Feedback Friday: January 2010

Summary
The Metaist continues to show consistent readership. The blog is drifting towards discussions about human behavior, psychology (especially cognitive biases), and economics, plus a dash of technology.

Word clouds. Expect to see more of them in the future.
(Image: Woordle)

Feedback
Much of the source material for this blog comes from discussions with readers. I occasionally recall an interesting study or video I saw the illustrates an aspect of human behavior, an interesting business maxim, or explains how something works.

So my question this month is: What is some human behavior you always wanted explained?

Thinking About Other People's Thoughts

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Summary
The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) appears to be dedicated to thinking about other people's thoughts. You can alter people's judgments of others by interfering with the rTPJ's activity.

(Video: TED)

Correction
In the video, Rebecca Saxe mistakenly attributed the following quote to Alan Greenspan when it was actually said by Robert McCloskey:

I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.

Commentary
Moral thinking is critical in many legal systems. In fact, the insanity defense depends on demonstrating that the defendant is incapable of moral thinking (temporarily or permanently). I imagine this research has far-reaching consequences.

Meta
Suppose you know that someone has a deficient rTPJ; how does that alter your perception of their judgments?

Crowdsourcing & Crowd Wisdom

Definition
Crowdsourcing is a combination of the words "crowd" and "outsourcing." It refers to work done by volunteers (usually online) that is traditionally outsourced.

(Photo: Wikimedia)

Commentary
Crowdsourcing is a popular concept that harnesses the wisdom of crowds to solve a problem. This communal wisdom is especially popular online where we vote, rate, and assess content. James Surowiecki published a book called The Wisdom of Crowds on this subject (I haven't read it).

Many famous demonstrations involve a large audience guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar and having the guesses averaged. There have been interesting discussions about how it works, how it fails, and how it could have saved us from the financial crisis.

Meta
The answer to the previous meta is crowds.

See Also

• Amazon Mechanical Turk (Wikipedia) for an archetypal example.
• Netflix Prize for another example.
• Crowdsourcing - Controversy on Wikipedia for a brief discussion of possible issues.

Vending Machines for Crows

Note: This post contains embedded video which may not appear in your RSS reader. Click here to view the full post.

Summary
Josh Klein has a fascinating discussion about crows, their intelligence, and potentials for mutually-beneficial (between humans and crows) scenarios.
Enjoy.

(Video: TED)

Meta 
So we've harnessed the power of children playing and the intelligence of crows; what's next?

Playgrounds that Generate Electricity

Summary
Empower Playgrounds has installed a carousel for children that generates electricity in Ghana.

(Photo: hlusta on Flickr)

Commentary
In 2008, the children at the Golden Sunbeam Montessori School in Ghana received a most welcome gift: a merry-go-round. But unlike other carousels, this one generates electricity that is used in LED lamps. A zip-line that generates electricity is set to go into operation soon.

Meta
What other naturally fun forces could be harnessed (but not enslaved)?

See Also

• BYU and Empower Playgrounds install electricity-generating merry-go-round in Ghana.
  
• Could it become a workwheel? for a statement of how students are not forced to play on the playground.
• Empower Playgrounds on Wikipedia.