tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post8077607422831790709..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: Quick Roundup 430Gus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-8507346444063606922009-05-08T18:11:00.000-06:002009-05-08T18:11:00.000-06:00Anon.,
(1) Per your request, I am identifying you...Anon.,<br /><br />(1) Per your request, I am identifying you as Jim May.<br /><br />(2) I have to second you comment about becoming attracted to a wider range of women as I grew older. <br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-12930851364458370652009-05-08T18:02:00.000-06:002009-05-08T18:02:00.000-06:00Madmax: I would say that my experience matches you...Madmax: I would say that my experience matches yours w/r/t sexual attraction. Over time, the range of women that I'd consider attractive has grown more and more inclusive, in regard to not only race, but body type and age, as well. I attribute it to personal growth, in that my automatized emotional reactions to people adjust over time to match my conscious convictions.<br /><br />(That wouldn't stop certain cynics from declaring simply that as we get older and more desperate, we get less choosy :)<br /><br />Gus: that is correct, as with all the other innate mechanisms we inhereit from our pre-conceptual past; all of those things are now subject to the will.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-65452725850086734012009-05-07T22:56:00.000-06:002009-05-07T22:56:00.000-06:00I have been pondering that myself, and have a slig...I have been pondering that myself, and have a slightly different answer. <br /><br />I think the face reader can explain only so much. Beyond that the culture and, of course, free will come into play.<br /><br />Brazil, like North America, is racially mixed, but unlike America, people see themselves as being on a continuum, rather than strictly of any one race. The former is far more conducive to the absence of racism.Gus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-89740871127252133062009-05-07T17:11:00.000-06:002009-05-07T17:11:00.000-06:00I want to thank Jim May for his discussion of the ...I want to thank Jim May for his discussion of the "human face reader." I remember reading about this very briefly years ago but had forgotten about it since. Jim writes:<br /><br />"I would speculate that this might contribute to xenophobia and racism among primitive societies."<br /><br />I read some of the racialist or so-called "race-realist" blogs on occasion and I think this "face reader" phenomenon goes along way to explaining not only racism among primitive societies but our own home-grown racist movement such as the racialist / white nationalist movements. <br /><br />The racialists are always saying that different races "look at the world in a different way" or "secrete different societies" or are "fundamentally incompatible." I think the "face reader" as evolutionary survival trait makes these racist viewpoints, while no less contemptible, easier to understand as a phenomenon. They are simply concrete bound tribalism. <br /><br />Lastly, I think the "face reader" phenomenon might go along way to explaining sexual attraction. For myself, growing up as a half-Asian in an all white suburb, I never had much exposure to black or Latin people until I spent a year in Brazil. Until that point, I never found Latin women attractive. That changed after living in Brazil. I think what happened is that I became familiar with the different facial types and was able to detect all the nuances that go along with facial expressions; ie humor, sarcasm, concern, etc. As a result I was able to see beauty. Perhaps this is an example of the Objectivist view of concept formation in operation. First you need to see multiple instances of something and then abstract out the similarities while omitting the measurements. That's just speculation though, I could be wrong. <br /><br />MadmaxAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-19370475387288353072009-05-06T23:31:00.000-06:002009-05-06T23:31:00.000-06:00Jim,
Thanks for the very interesting comment, whi...Jim,<br /><br />Thanks for the very interesting comment, which I thought was spot-on about racism in primitive societies.<br /><br />I think, contrary to my previous wording, that the brain IS automatically classifying, but is tricked just enough to make the the wrong classification. The many imperfections you note then become the drivers of the emotional response.<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-49334658800908416132009-05-06T23:10:00.000-06:002009-05-06T23:10:00.000-06:00The "uncanny valley" is a big deal in the CGI aren...The "uncanny valley" is a big deal in the CGI arena as well, where "digital actors" remain the last big challenge to being able to do any aspect of a movie using computers.<br /><br />The basic cause of this phenomenon is the optimization of the human brain for reading human faces.<br /><br />When a robot is "cute" or interesting, we are responding to it in the same manner we respond to animals -- they have faces, but they are not human faces. Their differences from actual human faces are sufficiently large that the "human face reader" is not invoked.<br /><br />However, the closer a simulation gets to human faces, the closer it gets to triggering the "face reader". When that point is reached, the brain switches over to trying to read the CGI or robot as an actual human face. That's where all hell breaks loose. All those little flaws in the CGI or robot, which non-facial cognition happily overlooked, become BIG flaws; instead of reacting to it as a cute <I>character</I>, we suddenly find outselves reacting to a <I>person</I> who is odd in many small, yet profoundly unfamiliar and disconcerting ways. All the subtle cues of human facial expressions are "wrong". We are not necessarily aware of the particular flaws themselves, but we are very aware of the emotional summation coming from the "face reader"; warning, there is something definitely wrong with this "person"!<br /><br />This "face reader" is an evolutionary survival trait, that makes sense in a social species such as we are; even with language, the visual components of facial expressions and body language remain big components of everyday social interaction. Without language, it's just about the entire channel of communication.<br /><br />I would speculate that this might contribute to xenophobia and racism among primitive societies. <br /><br />Most of us in the West grew up in a cosmopolitan society; our "face readers" are trained to handle the wider range of "normal faces". But for someone raised with a much narrower experience, their "face reader" is trained to a narrower concept of what a human face looks like; this is what I suspect gives rise to the "aw, they all look the same to me" sort of attitude often associated with racists.<br /><br />Reduced or non-functionality of the "face reader" is AFAIK a big part of the symptoms associated with the various forms of autism.Jim Maynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-82604315820993994002009-05-06T19:20:00.000-06:002009-05-06T19:20:00.000-06:00Sure.
I just stopped by Lifehack to see whether t...Sure.<br /><br />I just stopped by <I>Lifehack</I> to see whether there were other recommendations in the comments and saw that you'd been by.Gus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-5452483001327981062009-05-06T18:47:00.000-06:002009-05-06T18:47:00.000-06:00Thanks for the link. I had to go to Lifehacker and...Thanks for the link. I had to go to Lifehacker and write a comment on Fisher space pen, Field Notes and Pulse Smartpen. I have written a new post on Livescribe and how you could share your notes in a great way. The post includes a short lesson in Swedish! ;)Martin Lindeskoghttp://egoist.blogspot.com/2009/05/share-pencast.htmlnoreply@blogger.com