tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47094523117337511832024-03-13T20:33:03.115+00:00Trapped by the BoxChris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.comBlogger405125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-84605044402750272892019-08-22T15:16:00.001+01:002019-08-22T15:16:41.765+01:00Am I about to be shot down in flames again?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Several years ago I posted <span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://trapped-by-the-box.blogspot.com/2015/04/dartington-hall-school-and-thinking.html"><b>Dartington Hall School and thinking outside the Educational Box</b></a> </span>and earlier this week I post the following to the privaate school Facebook page abot the hazzards of thinking outside the box.</i></div>
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One thing Dartington
taught me was that the establishment view was not always right. </div>
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But has it been a
good idea to ask awkward questions? Or would I have had an easier life If I had
forgotten what I learnt at Dartington and sheepishly gone along with the crowd?
Now in my 80s I am about to stick my head over the parapet yet again …..</div>
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At first sight the
question I asked some 50 years ago was one many people have asked at some time
or another. "<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Why are
computers unfriendly black boxes?</span>" My problem started when I asked
the question with a difference and suggested as answer which did not support
what the computing establishment took for granted. The question I asked was:</div>
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"<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Why do computers </span><span style="color: red; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">need to
be</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">
unfriendly black boxes?</span>"</div>
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So what happened</div>
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(1) In 1967 I
observed that the problem with one of the biggest computerized sales accounting
systems in the UK was that the salesmen worked in a complex and ever changing
market place and didn't understand the very rigid and strictly pre-define
programs that process THEIR data. So<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
suggest ed a way to design the system which they could understand.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">SQUELCH</span> - "Surely everyone knows sales
staff are so stupid that they can't understand computers and it needs very
clever and highly paid people (like my boss who was rejecting the idea) to
design computer systems. Of course I knew that the conventionally programmed
system my boss had helped to build was hard to understand - but he brushed
aside the idea that this meant we should build systems that the users did
understand.</div>
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(2) I moved to work
with a computer manufacturer on future systems - and within months two of the
UK computer pioneers had realised friendly computers were a good idea (this is
at a time when computer terminals for users were almost unheard of and the first
personal computer was a decade away.) I was made project leader doing research
on a transparent (rather than black box) computer with a user-friendly symbolic
assembly language. The idea was to build a system<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which explain what it was doing in terms the
user could understand. The initial tests looked very promising.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">ZAP:</span> The company was involved in a government
inspired merger and the department I was in was closed down. My project was
cancelled on the strength of two half page reports written by people who had
never contacted me, as project leader, to find out what the project was doing.
The supposed reason was that the idea was not part of the company's plans to
build a new and improved conventional computer - so there was no need to
consider unconventional ideas. I was made redundant.</div>
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(3) After a break I
had a chance to restart the research at university (salary paid but no
funding). I soon found that the user-friendly system I had initially designed
for a complex commercial environment could also solve the "Tantalize"
puzzles published in the New Scientist - in one case solving 15 in succession.
Surely a system which could help salesmen in a complex market AND solve logic
puzzles in a serious weekly publication must be relevant to artificial
intelligence.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">BLAP</span>: What happened was that paper after paper
was rejected by anonymous reviewers (presumably members of the artificial
intelligence establishment) . Typically the review would say "too
theoretical to ever work" when the paper included multiple examples of the
system actually working. One of the leading A.I. experts explained that I
should forget it as if my system was to be considered intelligent it must be
able to play chess well!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got so
depressed and abandoned this line of research because I felt blocked by a brick
wall of closed minds who were more interested in the games and logic problems
which appeal to mathematics undergraduates and who ignore the intelligence
needed to handle the complexities of real world tasks.. </div>
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(4) I keep going by
concentrating on the education aspects of my work and by 1980 had my
unconventional software supporting classes of up to 125 students on terminals.
I started work on a version for use on schools (much delayed by family problems
ending in an unfortunate suicide) but in 1986 the schools package was being
trial marketed as MicroCODIL. It received enthusiastic reviews from
publications such as <span style="font-style: italic;">New Scientist</span>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Times
Educational Supplement, Educational Computing, The Psychologist</span> and many
hobby magazines. In addition I had a paper accepted for publication in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Computer Journal</span>, the top UK publication in
the computer field. Surely this was an opportunity to take the research
further. </div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">KERPLOP</span>: Two things happened. A new professor
was appointed who came from the artificial intelligence area. He considered his
chief task was to impress the Vice Chancellor by exploiting Maggie Thatcher's
policy of getting rid of "deadwood" in universities. He was totally
uninterested in what I was doing except that it did not fit into his strongly
establishment oriented views and therefore I must be "deadwood."
Almost immediately the vicious verbal bullying started. Because I was weakened
by the PTSD after the family tragedy I mentally folded - and took early
retirement simply to escape - and the research terminated. It was no
consolation to discover that a few years later the professor was quietly given
a year to find a job elsewhere - after a union investigation had found how many
other lives he had disrupted.</div>
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I needed a change
and after a year working in Australia on climate change and environmental data
bases I returned to England and did voluntary work for the mentally ill
(including 6 years on Mind's Council of Management) and switched my research
interests to local history.</div>
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(5)
A<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>few years ago I started to wonder what
I should do with the large pile of project papers. Earlier this year it was
decided that eventually they should go to the centre for Computing History at
Cambridge, as part of the LEO Computer Society Archives. In addition I have
been exploring the web to re-assess my 1967 ideas in terms of today's
technology. It seems that what I originally proposed can be considered to be a
language for transferring information between one neural net (the human brain)
and another (the computer). It can be related to Turing's idea of a "simpe
child brain" being trained by adults. I have just written and am
circulating a draft paper<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> <a href="https://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-possible-evolutionary-neural-net.html" style="background-color: yellow;">A Possible Evolutionary Neural Net Modelof Turing's Simple Child Brain</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">BOOM BOOM</span>: I may be doing it again. Everyone
is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>talking about modern artificial
intelligence systems which use neural nets. I am sure billions have already
been spent on building and using them. Everyone knows that such systems need
very powerful computers - and vast quantities of data for training purposes. It
is also well known that, just like conventional computer systems, such systems
cannot explain what they are doing to humans<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>… for exactly the same reason - the rush to exploit human-unfriendly
technology to do admittedly useful things on a vast scale meant insufficient
time for asking if the foundations are solid.. </div>
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The point I am
hoping to make (and which may again be overwhelmed by cries from the
establishment that "everyone does it differently") is that if you
want systems which can explain what they are doing you go back to first
principals and start by building a human-friendly foundation. I have started
with a system where the human tells the neural net how to link the nodes in a
human-friendly language so that the neural net accurately imitates what the
human already knows. This process can be related to Turing's 1950 idea that if
you want an intelligent system one should start with the idea of a simple child
brain, equipped with a notebook full of blank sheets, which are filled by
training by adult humans. This is an evolutionary chicken and egg solution - as
the adults know what they know because as children they were taught by adults.
The result is "deep learning" spread over thousands of generations
and possibly millions of years.</div>
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So I got that off my
chest. Was Dartington right to teaching me that the establishment was not always
right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And do any of you have any
Dartington inspired experiences of trying to promote anti-establishment
views?</div>
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If you are
interested in what I am currently doing see my blog <b><i style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/">An Evolutionary Model of Human Intelligence </a></i></b> </div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-32181134265793729712019-08-22T12:24:00.001+01:002019-08-22T12:24:52.095+01:00A Possible Evolutionary Neural Net Model of Turing's Child Brain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHfcp7Y4EOu1aYwLF7fSQH303z4RbYM2smK_d9zUhDZu29P2ASSyDnh4qWf_2OtUpPBDQly-p_6IXzpS49gidNSOP6wEGcQX1NdkVJbUMW7LU5QU2OGw-d1SbCZQh9ubwROiIKWoxu_k/s1600/dreamstimelarge_31874480-e1403202968599%2525255B1%2525255D%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHfcp7Y4EOu1aYwLF7fSQH303z4RbYM2smK_d9zUhDZu29P2ASSyDnh4qWf_2OtUpPBDQly-p_6IXzpS49gidNSOP6wEGcQX1NdkVJbUMW7LU5QU2OGw-d1SbCZQh9ubwROiIKWoxu_k/s1600/dreamstimelarge_31874480-e1403202968599%2525255B1%2525255D%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div>
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From now on posts relating to my research on CODIL , and the evolution of intelligence, will be on the blog<i style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/">An Evolutionary Model of Human Intelligence</a></span></i> but the more inportant ones will be cross-referenced here.</div>
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I have just posted a report (and detailed draft paper) on my Evolutionary Blog, linking CODIL to Neural Nets, entitled:</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-possible-evolutionary-neural-net.html">A Possible Evolutionary Neural Net Model of Turing's Child Brain</a></span></h3>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-60187112827916916522019-07-31T10:37:00.002+01:002019-07-31T10:37:51.011+01:00Ten hottest years have occurred since 2002<b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/16cbbe8e-b314-11e9-9df9-ac98825b867a?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=E-mail&utm_content=replied-your-message&spot_im_highlight_immediate=true&spot_im_reply_id=sp_nNNHCgsN_16cbbe8e-b314-11e9-9df9-ac98825b867a_c_brzQVi_r_gKGQpj&utm_spot=sp_nNNHCgsN">The Times today reports</a></span></b><br />
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Ten hottest years have occurred since 2002</h1>
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and quoting the Met Office says:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: large;"><i><b>The top ten hottest years are (in order from the hottest): 2014; 2006; 2011; 2007; 2017; 2003; 2018; 2004; 2002 and 2005. The coldest years in the record are: 1892 (the coldest); 1888; 1885; 1963; 1919; 1886; 1917; 1909; 1887 and 1962.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 18px;">Depressingly many climate deniers posted comments which demonstrated their inability to understand what is actually going on and I decided to post my view:</span></div>
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<b><i>Remember
the London Smogs? I do. They were the local result of burning coal and
something was done when people started dying.
