Summary: This chapter talks about sense and how our brain processes these things. It talks about the “phantom” idea where you can trick the brain to think that something is there or happening to that your brain acts as if that certain something is there. Or like with the card example in the reading, your brain is tricked to think that the card you picked was the only one that disappeared, but really all the cards are switched if you look closer at the trick. So this idea can trick your brain for either good or bad, getting you to see things that aren’t there or aren’t happening. It also talks about this mangrove analogy and how we think about things and how language has had a huge effect. That even before language was a formal thing, humans still thought about things, and when you are thinking you are pretty much there in the form of language. So I would agree with the author in the idea that Language is a technology. It allows us to communicate with others in a way that provides a space for thought and growth and not just basic communication.
1. Related to the text descriptions of how our senses work with our brain, explain your experiences where your senses have momentarily misled you or someone you know. Give examples of this.
A. I would say that one good example of this, when it comes to vision and what you see in the real world, is the color illusion example. That two squares of the same color are put on different backgrounds and then it makes the colors look different, even though they are in fact the same. Your senses tell you they are different colors when they are not. Sense of smell misleading you to smell something good when it really does not taste good. Or like when you see someone you recognize when you really don’t know them.
2. What does the 'The Early Adopters Dream Technology' example on page 80 and the mangrove analogy starting on page 81 say about the role of language and its relationship to thought and meaning? Do you agree with the Authors assertions? Whether you agree or not, please explain why.
A. I think that this analogy, clear with the mangrove example, is talking about how language did not come before thought or meaning, but rather that language was the foundation of thought and meaning. Just like the mangroves, the trees did not grow from the islands, but the islands grew from the trees. Language is a form of helping us think, the foundation of thought.
3. The Ideas of 'meta learning' (page 67) and constructive learning (page 83) are brought up in this chapter. What do these 2 ideas have in common in terms of the process of learning and using information and memory? Please elaborate on your thoughts on how you can 'learn' something from this.
A. They are both a process of information but they are different forms. They are talking about the process of adding information on top of the information already known; user learning. Both should be expanding on itself but constructive learning is more of this foundation that is constantly built on top of, just like the process we go through in school.
A2. Meta-learning, learn smarter not harder. Using something that has some information that relates to the problem in front of you to make it easier.
Things are thinking for us now and we don’t have to do as much, we have a computer in our pocket that can tell us almost everything.
Summary: This chapter covered the idea of telepresence in majority. The idea of being able to trick your brain into being in a different physical space by having the sensory clues of being in a different space. So like VR would be a version of telepresence, even if it is not a pure version of telepresence. For example, I am someone that is super scared fo heights and with a VR headset I can trick my brain to thinking I am hanging off a building or something high and my anxiety starts to go through the roof. Like I will get scared, even if I was sitting down, because I get the audio and video clues of being in that space.
1. What are the 2 main components of action discussed in the book, that is required for Telepresence to exist and function properly?
A. Visual and Tactile feedback going to something that can process the information is what is needed for telepresence to exist and function properly. A pull and push of information.
2. What form of Telepresence do you think you have experienced? If you have not. What was the closest to it, and what was missing for it to not be telepresence?
A. The closest experience I have had would probably have to be VR. You get the visual and audio experience of being in that space but not the full range of senses. For that reason, I would say that it was not a pure form of telepresence but something very close.
3. Speculate on what other mechanics and sensory modalities that are based on Telepresence ideas, might be possible. What other ways can we be 'displaced'? Where our perception of where we are and what we are sensing can be 'hacked' or 'rigged'.
A. The crutches example. It’s a piece of technology that we are reliant on.
Remote robotic surgery. We can perform surgery on someone that is in need without having to be exactly in the same room or even area.
Video calls would be another example because you get visual and audio, as in the VR example, but it’s not the same as being there in person.