Persuasion Articles of the Week

 

"Robots" by Jeffrey Thomas, 2018
“Robots” by Jeffrey Thomas, 2018

#authority #computers #robots #reality #quantumphysics #nudge

Just Give Away all the Library Books!

How lessons from the book Nudge (Amazon.com) can shift our approach to the functions of a public library.

 

Children more likely to believe robots’ answers than their own, study suggests

Children tend to see robots (aka computers) as an authority, and will often override their own observations and cave to pressure from that authority.

 

We hold people with power to account. Why not algorithms?

As mentioned, people see computers (including online resources) as an authority. Adults, too. Just ask anyone who has settled a bet by googling for an answer.

Computer presence in our lives is only going to increase. As the future is ever-more decided by computers, who is responsible for the decisions they make?

 

One of these lines is longer than the other

This new font, Times Newer Roman, is designed to look like the well-known Times New Roman, but it’s juuust a little bit wider, to visually stretch the length of an essay etc.

 

Reimagining of Schrödinger’s cat breaks quantum mechanics — and stumps physicists

Quantum physics tries to break down our physical reality into the smallest possible units, and the rules down there get pretty weird. (No one knows— how far down can it go? Everything is made of something else, right?)

Anyways, quantum physics has a theory that measuring something changes the outcome, and when it’s not measured, you have to assume multiple states can be true.

Quantum entanglement shows that two particles often mirror one another, so by seeing one side, you can assume the entangled other is in the same state. But what if… aah i can’t really explain it.

 

The Secret to Great Communication: Be Like Aristotle

Podcast and interview with Carmine Gallo, the author of the book, Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to get from Good to Great (Amazon.com), on Aristotle and his famous methods of persuasion (ethos, pathos, and logos).