A hundred years earlier the Victorians laid pipes bring fresh water and
built sewers because people were dying because of the way human excrement was
just dumped into the environment. We humans are very good at creating pollution
and the problem with too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is that:</i></b></div>
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<b><i>(1)
the effects are very slow to appear - and for the same reason will take a long
time to disappear if we stop creating excess gas </i></b></div>
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<b><i>(2)
you can’t see carbon dioxide so it is easy to dismiss it</i></b></div>
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<b><i>(3)
When people start to die due to lack of food, lack of water, or high daily
temperatures the areas first affected will not be the UK - so it is easy for
people reading The Times to bury their head in the sand.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>About
30 years ago I worked on climate change in Australia where, because large areas
are already very hot and dry, the effects of global warming are more serious.
There is no doubt that scientific research is genuinely highlighting the
dangers and I am sad when I read the ill-informed comments of those who try to
deny what is increasingly obvious to those who study what is happening in
detail.</i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-79343271925635258222019-04-26T16:13:00.001+01:002019-04-26T16:29:50.770+01:00Philosophy & Technology --- and Computers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
I am currently doing a Futurelearn course "<b><a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/philosophy-of-technology">Philosophy of Technology and Design: Shaping the Relations between Humans and Technology.</a></b>"</div>
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<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">It is run by the University of Twente and promises </span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">"</span><i style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">The course focuses on the relations between humans and technologies. You will learn how philosophy can help us understand the social implications of technologies."\</i></h1>
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Clearly many of the problems I have had with CODIL arise because the philosophy of the approach I have taken - which is that humans live in a complex and uncertain world - is very different from the regimentally predefined computer systems in common use. </div>
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I find such courses are a good way to stimulate new ideas and will post anything of note either as a comment to this post or as a separate blog post. Maybe I will even meet some of you on the course!</div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-70031831730680275392019-04-20T08:16:00.000+01:002019-04-20T08:16:10.033+01:00CODIL & the Leo Computer Society Archives at Cambridge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YZPCAxq9P2wLsXYwQXSpEd4D8XvZnUPAXdbIkg16LJXztyHsZYBODm_6j_DxqOMcxvj4IoE_9It1l5KQ73xT3D_E7uYeEY0J1by3FyfaVPKZmOY5eWGFREe0eY2P-2QVZQJ6OEU8FIE/s1600/Leo+Reunion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="1024" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YZPCAxq9P2wLsXYwQXSpEd4D8XvZnUPAXdbIkg16LJXztyHsZYBODm_6j_DxqOMcxvj4IoE_9It1l5KQ73xT3D_E7uYeEY0J1by3FyfaVPKZmOY5eWGFREe0eY2P-2QVZQJ6OEU8FIE/s640/Leo+Reunion.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6R2cTOHBE4z2G5J7Fa2p0EgOqmBtoPvkZL-vbgP44w4bBJvHYqfqQNxjtAnObaLQbNktSKEvkJSYNZF3KBnEqfas1gjsfdYYkSjloXbeHsbM62anqOOdQefDIxDEdO4iO2u-1pP17pmo/s1600/%2521+LEO.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="76" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6R2cTOHBE4z2G5J7Fa2p0EgOqmBtoPvkZL-vbgP44w4bBJvHYqfqQNxjtAnObaLQbNktSKEvkJSYNZF3KBnEqfas1gjsfdYYkSjloXbeHsbM62anqOOdQefDIxDEdO4iO2u-1pP17pmo/s1600/%2521+LEO.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">A couple of weeks ago the <b><a href="https://www.leo-computers.org.uk/">LEO Computer Society</a></b> had a reunion in London where the members celebrated the 70th anniversary of the start of work on the </span><b style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer)">LEO I computer</a>. </b><span style="font-size: large;"> The LEO I construction followed the design of Cambridge University's EDSAC computer and it is recognized to be the first computer ever built for purely commercial use. The pioneering engineer who led the project was <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pinkerton_(computer_designer)">John Pinkerton</a></b>, and what has been described as the first corporate systems analyst was <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Caminer">David Caminer</a></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is appropriate that the archives of the Society are to go to the </span><b style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/">Centre for Computer History</a></b><span style="font-size: large;"> at Cambridge. The archives relate to the history of the various Leo Computers as recorded in artifacts, documents, and reminiscences, and record the legacy of the work done by these pioneers of the early days of commercial computing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is where I come in. My first computer job was working on the LEO III computers run by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell-Mex_and_BP">Shell Mex and BP</a></b>. I did an in-depth study of the company's sales contract system and this led, in 1968, to Pinkerton and Caminer asking me to led a small team to explore whether it might be possible to design a computer with a user-friendly symbolic assembly language. This was aimed at complex commercial applications where a good user-computer interface was important. This was the start of the CODIL (COntext Dependent Information Language).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Extensive archives exist relating to the development of CODIL and it has been agreed that these should be considered part of the LEO archives. Preparing the relevant sections of the surviving material for the archive will take time and the progress will be reported in later posts on this blog.</span></div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-36397605346857971292019-04-19T22:01:00.000+01:002019-04-20T07:13:21.355+01:00My experience of bullying at Universities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWuHouegLpmqgNxDb0T0y29vqpROHxn6Iy9dfMaf6Lyj-PikNPKDYzqiIjq2CvE9GxrJ3Q37l7zHMR-PL2oJQXaOEE0uaV2ronybqCe7A4LmzODlwDjgornVy5MhfyRExdSvwhzbLBPH8/s1600/workplace-bullying2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWuHouegLpmqgNxDb0T0y29vqpROHxn6Iy9dfMaf6Lyj-PikNPKDYzqiIjq2CvE9GxrJ3Q37l7zHMR-PL2oJQXaOEE0uaV2ronybqCe7A4LmzODlwDjgornVy5MhfyRExdSvwhzbLBPH8/s320/workplace-bullying2.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Following a report on <b><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/education-47950167/why-i-broke-my-non-disclosure-agreement">BBC News</a></b>, <b><i>The Guardian</i></b> has just published an article "<b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/18/uk-universities-silence-harassment-bullying-gagging-orders-staff">UK universities must break their silence around harassment and bullying</a>"</b>. It appears that UK Universities have spend at least £87 million on gagging orders in the last 2 years. Many academics said they were "harassed" out of their jobs and forced to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) by their university after making complaints about inappropriate sexual behaviour or bullying by more senior staff.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The stories about bullying, and the comments by sufferers about how vulnerable this can make you feel, is all to familiar to me because my CODIL research effectively came to an end in 1988 as a result of harassment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In around 1986 I was the member of the Computer Science department at Brunel University, spearheading the use of interactive teaching tools on the university's main frame computer. Each year about 125 first year students were introduced to computers using FIXIT (a CODIL application) and a smaller group used a computer-aided package written in CODIL with personal tutoring advice being given using email. I had just produced the BBC Micro package "MicroCODIL" which was aimed at schools and which got rave reviews in a wide range of magazines - most of which would be seen by six formers considering which university to go to. I had an excellent publication record and a paper had just been accepted in the highly prestigious Computer Journal (I think this was the Department's first in this journal since the department had been founded about 18 years easlier). In fact I was in a very good position to apply for a research grant on the educational use of CODIL - and probably in a good position to apply for a more senior post elsewhere. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">However the illness and subsequent death of my daughter had slowed things down and left me with post-traumatic stress disorder. This delay and subsequent ill-health is almost certainly why I hadn't already applied for a research grant when a new professor was installed. He clearly wanted to impress the Vice Chancellor with his ability to follow Margaret Thatcher's policy of getting rid of "deadwood" and he picked on me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He made no attempt to try to understand my research. His first reaction, when I told him about the Computer Journal paper in the press was to</span><span style="font-size: large;"> rubbish the British Computer Society for accepting such "rubbish research" from me. He had the reviews of MicroCODIL removed from the department notice . He insisted that a senior member of staff, working on educational software, should use "proper"computers and not the "toy" BBC Computer that was very widely used in schools. I was also moved to another room, away from the main Department area, to emphasize that I was not wanted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If I had not had post traumatic stress disorder I would have probably fought back, and also started to plan a move a more congenial university. Instead I accepted the offer of early retirement as the quickest way of escape ... </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As it happened my case was not the only one. A few years later I revisited Brunel and was told that my tormentor had left. An inquiry by the union had come up with more than 20 victim names. He had been given a year to quietly find another university (where presumably he would be free to continue bullying) rather than for the university to take direct action to dismiss him, which might prove embarrassing for the university. Whether there were any NDAs involved I do not know - but of course had meekly crawled away with my head between my knees. Rather than trying to continue my research I decided to do voluntary work to help the mentally ill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>While I did not complain about being bullied at the time, I did write a "Comment" article for the New Scientist about the difficulties of doing unconventional research.