comments from the edge
DESCRIPTION
A facilitated discussion at UBC as part of the CTLT InstituteTRANSCRIPT
?Questions From the Edge
2011
What scientific concept would improveeverybody’s cognitive toolkit?
http://www.edge.org/
A few snippets:
• consider images• discuss and record observations/thoughts on snippet• use a grid to organize• share observations: relate to teaching and learning where possible
IMAGE BY: PINK PONK ON Flickr
COGNITIVE LOAD
IMAGE BY: SKIPPYJON ON Flickr
COGNITIVE LOAD
“The amount of information entering our consciousness at any instant is referred to as our cognitive load. When our cognitive load exceeds the capacity of our working memory, our intellectual abilities take a hit.”
“The more aware we are of how small and fragile our working memory is, the more we'll be able to monitor and manage our cognitive load. We'll become more adept at controlling the flow of the information coming at us.”
NICHOLAS CARRAuthor, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
TO CURATE
IMAGE BY: ARTPJM ON Flickr
CURATE
“‘Curate’ finds ever-wider application because of a feature of modern life that is impossible to ignore: the incredible proliferation of ideas, information, images, disciplinary knowledge, and material products that we are all witnessing today. Such proliferation makes the activities of filtering, enabling, synthesizing, framing, and remembering more and more important as basic navigational tools for 21st century life. These are the tasks of the curator.”
HANS ULRICH OBRISTCurator, Serpentine Gallery, London
THE USELESSNESS OF CERTAINTY
“There is a widely used notion that does plenty of damage: the notion of ‘scientifically proven’. Nearly an oxymoron. The very foundation of science is to keep the door open to doubt.”
CARLO ROVELLIPhysicist, University of Aix-Marseille, France; Author, The First Scientist: Anaximander and the Nature of Science
RISK LITERACY
“Risk literacy requires emotional re-wiring: rejecting comforting paternalism and illusions of certainty, and learning to take responsibility and to live with uncertainty. Daring to know..”
“Rather than being nudged into doing what experts believe is right, people should be encouraged and equipped to make informed decisions for themselves.”
GERD GIGERENZERPsychologist; Director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin; Author, Gut Feelings
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
TEXT
IMAGE BY:careesma_group ON Flickr
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
“Human achievement is entirely a networking phenomenon. It is by putting brains together through the division of labor — through trade and specialisation — that human society stumbled upon a way to raise the living standards, carrying capacity, technological virtuosity and knowledge base of the species.”
MATT RIDLEYScience Writer; Founding chairman of the International Centre for Life; Author, Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code
INTERBEING
IMAGE by: _Fidelio_ On Flickr
INTERBEING
“Humanity's cognitive toolkit would greatly benefit from adoption of ‘interbeing,’ a concept that comes from Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. In his words:...”
SCOTT D. SAMPSONPaleontologist and science communicator; Author: Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life
“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in [a] sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either . . . ‘Interbeing’ is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix ‘inter-’ with the verb to ‘be’, we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have a paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are. . . . ‘To be’ is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is."
INTERBEING
Snippets
• From: http://www.edge.org/
Nicholas Carr: Cognitive LOad: http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_3.html#carrn
hans Ulrich obrist: To Curatehttp://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_3.html#obrist
Carlo Rovelli: The uselessness of certaintyhttp://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_4.html#rovelli
gird gigerenzer: Risk Literacyhttp://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_8.html#gigerenzer
Matt Ridley: Collective intelligence http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_8.html#ridley
Scott sampson: Interbeinghttp://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_9.html#sampson
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What scientific concept would improveeverybody’s cognitive toolkit?
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