Author: Mike White

Genomes, Books, and Science Fiction

Study shows multi-taskers are fooling themselves

This study may be old news to many of you, but I don’t remember encountering it. From my university’s teaching newsletter:

The findings of the third, laboratory-based, study further illuminate the relationship between the use of devices and the potential for distraction. The researchers in this study set out to test whether undergraduates who are “heavy media multi-taskers” might have an improved ability, relative to peers who are “light media multi-taskers,” to filter out distracting information. The researchers defined “media multi-tasking” or simultaneously engaging with different media—including print, television, computer-based video, music, text messaging, instant messaging, web-surfing, email. Their findings were precisely the opposite of what they had expected to find: heavy media multi-tasking was related to a reduced ability to ignore distractions and focus on pertinent information—even after accounting for potential differences in academic aptitude, personality and performance on standard creativity and memory tasks. Continue reading “Study shows multi-taskers are fooling themselves”

On models and misunderstandings

Folks commonly misunderstand what the term ‘model’ means in science, particularly those operating from a particular theological or ideological model of the world that leads them to attack mainstream conclusions in climate science or evolutionary biology. This confused comment attacking climate models is fairly typical:

Extrapolation is not fact. It is estimate. And the accuracy is in the eye of the beholder. So if they [the North Carolina legislature] want to legislate HOW to estimate, it is far less controversial than you make it sound. You base estimates on past experience, not models, which is what climate change is really based on, not fact.

This person is lacking a coherent notion of what extrapolation, estimate, model, and fact mean in science. Reading the comment in context, this person seems to be defending the idea that a linear fit to your data which you use to make predictions is “extrapolation” from past experience, not a model, and is a more reliable way to do science than using a model. To be fair, this confusion is common, and in my experience the role of models in science is not generally taught well in schools. So let’s talk about the role of models in science. Continue reading “On models and misunderstandings”

It would be nice if you could legislate away reality…

…but that usually doesn’t end well. Scott Huler at Plugged In reports on the futile attempts of North Carolina legislators and members of a developer’s lobbying group to legislate away a possibly catastrophic sea level rise by making non-linear scientific models illegal:

That is, the meter or so of sea level rise predicted for the NC Coastal Resources Commission by a state-appointed board of scientists is extremely inconvenient for counties along the coast. So the NC-20 types have decided that we can escape sea level rise – in North Carolina, anyhow – by making it against the law. Or making MEASURING it against the law, anyhow. Continue reading “It would be nice if you could legislate away reality…”

New Scientist does science fiction

This looks awesome:

Arc is a new digital quarterly from the makers of New Scientist, exploring the future through the world of science fiction and intriguing, thought-provoking ideas.

Their latest issue (the second one) is “Post-human conditions”. The website is frustratingly vague, but you can find more on their tumblr site.

Between this and the New Yorker sci-fi issue, I’ve got some reading to do.

I now understand why people like Robert Heinlein…

Unfortunately, many classic sci-fi writers are widely famous for works that serve as a poor introduction to their writing. After reading Stranger in a Strange Land, I didn’t get why people found the author of such overbearing verbiage so compelling. Philip Dick’s A Man In the High Castle on a first read was enjoyable, but it didn’t blow me away. C.M. Kornbluth’s Not This August seemed like a generic work of 50’s Cold War angst.

Eventually I figured out what’s so great about Philip Dick and Cyril Kornbluth, and now I’ve had my Heinlein epiphany. Continue reading “I now understand why people like Robert Heinlein…”