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>See <a href="http://trapped-by-the-box.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-blue-sky-research-is-so-difficult.html">Why "Blue Sky" Research is so difficult</a>.</i></b></span></div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-12104217382598775882019-04-19T17:46:00.001+01:002019-04-19T17:46:46.543+01:00I'm springing into Action for Easter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRNNaZxiABPuBktLmTvdgjkqknOT2t3HPvhxbAx-ltFOJylUXlVlBx0kc7ePlnl3YALsDG69jlut_8a0MzPNiSWuNxFsydnSaW_rclVdiYWL_wiu6NkdBq9bCKSGVe-4Xh1j55ermkRw/s1600/%2521+SPring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="500" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRNNaZxiABPuBktLmTvdgjkqknOT2t3HPvhxbAx-ltFOJylUXlVlBx0kc7ePlnl3YALsDG69jlut_8a0MzPNiSWuNxFsydnSaW_rclVdiYWL_wiu6NkdBq9bCKSGVe-4Xh1j55ermkRw/s320/%2521+SPring.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Those of you who have read the dedication on my "<b><a href="http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/">Genealogy in Hertfordshire</a></b>" Website (<i><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">In memory of my daughters, </span></span></b><span style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/chrisinfo/belindareynolds.htm">Belinda</a> </span></b></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">and <a href="http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/chrisinfo/lucyreynolds.htm">Lucy</a></span></b></span></i>) will not be surprised that I need to control my stress levels and sometimes I have to lie back and let the world roll by.<br />
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Usually this is only for a day or two but last year my stress levels rocketed, in part at least because I found the chaos surrounding Brexit very unsettling. As a result the recent period of relaxation has lasted many months - during which time I have posted very little online - neglecting this blog..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9Sm4xtEeXo0BcxqbAGwflZklGsKfUG-_Xh_BufScfjst8Piu9HU52M41cxKzv23kw723IfMlI_Y7VYs71x43hIKSXW2mgqLWbNnwomYtyzwbGH9fePZKWXaQIk7N9tV4lb_PdtXvRF0/s1600/%2521+ice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9Sm4xtEeXo0BcxqbAGwflZklGsKfUG-_Xh_BufScfjst8Piu9HU52M41cxKzv23kw723IfMlI_Y7VYs71x43hIKSXW2mgqLWbNnwomYtyzwbGH9fePZKWXaQIk7N9tV4lb_PdtXvRF0/s1600/%2521+ice.jpg" /></a></div>
In fact when I am in maximum relaxation mode I still need to keep my mind active by doing some kind of research. On this occasion I decided to track down an artist who had produced comic cards for the Crown Publishing Company of St Albans in about 1908. Rather than just sitting and watching the TV much of my time has been spent trawling through thousands of comic postcards on ebay. The research has been most entertaining and proved very complex (and so a stimulating mental challenge). It took much longer than expected but I have now established that the card fragment on the left was drawn by a well know comic card artist called Fred Spurgin [ See <b><a href="http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/FS.htm">details of the research</a></b>]<br />
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As I am now more relaxed I have decided to restart posting on this blog, and will use it for general comments - and also for my further work on CODIL and the Evolution of Human Intelligence - as trying to split the CODIL related posts off was one of the causes of stress.<br />
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<b><i>[I will post this on my other blogs - in each case saying how "springing into action" will affect future activity.]</i></b></div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-21414971377023576202018-11-01T16:13:00.000+00:002018-11-01T16:15:01.056+00:00How far are ordinary people's imagination trapped by their experience<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYCdkZ5NOvDEuf031hudCWs_l9mEKkyw76PpL6IcS-roGzYXeuVaQ4FjnUfWW-f7N9RFf9qt0akOC-S-39_0fAnXcwCOBciEW8X4HWIKNThqwluqdH9EIKW9O_Tv9rJJw7rxnh58IOIMg/s1600/ALien+Fruit.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="687" data-original-width="1024" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYCdkZ5NOvDEuf031hudCWs_l9mEKkyw76PpL6IcS-roGzYXeuVaQ4FjnUfWW-f7N9RFf9qt0akOC-S-39_0fAnXcwCOBciEW8X4HWIKNThqwluqdH9EIKW9O_Tv9rJJw7rxnh58IOIMg/s640/ALien+Fruit.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The British Psychological Society Research Bulletin this week has an article entitled <i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/10/19/new-evidence-that-the-chaotic-mind-of-adhd-brings-creative-advantages/">New evidence that the "Chaotic Mind" of ADHD brings creative advantages</a></span></i> based on a paper <b style="font-style: italic;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jocb.382">Thinking Outside the Box: Unconstrained Creative Generation in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder</a></span>. </b>Students (some with ADHD) were asked to draw alien fruits that did not resemble any fruits that they knew - and the above was the result.</div>
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While the size and nature of the group tested may make generalizations about the average ADHD suffer unreliable my reaction is that the experiment confirms how difficult it is for the average person to think outside the box formed by their experiences.</div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-27470572221532682392018-10-27T20:13:00.000+01:002018-10-27T20:13:55.119+01:00How Homeopathy can help reduce the plastic mountain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh63phD3U5euj5on3uAkPKjCuJdxo-p5F46Iu7akMja9zNTTL1FgS83NtjEDTzC14J2w9Wq8xfAXLDqqrUMEzY0iQpAOfPMccdVwkNRfRwKQFQH4iFSHPLdxrw7eo-Tp30skOwSez8kLlE/s1600/harrogate-spa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="225" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh63phD3U5euj5on3uAkPKjCuJdxo-p5F46Iu7akMja9zNTTL1FgS83NtjEDTzC14J2w9Wq8xfAXLDqqrUMEzY0iQpAOfPMccdVwkNRfRwKQFQH4iFSHPLdxrw7eo-Tp30skOwSez8kLlE/s200/harrogate-spa.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>
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About 25 years ago I purchased a bottle of Harrogate Spa Water. </div>
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When it was nearly empty I decided to test out the principles of homeopathy - which claims that the properties of something are preserved when you dilute it. so when the bottle was nearly empty I topped it up with tap water and put the bottle back in the fridge. If homeopathy is true the contents are still effectively Harrogate Spa Water - as it clearly still said on the label. </div>
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Nearly every night since then I have taken the bottle from the fridge and poured a glass of cold Harrogate Spa Water for a final drink before I go to bed.- topping the bottle up every time it is nearly empty. </div>
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So far the water has been diluted 10-fold on about a thousand occasions and I guess that not one of the original molecules of Harrogate Water remains in the bottle - but each night I still enjoy a lovely cool drink. By now not one atom of the original contents remain ... </div>
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Perhaps I should write a review saying how wonderful Harrogate Spa Water is and how its excellence has lasted 25 years - and perhaps my review would be republished as a recommendation from a satisfied customer in an advert .</div>
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But wait. The label is starting to disintegrate. Perhaps the bottle is embarrassed and is trying to tell me that homeopathy does not work, and it no longer wants to be seen carrying a misleading "Harrogate Spa" label. </div>
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But do I care what the bottle thinks about the effectiveness of homeopathy? Of course not. By repeatedly diluting the original water I have avoided having to throw away 999 plastic bottles (and saved myself a lot of money).</div>
<br />So if you want to help save the planet may I suggest that everyone should start drinking homeopathic water - just buy one bottle and keep it topped up from the tap.</div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-72746750509134195172018-10-27T18:04:00.000+01:002018-10-27T18:04:55.996+01:00Captured by the Camera - Relaxing Ripples<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIySrhi9w5kUMQ1rrO6t1tTRtI_FSa71J-j1AptMNhlNM2YHKY_ahqpzI7hhmVdvGRooAIUBJOW6g5ENOyHKiRKLYJtG93v8qhXMRePDuEDS-88EWZPQlMAXm41claL0L9LiwlHaNx7gw/s1600/relaxing+ripples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="1381" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIySrhi9w5kUMQ1rrO6t1tTRtI_FSa71J-j1AptMNhlNM2YHKY_ahqpzI7hhmVdvGRooAIUBJOW6g5ENOyHKiRKLYJtG93v8qhXMRePDuEDS-88EWZPQlMAXm41claL0L9LiwlHaNx7gw/s640/relaxing+ripples.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Relaxing Ripples at College Lake</b></span></td></tr>
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Home affairs have been rather busy recently, and to give a flavour of the problems just one of the distractions from posting here has been the need to try and get a stair lift installed by Christmas. In such circumstances one of my top priorities has been to spend some time relaxing at College Lake, or one of the many other rural spots a few minutes drive from home.</div>
