BTW, this “bubble” theory wasn’t arrived at, it was predicted all along. It was written up in Time Magazine, (if my memory serves me correctly) in the late 80’s. No more would we all sit in front of our TV sets at 8pm to watch The Cosby Show, and see the same news and same commercials. It was predicted back then that information would become very individualized. It even went so far as to suggest that it could defragment society so successfully that the great melting pot of information could work to keep some social groups down, feeding them advertisements that only perpetuate a particular demographics perspective and keeping them there, like liquor and cigarette ads in the projects. But most people will never know this is happening to them, so their view of the world will become quite small. I think this is especially true for the younger generations who will use their smart phones for almost everything. Smart phones generally offer up only one search engine: Google.

I am increasingly amazed at how fast information from my searches and fed back to me in a matter of moments through my Yahoo account or my Facebook, or otherwise. It actually has a creepy feeling to it and I find myself wanting to find smart ways around it.

What I do find intriguing is the virtual thumbprint of an individual’s psyche, from their search patterns. Now that is fascinating territory to me, and scary.. What can and will people, corporations, government do with that kind of information? Wait – didn’t we see this movie? Wasn’t it called The Matrix?

Alas, it comes down to checks and balances, educating the masses, keeping people aware of their own behaviors and choices. We’ve been riding the wave of the Super Information Highway, and it is doing exactly what they said it would do. Now, as individuals, we have to decide to be smarter than the machine, or be sucked down the rabbit hole. Think I’ll watch the Matrix today.

We might wish that we are provided with “unfiltered info”, but that is just impossible. If your search query matches with 300000 pages, you will not carefully study all the entries. They will be presented to you at least as a list, and you will skim through the top 100, at most. Such list would not serve to your best interests. Using the human brain metaphor, you just don’t want to overwhelm your consciousness with the raw sensory data that actually streams to you every second.

Thus, providing you with “most reasonable” guesses is not only desirable, it just happens automatically, even if the service provider doesn’t do any filtering (ie, you will use only the top 100 matches).

So, the big question is not whether we want filters there to be, but rather what the filtering algorithm should be like, and what possibility the should should have to configure it’s functionality.

The filter you described is called “confirmation bias” within the context of sociology(http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html), and this personalized filter bubble will only cement the said bias. Making democratic debate more difficult, if not impossible at all(http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_the_lost_art_of_democratic_debate.html).

It’s incredible to uncover how our brain works, which once done, huge step for human beings. But still a ton of people who learn their second or third language not at the golden age can utilize the language freely as a native. When set in a place only the second language speaking, you’re pushed to learn and greater and faster improvement are made than only in language courses.

This proves how important it is to look after our babies and give them everything we possibly can to help them become happy adults. I’d like to take a moment to draw attention to Australia’s under-recognised childcare system. It always amazes me that people complain bitterly about the cost of child care, but it is this grossly underpaid industry that can ensure our babies get the best possible care available. Child care workers are highly trained in helping our babies learn, are taught the latest and greatest in cognitive development theory, and some of our babies spend up to a third of their time with carers. I don’t think our society praises these people enough for the great work they do. Child care is not a job for dummies, it’s probably one of the most important jobs out there.

here are some more figures on the critical period of language with colleagues following a discussion we had on this topic this morning and saw that it is in one of Patricia Kuhl’s papers here, if anyone is interested: www.life-slc.org/docs/Kuhl-brainmechanisms2010.pdf. It’s a fascinating article she wrote on this topic for Neuron Review.

This video points out many very current issues with our lack of evolution in the education system. The section on community learning and self teaching reminds me of the ted talks by Sugata Mitra. He portrays self learning as individuals teaching themselves, but also by students teaching students with the direction of a teacher. His studies show that students learn the material faster and retain it for a longer duration when they are actively teaching each other in a communal environment. Here is a link if you are interested. http://www.ted.com/speakers/sugata_mitra.html

If we adapt to be more discriminating, within the existing sea of media, it might help us learn to master our attention spans.

Are children learning how to be discriminating on levels adults (with their ‘comprehensive education’) don’t appreciate or are children truly all at sea?

I know I can’t bear to watch “Horizon” anymore due to its repetitive nature (dumbing-down), but perhaps more information sinks in over the length of a modern “Horizon” in comparison to how much we really took in watching an old-style 1970s version. After all, if we only watch the first and final three minutes of a programme, we probably know the same as we would from watching the full show.

There may be two main functions of an educational system. One is about having a certain set of skills: the ability to multiply or list uses for a paper clip.

The other function is about developing members of a society, teaching people how to get on and interact with each other. This way people know how to use their skills to be successful. So we share stories with the next generation. We transmit culture.

I think this is a useful way to frame the decision-making process: what skills do students need now that the current system doesn’t teach well? And what social values should we be sharing with students that we aren’t now?

Students probably do need to learn more “divergent thinking” skills (problem identification, solution generation, decision-making) and implementation skills. In UK they call these “Enterprise” skills.

As far as the society side of things, I think the system is… continued here: http://www.timwoods.org/2010/12/28/the-innovation-gap-in-public-schools

I’m just so appalled how much time the people in the U.S. can spend in shopping and watching tv. Haven’t you guys anything more fun to do? I don’t understand this.

And why do people really consume that much anyway? Are they really so afraid of other people laughing at them if they don’t have the newest thing? Do they really think they will be happier consuming? It’s not that everyone, including those who made this film, doesn’t want the standard of living to increase.

It’s the fact is that 20 years ago when we were 4.5 billion people we felt we could afford to consume and be wasteful. Now we are 6.8 billion people and everyone wants to consume like us in the west.

Do you really believe it will work to double the number of people AND the consumption/person? Then you’re showing signs of either nativity, grave ignorance or poor math skills!Talking about “economics”. Guess why companies let things manufacture oversees?

Money!!! yes its cheaper. The machines cost the same, although labor force is lower its not the main factor, but there are not any kind of legal requirements. Well everything fine… Talking about economics, I personally wait the day china says “No more T-bonds or $”, maybe than the planet is saved.