MetaFilter posts tagged with theory

Cheap Talk - Econ and game theory from Jeff Ely and Sandeep Baliga

cortex — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:33:53 -0800

On pinball's downfall; draft Scrabble; strategies for choosing a seat; visiting our old friend, swoopo.com; and meatball theory: various and sundry economical, game theoretical, and miscellaneous morsels from the folks at Cheap Talk.

The Window Page

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:03:55 -0800

The Virtual Window Interactive is a toy based in, and an advertisement for, The Virtual Window, a theoretical Visual Studies text authored by Anne Friedberg, who passed away this week at age 57. If you're like me, the first thing you'll realize is that your native aspect ratio is faulty already.

Goodall Music

Magnakai — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:15:28 -0800

British composer and TV presenter Howard Goodall presents a documentary exploring the influences and theory behind the music of The Beatles, and the transformation of their sound over their recording career. Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on Youtube. But that's not all... A fascinating program, to be sure. Howard Goodall's other programs are equally interesting: His series How Music Works examined four of the building blocks of music: Melody, Harmony, Rhythm and Bass. (previously on Metafilter) He also presented a series where he looks at important classical works and how they fit into their contemporary culture: Wagner 1874 (Pt 1 2 3 4 5) Mozart 1791 (Pt 1 2 3 4 5) Unfortunately, none of these programs, or unmentioned others, are available on DVD. Howard Goodall is also a noted composer, famously writing the theme tunes for Red Dwarf (and backwards!), Mr Bean and QI, among others. He has also been a guest on QI on a number of occasions.

Moon turns out to be giant tree

dearsina — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:50:07 -0800

A rock given to the Netherlands as a gift by the American Ambassador to commemorate the Apollo-11 moon landing is tested and found to be nothing but petrified wood. Expect a "I told you so" from your neighbourhood conspiracy theorist at any moment. Looking forward to reading about your favourite encounter with / link to conspiracy theorists!

The P vs. NP problem and its importance

kliuless — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:46:03 -0800

The Status of the P Versus NP Problem It's one of the fundamental mathematical problems of our time, and its importance grows with the rise of powerful computers. (via mr)

Perfect is the enemy of good

lucia__is__dada — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:56:07 -0800

Take three kids and a flute. Anne says the flute should be given to her because she is the only one who knows how to play it. Bob says the flute should be handed to him as he is so poor he has no toys to play with. Carla says the flute is hers because it is the fruit of her own labour. How do we decide between these three legitimate claims? This is the point of departure for Nobel Prize-winning Amartya Sen's new book The Idea of Justice ("his most ambitious work to date") in which he seeks to create in practically-minded way a political philosophy that aims to reduce injustice in the world rather than to postulate what constitutes the perfect, just society which is unachievable. And thus taking a swipe at Rawls, as the Economist put it. Lecture by Sen at the LSE (video).

More like WONG STAR!

GuyZero — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:52:14 -0800

Not just a huge conspiracy... a TITANIC CONSPIRACY! "There are a number of good reasons to believe that the vessel which sank on the night of April 14/15 was in fact Titanic's slightly older, and very similar, sister ship Olympic."

growth theory

kliuless — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:00:09 -0800

The New Kaldor Facts: Ideas, Institutions, Population, and Human Capital [pdf] - "For now, we think that progress is likely to be most rapid if we follow the example of the neoclassical model and treat institutions the way the neoclassical model treated technology... Further out on the horizon, one may hope for a successful conclusion to the ongoing hunt for a simple model [1] of institutional evolution. Combining that with the unified approach to growth outlined here would surely constitute the economics equivalent of a grand unified theory..." [2, viz. previously] This might, as it were, be a subset of collective cognition (or, possibly, autism [3]).

The Squares of the City

kliuless — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:11:34 -0800

Paul Romer: A Theory of History, with an Application - "His economic theory of history explains phenomena such as the constant improvement of the human standard of living by looking primarily at just two forms of innovative ideas: technology and rules." (previously, via) BONUS: UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY - What cities have in common [1,2,3,4,5] - Great structures? [1,2,3,4,5] - The new institutionalism [1,2,3,4,5] - Norms and deliberative rationality [1,2,3,4,5]

The Life and Times of Fuzzy Dunlop

Abiezer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:02:12 -0800

The Wire Files Open-access online journal darkmatter, "producing contemporary postcolonial critique," devoted its fourth issue to the television drama The Wire. An editorial explains that the "special issue aims to examine the place of race in the complex formation of the series." Thirteen articles cover The Wire's political economy, subversion of heteronormative assumptions, racial codes, Herc as a Zelig-like nexus, Baudrillardian urban space and much more in a veritable smorgasbord of academic bean-plating.