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One of the pleasures this year has been that the resident pair of swans have succeeded in rearing two cygnets - when in previous years they have been unsuccessful - possibly due to predation by mink.</div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-29594561993479767272018-10-27T17:29:00.000+01:002018-10-27T17:29:26.192+01:00An Evolutionary Model of Human Intelligence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs12WYi7BSaC5B9QjUHJ22tfPBE0-HcMUel7mvTRQeF_dcrcNkJu3EB4oTkQu5c4Mzco0i4-SBVFGGyfAhI4lu64GpA81v1cbstnybw-NvLd_W7L7HOwECHqF8MquSCdolqLDNAoFpnlw/s1600/intelligent-brain%2525255B1%2525255D%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="260" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs12WYi7BSaC5B9QjUHJ22tfPBE0-HcMUel7mvTRQeF_dcrcNkJu3EB4oTkQu5c4Mzco0i4-SBVFGGyfAhI4lu64GpA81v1cbstnybw-NvLd_W7L7HOwECHqF8MquSCdolqLDNAoFpnlw/s200/intelligent-brain%2525255B1%2525255D%255B1%255D.jpg" width="183" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have just posted a summary of a paper "<b style="background-color: #ffd966;">An Evolutionary Model of Human Intelligence</b>" together with some notes on future research plans, which will normally be reported on my </span><b style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: #ffd966;">new blog</a></b><span style="font-size: large;"> - although key updates will be cross-reported here.</span></div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-19902829864309272142018-10-14T21:34:00.000+01:002018-10-14T21:34:19.813+01:00Will robots outsmart us? by the late Stephen Hawkins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;">There is a interesting article, "</span><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/magazine/the-sunday-times-magazine/stephen-hawking-ai-will-robots-outsmart-us-big-questions-facing-humanity-q95gdtq6w" style="color: #888888; font-size: x-large; text-decoration-line: none;"><b><i>Will robots outsmart us?</i></b></a><span style="font-size: medium;">" in today's </span><b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Sunday Times Magazine</i></b><span style="font-size: medium;">. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">While I don't accept all Stephen's predictions I was most interested to read:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 18px;"><i>When an artificial intelligence (AI) becomes better than humans at AI design, so that it can recursively improve itself without human help, we may face an intelligence explosion that ultimately results in machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails. When that happens, we will need to ensure that the computers have goals aligned with ours.</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Later he says:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 18px;"><i>In short, the advent of super-intelligent AI would be either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity. The real risk with AI isn’t malice, but competence. A super-intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours we’re in trouble. You’re probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric green-energy project and there’s an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. Let’s not place humanity in the position of those ants.</i></span> </blockquote>
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Of course we know what happened last time a super-intelligence came into existence. About half a million years ago the Earth was populated by a great variety of animals of a comparatively low intelligence. All the higher animals had brains that worked in roughly the same way, and how much they could learn was limited because everything they learnt was lost when they died. Then one species, which we call <b><i>Homo sapiens</i></b>, discovered a way to recursively increase its own intelligence. It was already good at making tools but for several million years the cost of trail and error learning had limited what it could do. But then it invented a tool to boost intelligence, which we call language. Language not only made it possible to make better tools, but also it made it possible to recursively build a better language generation by generation. So some 5000 generations later the Earth is home to a super-intelligent species ...</div>
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And are the goals of this species aligned with the the goals of the millions of other species? Of course not. Billions of animals are kept as slaves to be killed and eaten, while the homes of countless more have been, or are being, destroyed. </div>
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If we invent a super-intelligent AI system why should it treat us with more respect than we have shown for our animal relatives.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">A new book "Brief Answers to the Big Questions," by Stephen Hawkins is published later this week</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">For the background to my observation see<i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/">An Evolutionary Model of Human Intelligence</a></i></span></b></div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-11535733908640549952018-09-30T18:07:00.000+01:002018-09-30T18:07:50.839+01:00How plans for a user-friendly computer were rubbished 50 years ago<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;">
In 1968 David Caminer and John Pinkerton (who were responsible for the world's first business computer, the <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer)" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">LEO I</a></b>, and who were directors of English Electric Computer) decided to fund research into a project to build inherently user-friendly computers and it was estimated that the market for such systems would be several hundred million pounds a year.</div>
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However, as a result of the government inspired merger to make the UK computer industry more competitive, ICL was created, and the project was closed down with no serious attempt to assess the successful research into CODIL which had already been carried out.</div>
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This was, of course, about 10 years before the first personal computers, and it is interesting to speculate what might have happened if the research had not been so rudely interrupted. Perhap the UK based idea would have been successful and the first personal computers would have been inherently friendly. This would have meant that there would have been no need for the hard to use MS-DOS operating system - and no one would have heard of Microsoft.</div>
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An account of what happened has been prepared for the archives of the <b><a href="http://www.leo-computers.org.uk/">LEO Computer Society</a></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: #ffd966; font-size: medium;"><a href="http://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/p/the-eec-icl-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The EEC ICL Story</a></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i>To see how the idea of a user-friendly computer originated read</i></b></div>
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<i><b style="background-color: #ffd966; text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="http://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-unlikely-origins-of-my-current.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Unlikely Origins of my current Evolutionary Research</a></b></i></div>
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<i>In fact the research was restarted on an unfunded basis for a number of years and a recent reassessment suggests that the original proposal was actually modelling how the human brain works. For more inrormation see:</i></div>
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<i><b><a href="http://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: #ffd966;">An Evolutionary Model of Human Intelligence</a></b></i></div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-57521917604168932042018-09-21T20:37:00.000+01:002018-09-21T20:43:26.068+01:00Captured by the Camera - A Real Nut Case<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR3CtnZQ45bEowuWbr5QSoxapmSg0w7cVomR_4gtjjjSmbQgZ5Ij55rg4nHNHd_Kj9eaXg4dPoM2T1pLxFdOSXEgkuIV7b7BMfhfA3gmumIf02ESFd3WwyPBKWBnggw33lbgPbnVANJYc/s1600/nut-case.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="833" data-original-width="843" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR3CtnZQ45bEowuWbr5QSoxapmSg0w7cVomR_4gtjjjSmbQgZ5Ij55rg4nHNHd_Kj9eaXg4dPoM2T1pLxFdOSXEgkuIV7b7BMfhfA3gmumIf02ESFd3WwyPBKWBnggw33lbgPbnVANJYc/s400/nut-case.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Three Conkers in bed together</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<br />Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-13160905389889600162018-08-31T10:13:00.000+01:002018-08-31T10:13:03.014+01:00Are computers making too many decisions about us?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In today's Times Edward Lucus writes "<i><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/tech-giants-must-come-clean-with-customers-svn2b0rrx">T<b>ech Giants must come clean with u</b>s</a></span> - Too many decisions about our careers, love-lives and credit-worthiness are being made by secretive online algorithms.</i>"</div>
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He is right to point out that the use of computers, particularly by very large of powerful companies, to make decisions which affect our lives needs watching - but on the online comments page I have pointed out that decisions made by humans may not be any more reliable. I wrote:</div>
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<i><span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "Times Digital"; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But are humans any more reliable? We all have biases and make generalizations which have little or no foundation in reality.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "Times Digital"; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">To give an example. Before I retired I worked in a university teaching Computer Science on a sandwich course basis - which meant that the department regularly had to find about 90 placements for students for "on the job" training with mainly local firms. Almost invariably the last 10 or 20 to be placed included a disproportionate number of students who either had foreign-sounding surnames or were not white anglo-saxon in appearance - irrespective of how well they were doing on the course.</span></i></div>
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<i>One of my personal first year tutees, who had just failed an interview for a job working with a computer in a sales department with a small firm, asked me whether there might have been racial discrimination. What seems to have happened in the interview was that the computer manager realised that the student was no familiar with commercial English (for example the difference between "invoice" and "statement") - and probably assumed (wrongly) that as he looked foreign he did not understand English. While of course the manager might have been directly discriminating on the grounds of race it was far more likely that he had not realised how little the average 18 year old knew of commercial jargon, and jumped to an inappropriate conclusion.</i></div>
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<i>A very different example, where I nearly acted on an inappropriate "racist" assumption. 50 years ago we lived in a small town where the population was almost exclusively white. We went to a family wedding in London, taking with us our 2 year old daughter. We took it for granted that on one side of the aisle nearly everyone would be of european origin - and on the other side nearly everyone would be of asian origin. As everyone was waiting for the bride (who was five minutes late) my daughter suddenly stood up in the pew and pointed towards the people on the other side of the aisle and shouted "Look Mummy, look." I looked to see where she was pointing to see what she had seen to make her get excited. All I could see was the crowd of asians and before I could grab her and put my hands over her mouth to stop her making a raciest comment she shouted out "There's Mary with baby Jesus." What was new and exciting to her was that she had never been in a Roman Catholic church before! </i></div>
