Complexity in Cognitive Science: The Debate Rages On

Having just renewed my membership in the Cognitive Science Society, I received this year's back issues of their journals, and was delighted to see that the Topics issue in January contained a lively discussion on the value of complexity theory (chaos, fractals, 1/f noise, etc.). The anti-complexity (or rather, anti-buzzword) side was championed by Chris Eliasmith, who (as a licensed electrical engineer with a Ph.D. in philosophy) has been doing some extraordinary work on the hardest problems in the field.

Pirahã Recursion rererereredux

The Academic Controversy That Just Won't Die returns to the front page of the New York Times.

Update: It also appeared as a cover story in the Chronicle Review a few weeks ago.

Leadbelly vs. Robots

I guess the John Henry meme was inevitable. Otherwise, having a robot run the Ironman Triathlon is a pure publicity stunt. And if there are ever dance contests for robots, this version would probably work better, too.

IS Group met in New Haven on Sep. 3, 2011

The IS Group met on Saturday, September 3, 2011, in New Haven. The readings including James Gleick, The Information; Leonard Mlodinow, The Drunkard's Walk; Nigel Stepp and Michael T. Turvey, On strong anticipation; and China Miéville, The City & The City. It was a good meeting with an excellent turnout, spirited discussion of the readings, and the addition of some new participants, followed by Hobo With a Shotgun for the hardcore among us (thanks to Simon D. Levy for the suggestion?!).

NEXT MEETING -- TOPIC: Fiction in mind
The readings for the next meeting (date to be determined), include:

Brian Boyd, On the origin of stories: Evolution, cognition, and fiction.
(Thanks to Christina Spiesel for the suggestion!)

Lisa Zunshine, Why we read fiction: Theory of mind and the novel.

Additional reading:

Suzanne Keen, Empathy and the Novel.
(Thanks to Simon D. Levy for the suggestion.)

Future readings may include:

Brian Greene, The hidden reality: Parallel universes and the deep laws of the cosmos.
(Thanks to Gary Kopf for the suggestion!)

Olaf Sporns, Networks of the brain.

Date and location:

To be determined (see below).

Please note that I am having shoulder surgery on Friday, September 9, and may be out of work from between 1 to 6 weeks.

Be sure to check the IS Group webpage for up-to-date news on the IS Group. Also, please contribute to the IS Group Blog if you run across items of interest to the group, including, stories, books, films, games, comics, articles, etc. Click here for information on the entire IS Group Social Media Empire. Thanks!

Philip

Take your stinking clause off me ...

The inimitable Geoff Pullum has just posted this Language Log piece on language-evolution themes in the latest, and apparently quite good, installation in the endless Planet of the Apes franchise. (Monkeys may be the primates with tails, but the Planet of the Apes meme has the longest long-tail temporal distribution Hollywood could hope for.) Though the film may have some amazing special effects (and apparently includes scenes, like the one shown here, filmed in the aftermath of a Yankees / Red Sox game), nothing can ever top the breathtaking final scene and hammy macho posturing of the 1968 original.

Robots you can wear: Fashion cybernetics

Stephen Ebert posted an article on August 3, 2011 in HUMANS iNVENT that discusses the new age of cybernetic fashion. One example is the HAL-5 robot suit developed by Cyberdyne, a Tokyo-based company. Of particular interest is a discussion of how such suits could potentially be of assistance to the disabled and the elderly. Thanks to Howard Iger and Carol Pollard for letting us know about this.

Person Pinball, A Stop-Motion Pinball Game Using Pedestrians

Person Pinball - 2011 Animation Block Party 'Outro' video, posted by Mark Frauenfelder on boingboing, Aug 2, 2011. Video link via laughing squid. This short stop-motion animation by Aaron Hughes was the outro video for the 8th Annual Animation Block Party in New York City. Thanks and a hat tip to Robert Remez for sharing this with us.