Cognitive Engineering

Is it wrong to do amoral things in computer games? Is it ok to bully people as a goose in Untitled Goose Game? Image: House House Things mentioned in this podcast: - Untitled Goose Game https://goose.game/ - Ethics in the Virtual World by Garry Young https://philpapers.org/rec/YOUEIT-2 For more Cognitive Engineering episodes find us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts, or add...

Why do animal sounds vary between languages? Image: Alex Andrews via Pexels.com Things mentioned in this podcast: - Onomatopoeia in different languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linguistic_onomatopoeias - Idiophones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiophone - Disentangling canid howls across multiple species and subspecies: Structure in a complex communication channel https://www.cam.ac.uk...

Assuming we can’t blame a virus for its own evolutionary success, just whose fault is it when we catch something? Image: Robert E. Bates, USCDCP via pixnio.com Things mentioned in this podcast: - Data on childhood vaccination in England https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-immunisation-statistics/england-2017-18 - The law on transmission of STDs https://www.cps....

Can you be forever young or wise beyond your years? Is age a justifiable way of categorising people? Image: William Mulready RA via Wikipedia Things mentioned in this podcast: - Shakespeare’s ‘Seven Ages of Man’ https://www.thoughtco.com/shakespeares-seven-ages-of-man-2831433 - Peak age in different sports https://www.thestatszone.com/archive/olympic-sports-how-does-peak-age-vary-13812 - Cognitive...

Peter, Nick and Fraser mansplain the adoption of new vocabulary for any wordies out there - totes adorbs. Image: artyangel via pixabay.com Things mentioned in this podcast: - Plotkin paper on information theory and language evolution https://langev.com/pdf/plotkin00languageEvolution.pdf - Bentz et al on entropy across different languages http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~lpearl/colareadinggroup/readings/...

Should we spend time worrying about the risk of freak accidents? Image: Theo Campbell and Kaz Crossley by Theo Campbell Things mentioned in this podcast: - Theo Campbell’s accident https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49483153 - National Statistics death data https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths - Micromorts infographic https://www.visualcapi...

Can the call for divine intervention be a cause of harm? God only knows. Image: wlox.com Things mentioned in this podcast: - Willingness to pay for prayers https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/10/1908268116 - Hate crime advice https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/hate-crime/what-are-hate-incidents-and-hate-crime/ - Harrassment advice https://www.citizensadvice.org....

Cowboys, 49ers and Patriots - can we determine anything about a culture based on the sports it plays? Image: KeithJJ via pixabay Things mentioned in this podcast: - Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions https://data.world/adamhelsinger/geerthofstedeculturaldimension - Hofstede’s methodology https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=orpc - All-time Olympic medal table ht...

Do fiery rhetoric and extreme policies help win elections? Image: Bundesarchiv via Wikipedia Things mentioned in this podcast: - Kaldor-Hicks criterion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaldor%E2%80%93Hicks_efficiency - ‘That which is seen, and that which is unseen’ (Bastiat) http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html - Public spending in the UK since 1900 https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/past_spending -...

"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience." Was George Bernard Shaw right about the lessons of the past? Image: Public domain via Wikicommons Special Guest: Dr Kristian Gustafson https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/kristian-gustafson For more Cognitive Engineering episodes find us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your...

The internet provides a level of information resilience that mankind has never before possessed. But what happens if it breaks? Image: Tekniska museet via flickr Things mentioned in this podcast: - Getting deplatformed from Apple https://boingboing.net/2019/08/13/getting-deplatformed-from-appl.html - Cloudflare outage explanation https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-outage/ - List of significant...

Do not listen to this podcast. When is it permissible to ignore the voice of authority? Image: Danny Lawson via PA Images Things mentioned in this podcast: - Whaley Bridge residents who refuse to move https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49210937 For more Cognitive Engineering episodes find us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts, or add this RSS feed to your prefer...

