Meme Engine "audio"

audio, spoken word, chris frith, consciousness, meta, fridge light, reading, mind wandering, snoopy,

Oliver Sacks
"Paradox of Choice"
Radiolab

“…there followed an increasingly nightmarish period in which I had kidneys for breakfast, kidneys for lunch, stewed kidneys, sweet kidneys…”

My current book is a collection of case studies written by this man, Oliver Sacks. His writing is insightful, cerebral and yet unpretentious, and it turns out he is also quite a charming, unassuming speaker.

He is a regular on the Science podcast Radiolab, and in this clip host Robert Krulwich is asking him for his thoughts about the Paradox of Choice. Sacks has some interesting personal insights about how limiting choice has affected his life. And yes, they involve Kidney Beans.

You can find the full episode of Radiolab here.

Posted 2 weeks ago

6 notes

audio, podcast, spoken word, oliver sacks, radiolab, robert krulwich, choice, paradox of choice, routine,

“Audio is like this natural antidote to the visual onslaught of the internet.”

- Spark on CBC Radio

Possibly a little biased given the source, but I agree! The idea of Audio as an underused but vastly promising facet of our media-lives has been crystallizing in me over my adult life.

Spark’s comparison of audio to the internet’s designed-text format basically boiled down to:

Audio is Linear and Immersive.

Therein lies its advantage and its disadvantage. It might be too strong to say that one *can’t* skim audio content… but for some reason, we usually don’t. For me it’s listen right through, or shut it off. Text can be incredibly immersive of course (like reading a novel) but, when online, skimming through text is the modus operandi.

I think it’s even more relevant to compare audio to Images, possibly including short words or phrases (and maybe gifs?) That’s where the competition is. When competing for my attention, Images seem to have a natural advantage over words and meanings.

Here’s where I think the advantages of Audio can really be seen. For me it’s a middle choice between image and text that keeps the best qualities of either. Though not skimmable, audio content can clearly keep all the meaning and subtlety of any piece of text (by recording the words read out loud, duh!)

And, while audio isn’t quite as arresting as a well designed image, it does compete on the same field. Audio - even purely spoken word audio - can have all the charm and intimacy of whoever is speaking. Certain tricks are also available… a little thing called music! (though here, I mean to talk about music just as garnish for a more ‘verbal’ audio piece).

So, basically I think audio has the full depth-potential of text, but also some of the humanity and charisma one might associate with images.

(PS - I can put my money where my mouth is here. I regularly tag my content “spoken word” to indicate that it’s an out-loud, educational bit of audio. I dare you to check them out.)

Posted 2 weeks ago

audio, spark, text, image, media, learning, charisma, attention,

Dr Barry Smith
"The "Mineness" of Self"
Discussion on The Hard Problem

The Science of the Brain is able to provide insight in so many areas where it almost seems that science should not be able to reach.

In this clip Dr Barry Smith talks about some of the philosophical insights we can take from studying lesions in the brain. He invokes names no less than Wittgenstein, and Descartes in the context of how their ideas about the “ownership of ideas” and the self have to be revised in light of recent research! And I think he is right.

This excerpt is just a sample from this excellent discussion on the Hard Problem of Consciousness.

12 notes

philosophy, neuroscience, science, wittgenstein, descartes, ownership, audio, spoken word, barry smith,

Spark from CBC Radio
"Spark Music"

Just a little appreciation for one of my favorite radio programs CBC’s Spark

I usually talk about the depth and insight (and work) that’s gone into making a technology radio show worth taking the time to listen to for over 200 episodes!!

But this season, I’ve also been noticing the music. Spark is about the talk for sure, but some enterprising musician has been designing new music for the intros and gaps between interviews. Not just a new stock of music to pull from, it’s new music for every episode!

In the audio here, you’ve got the 30 second intro’s from Spark 212, Spark 211, Spark 214 and Spark 213 (in that order). You can hear the intro music, plus the amusingly out of context clips pulled from the interviews featured in the episode. This audio design is excellent, and if they truly are creating new musical ambiance for every episode… well, *Respect*.

Spark has a site, and yep, a tumblr.

audio, podcast, music, spark, cbc, radio, design,

Rupert Sheldrake
"Law as Metaphor"

Personally, the word “crackpot” always runs through my head at least once when I listen to a lecture from Rupert Sheldrake. That said, so many of the best ideas come from crackpots.

In this excerpt from his banned Ted Talk, Sheldrake claims that Law is a human concept, and the idea of a Natural Law is a metaphor that can (and has been) taken too far.

Interesting…

3 notes

rupert sheldrake, law, natural law, metaphor, crackpot, science, audio, spoken word,

Anil Seth and Barry C. Smith
"Unknowable = Indescribable?"

