Social Games for Health Behavior Modification

Gamification is a topic I have mentioned not too long ago (see this post). Recently I attended a Boston CHI presentation by Chris Cartter called “The Socialization and Gamification of Health Behavior Change Apps.” Gamification One thing that Cartter said that sounds right, and may resonate with some of my readers, is that games are fuzzy, not [...]

Syndicated 2012-01-17 03:10:58 from SynapticNulship

The Seed and the Flower

Right now I’m reading an architecture book from the 1970s called The Timeless Way of Building.  So far it has to do with theories of how towns and buildings and other things seem more “alive” than others, and how to achieve this quality—the “quality without a name”. This of course goes far beyond merely architecture; indeed [...]

Syndicated 2011-12-31 04:43:44 from SynapticNulship

Recursion and the Human Mind

It’s certainly not new to propose recursion as a key element of the human mind—for instance Douglas Hofstadter has been writing about that since the 1970s. Michael C. Corballis, a former professor of psychology, came out with a new book this year called The Recursive Mind. It explains his specific theory that I will attempt [...]

Syndicated 2011-12-06 01:21:55 from SynapticNulship

I just published version 2 of my Enactive Interface Perception essay over on Science 2.0. It’s now called “Enactive Interface Perception and Affordances”.

Syndicated 2011-11-15 03:35:05 from SynapticNulship

Gamification and Self-Determination Theory

Games are not just for fun anymore—and indeed “fun” is not a good enough description for the psychology of gameplay anyway. Designers are trying to “gamify” applications which traditionally were not game-like at all. And this isn’t limited to just the Serious Games movement that’s been around for several years. This is a type [...]

Syndicated 2011-11-10 04:11:08 from SynapticNulship

Jeff Lieberman’s Evolution and Future of Consciousness

Recently I attended a presentation at MIT by Jeff Lieberman called “It’s Not What You Think: An Evolutionary Theory of Spiritual Enlightenment.” Lieberman is a science-educated artist and host of a TV show called Time Warp. He’s a relatively good presenter, and given his credentials, one would expect him to juxtapose disparate fields of science and [...]

Syndicated 2011-10-20 05:09:03 from SynapticNulship

Embedded Systems Expo 2011: A Few Notes

Today I was at the 2011 Embedded Systems Conference / DesignCon exposition. I typically attend technology expos in Boston, keeping an eye out for devices and software that I might be able to use in my job. But of course, I’m also interested in what embedded systems technology will enable in the near future. There wasn’t [...]

Syndicated 2011-09-28 04:23:39 from SynapticNulship

The Future of Emotions

I recently happened upon an article [1] about the work of Jennifer Lerner: Lerner is best known for her research on two topics: the effects of emotion on judgment and decision making, and the effects of accountability on judgment and decision making. Recently, along with a number of National Science Foundation-supported scientists, she appeared on the [...]

Syndicated 2011-09-11 04:26:39 from SynapticNulship

I’m Back

To the few people who actually read this blog: I will resume posting soon! I took a break from this blog for a couple months. However, I did not stop writing–I was working on fiction, specifically screenwriting. Stay tuned.

Syndicated 2011-09-03 22:52:17 from SynapticNulship

Posthuman Factors

Apparently a concept I developed in my spare time in 2009, which I dubbed “posthuman factors,” is very similar to some guy’s PhD dissertation in 2010 in which he also used the term posthuman factors.  (And I don’t mean everything in his dissertation, just a lot of overlap.) I recently learned of this through a Wikipedia [...]

Syndicated 2011-06-17 08:53:46 from SynapticNulship