When Ethan Marcotte coined the term “responsive web design” he conjured up something special. The technologies existed already: fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries. But Ethan united these techniques under a single banner, and in so doing changed the way we think about web design.
I’m not invoking the Sapir Whorf hypothesis here, I just wanted to point out how our language can—intentionally or unintentionally—have an effect on our thinking.
Year: 2011
First computer to sing – Daisy Bell – YouTube
First computer to sing – Daisy Bell – YouTube.
“Daisy Bell” was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892. In 1961, the IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing, singing the song Daisy Bell. Vocals were programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum and the accompaniment was programmed by Max Mathews. This performance was the inspiration for a similar scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Dispossessed – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dispossessed – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The story explores many ideas and themes, including anarchism and revolutionary societies, capitalism, individualism and collectivism, and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.
The book also explores the Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis, that language shapes thinking, and thus, culture. The language spoken on the anarchist planet Anarres, Pravic, is a constructed language that reflects many aspects of the philosophical foundations of utopian anarchism.
For instance, the use of the possessive case is strongly discouraged (a feature that also is reflected by the novel’s title). In one scene, Shevek’s daughter, meeting him for the first time, offers him “You can share the handkerchief I use,”[6] rather than “you may borrow my handkerchief”, thus conveying the idea that the handkerchief is not owned by the girl, merely carried by her.[7]
Strauss-Howe generational theory – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Strauss-Howe generational theory – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Strauss and Howe lay the groundwork for the theory in their 1991 book Generations, which retells the history of America as a series of generational biographies going back to 1584.[1]
In their 1997 book The Fourth Turning, the authors expand the theory to focus on a fourfold cycle of generational types and recurring mood eras in American history.[2]
The theory was developed to describe the history of the United States, including the 13 colonies and their Anglo antecedents, and this is where the most detailed research has been done. However, the authors have also examined generational trends elsewhere in the world and identified similar cycles in most of today’s developed countries.[3]
Which World Is Real? The Future of Virtual Reality – A Virtual Future, Changing the Brain, Connection or Isolation?, Computer Addicts
Someday, every home may have its own Holodeck. If that happens, how will virtual reality change people’s lives?
via: Which World Is Real? The Future of Virtual Reality – A Virtual Future, Changing the Brain, Connection or Isolation?, Computer Addicts.
NAiST
Specialty Research Unit in Natural Language Processing and Intelligent Information System Technology (NAiST) was established in 1996. We aim to research,design and develop applications, which can analyze, understand and generate languages,that human use naturally on Text, Speech and Image based on Natural Language Processing Technique.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) researches are essential to the enhancement of computer capability to process human-being language. Result of the researches originated various technique and computational linguistic theorem which cause the business software such as a language translator, automatic text extraction, information retrieval by using user own language as well as writing erificvation.
via NAiST.
A Reporter at Large: The Interpreter : The New Yorker
A Reporter at Large: The Interpreter : The New Yorker
The article described the extreme simplicity of the tribe’s living conditions and culture.
The Pirahã, Everett wrote, have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for “all,” “each,” “every,” “most,” or “few”—terms of quantification believed by some linguists to be among the common building blocks of human cognition.