psyartnology

psychology, art, and technology

[psyartnology]

Mainstream is dead. The Sound Research presents a new documentary series about how technology and dissatisfaction with the status quo have led to fringe trends becoming the new normal. 

[psyartnology]

Laughing and crying my way through the new Google Photos

I started using Google Photos after it first launched last week. I was immediately impressed for all the reasons that Casey Newton mentioned in his review: simplicity, intuitive navigation and...

Andddddd digital memories become more bizarre/beautiful/sad. I cannot wait to play with Google Photos.

“Assistant put all these together, perhaps assuming they were all shot in the same place, and at the same time. Footage of my son playing with Legos and running laps are interspersed with photos from my grandmother’s funeral service and the restaurant where my mother planned a reception. And there’s grandpa Grumpy, climbing out of the car for the interment of his wife.It’s all held together with a jangly, bittersweet soundtrack that’s somber but optimistic. You’d think that Google Photos would know better than to offer me this present, that it could identify the objects and elements common to a funeral service the way it can apparently identify "boats," "hats," or "fog." If the goal of your product is to delight, you'd best not miss.”

[psyartnology]

Being Bored Can Fire Up Your Creativity - PsyBlog

Some writers swear by a solid dose of boredom to help them seek out new ideas.

I remember going on family trips as a teen. As an only child, I would get pretty restless after a week or so. My parents would be asleep by 10 pm. I would have finished all my books and be going bat shit crazy with boredom (this was the pre-smart phone era). But after a couple hours of feeling like time could not possibly be passing any slower, I’d enter this super creative mode of thinking. I actually recall coming up with some of my best film ideas during vacations, some of which I still have yet to produce! But anyway, apparently this is actually a thing, and we’re probably a lot less creative now that we can choose to never be bored. I can’t even remember the last time I was bored. There’s always an article to read, a video to watch, a game to play. I guess that’s why it’s important to set out time for creative thinking, as forced as that may feel. I actually did that for an hour every week as homework for a class during my MBA (found a “creative spot,” turned off my devices, and wrote whatever came to mind). Highly recommended! (Note to self: Start doing that again!)

[psyartnology]

Celebrating 10 years of YouTube!

I love that people all around the world all know these video clips.

Happy Birthday YouTube!

[psyartnology]

[psyartnology]

This project, by FCB Brazil, is beautiful. This program pairs Brazilian students, who want to learn English with elderly Americans, who want someone to talk to. What an incredible example of shared value. 

These are the kind of ideas the world needs.

[psyartnology]

Change your mood on demand with Thync

Thync is a wearable technology that jolts neurons to provide different "vibes" such as relaxation or alertness.

Thync will reduce our dependence on mood-altering drugs with negative side effects.

Will Thync be the new Xanax and Adderall?

But what about other kinds of side effects?

"The research community has begun to ask: What are the ethics of battery-operated cognitive enhancement?… Is brain boosting a fair addition to the cognitive enhancement arms race? Will it create a Morlock/Eloi-like social divide where the rich can afford to be smarter and leave everyone else behind? Will Tiger Moms force their lazy kids to strap on a zappity helmet during piano practice?"

It is so exciting and terrifying to live in these times.

Read more...

[psyartnology]

Born Again AI

I just read this article about religion and AI.

"It's redemption to all of creation, even AI," he said. "If AI is autonomous, then we have should encourage it to participate in Christ's redemptive purposes in the world."

"The Holy Spirit can work though AI; it can work through anything. There may be churches set up to deal and promote religious AI in the future. AI can help spread the word of God.

Sigh. This makes me think about some anecdote I heard once about an alien coming to earth and coming upon a book shelf. The alien picks out several books at random, Greek mythology, The Bible, a book about Scientology, Horton Hears a Hoo, whatever random book you can think of. This one is the truth, Mr. Alien. Why? Because. Because it is.

This is one of the many reasons why AI will progress much faster than us.

“Rather than bring the full force of our creativity and rationality to bear on the problems of ethics, social cohesion, and even spiritual experience, moderates merely ask that we relax our standard of adherence to ancient superstitions and taboos, while otherwise maintaining a belief system that was passed down to us from men and women whose lives were simply ravaged by their basic ignorance about the world.” - Sam Harris

[psyartnology]

The Robot Problem - Positioning New Technologies

I've been working on a startup and thinking a lot about the robot problem.

By the time we get around to developing a new technology for consumer use, the technology is often far from new in the minds of consumers.

When you think about virtual reality, what comes to mind?

We will ask this question in our consumer research interviews, and I know many of the answers will be impossible to achieve with the current state of the technology.

