The Dimensions of Dimensionality

The Dimensions of dimensionality

Review by Brett D. Roads (@BDRoads) & Bradley C. Love (@ProfData)https://t.co/58gCIFahBN pic.twitter.com/lJJXALVulV

— Trends in Cognitive Sciences (@TrendsCognSci) August 29, 2024

Gavriil is picking up Beethoven's 'Fur Elise'

 

Gavriil is 2 years and 11 months.

Pianist Robert Levin improvises when he plays Mozart

Zachary Woolfe, A Pianist Who’s Not Afraid to Improvise on Mozart, NYTimes, Aug. 27 2024. The article opens:

Cadenzas are a concerto soloist’s time to shine: the moments when the rest of the orchestra dramatically drops out and a single musician gets the chance to command the stage.

For about half of Mozart’s piano concertos, cadenzas he wrote have been preserved, and those are what you usually hear in concerts and on recordings. Other composers later filled in the gaps with cadenzas that have also become traditional. Some performers write their own.

But 250 years ago, when Mozart was a star pianist, he wouldn’t have performed prewritten cadenzas — even ones he had composed.

“When Mozart wrote his concertos, they were a vehicle for his skills,” the pianist and scholar Robert Levin said by telephone from Salzburg, Austria — Mozart’s hometown — where he teaches at the Mozarteum University. “He was respected as a composer and lionized as a performer, but it was as an improviser that he was on top of the heap.”

Levin, 76, has long argued that Mozart, as a player, made up new cadenzas and ornaments in the moment. And he has sought to revive that spirit of improvisation in a landmark cycle of the concertos on period instruments, a 13-album project begun more than 30 years ago with the Academy of Ancient Music, led by Christopher Hogwood.

After a two-decade gap caused by record company budget cuts, and with the last installment finally released this summer, the cycle takes an invaluable place as the most complete survey of Mozart’s music for keyboard and orchestra.

There's much more at the link.

A Diverse Trio of Flix

Everyone dance, from toddlers to grandparents [NYC]

Rachel Sherman, A New Generation of Club Kids Is Born. They’re Younger Than You Think. NYTimes, Aug. 26, 2024.

At a recent dance party in Brooklyn, Berk Sawyer, wearing Nike high-tops and a white bodysuit covered in city icons like pigeons and a hot-dog stand, bopped his head to the heavy bass. Occasionally, he bounced so hard he tumbled to the floor.

Thankfully, at 13 months old and two feet tall, Berk was never too far from the ground.

Berk was running away from his mother, Rena Deitz, at St. James Joy, a lively all-age, block party in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.

All around him, the brownstone-lined street was filled with grooving toddlers and their parents. Some nursed beers, some nursed. True to the party’s name, joy spread through a conga line, and through the swirls of dancers who paired off to salsa.

“It’s one of the few places you can come to dance with a baby,” said Ms. Deitz, 36, who used to seek out nightlife before becoming a parent, adding: “It starts to scratch the itch.”

St. James Joy is now one of a handful of dance parties around New York City where house music fanatics and babies alike find a dose of social life together in broad, pre-bedtime, daylight. It’s a city tradition that has grown in recent years. At multigenerational dance parties, attendees can listen to music by veteran New York D.J.s played on serious speakers — without any remixes of “Baby Shark.” It’s a small way for weary parents to find a dance floor release, while burning off energy with their children. And this summer there’s been no shortage of options.

There's more at the link.

Multisensory integration and cross-modal learning in synaesthesia

Multisensory integration and cross-modal learning in synaesthesia: A unifying model https://t.co/oHXWz64UZB (cc @garwboy, fyi) pic.twitter.com/JHjRajqwgx

— Kevin Mitchell (@WiringTheBrain) August 24, 2024

Sutan learns to crack eggs

Cultural group selection and human cooperation: a conceptual and empirical review

Smith D. Cultural group selection and human cooperation: a conceptual and empirical review. Evol Hum Sci. 2020 Feb 7;2:e2. doi: 10.1017/ehs.2020.2. PMID: 37588374; PMCID: PMC10427285.  