They're persistent, irritating and difficult to ignore. Yes, Frazer, Nick and Peter discuss midges. Image: CSIRO via Wikipedia Things mentioned in this podcast: - Midge facts https://www.lifesystems.co.uk/news/45-facts-about-the-highland-midge and https://www.highlandtitles.com/blog/midges/ - Parasite strategies https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsif.2013.1108 - How successful is...

Would it be wrong to take a set of instructional schematics to the barber? We discuss when vague requirements work, and importantly when they don't. Image: J Pitts via Wikipedia Things mentioned in this podcast: - Goodhart’s Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law For more Cognitive Engineering episodes find us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts, or add this RSS fe...

While Aleph Insights is on a summer break from recording podcasts, here's an episode from our archive. Why do some films age better than others? Image: www.starwars.com/news/the-5-most-…s-visual-effects

While Aleph Insights is on a summer break from recording podcasts, here's an episode from our archive. What does tastiness tell us about fruit choice? Could we engineer the perfect fruit? Or are we just comparing apples and oranges? Image: Malte Sörensen via Flickr

While Aleph Insights is on a summer break from recording podcasts, here's an episode from our archive. Are personality tests any use? What can they tell us if anything? Or is it like a star-sign? Take the test! www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test Image: Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. Courtesy of Katharine Myers via Wikipedia.

Is it meaningful to assign personalities to the decades? Image: Ezekiel via Wikipedia Things mentioned in this podcast: - The thirty-year nostalgia cycle https://thepatterning.com/2017/02/13/the-nostalgia-pendulum-a-rolling-30-year-cycle-of-pop-culture-trends/ - When did the sixties really begin? https://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/02/06/when-did-sixties-really-begin-heres-why-it-matters - Did...

GAME OF THRONES - SPOILER ALERT Was the ending contrived? Were you satisfied by the way it ended? What makes a good ending? Image: BagoGames via Flickr Things mentioned in this podcast: - ‘Creative Writing Now’ on endings https://www.creative-writing-now.com/story-endings.html - NYT article: closers and clinchers https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/anatomy-endings - Unconventional e...

Why did Jamie's Italian fail? What goes wrong when businesses try to scale. Image: Scandic Hotels via Wikicommons Things mentioned in this podcast: - Problems in the casual dining sector https://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/opinion/why-are-uk-restaurant-chains-going-out-of-business/ - The largest restaurant chains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_fast_food_restaurant_chains For more Cogni...

How can we avoid the end of the world through nuclear and other cataclysmic accidents? Could Chernobyl happen again? How can we design our systems and train our people to prevent accidents? We discuss with our guest Tom Plant. Image: Kamil Porembiński via Flickr Things mentioned in this podcast: - World nuclear industry status report https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/IMG/pdf/20180902wnisr2018-hr....

Grumpy Cat dies aged seven: 'Some days are grumpier than others'. A loss the meme world. Memes, what are they? Do they have some property that makes them reproduce more effectively than other ideas. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Things mentioned in this podcast: - Guardian obituary https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/17/grumpy-cat-dies-seven-internet-meme-gif - The Independent’s ‘Top...

The Perfect Chalk Chalk has been used by humans as a communication tool for thousands of years. Are some technologies too good to be replaced? Image: contri via Flickr Things mentioned in this podcast: - 2015 article expounding the virtue of Hagoromo chalk (https://gizmodo.com/why-mathematicians-are-hoarding-this-special-type-of-ja-1711008881) For more Cognitive Engineering episodes find us on iTu...

Does listening to The Grateful Dead make you yearn to meet your maker, or do you acknowledge the seminality of their music? Is the term ‘influential’ overused nowadays? Image: Warner Bros. Records via Wikimedia Things mentioned in this podcast - Article analysing influence in pop music https://qz.com/quartzy/1133090/the-most-influential-pop-music-artists-of-all-time-according-to-social-network-ana...

Crystal Palace goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, provides an unintentional insight into the links between ignorance and stupidity. Image: Wayne Hennessey by Steindy via Wikimedia Things mentioned in this podcast: -Wayne Hennessey’s Nazi salute https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47946382 -Seymour (1929), A Study of the Relation between Knowledge, Intelligence, and Character (https://scholarworks.umass...