http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2009/11/how_we_read_an_investigation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ifbook+%28if%3Abook%29 A classical, although often implicit, view in social science is that the human brain, unlike that of other animals, is a learning machine which can adapt to essentially any novel cultural task, however complex. We humans would be liberated from our past instincts and free to invent entirely new cultural forms. What I am proposing is that the human brain is a much more constrained organ than we think, and that it places strong limits on the range of possible cultural forms. Essentially, the brain did not evolve for culture, but culture evolved to be learnable by the brain. Through… ]]> Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:55:00 -0700 http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2009/11/how_we_read_an_investigation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ifbook+%28if%3Abook%29 http://fictional-stimulus.ning.com/ Fictional Stimulus is a reading experience for people who like books and are curious about the future of literature in the digital world. It's an introductory taster for those new to reading online, and its form is inspired by the bookgroup where everyone reads the same material then gets together to discuss it at the end. Fictional Stimulus started on 22 September 2009 and runs for four weeks, over which time you’ll be sent twelve emails, one each time we make available a new batch of stimuli. Click on the green headings above to find the latest concise selection of… ]]> Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:54:00 -0700 http://fictional-stimulus.ning.com/