Are we selling our souls to social networks? - opinion - 03 May 2012. IF YOU aren't paying for the product, you are the product. So runs the mantra of those who criticise huge internet companies like Facebook and Google. They argue that we have entered into a Faustian pact - trading personal information in exchange for seductively useful services. How concerned should we be? If the information we reveal isn't too sensitive and the marketers who buy it aren't too intrusive, we might consider it a fair exchange for the services the social networks offer.
But the realisation that social networking sites can figure out details about us that we haven't actually told them (see "Mindreader: Facebook of revelations") makes the deal's merits harder to evaluate: the potential benefits and pitfalls are hard to grasp. New Scientist Not just a website! More From New Scientist What climate change has done to Walden's woods (New Scientist) Mysterious quasar casts doubt on black holes (New Scientist) 'Iron Man' plants are supercharged by nanotech power (New Scientist) Motivation. Napoleon Hill. Body of Thought: How Trivial Sensations Can Influence Reasoning, Social Judgment and Perception. Why do we look up to those we respect, stoop to the level of those we disdain and think warmly about those we love? Why do we hide dirty secrets or wash our hands of worries? Why do we ponder weighty subjects and feel a load lift after we have made a decision? Why do we look back on the past and forward to the future?
Such turns of phrase, invoking a physical reality that stands in for intangible concepts, might seem like linguistic flights of fancy. But a rapidly growing body of research indicates that metaphors joining body and mind reflect a central fact about the way we think: the mind uses the body to make sense of abstract concepts. Thus, seemingly trivial sensations and actions—mimicking a smile or a frown, holding smooth or rough objects, nodding or giving a thumbs-up—can influence high-level psychological processes such as social judgment, language comprehension, visual perception and even reasoning about insubstantial notions such as time. Select an option below: Body of Thought: How Trivial Sensations Can Influence Reasoning, Social Judgment and Perception. Manipulation of The People - Rudiments of Propaganda. Despite living in "the free world", there are very few free men and women walking around in our democracies.
Very few indeed. This is because some men and women have a human failing that drives them to want to manipulate others for the sake of power. That manipulation has enslaved humanity throughout most of its history, and still presents the most ominous threat to democracy. Following is an outline to that manipulation, and what we can do about it. W E THINK WE LIVE in a democracy, which is the type of society in which ultimate power lies with the people. The rate and density of information flow has been rising exponentially since the end of the Second World War.
With control over the West's mass media falling into the hands of a small group of multinationals (only 5 control just about all the US media), the potential for information flow to be spun by the interests of big business (and governments, which have a symbiotic relationship with big business) has never been greater. Manipulation of The People - Rudiments of Propaganda.
World Changing Ideas: 20 Ways to Build a Cleaner, Healthier, Smarter World. What would happen if solar panels were free? What if it were possible to know everything about the world—not the Internet, but the living, physical world—in real time? What if doctors could forecast a disease years before it strikes? This is the promise of the World Changing Idea: a vision so simple yet so ambitious that its full impact is impossible to predict. Scientific American’s editorial and advisory boards have chosen projects in five general categories—Energy, Transportation, Environment, Electronics and Robotics, and Health and Medicine—that highlight the power of science and technology to improve the world. Some are in use now; others are emerging from the lab. But all of them show that innovation is the most promising elixir for what ails us. —The Editors The No-Money-Down Solar Plan Select an option below: Customer Sign In *You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content.