This is the case with many new technologies. For years, consumers have been marketed products that only exist in the minds of science fiction novelists and scriptwriters. The actual product can never meet these expectations. Technological breakthroughs are often only exciting to those who really understand them. And everyone else is disappointed. “I thought we’d have flying cars by now.”

So how can we neutralize shortcomings? Youngme Moon, head of the marketing department at Harvard Business School, proposes the idea of stealth positioning – concealing the true nature of products by affiliating them with a different category. In her book “Different,” she presents the example of Sony’s AIBO.

Sony wanted to make a household robot. Consumers already had an idea of what a robot should be able to do. Sony knew this robot would not only never live up to their expectations but also that it would be imperfect and glitchy. So using the same technology that could have resulted in a typical household robot, they made a pet. AIBO didn’t have any shockingly futuristic features. AIBO wasn’t even useful. Yet AIBO was a huge success, especially among children and the elderly (perhaps a surprising target market for robots).

Imagine AIBO as a typical “robot.” The robot fails to listen to a command. Reaction: “This stupid thing doesn’t work.”

Imagine AIBO as a pet. A dog fails to listen to a command. Reaction: “Haha silly AIBO. Bad dog! It’s like he has a personality!” Sony positioned AIBO as a lovable pet which shifted attention away from its limitations. And in the process, Sony gained valuable data for the continued development of its robots.

Virtual reality is a highly competitive space. Positioning is everything. We need to keep this in mind as we further develop our VR idea. We need to be wary of functional fixedness. We associate VR with certain features and experiences because we’ve been presented with this information for years. It doesn’t mean there aren’t other possibilities, infinite possibilities.

[psyartnology]

Sadness.

This isn't surprising at all considering the research around prospect theory. Losses hurt more than gains feel good.

The universal fear of failure.

The tendency to hold onto things.

[psyartnology]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz13HMsvb6o#t=513

Miranda July has created Somebody, an app in which other people deliver your messages face-to-face on your behalf. As Huffington Post put it, Miranda July's new app will turn the world into a Miranda July film. I can't wait to see what people do with this. 

I love Miranda. I have loved her since my 14 year old self randomly grabbed Me and You and Everyone We Know off the Blockbuster shelf. And then in college, I discovered all of her old work, some of which inspired my own films and video installations. Most of all I love her crowd-sourced projects, and this one is the most interactive yet! 

[psyartnology]

Remember when sharing was caring? It's kind of ironic how we now equate sharing with NOT caring.

This video is actually hilarious and sad at the same time. It was created as a parody of our obsession with sharing and rating everything (and all the apps that allow us to do so). There was no real Jotly app. But then this video got really popular, and it turned out that people actually wanted this app to exist. So the video's creators made it. And now it's a real thing.

And I kind of want it.

[psyartnology]

App that allows you to control a cockroach

"An electrode connector and electrodes are then glued on to the insect's body and a needle is used to poke a hole in their thorax in order to insert a wire.

Their antennae are then cut and electrodes are inserted. A circuit is attached to their backs, and signals are received through a mobile phone app allowing users to control the cockroaches' movements to the left and to the right."

The electronic cockroach backpack teaching tool is so creepy and cruel. Getting kids excited about neuroscience? How about doing projects about controlling prosthetic limbs or something? Why would we want to perpetuate the idea of mind control over any living thing? This.is.not.good.idea. I guess the sci-fi movies = reality is inevitable, but this certainly seems to be hastening the progression. 

Read more.

[psyartnology]

This building, located in Dresden, Germany, plays music when it rains.

[authentic-boredom]

Hirotoshi Ito

[psyartnology]

"Photographer Lalage Snow, who is currently based in Kabul, Afghanistan, embarked on an 8-month-long project titled We Are The Not Dead featuring portraits of British soldiers before, during, and after their deployment in Afghanistan. Similar to Claire Felicie's series of monochromatic triptychs, Snow captures the innocent expressions of these men transformed into gaunt, sullen faces in less than a year.

The three-panel juxtaposition allows the viewer to observe the physical changes a stationed soldier in a war zone goes through. Time is sped up for these men under the beating sun, amidst combat. Regardless of age, the boys that went in came back as men with experiences beyond their years. As weathered and worn as their skin or sunken in faces may appear, it's their dilated eyes that are the most telling."

See more

[psyartnology]

All we have is this moment...and we know it.

Life is cruel in its fleeting beauty. And our awareness that we cannot hold onto to anything, that constant muted feeling that pokes its disorienting head out every now and then, is certainly amplified when we fall in love. 

The meeting of two souls, minds, hearts, hands feels so infinite. "i will always love you," we say. 

I like to think that we put the love we have for each other out into the universe, that it exists as a form of energy long after we're gone.