tag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:/trending?page=18Journal of Brief Ideas: Ideas from the last week2020-08-08T15:45:17Ztag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/7762020-08-08T15:45:17Z2021-03-09T03:53:44ZBreadth, Depth and Integration: The Three Dimensions of the Polymathy Constructhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3977159At the core of the polymathy construct is the person's relationship with knowledge in three dimensions: depth, breadth and integration.
Depth refers to expertise and to the cumulative penetration into certain subjects of interest (in which society circumscribes within domains). It entails [knowledge components](/ideas/ffab4037c166cc20b1aebfadb090f205) (epistemic, technical and practical) that one “samples” from society, and the knowledge and expertise that one “composes” from their unique experiences and turns into self-made knowledge (Gabora, 2016). When depth is absent, dilettancy should be used instead of polymathy.
Breadth refers to the latitude (also extension or comprehensiveness) of knowledge and to its diversity. Latitude entails covering several domains (as currently organized by society) whereas diversity entails knowledge in unrelated domains. More (sub-)domains and less typical combinations increase one's breadth score. Thus, developing typical arrays of expertise, well-circumscribed within a single domain, underscores specialism, not polymathy.
Integration refers to the capacity of developing connectedness and synergies among sufficiently profound and diverse ideas, activities, worldviews, styles, and modes of thinking or operation. Integration happens at the (i) ideational, (ii) personal, and (iii) societal levels: (i) involves trans-contextualism, and the synergistic command of different modes of thinking (e.g., analytic and intuitive); (ii) involves developing synergistic networks of enterprise (Gruber, 1988), or integrated activity sets (Dewey, 1934); (iii) involves creativity through integrative themes and informed, reflective and consequential actions (Bildung; [Michael Araki](/users/7e5ab981b273ead711a70ba889e65ff0)), or the examination, enlargement, and posterior enrichment of the world (Camus, 1942).
Araki, Michaeltag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/7102020-02-26T04:39:19Z2020-04-15T18:43:55ZMotion illusions arise from light source ambiguityhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3709097Motion illusions such as [the rotating snakes illusion](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/p7706) or the [rotating cube illusion](https://twitter.com/jagarikin/status/1228122662368448512?s=09) remain unexplained. Recently, [Watanabe et al.](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00345/full?source=post_page-----dc303056171----------------------) showed that this category of illusions might be related to predictive coding.
Unlike existing research focusing on 2D patterns, we propose that all motion illusions arise from predictions of the visual system resolving 3D light-and-shadow patterns perceived as ambiguous. All motion illusions can be understood as mimicking the shadow pattern caused by the relative motion of a light source and an object.
For example, the rotating snakes illusion in [Fig. 4c](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/p7706) can be understood as a 3D black and white wavy object seen from above,with grey shadows projected by a light source moving clockwise as to stay perpendicular to each wave crest (attachment: same illusion recreated with a real object).
Without the light source being explicitly visible,the pattern could be caused by (1) The light moving relatively to a static object or (2) the object moving in the opposite direction relatively to a static light source.
Without cues, in a statically lit environment, the visual system resolves the ambiguity by assuming the most likely scenario: the object must be moving, the light is not.Sinapayen, LanaWatanabe, Eijitag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/6342019-12-28T01:44:25Z2021-11-17T23:31:52ZBayesian Judgeshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3660057Building on Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule’s valuable insights about the Bayesian nature of the judicial process (see their paper "The Votes of Other Judges"), I propose a simple method for improving judicial decision-making, a method I have previously christened "Bayesian voting" in honor of Frank Ramsey and Bruno de Finetti. Under this method of voting, judges would not only state the reasons for their decisions; they would also express their degrees of belief in their decisions by "scoring" the strength of the moving party's legal arguments, i.e. by assigning a numerical score reflecting their relative degrees of belief in what the proper outcome of an issue or case should be (depending on whether the judge is engaged in outcome-voting or issue-voting). By way of example, a judge’s degree of belief could be expressed in numerical terms anywhere in the range from 0 to 1 or some other uniform scale, such as 0 to 10. The higher the judge's score, the greater the judge’s degree of belief. A score below 0.5 would mean that the party with the burden of persuasion is not expected to prevail; a score above 0.5, by contrast, would indicate that the party is expected to prevail; while a score of 0.5 means the judge is undecided about which party should prevail.Guerra-Pujol, F.E.tag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/6312019-11-15T20:33:30Z2023-10-30T00:35:56ZRelationships Between Polymathy as a Trait and Neurochemically-Based Individual Differenceshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3549054Polymathy traditionally means “wide-ranging knowledge”. However, Sriraman(2009) and [Michael Araki](/users/7e5ab981b273ead711a70ba889e65ff0) [Polymathy_](/ideas/8e54bb477f4fe239e7a364af3d219c65) have proposed that polymathy can function as a trait. Based the idea that polymathic people distinguishably seek to develop breadth and depth of knowledge as well as novel and useful integrations arising from it, we developed the Trait Polymathy Questionnaire, a self-report instrument. In a preliminary study, we found the following relationships between trait polymathy dimensions and neurochemically-based temperament traits:
1. General polymathy is positively associated with cortical temperament traits—plasticity(PL); probabilistic processing(PRO); and intellectual endurance(ERI)—as well as sensation seeking(SS) and self-satisfaction(SLF), and negatively associated with neuroticism(NEU).
