You know those annoying boxes at the bottom of web forms that are filled with garbled text that is hard to read but you have to type in the words in a box in order to submit the form? von Ahn dispels the mystery of those words and explains how those text boxes are helping to digitize human knowledge.
Blog
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Joe Sabia: The technology of storytelling
Sabia capture the evolution of storytelling in a fun, sasync way.
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“Happiness” by Richard Layard
There is a lot of effort that goes into researching happiness. Layard has gathered much of that research and presents it in an engaging narrative.
Interesting tidbit: It is easier to be happy when you surround yourself with people who are poorer than yourself.
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Jonathan Haidt: Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence
Haidt suggests that most of experience a point in our lives where our mortal framework melts away and we transcend our normal state of being. He shows how we compete within and across teams: we compete with each other within the team, jockeying for position and rank, while also competing against teams of other people.Jonathan Haidt: Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence
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“The Lightness of Being” by Frank Wilczek
Often I grab books that look like that might be interesting but then decide they are not worth my time to read. This was one of those books. I, in fact, put it down shortly into it: the book is too far out of my league. I started reading another book but could not finish it quickly enough and so returned to ‘The Light’. I am still not sure what three quarters of the things the book discusses even mean.
Wilczek dives into the evolution physics and quantum sciences over the last several years and he includes a roadmap for future developments.
Interesting tidbit: magnetic and electrical fields travel at the speed of light.