February 2015 Archives

Canada 300 BC and the Passing of Dr. Adam Chowaniec: Developing the Knowledge Economy

At first, I assumed the invitation from Canada 300 was spam. It said I had been nominated as one of only 25 community leaders in Vancouver to participate in an in-depth, national conversation on the future of Canada. But then I received an email confirming it was legitimate. And the National Post published an article by Tamara Sestanj on it. So, intrigued (as I remain), I reviewed the documentation.

Through an innovative use of arts and technology, we want to capture the promise of what Canada will be seven generations from now.

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Color and Placement in Designing Promotion Videos: What Has Cognitive Science to Say?

In designing a 2D character animation promotion video, I wanted to know:

whether, to what extent, and how affective perception is affected by color;
whether placing an object on the left side would provide a more positively valenced affective response than the right.

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My 2015 Progress Update (to Feb 15)

Already mid-February! A good time to see whether I’m on track for my 2015 plans.

I’ve never published my personal progress reports online before. But I wanted to take a detailed look at the last few weeks. And it might be helpful to some of my collaborators, stakeholders, clients or customers, who only see a certain slice of my life. Also, it will give you a picture of the R&D behind the products I develop. I run different facets of my projects through different organizations ( CogZest, CogSci Apps Corp. and Simon Fraser University). It also illustrates the variety of tasks that small business leaders engage in.

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Some Myths and Productive Ideas About Consciousness

This is the third and probably final installment in a series of posts in preparation for the 2015–02–22 Beacon Humanist Group’s meeting on “consciousness”. (It was due to occur at the end of January but I couldn’t make that date in the end.)

There is more material here than I can get through in my brief presentation. Make a note of what you’d like to discuss during the meeting. If I skip a statement of interest to you, we can hopefully return to it in the discussion.

I won’t be lecturing on what consciousness is or how it works. Instead I will briefly present common myths about consciousness and propose some helpful ideas to better understand conscious and nearly conscious experience. Then as usual we will have a moderated discussion.

Myths about Consciousness

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Lovers, Intellectual Loneliness, and an Enigma

CogZest is for and about beautiful, passionate minds. So, it’s natural for me to respond to The Imitation Game.

The film received mixed reviews. Many of those knowledgeable about Turing and the Enigma project were disappointed by the film’s lack of fidelity, particularly given how fascinating these subjects are in reality. I did not expect to see a documentary, nor something outside Hollywood’s style, so I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve used the divertissement’s themes as a cognitive springboard rather than a trampoline to which I frequently return for inspiration, let alone for factual information.

It being Valentine’s day (and given that I am nursing an R&D project dealing with romantic love), it seems appropriate to launch into the theme of intellectual loneliness, companionship and romantic love, to which The Imitation Game alluded.

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