2. The depth dimension alone shows no association with SS, nor plasticity or SLF. Thus, polymathy requires more novelty-seeking, speed of mental integration and self-satisfaction than specialism.
3. The breadth dimension alone shows no association with intellectual endurance and a stronger association with SS. Thus, an aspiring polymath without sustained attention will likely become a dilettante, not a polymath.
4. The integrativity dimension shows a stronger negative relationship with neuroticism and and association with motor tempo(TMS), possibly indicative of stronger dopaminergic system.
Polymathy seems to originate from a unique set of traits working synergistically. Mainly cortical systems coupled with security about performance when faced with uncertainty.
Araki, Michaeltag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/6302019-11-12T14:47:52Z2020-02-13T13:45:11ZCollateralized Debt Obligations and the Tragedy of the Anticommonshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3549052The tragedy of the anticommons occurs when a piece of property or resource has multiple owners and each has veto rights over use or changes to a resource. In the tragedy of the commons, a resource gets overused because no one can stop anyone from accessing the resource. In the tragedy of the anticommons, exclusionary powers can lead to underutilization. Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) in a market with falling housing prices would seem to be an anticommons. People with equity in their homes who could stay in their homes if they could modify their loan are unable to do so because their mortgage has an unknown number of owners. The transaction costs of getting all of these CDO owners to agree on modification terms, makes foreclosure almost inevitable. This anticommons seems to have contributed to the high rate of foreclosures that occurred post 2008 financial crisis. Further research is needed into solutions to this anticommons, be it contractual or regulatory. As Heller (1998) notes in his Harvard Law Review article on the topic, "once an anticommons emerges, collecting rights into usable property bundles can be brutal and slow." Hall, Joshuatag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/6152019-09-03T19:25:57Z2019-11-14T00:46:19ZModified Human Microbiome towards better Healthhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3445543Health, as the complete physical, mental and social well-being, is absolutely the vital profit that someone can attain in his/her life span. On the other hand, health is immensely vulnerable to diseases and sicknesses like deadly cancer. Recent studies have proven that human Microbiome is directly related to the diseases and sicknesses encountered by us (Findley et al., 2016: Elinav et al., 2019). However, pathogenic microbes have already been entered and occupied their places in human Microbiome especially due to anthropogenic activities which impact adversely on the environment. Scientists have found that the Microbiome assembling is happening according to a pattern (Pennisi, 2019). In fact, the environment (soil and free-living) gifts a subset of their Microbiome to plants and algae. Thus, the Herbivores get a subset of Microbiome too from plants and algae. Likewise, the Microbiome assembling happens in the food webs. Interestingly, being the ancestor of all other Microbiomes, soil Microbiome plays a major role. It maintains by soil-plant-microbial network interactions. Therefore, reinstating the degraded networks in the soil leads to an enriched Microbiome consisting of least number of pathogens and plenty of beneficial microbes. For that, microbial ameliorators like BFBF can be used (Alori & Babalola, 2018: Senaviratne & Kulasooriya, 2013). Ultimately, it leads to improved human health by altering human Microbiome. Premarathna, Maheshtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/6122019-07-21T15:35:34Z2019-11-14T00:46:22Z"OCD, radicals and TRPA1 receptors".https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3445538Further to NPBR .1. and Journal of Brief Ideas papers on "Oxidative stress, MAOIs and OCD" and "OCD, St John's Wort and Iron", this paper concerns TRPA1 human gut receptors which respond to oxidative stress. The 1,2,3- and 1,2,4- benzenetriols are responsible for much of the gut release from coffee of radicals which act at TRPA1 receptors, resulting in serotonin release. However, a number of natural products are strong agonists at TRPA1 receptors notably cinnamaldehyde. On St John's Wort,(5 x 333mg whole herb equivalent per day),as on MAOIs, adding cinnamaldehyde produces the same post-serotonin release patterns (e.g alternating auricle high blood flow) observed when taking new batches of serotonin releasing coffees (the 1,2,4 benzenetriol is quickly oxidized in air to an inactive, insoluble form). Small true cinnamon bark quills have been found to work best,(cinnamaldehyde is quickly oxidized to TRPA1-inactive cinnamic acid in the human stomach), and daily cinnamaldehyde addition this way to St John's Wort has improved the OCD cure. The cinnamaldehyde TRPA1 agonist effect adds to the peripheral serotonin release which alters vagal systems, likely resulting in a resetting of the brain's default mode system, which is influenced by vagal stimulation via, significantly, the auricle .2., in treatment for depression, for example.
