You exert more of your agency through an avatar when you design it yourself … Your identity mixes in with the identity of that avatar and, as a result, your visual perception of the virtual environment is colored by the physical resources of your avatar.
…
If your avatar is carrying a backpack, you feel like you are going to have trouble climbing [a] hill, but this only happens when you customize the avatar.
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Because building avatar identity is critical, it’s important to let users customize it. You are your avatar when it is customized.

staceythinx:

Digits is a poster series by James Adame designed for a campaign to promote classroom visits by professionals that use math and science in their jobs. 

About the project:

This campaign was created for an initiative of the State of Mass. school board to show kids the importance of studying Math and Science…We wanted to show students that Math and Science isn’t scary- it makes dreams come true and surrounds us in daily life in everything we do.

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I disagree with this idea.

This isn’t any different from anything they’re been doing in school for years, except it looks a little prettier.

I know this much: it wouldn’t have worked for me — I hated math in school. HATED it. Did well enough, but knew I’d almost never have to use it in my job (and I was right — I don’t). Now, years later, I’m actually doing Trig review for fun.

What happened is that I realized the inherent magic of it. By magic, I mean the math of physics, of Alan Turing, of the Golden Ratio, of the ancient Greeks! Whereas, unfortunately, the stuff above just brings the whole process down to the “kid’s level”. Kids, who love magic and superheros and pirates and fantasy and crazy shit… and they’re telling them about dull, commonplace things like bullies and… what’s up there? Wedgies? Ok, the invisibility one is pretty cool. But it isn’t real, unlike the aforementioned examples.

Let’s not be afraid to bring the wonder of the very real, mysterious world we live in into the classroom — Hell, into our daily lives.

(via freshphotons)

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

zoom

dvdp:

Had to re-share this video. Psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.

(via leftcoastjane)

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Olena:

Great lecture. I prefer { the original }, since I can’t seem to pay attention with all the drawing going on.

On principle it is quite wrong to try founding a theory on observable magnitudes alone. In reality the very opposite happens. It is theory which decides what we can observe.