Challenge: Give an exhaustive verbal description of the English Coastline. You can’t? Hmmm, does that mean there is something mysterious and unknowable about this coastline?

Challenge: Explain how subjective experiences emerge from brain activity. You can’t? Hmmm…

In this clip Dr Anil Seth raises this (implied) criticism of the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Perhaps the difficulty of explaining how brain begets subjectivity is just a difficulty of scale, like that of describing the English Coastline out loud.

We hear a rebuttal from Barry C Smith (who’s quickly becoming my new hero). He argues that trouble communicating “What it is like” is of a different sort than the trouble with too much detail.

This exchange is another sample from this excellent discussion of Consciousness and the Hard Problem.

3 notes

barry smith, anil seth, philosophy, consciousness, hard problem, what it is like to be a bat, thomas nagel, english coastline, audio, spoken word, description,

I’m posting this link for ListenToYouTube of my own free will out of gratitude.

Anyone who uses headphones with a phone or mp3-player regularly can benefit from this. I listen to at least a few quality lectures, ted talks, etc, every single week by downloading mp3’s via this site.

It’s a simple copy/paste of a youtube url. You do have to be careful, there are adds on the page, some of them being sneaky, using buttons like “download mp3” to make you think they aren’t adds. But generally, I’ve found this page better than most even in this aspect. And the downloads have been fast, reliable and clean.

Posted 4 weeks ago

7 notes

youtube, audio, listentoyoutube, documentaries, ted talks, education, mp3,

Chris Frith and Barry Smith
"Describe the Pain"

An excerpt from an excellent conversation on The Hard Problem of Consciousness, this bit gets to the heart of the matter.

Dr Chris Frith speaks first, asking if it’s reasonable for us to expect a scientific model of consciousness to encompass subjectivity (after all, we don’t expect a model train to carry passengers, or a mathematical model of a hurricane to be windy…).

Dr Smith makes what I would call the appropriate response: leaving out subjectivity leaves out information that we want!

barry smith, chris frith, philosophy, philosophy of mind, consciousness, hard problem of consciousness, pain, model, language, audio, spoken word, description,

Rupert Sheldrake
"A Divide in Science"

Here’s a 20-second soundbite from Rupert Sheldrake’s banned Tedx talk. As I’ve said before, I find Sheldrake’s ideas (and this talk as a whole) a little bit “crackpotish”, but his originality makes it worth listening to what he has to say. Questioning your own beliefs is good every now and then (“…uh, why do I believe that again?… [half-hour of difficult thought]… yes… yes, that is right!”)

As for this particular excerpt from the talk, I’m mostly in agreement!

rupert sheldrake, science, ted, tedx, inquiry, world view, scientific method, audio, spoken word,

Daniel Dennett
"Fame in the Brain"

Daniel Dennett talks about his metaphor: Consciousness is “Fame in the Brain”.

I have some problems with Dennett’s take on Consciousness, but I’ll grind that axe some other time… certainly I always find his ideas thought-provoking.

This idea has some extra notoriety lately due to it’s association with the Tedx talk: Google Consciousness. Turns out his “Fame in the Brain” translates pretty well to “Fame in the Search Engine”. My objections to Dennett notwithstanding, I actually have no problem entertaining the idea of a complicated and conscious search engine.

6 notes

dennett, daniel dennett, google consciousness, google, consciousness, fame in the brain, metaphor, brain, mind, audio, spoken word,

Don Tapscott
Innovators Forum

When I listened to visionary Don Tapscott at the Innovator’s Forum, I was expecting insights about communication, social models, and hints about the future. I got all these, but was surprised to get some equally wise insights about parenting.

Tapscott has always been wonderful at tackling the bogeymen we fear will loom up out of the internet to destroy us, and here he shares some thoughts about easy access to Pornography, or “Porn” by internet citizens of all ages. These thoughts come in the context of how he dealt with the issue in his own family, with his own Children.

Have a listen - he incisively cuts through what all we parents think we fear, to the things that are really most important. I will do my best to be as insightful and trusting during my own parenting milestones..

1 note

don tapscott, porn, pornography, internet, communication, parenting, trust, audio, spoken word,

Anshuman Iddamsetty
"Tumblr vs Twitter and Facebook"
Bandwidth from CBC Radio

Here’s a little blurb from the radio review of Tumblr I heard around a year ago that first prompted me to come check out the site. Just feeling nostalgic since I recently passed 1000 posts.

With some time under my belt, I’m not sure I totally agree with his assessment of Tumblr’s capabilities (in particular, the words “nuanced conversation”… maybe I’d buy “nuanced presentation”). On the other hand, this is basically a lovenote to a site I’ve certainly gotten a lot of value from (and no love lost between me and Facebook or Twitter, really).

You can hear the full 12 minutes of this interview on Soundcloud.