1. Neurology,Psychiatry and Brain Research 5(4):181, 8(4):185, 10(4):149.
2. Biological Psychiatry (2016) Vol. 79(4):266-273.STEWART, JOHNtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/5612019-02-04T22:58:19Z2019-10-24T17:48:57ZCreativity, an Essential Condition for the Development of Smart and Age-friendly Cities and Communitieshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3236948The creativity of older adults and the ageing population is an essential condition for the development of “smart and age-friendly cities and communities” (SAFCC). First of all, the creativity may be understood as (1) the acceptance and use of new technologies in a creative way or as (2) the ability to produce ideas, solutions, products, and services that are new and appropriate to the context. Creativity helps us adapt to the complexity of social life and to coping with uncertainty. Thus, SAFCC need to be characterized by the creative activity of citizens of all ages, openness to diversity and focus on bridging the digital divide and the robotics divide. The discussion needs to highlight, among others, basic findings from the Active Ageing Index and the Medium-sized Smart Cities Ranking conducted in the European Union. Moreover, selected observations about inequalities related to the creativity at the regional and local levels should be presented. The idea development needs to underline that such differences may have an influence on the current and future distribution and use of technological innovations and social innovations for ageing societies.Klimczuk, Andrzejtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/5542019-01-08T17:13:03Z2019-03-02T17:59:16ZTowards a unified framework for studying the impact of linear infrastructureshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2548952Linear infrastructures such as roads, railways and power lines have considerable negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems ([van der Ree et al. 2015](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118568170); [Borda-de-Água et al. 2017](https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319574950); [D’Amico et al. 2018](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-018-1025-z)). All these impacts, including among others non-natural mortality and fragmentation, have been traditionally studied by focusing on single infrastructures (e.g. 1: bird collisions with power lines, [Barrientos et al. 2011](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01699.x); e.g. 2: road-avoidance responses by ungulates, [D’Amico et al. 2016](https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12572)). Nevertheless, most species can simultaneously suffer from negative impacts due to different infrastructures (e.g. 1: both roads and power lines determine high mortality rates for the little bustard *Tetrax tetrax*, [Marcelino et al. 2018](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bird-conservation-international/article/tracking-data-of-the-little-bustard-tetrax-tetrax-in-iberia-shows-high-anthropogenic-mortality/643D8349348F42F1962CB0188A4B886A); e.g. 2: the reindeer *Rangifer tarandus* generally avoid both roads and power lines, [Nellemann et al. 2001](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320701000829)). As a consequence, we claim that considering at the same time all linear infrastructures would substantially improve our understanding of related impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, thus providing more robust outcomes for planning both mitigation measures and more sustainable human developments.D'Amico, MarcelloAscensão, FernandoBarrientos, Rafaeltag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/5432018-12-21T21:39:53Z2019-02-09T13:33:03ZRedefining Addiction to Recognize Compulsive Video Gaming as a Disorderhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2548943Recognizing compulsive video gaming as a disorder is critical for developing corresponding treatment and prevention programs while reinforcing the various therapeutic, educational, and social benefits associated with gaming. Gaming addiction—like many other compulsive behaviors—is not currently recognized as a disorder, although the APA did include “Internet Gaming Disorder” in the DSM-V as a potential condition. One argument against redefining addiction to include criteria for compulsive behaviors is that it becomes too inclusive; however, this only occurs upon mistakenly conflating behaviors and delivery mechanisms.
Whereas psychoactive, exogenous substances directly elicit addictive physiological changes, compulsive behaviors indirectly elicit addictive psychological effects through physical changes in endogenous neurochemistry. For example, while smokers addicted to e-cigarettes are actually addicted to nicotine, compulsive gamers find video games differentially addicting because of how they variably affect them psychologically: one player may crave the satisfaction from solving puzzles, another the adrenaline from an intense battle scene, another the feelings of accomplishment and boosts to self-esteem derived from completing a mission, and another the online social interactions that are otherwise lacking from their non-virtual life. Neurochemical imbalances may be both a cause and a consequence of gaming addiction, suggesting that surrogate activities and/or psychoactive substances may prove therapeutic.
Zampogna, Giulio