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<i>While I am concerned with "Black box" computers making decisions it is likely that those decisions reflect the biases of the programmers who designed the system OR are based on the statistical analysis of "Big Data" and are likely to be more reliable than a human. As I see it the problem is that the computer systems making the decisions are "black boxes" and cannot explain what it is doing in a way that those can understand.</i></div>
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<i>(In any case, if someone make a racist comment to you - would you ask them why they said it - and would you really expect an honest reply in every case.)</i></div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-59847471718047092932018-08-29T11:08:00.000+01:002018-08-29T11:08:05.760+01:00Mission Statement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoOeYBPhRES3Z7uFaRPV02hNIfEENx_3KpvQiynRaCNEAYy4B1f-X0LeB5TR4c-Xttj04owf9u3TnyJ_uPwVv_CUbjpHrlAJXCmXvktJEIj9n5OhVN92_wVQYG3NpHxEt41tA_Kfj-31I/s1600/chris-pic-2008+thumb150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoOeYBPhRES3Z7uFaRPV02hNIfEENx_3KpvQiynRaCNEAYy4B1f-X0LeB5TR4c-Xttj04owf9u3TnyJ_uPwVv_CUbjpHrlAJXCmXvktJEIj9n5OhVN92_wVQYG3NpHxEt41tA_Kfj-31I/s1600/chris-pic-2008+thumb150.jpg" /></a></div>
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We are all, both individually and as a society, trapped by boxes - some physical, some mental. Some of these boxes are built from our childhood experiences, some from the customs and beliefs of the society in which we live, some are imposed by the technology we use, and ultimately we cannot escape the planet on which we live. </div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">The aim of this site is to look creatively at some of the issues involved and present them in an educational and educational way. So I will include posts about ways that technology (and particularly computers) affect our lives and also the social and political issues that limit our actions. In addition I plan to continue my Science Limericks and post pictures I find attractive or thought provoking under the heading "Trapped by the Camera."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The big change is that in future posts relevant to the evolution on human intelligence, and the computer language CODIL, will be posted on the blog "</span><b style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: orange;"><a href="http://evolution-human-intelligence.blogspot.com/">A Evolutionary Model of Human Intelligence</a></span></b><span style="background-color: white;">"</span></span></div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-65065892291419425292018-08-28T08:34:00.000+01:002018-08-28T08:34:05.401+01:00Trapped by the Camera<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3HSEjQjkcCsNH4OElrNsY441KQQt4VwRtvv5-Octp-CdZYCG6VzP35bU__nrEN97d7I4sD_i1EFcmLVqxIp8Gn6qrm8auAcjXWv_nlrRPULPzlyfPZFlZQZJFpKy7NWy5xORr4DgZMk/s1600/gravel+path.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3HSEjQjkcCsNH4OElrNsY441KQQt4VwRtvv5-Octp-CdZYCG6VzP35bU__nrEN97d7I4sD_i1EFcmLVqxIp8Gn6qrm8auAcjXWv_nlrRPULPzlyfPZFlZQZJFpKy7NWy5xORr4DgZMk/s400/gravel+path.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Laying a new gravel path in Wendover Woods.</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
.I was attracted by the black and white pattern (faintly touched with colour) that was created as a new path between the trees was being constructed in Wendover Woods, near Chesham, Bucks.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
[Significant changes are taking place in the central area in Wendover Woods. A large new car park has been opened, and the existing "Cafe in the Woods" is to be replaced with a much bigger cafe with a striking view over part of the Chiltern Hills.]</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><i>For pictures of the changes see my photographs on <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/17761">Geograph</a></span>.</i></b></div>
<br />Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-5999361704404774192018-08-27T23:16:00.002+01:002018-08-28T08:35:12.455+01:00We live in a Wonderful World.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_3jgP9bJkYmtLH4EoDW6W3Ub9fdlyC0gnE_t-6CEZOkzOGaP2x-EzVVSuDUoZ27nza8NN2qkTh_o2-0XtjWXs5yLZmf8rjMtD9BuWo5fFmyx0tNM69Ru7Q_AssSeyv9nQwVkvrry8bgA/s1600/wonderful-world.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_3jgP9bJkYmtLH4EoDW6W3Ub9fdlyC0gnE_t-6CEZOkzOGaP2x-EzVVSuDUoZ27nza8NN2qkTh_o2-0XtjWXs5yLZmf8rjMtD9BuWo5fFmyx0tNM69Ru7Q_AssSeyv9nQwVkvrry8bgA/s1600/wonderful-world.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Libby Purves writes an
article in today's Times "Aggressive Atheism denies Culture and
History" and this attracted a lot of comments. My contributions included my reply to the idea that that if you didn't believe in god it took all the mystery out of
life. I responded:</span></div>
<br />
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>Recently I was walking in some National Trust woodland and decided to sit
down and admire the view. I turned to someone sitting nearby and said how
wonderful it was to be there and observe nature at work.</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>He replied "It's wonderful and its all Gods' work" and it was clear he
had no idea how wonderful it really is, when seen by an atheist who understands
science. To me nature is fully of partly explored mysteries and there is alway
room for creative imagination in trying to understand the underlying science -
and the evolutionary implications.</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="color: #010101; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The ideas of looking at the wonders of nature and having only one answer
"God did it" would seem boring, boring, boring to me. To him there
was no mystery and no need to think creatively - one meaningless and
unsupportable answer and you can sit back and let your mind stagnate.</i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #010101; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>Religious people who hide their lack of imaginative thinking behind a screen of
ancient myths may find it satisfying - I am more interested in actively
exploring the wonders of the real world."</i></span></blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Following a comment I continued:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>I am interested in the evolution of human intelligence and once we had language children would have always been asking their hunter-gatherer parents questions. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"How can I catch a fish" is a good question, "Why is the sky blue?" is a bad question because the parent doesn't know the answer - and does not want to waste time on meaningless debate. Having a quick and easy answer such as "The invisible fairy in the oak tree did it" would be a universal answer to hundreds of difficult questions ... ... </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The next generation would then have an easy answer when their children asked questions - and they didn't want to admit they didn't know Undoubtedly this is how the first religions started.</i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In another thread I was challenged by someone who clearly has no idea how science works. They said:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Chris, do you believe that all scientific theories regarding the origin of the universe are true? And if only one is true you must accept that throughout history scientists have sincerely believed in dozens of totally unrealistic theories. I don't doubt your sincerity in believing one particular fantastically impossible theory (I don't care which one it is) but ''the absolute origin of the universe, of all matter and energy, even of physical space and time themselves, in the Big Bang singularity contradicts the perennial naturalistic assumption that the universe has always existed.<span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "times digital"; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></i></blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "times digital"; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My response:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "times digital"; white-space: pre-wrap;">M. - do you believe in ALL the different religious stories about the origins of humans, life and the universe are true in every detail? Or do you believe that billions of very sincere religious believers are deluded because they are worshiping the wrong god(s) and the wrong sacred texts. After all there are very many more religious theories that scientific ones - and all the ones I know about are very bad at predicting what the real world is like. So why should I treat any specific religious model as more reliable than the rest.? After all if you honestly believe that there are billions of other religious people who are mistaken in their beliefs - how are you going to convince me that you are not equally mistaken.</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "times digital"; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your comments about my belief in various scientific theories indicates that you have no understanding in how science works. Science is about looking at the real world, asking questions about it, and suggesting predictive models. The process always continues in that we are always looking for better models. For instance Newton's Law of Gravity is a good predictor of what happens on the surface of the Earth (after allowing for the presence of air) but Einstein introduced a different model which </span><span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "times digital"; white-space: pre-wrap;">works on an astronomical scale. Both are good models for doing what they were designed to do - it is not a question of one is true and the other is false - and scientists would be quite prepared to accept a different model if it was better at predicting the observed facts.</span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: "times digital"; white-space: pre-wrap;">So scientists do not believe that any one theory is true - in that they are always open to better theories with better predictions. I do not believe any of the theories of the origin of the current universe in the narrowly focused way that many religious people believe in the "truth" of one of a number of very different archaic texts, all of which are out of touch with the facts that can be observed by those who are not blinkered by faith. I believe that an open mind is far more health than a closed mind which unquestioningly accepts fables rather than thinks for itself.</span></i></blockquote>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-56607850856598834922018-08-17T06:01:00.000+01:002018-08-27T23:18:59.977+01:00Keep young by learning<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong><em>Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. </em></strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong><em>Anyone who keeps learning </em></strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong><em>is young</em></strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<strong><em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Henry Ford</span></em></strong></div>