I will choose free will

kliuless — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:11:27 -0800

The Free Will Theorem - "If there exist experimenters with (some) free will, then elementary particles also have (some) free will." (previously)

Why do we rape, kill, and sleep around?

hippybear — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:28:49 -0800

Back in the late Pleistocene epoch 100,000 years ago, the 2000 book contended, men who carried rape genes had a reproductive and evolutionary edge over men who did not: they sired children not only with willing mates, but also with unwilling ones, allowing them to leave more offspring (also carrying rape genes) who were similarly more likely to survive and reproduce, unto the nth generation. That would be us. And that is why we carry rape genes today. The family trees of prehistoric men lacking rape genes petered out. Newsweek's Sharon Begley examines evolutionary psychology and some of its most controversial theories (and how they are being rethought) in Don't Blame The Caveman.

The comicbook version ended with a giant squid...

Artw — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:18:11 -0800

Understanding comics - Scott McCloud recaps his comics theory work at TED. He also has two more graphic novels on the way. Lots of previously.

Now you know why you can't kill Vamp.

cthuljew — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:33:10 -0800

Driving Off the Map by James Clinton Howell is a formal analysis of Metal Gear Solid 2. If you played this game — even if you didn't like it (especially if you didn't like it) — you need to read this to learn what you actually played. If you've never played Metal Gear Solid, it's still an excellent example of serious video game scholarship.

A New Theory Of Mental Disorders

grumblebee — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:49:06 -0800

"Their idea is, in broad outline, straightforward. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression."

Michael Bérubé is back blogging

pasici — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:01:12 -0800

Michael Bérubé, professor of American Literature and Cultural Studies at Penn State, one of America's most dangerous professors, award winning blogger, author, and father of Jamie Bérubé, has started up his blog again. I, for one, welcome our new(ly) blogging (again) overlords. previously

Žižek!

homunculus — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:00:20 -0800

"Žižek!" is a feature documentary exploring the eccentric personality and esoteric work of the "wild man of theory": the eminent Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. Democracy Now! did a two-part interview with Žižek which concluded today: Part 1, Part 2. His latest book is "In Defense of Lost Causes". Žižek was previsouly discussed here and here.

Eikongraphia

carter — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:59:55 -0800

Eikongraphia - Browsable architecture design theory thingy.

Quantum Mechanics: Myths and Facts

XMLicious — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:21:29 -0800

Quantum Mechanics: Myths and Facts (pdf), a recently-updated paper on the Cornell arXiv peer-review site. By Hrvoje Nikolić of the Rudjer Bošković Institute in Croatia. Note: the presence of a paper on arXiv does not necessarily mean it has been reviewed and is not equivalent to having been published in a journal.

3.14159265itwasthebestoftimesitwastheworstofti...

TimeTravelSpeed — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:20:32 -0800

Ever wondered if and where a specific set of numbers could be found in pi? Maybe you'd like to know where your birthday is? Or maybe just something funny. [prev. here, here] Psh, that's child's play. Old news. If you wanna be hip and play with the big boys and girls, you're gonna have to think bigger [previously]. Since computer files are simply numbers, then, in theory, images, audio, video, even wikipedia articles all exist in pi. In fact, all existing data in the universe must be somewhere in pi since it is an infinite, non-repeating sequence of numbers which appear with equal probability (so the theory goes). Some have suggested this is a useful file compression/encryption mechanism. Some have to see a doctor after hearing about it. And some just find its implications amusing. Too bad it's all bunk. But don't lose hope, there may be alternatives. My solution to the debate? -- f*ck it, let's just call it 3. I was surprised by the number of references to this all-things-in-pi concept throughout MeFi, but there was no post explicitly on the subject. I tried to give credit where it was due. Enjoy!

A Theory of Humor | Why something is funny, why it sometimes is not, and when it crosses a line.

iamkimiam — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:48:27 -0800

Theory of Humor. A scientific paper, written by Tom Veatch, describes his Theory of Humor. When is something funny? When is it not funny? When does it cross the line? Why are puns generally shitty? And the mysterious and magical powers elephant jokes have on children, revealed! A great data set to use for practice in applying the theories presented in the paper can be found here.

Collective Perception

Soup — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:08:45 -0800

Collective Perception

Life

homunculus — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:40:51 -0800

The Meaning of Life. "We create life, we search for it, we manipulate and revere it. Is it possible that we haven't yet defined the term (PDF)?" [Via The Loom.]

Samuel Huntington

semmi — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:09:04 -0800

Samuel Huntington is interviewed by NPQ

12 tone scale? bah!

localhuman — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:20:55 -0800

12 tone scale? bah! Harry Partch: American composer, philosopher, publisher, teacher, satirist, instrument builder and designer, sculptor, theorist, experimentalist, adapted violist, conductor, author, retired hobo, seaman, sewer cleaner, vagrant, and graffitist. Until his death, Harry Partch had been doing his own thing for more than half a century. Partch's own thing began with his rejection of the European masters and the traditional bourgeois concert-hall performance.
partch created over 30 intruments to produce the sounds caught by the human ear not reproduced in concert halls. his life story is cool. his thoughts (pdf) have influenced the path of contemporary experimental music. one of the best of the bands influenced by him.