In the new study, Chemero tracked the hand movements of people using a mouse to guide a cursor during a series of motor tests. Part way through the tests, the cursor lagged behind the mouse. After a few seconds, it worked again.
When Chemero’s team analyzed how people moved the mouse, they found profound differences between patterns produced during mouse function and malfunction. When the mouse worked, hand motions followed a mathematical form known as “one over frequency,” or pink noise. It’s a pattern that pops up repeatedly in the natural world, from universal electromagnetic wave fluctuations to tidal flows to DNA sequences. Scientists don’t fully understand pink noise, but there’s evidence that our cognitive processes are naturally attuned to it.
But when Chemero’s mouse malfunctioned, the pink noise vanished. Computer malfunction made test subjects aware of it — what Heidegger called “unreadiness-at-hand” — and the computer was no longer part of their cognition. Only when the mouse started working again did cognition return to normal. (One assumes, though the researchers didn’t test the proposition, that cognition would also have returned to normal had test subjects stood up and stopped using the computer.)
The results demonstrate how people fuse with their tools, said Chemero.
“The thing that does the thinking is bigger than your biological body,” he said. “You’re so tightly coupled to the tools you use that they’re literally part of you as a thinking, behaving thing.”
Asked whether computer malfunction — say, the iPhone’s notorious keyboard lag — could thusly be viewed as a discontinuity in our selves, Chemero said, “Yes, that’s exactly what it is.”
— Your Computer Really Is a Part of You | Wired Science | Wired.com (via embody)
moving moving
Man oh man, I’m gonna miss this house. I had every intention of staying here at least another year (another 2? another 5?). But reality has a way of imposing itself. That’s realtor speak for “the market has shifted.”
One thing’s for sure though: it’s gonna be great to get a fresh start with these same people. It’s just a matter of finding that next great house and pulling it all off.
There are some strong prospects, I’ve got high hopes, but reality insists on paperwork and run-arounds and verification and frankly, I think it insists on teamwork.
So we’re not in bad shape.
It feels like a big family move, except without a clear process, without a leader and with (delicious, often local) beer and a few more bikes than the average american household.
All this, among one thing or another has contributed to one hell of a February.
Hello March. Now come on April.
Genetics baby.
(from kottke.org)
on longing, briefly
Can one derive satisfaction or some degree of fulfillment from the longing itself? Not in the longing to the degree that it teaches you how to earn what you long for, but truly in the longing itself? Because if you can then you’re positioned to derive fulfillment from both the wanting and the having. In other words, you’re made to be if not change-proof then at least change-resistant. You gain on the wanting and you gain on the having. And to that end, are you not made lastingly fulfilled, even if in a state of perpetual longing?
i can't honestly respect people who are pro-life. especially guys. just stop.
(via mcmxcvii)
Well, i can’t honestly respect people who refuse to see that the pro-choice position necessarily includes the pro-life position. The reason I’m pro-choice, and resolutely so, is because I can’t make a decision for someone else. Those “someone-else’s” includes not only the people who have not and perhaps will not face a tough decision like getting an abortion, but also includes people that make up their mind well before any heavy reality comes to bear.← Previous