<div align="justify" style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times";">I have just started on the <strong><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/">FutureLearn</a></span></strong> course "<strong><a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/mental-health-and-well-being"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Psychology and Mental Health</span></a></strong>" being run by the University of Liverpool and decided I would mention it on this blog - because not only is it interesting - but I find it personally invigorating to be in a learning situation interacting with lots of other students, of very different backgrounds.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The first thing I did was to select the above quotation - and almost immediately I got a new email - it was the British Psychological Society Research Digest. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMwaQEuX7YJzwW_hZz3pXc75wWhu8qGWhK35GxNHOAILfzJVdTdYBExmdMUiZXR-qsuSToRFF3nutD8nn6Vq5Uycp4_dMzquibrUTY1scN1fAkK2FuhWZeFFJ2GNS5mBk6X4SAUZghng/s1600/gettyimages-700590512%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMwaQEuX7YJzwW_hZz3pXc75wWhu8qGWhK35GxNHOAILfzJVdTdYBExmdMUiZXR-qsuSToRFF3nutD8nn6Vq5Uycp4_dMzquibrUTY1scN1fAkK2FuhWZeFFJ2GNS5mBk6X4SAUZghng/s320/gettyimages-700590512%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And what was the headline article - a blog post "<strong><em><span style="background-color: yellow;">Do people with a high IQ age more slowly</span></em></strong>." The blog relates to a paper behind a pay wall which I can't access entitled "<em>Higher IQ in adolescence is related to a younger subjective age in later life: Findings from the Wisconsin Longditudinal Study</em>."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I particularly like the observation <em>"</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "lora" , serif; font-size: 17.6px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><em>Perhaps a higher IQ, which helps us to process complex information more easily, also increases our curiosity about the world, and it’s that sense of wonder and excitement that can make us feel more youthful</em>."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "lora" , serif; font-size: 17.6px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">This really sums up why I enjoy doing FutureLearn courses and while, at 80, I am still actively interested in research. If I ever loose my sense of curiosity or fail to get excited when I learn something new I am sure I would loose the will to live.</span></div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-59780794638111977622018-08-02T23:50:00.000+01:002018-08-02T23:50:02.769+01:00In prison for being mentally ill?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7zBGlIWWnzJb51rRTigCpWjmmEbDJZChkUnhSqmWcT-ZykRK7uUsmLvMX7R6lfck94MB4cRF0ozVhSmA4ukWGIod-zag2ZQ1h68GOrMXhBNDIyLtdN6vWUw9Be9SGeks4n6e0VWBAGY/s1600/prisoner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7zBGlIWWnzJb51rRTigCpWjmmEbDJZChkUnhSqmWcT-ZykRK7uUsmLvMX7R6lfck94MB4cRF0ozVhSmA4ukWGIod-zag2ZQ1h68GOrMXhBNDIyLtdN6vWUw9Be9SGeks4n6e0VWBAGY/s200/prisoner.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An article "<strong><em><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/07/13/research-into-the-mental-health-of-prisoners-digested/">Research into the Mental Health of prisoners, digested</a></span></em></strong>" in today's British Psychological Society Research Bulletin interested me because it is clear that many people in prison have mental health problems and there is a real danger that if someone who is mentally ill is put in prison punishing them it will not help anyone if they are treated in a way that makes their mental illness worse.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The subject interests me because there is a link to the picture in the heading of this blog which shows someone trapped behind the screen of a laptop trying to break out. It is meant to represent the way that we are all becoming trapped, in one way or another, by the way that computers control the way that society works. However it also is a personal reminder of what happened to my daughter <strong><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/chrisinfo/lucyreynolds.htm">Lucy</a></span></strong>, In 1984 she spent some time as a patient in a psychiatric hospital. Shortly after her discharge, but still an outpatient, she became hyperactive, and was asked to stop attending the rehabilitation class as she was disturbing the others, Shortly afterwards her behaviour became so extreme that it came (rightly) to the attention of the police, Because a doctor ruled she was "not mentally ill" she ended up on remand in "<strong><span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/chrisinfo/lucy/muppet-house.htm">The Muppet House</a></span></strong>" in Holloway prison. She was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, badly damaged by the experience, shortly after the Court of Appeal had ruled, in the case of the young mentally ill lady in the next cell, that the NHS should not use prisons as a dumping ground to save money. Lucy killed herself a year after her arrest thinking that she must be really wicked to have ended up being treated so abominably. I was shattered by these events - and my post traumatic stress disorder was one of the main reasons why I abandoned my CODIL research.</div>
<br />Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-17374057490300338012018-06-08T23:28:00.000+01:002018-06-08T23:28:54.451+01:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1htJyURTXOJ1jKAiVzIA2HHDNhHiuGGT2lraUmV3yhk4lgv4WRFD8gZjIxKX_aVu1ufO4-Ut8lJD9GNPzf9xUJU_0M0Uj4jHzqiPVggNodGQtTdceZU2JsJmXufUx7KUOo3Phze_ryw/s1600/MC4R.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="573" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1htJyURTXOJ1jKAiVzIA2HHDNhHiuGGT2lraUmV3yhk4lgv4WRFD8gZjIxKX_aVu1ufO4-Ut8lJD9GNPzf9xUJU_0M0Uj4jHzqiPVggNodGQtTdceZU2JsJmXufUx7KUOo3Phze_ryw/s1600/MC4R.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">If you have the M C
4 R gene</span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">When you grow you'll
be fat and not lean</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">A drug
li_rag_glu_tide</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Your excess weight
will hide</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">And you'll eat much
less food as a teen</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Melanocortin 4
Receptor (MC4R) is a key regulator of body weight. People with genetic
mutations tend to gain weight from early childhood. The main clinical feature in MC4R deficiency is hyperphagia (an increased drive to eat) as well as impaired satiety (not feeling full after a meal).</span>Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-56828860596960861512018-06-02T13:31:00.001+01:002018-06-02T13:31:39.044+01:00Trapped by the Banks - How accessible is your money?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGGFPNFJt1RA6g_9o8dCntKab9P4ygVysO92aR3F7XbTvPvI3Yf7KJleCmcjNAeeCPpjimVXQqmmJ-bXrpBg02d8blNjkkGu5pYbql0Ja67aypBzRqtVxtI4hHia4f272dnR00_gQEvI0/s1600/computer-banking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGGFPNFJt1RA6g_9o8dCntKab9P4ygVysO92aR3F7XbTvPvI3Yf7KJleCmcjNAeeCPpjimVXQqmmJ-bXrpBg02d8blNjkkGu5pYbql0Ja67aypBzRqtVxtI4hHia4f272dnR00_gQEvI0/s1600/computer-banking.jpg" /></a></div>
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We are becoming increasingly dependent on online banking. In the small town where I live there were three banks three years ago. HSBC was the first to close and the building is now a restaurant. Barclays closed their bank last year and the building is still empty. In a couple of weeks time NatWest closes its doors for the last time. While there will be cash machines at the local supermarket and the Post Office (with its already long queues) is likely to remain, anyone wanting a bank will have to travel at least 5 miles or be forced to go online.</div>
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Of course, when everything is working smoothly, online banking can be very convenient, and using credit and debit cards means you rarely need cash, except for the most trivial purchases. But of course the real world is a complex place and things do not always work as planned.</div>
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Yesterday there was a problem with Visa cards all across Europe - where attempted payments were being refused. As one hungry customer complained on twitter "<em>Just had my card declined at McDonald. Went out fuming like a panda only to be turned down by KFC too. Who knew that Visa had so much control on our hard earned cash.</em>" At supermarkets customers with a full trolley of goods were having to leave empty-handed - but it was the retailer who had the real problems at restaurants and petrol stations as the customer had already got the goods before it was discovered they were unable to pay. There were also problems at the Severn Bridge where drivers were unable to pay the toll fees. Another complication was that cash machines were still working and so many people rushed to get cash that many of the machines ran out of money.</div>
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Visa processes most of the debit cards for a wide range of banks, and it seems that the cause of the fault was comparatively simple. When a customer wants to make a payment the retailer's machine send a message to a Visa computer to check that the payment is valid and then send a message back. Due to a hardware fault the message was not being sent back correctly so the retailer's machine rejected the transaction. What is not clear to me is whether the money transaction went through - and the customer was charged and retailer paid before the corrupted "transaction OK" message was sent out. I am sure we will hear more of this ...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12JRr_zP3NW-BsD9aR3IBmodyCAd2M-ke8Ws-D4c78qV9_f8HC8ZrIZLHoEGw6PLMd20xQ_GdJw9QPsC_GiEZsuCTyizsjUFzlwLrH5YJzYf4jcPf2D5s6PfrNzXlcE6JJQVXl1mbDCQ/s1600/TSB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12JRr_zP3NW-BsD9aR3IBmodyCAd2M-ke8Ws-D4c78qV9_f8HC8ZrIZLHoEGw6PLMd20xQ_GdJw9QPsC_GiEZsuCTyizsjUFzlwLrH5YJzYf4jcPf2D5s6PfrNzXlcE6JJQVXl1mbDCQ/s1600/TSB.jpg" /></a></div>
