peppered every email address I could find for organizers begging to be let on it. I plan to speak briefly on what I’ve learned in school about the ways hackers and geeks are absolutely correct in their criticism of schools in forums like Slashdot. Research on human cognition and social learning suggests that in fact sitting and listening to a lecture from someone who doesn’t respect the things you’ve been teaching yourself outside of class is generally not the ideal way to learn.
Is everybody familiar with ePluribus Media? Being in grad school I’ve been a bit out of the news and haven’t been keeping good track, but these are the folks who broke the exposee of Jeff Gannon (that’s a Daily Show clip, so you can have some fun). They maintain databases to support timelines of important stories including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Plamegate leak, and post-traumatic stress disorder incidences among soldiers returning from the war. These databases are available to any reporter who wants access. The neatest feature of these databases? You make ’em, their volunteers fact-check them. They have a number of librarians and other info-minded folks helping out behind the scenes with research, on a volunteer basis. Reminds me a little of the gargoyle reporters in Snow Crash.
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