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The TSB problem is very different. Basically TSB continued to use (and pay for) Lloyds Bank online system since it was purchased by its current owner, the Spanish bank Sabadell. It would appear that TSB planned to bring in new software to provide their own system and to make the changeover from the old to the new overnight. However modern banking systems are very complicated and the major problem is in testing any such a major changeover to ensure that there are no serious bugs, As I know from my own experiences 50 years ago this is no trivial matter if you are running batch applications, where the same transactions can be run through the old and new systems to spot any problems. It is very much harder with online systems, particularly when something starts to go wrong and thousands of angry customers try every damned option to try and get their transaction to go through - or to report problems via the phone when there is a long queue of other angry customers. In fact the continuing problems seem to suggest a number of very different failures - some of which, relating to security, may be design errors which cannot be quickly fixed. </div>
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I am sure we will be hearing more about the causes of the TSB problems - but it will undoubtedly raise a general problem associated with computers and software - which I face in a very much smaller and unimportant way myself. My <strong><em><a href="http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/">Genealogy in Hertfordshire web site</a></em></strong> is maintained using the Microsoft package Frontpage - and Microsoft support ended for this package in about 2004 and it will not run under Windows 10. It would be very nice to migrate my web site to use other much more up-to-date software but the cost of moving it makes such an upgrade prohibitive. The problem TSB had was orders or magnitude greater than the one I face but is one which will be faced by more and more large companies who are currently relying on old and out-of-date software that works but which really needs a major upgrade or total replacement. Many such companies will look at what the current problems are costing TSB and seriously wondering whether they can run the risk of introducing completely new and, in theory, better systems.</div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-71192822631927846962018-05-28T07:19:00.000+01:002018-05-28T07:23:49.480+01:00Bonobo Midwives<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6ZKtqRursT0bi9Avby4zjjogvaU7vYnbUr0mDP_HOh6F-pcADZAiNeyHrY_tHP36hHRdRapzUYoPvtbCqxt4IKHTn1bjCM1Qnk5iuJ_dcpSChDWGZ_wPAXWTkT2erS8uE9KZ2E5itdM/s1600/bonobo-birth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6ZKtqRursT0bi9Avby4zjjogvaU7vYnbUr0mDP_HOh6F-pcADZAiNeyHrY_tHP36hHRdRapzUYoPvtbCqxt4IKHTn1bjCM1Qnk5iuJ_dcpSChDWGZ_wPAXWTkT2erS8uE9KZ2E5itdM/s1600/bonobo-birth.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">They have noticed the bonobo's girth<br />And they know what a friendship is worth<br />So the midwives come round<br />Good advice they expound<br />And they help, with great care, at the birth</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">My research means I am always interested in the social life of animals and how it relates to how our own species behaves. This week's limerick is based on the behaviour of bonobos when one of them is giving birth. Birth is clearly a social event where female attendants provide protection and support for the mother-to-be, including manual gestures directed at holding the infant as it is born.</span></span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I was alerted to this in an article in this week's <strong><em>New Scientist</em></strong> based on the paper "<strong><em><a href="http://doi.org/cpz6">Is birth attendance a uniquely human feature? New evidence suggests that Bonobo females protect and support the parturient</a></em></strong>" by Elisa Demumu et al in <strong><em>Evolution & Human Behaviour</em></strong>.</span></div>
Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-65493095763993218862018-05-21T09:56:00.003+01:002018-05-21T09:56:55.392+01:00Tides will get bigger over the next 10 million years<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zUT3DOUCeeKThPwW5AF5LzSXSZUQL3yU4B02nu8lFZxkLcwA7LUs_Gq1lVyQKof-hVb0CsRvM6ZQmkPN8TCU9uVJj9OJjBSuVVHfxI_LK26nqDPZFpz9g33rl7vwlCnkhh6_6wC74D0/s1600/gales-and-high-tides-sweep-the-coast-at-blackpool-as-the-remnants-of-hurricane-katia-hit-british-shores-pic-pa-646393323%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="615" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zUT3DOUCeeKThPwW5AF5LzSXSZUQL3yU4B02nu8lFZxkLcwA7LUs_Gq1lVyQKof-hVb0CsRvM6ZQmkPN8TCU9uVJj9OJjBSuVVHfxI_LK26nqDPZFpz9g33rl7vwlCnkhh6_6wC74D0/s1600/gales-and-high-tides-sweep-the-coast-at-blackpool-as-the-remnants-of-hurricane-katia-hit-british-shores-pic-pa-646393323%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div>
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This week's New Scientist has an article "<strong><em>Tides will rise for the next million years</em></strong>" and I was moved to write another science-oriented limerick.<br />
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">The Altantic's three thousand miles wide</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">And America westward will slide</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">And I have to divulge</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">That the size of the bulge</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Will result in a much higher tide.</span></em></strong><br />
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Several very different things are involved.<br />
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The science of continental drift tells us that the North Atlantic is getting wider by just over a centimetre a year.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8M2oFzfhV9gNeGjlC1hVotmpXT8P7A3HLqHcb9Tlds7dHwPdgKQ6YciqbwC_IZJrtJq8qchGdnr-3A6hyphenhyphennS2NXUJGZIzOL0EkWyxvGE-usLds1X-ESiQUfJFQHjNmw99oi0GsqTCS7Tk/s1600/WPbGj%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8M2oFzfhV9gNeGjlC1hVotmpXT8P7A3HLqHcb9Tlds7dHwPdgKQ6YciqbwC_IZJrtJq8qchGdnr-3A6hyphenhyphennS2NXUJGZIzOL0EkWyxvGE-usLds1X-ESiQUfJFQHjNmw99oi0GsqTCS7Tk/s1600/WPbGj%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a><br />
The tides are caused as a result of the gravitational pull of the moon. This means that the part of the sea nearest to the moon is attracted by the moon to form a bulge. One the other side of the Earth the Earth is pulled away from sea, creating a matching bulge.<br />
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Because the Earth rotates the bulges move round the world once a day, causing the tides. This bulge can be considered to be a wave moving across the Atlantic and it has a particular wave length.<br />
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Resonance then comes into play - rather like a huge musical instrument whene the there is a relationship between the wavelength of the note and the length of the string or pipe generating the sound. The tidle bulge has a wave length and the size of the tides (equivalent to the loudness of the note) depends on the size of the boxslowly gets wider tha amplicifcation of the tides due to resonance will get bigger. However when the Atlantic gets even wider the resonance will decrease and the height of the tide will fall.Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4709452311733751183.post-70699895305400619722018-05-14T10:16:00.000+01:002018-05-14T10:16:20.105+01:00Is there a significant difference between the way human and animal brains work?<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong> </strong></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC0IyaEK4UkXOraXZg4D-H5XM87H_m2PzB4Bn01IHewXY7A_jS5lHiVgIN4Q50vO_D2Tkd6tBttZunL80vrO1esZCm2UfaziMNSNO90ZMGxq3UrwoRCynCnKBzFfeLiUePUo2BQKvIJiw/s1600/Top-10-Brains-2%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC0IyaEK4UkXOraXZg4D-H5XM87H_m2PzB4Bn01IHewXY7A_jS5lHiVgIN4Q50vO_D2Tkd6tBttZunL80vrO1esZCm2UfaziMNSNO90ZMGxq3UrwoRCynCnKBzFfeLiUePUo2BQKvIJiw/s1600/Top-10-Brains-2%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></strong></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>The following essay was written as a follow up to an </strong></span><a href="https://ugc.futurelearn.com/uploads/files/b4/05/b405e8a0-9446-40cf-930d-5b4a07b2b64c/Same_evidence_different_beliefs.pdf"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>article by Micheal Marshall</strong></span></a><span style="font-size: large;"><strong> quoted in the <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/">Futurelearn Course</a> "Introducing Humanism"</strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">"<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ultimately, the human brain is capable of
some remarkable achievements; it is also capable of a quite remarkable level of
self deception. By questioning even the facts we want to be true, by striving
to look for the bigger picture, and by making use of methods like tests and
trials to remove as much of our bias and motivated reasoning as we can, we can
find out what’s really going on.</i> "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Michael Marshall<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So let us question a
deeply held belief and see where the questioning leads.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Surely everyone knows
that we are more intelligent than animals. Universities all round the world
have scientists studying different aspects of the human brain with more and
more powerful tools to try and find out what it is - perhaps a very unusual
gene - which is the source of our great intelligence. Even Michael Marshall
seems to support the idea that there is something special when he says that
"<i>the human brain is capable of some remarkable achievements.</i>" <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">But we must be
careful for it is easy to fool ourselves unless we make it clear what we mean
by intelligence. As yet no-one has published a theory which explains exactly
how the chemical and electrical activities in the neurons produce the
intelligence needed by Shakespeare to write plays, Beethoven to compose music,
or modern scientists to send rovers to explore Mars. The harder we look the
more magical our intelligence seems to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">But in trying to
prove we were something special humans have been wrong before. When we believed
we were at the centre of the universe the scientists of the day used
mathematics to devise elaborate epicycles to explain the apparent motion of the
lights in the sky called planets, As scientific instruments got better the
epicycles got more and more complicated - until a logically much simpler answer
was discovered. We are not at the centre of the universe. The Earth is just one
of a number of planets going round the Sun, The Sun is just one of billions of
stars in the Milky Way, which in turn is just one of billions of galaxies in a
universe - which itself may not be unique.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">There is a similar
story involving large numbers with<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>evolution. Different cultures had mutually exclusive supernatural
explanations for the number of different species while Darwin came up with one
simple solution involving minute changes, in vast numbers of living organisms,
over countless millions of generations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
problem with both these cases is that they involve very large numbers in a way
that the human mind finds difficult to understand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So perhaps we are
wrong in looking for some special gene which somehow makes our brain
intelligent. Perhaps the reason we do no understand the relationship between the
neurons in our brain and what we use it for is because we are search for a
Philosopher's stone of intelligence to explain why we are “So special” and able
to do many things other animals can't do. Perhaps there is a simpler solution
which also involves very large numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">But first we must be
careful what we are talking about - and exactly what we mean by
"Intelligence." <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We could simply
define "intelligence" in terms of those things our brain can do which
animals cannot do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we already know
the limits of such an approach if we try to explain limitations in our
knowledge in terms of a "God of the Gaps."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we discover more and more the gaps become
smaller and smaller and there become less and less need to postulate the need
for a God at all. In recent years research into animals as different as
chimpanzees, dolphins, crows and even octopuses are revealing surprising
aspects on animal intelligence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Of course we have
bigger brains, and perhaps a bigger brain allow us to learn more things, but we
must be careful not to confuse quality with quantity. Would a squirrel which
could hide and later find a million nuts be more intelligent than one that can
only hide thousand nuts? Of course not. No animal needs a brain that holds more
information than it could possibly use in a lifetime and no squirrel could
every eat anything like a million nuts. In evolutionary terms brains are
expensive organs which have to compete with resources such as feeding and
breeding and avoiding predators. Some species make having more offspring a
priority over a sophisticated brain and are not worried about how many of the
offspring die. Just think how many eggs a codfish lays. Other species have a
small number of offspring but use a bigger and more active brain to ensure more
of their offspring survive. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I think we can all
agree that humans come at the extreme end of the "less offspring, bigger
brain" spectrum, and of course our brain will have "stretched"
using the same evolutionary mechanisms that have stretched the organs of other
species - such as the neck of the giraffe or the hands of a bat. Of course such
changes will have affected some of the genes - but the fundamental structures
remain despite the differences in outward appearance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So lets get down to
details.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">If we look at the
evidence for human evolution over the last 5 million years or so the pattern is
what we might expect. The early humans were just beginning to make simple
tools, just like modern chimpanzees. Simple tools increased the chances of
survival and a slightly bigger brain meant it was easier to learn how to make
tools and pass the skill to the next generation. Biological evolution works very
slowly and so over hundreds of thousands of years our brains slowly got bigger,
other changes - such as changes to the new-born skull, the female hips, and the
length of childhood - occurred - and this allowed us to make even more simple
tools. But the process was so slow that the ways in which we made some stone
tools were virtually unchanged over a period of a million years. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">What we need to
understand is what happened about 100,000 years ago. At the time there were
several different human species in different parts of the world. The
Neanderthals were in Europe and had the biggest brains, the Denisovans and
others were in Asia, and the African there were several species including our
own species, <i>Homo sapiens</i>. In a short space of time, in geological
terms, the archaeological evidence showed that we started making more and more
different kinds of tool, and the rate of new tool making has increase
exponentially ever since. Just think of the number of new tools the human race
has invented in your lifetime.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">What one might expect
is that when we started making more and more tools there would be more to learn
and so our brains would have started getting bigger to absorb all the extra
knowledge. In fact the opposite is happening and our brains are fractionally
smaller than those of our hunter gather ancestors 100,000 years ago. So isn't
it obvious some happened to the human brain which makes us extra special …<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">But in the quotation
at the head of this essay Michael Marchall said "<i>By questioning even
the facts we want to be true … we can find out what’s really going on.</i>"
We know that in the past humans have assumed that we are something special and
we should be careful not to make the same mistake again. So let us assume that
nothing biological happened to the human brain 100,000 years ago and that our
brain still works in the same way as any other higher animal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So if the brain
hasn't changed what has? In reading this you are using a computer as a tool to
help you learn - and computers are a very modern invention, This demonstrates
that we can make tools that help the brain learn. A hundred thousand years ago
we had tools which help us to kill animals for food, to make clothes to keep us
warm, and make fires to render food more nutritious. So could these early
humans have invented tools to help the brain to work more efficiently. Three
types of tools could have made it possible to “suddenly” start inventing new
tools:-<!--[if !supportLists]--></span></span></span></span><ul>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A tool which help us to invent new tools</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A speed-learning tool which made learning about the new tools faster and more efficient</span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A tool which allowed information about the new tools to be passed between generations - so that knowledge of how to make the tool was not lost when its inventor died<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Looked at in this way
it is very easy to recognise the tool we developed - and we call it
"natural language."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
perhaps as many as 5000 generations<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>each
generation has developed language further and the combined body of cultural
knowledge passed between the generations has grown exponentially. In effect our
intelligence is due to our admittedly larger than average animal brain using
language to process the cultural knowledge passed on to us by our parents and
other teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Many (if not most)
people will find it difficult to accept that apart from being bigger, our brain
works in the same way as our nearest animal relatives. However the proof of any
scientific theory is the accuracy of its predictions and it is appropriate to
ask how our mental capabilities would be affected if this idea was true. I have
been researching the evolution of human intelligence and I find that following
features can be directly related to its animal origins:</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span> </div>
</span></span></span></span><ul>
<li><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We have a very small "short term memory" which limits the complexity of any problem that we can easily understand.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We have an unreliable long term memory (although we like to pretend we never get things wrong).</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We suffer from confirmation bias - which means that we tend to accept ideas we agree with, and reject ideas which do not support our views.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In addition there is
a particular problem with "speed learning" which is relevant to other
parts of this course. Once an infant has learnt to use language they become a
sponge anxious to adsorb new information and even when adult we are anxious to
learn what the most charismatic “teachers” have to say. For instance I suspect
many of us love David Attenborough’s wild life programs because they tell us so
much about the natural world. The problem is that using the most charismatic
figure as a source of reliable information is a good survival strategy if you
are a member of a large family group or a small tribe. However speed learning is
a dangerous trap when scaled up to the national level, especially when coupled
with confirmation bias. After all many Germans thought Hitler was a charismatic
figure and believed what he said with dire consequences – and some of us may be
worried about some of the present day leaders on the world stage. As Humanists we
becomes more skeptical when people follow the alleged sayings of supernatural
charismatic leaders, as the supposed source of what is claimed to be reliable information
cannot be questioned.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US">To conclude: What
I have tried here to do is to suggest that a belief that our brains are
fundamentally different to those of animals is misguided and that if we look
for a simpler answer one possibility is that our apparent superior intelligence
arises from the cultural knowledge bank we have accumulated over many thousands
of years. But as a skeptical scientist I know I could be mistaken – so I very
much welcome your views on the matter. </span></span></span></span></div>
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Chris Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04649202643490746910noreply@blogger.com0