Abstract: Cultural group selection has been proposed as an explanation for humans' highly cooperative nature. This theory argues that social learning mechanisms, combined with rewards and punishment, can stabilise any group behaviour, cooperative or not. Equilibrium selection can then operate, resulting in cooperative groups outcompeting less-cooperative groups. This process may explain the widespread cooperation between non-kin observed in humans, which is sometimes claimed to be altruistic. This review explores the assumptions of cultural group selection to assess whether it provides a convincing explanation for human cooperation. Although competition between cultural groups certainly occurs, it is unclear whether this process depends on specific social learning mechanisms (e.g. conformism) or a norm psychology (to indiscriminately punish norm-violators) to stabilise groups at different equilibria as proposed by existing cultural group selection models. Rather than unquestioningly adopt group norms and institutions, individuals and groups appear to evaluate, design and shape them for self-interested reasons (where possible). As individual fitness is frequently tied to group fitness, this often coincides with constructing group-beneficial norms and institutions, especially when groups are in conflict. While culture is a vital component underlying our species' success, the extent to which current conceptions of cultural group selection reflect human cooperative evolution remains unclear.

Looking back....purple memories....

The difficulties of transplanting chip manufacturing culture from Taiwan to Arizona

John Liu, What Works in Taiwan Doesn’t Always in Arizona, a Chipmaking Giant Learns, NYTimes, Aug. 8, 2024:

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, one of the world’s biggest makers of advanced computer chips, announced plans in May 2020 to build a facility on the outskirts of Phoenix. Four years later, the company has yet to start selling semiconductors made in Arizona. [...]

In Taiwan, TSMC has honed a highly complex manufacturing process: A network of skilled engineers and specialized suppliers, backed by government support, etches microscopic pathways into pieces of silicon known as wafers.

But getting all this to take root in the American desert has been a bigger challenge than the company expected.

“We keep reminding ourselves that just because we are doing quite well in Taiwan doesn’t mean that we can actually bring the Taiwan practice here,” said Richard Liu, the director of employee communications and relations at the site.

In recent interviews, 12 TSMC employees, including executives, said culture clashes between Taiwanese managers and American workers had led to frustration on both sides. TSMC is known for its rigorous working conditions. It’s not uncommon for people to be called into work for emergencies in the middle of the night. In Phoenix, some American employees quit after disagreements over expectations boiled over, according to the employees, some of whom asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The company, which has pushed back the plant’s start date, now says it expects to begin chip production in Arizona in the first half of 2025.

Cultural expectations about work hours are one thing. But there are other factors involved:

On top of working to address the cultural differences in the workplace, TSMC is gearing up to recruit skilled workers to staff the Arizona plant for years to come. The company faces similar challenges in Japan and Germany, where it is also expanding.

In Taiwan, TSMC is able to draw on thousands of engineers and decades of relationships with suppliers. But in the United States, TSMC must build everything from the ground up.

“Here at this site, a lot of things we actually have to do from scratch,” Mr. Liu said.

The article goes on to talk about worker training and talks about how local colleges and universities are creating programs directed at chip manufacturing.

“We have a generation of students whose parents have never once stepped foot into an advanced manufacturing factory,” said Scott Spurgeon, the center’s superintendent. “Their concept of that is still much like the old mom-and-pop manufacturing where you show up every day and come out with dirty clothes and dirty hands.”

I'm wondering how much culturally transmitted tacit knowledge there is in those relationships that exist in Taiwan, but not Arizona.

There's more at the link.

The ‘Orgasm Gap’ Isn’t Going Away for Straight Women

Amanda N Gesselman, Margaret Bennett-Brown, Simon Dubé, Ellen M Kaufman, Jessica T Campbell, Justin R Garcia, The lifelong orgasm gap: exploring age’s impact on orgasm rates, Sexual Medicine, Volume 12, Issue 3, June 2024, qfae042, https://doi.org/10.1093/sexmed/qfae042

Abstract

Background

Research demonstrates significant gender- and sexual orientation–based differences in orgasm rates from sexual intercourse; however, this “orgasm gap” has not been studied with respect to age.

Aim

The study sought to examine age-related disparities in orgasm rates from sexual intercourse by gender and sexual orientation.

Methods

A survey sample of 24 752 adults from the United States, ranging in age from 18 to 100 years. Data were collected across 8 cross-sectional surveys between 2015 and 2023.

Outcomes

Participants reported their average rate of orgasm during sexual intercourse, from 0% to 100%.

Results

Orgasm rate was associated with age but with minimal effect size. In all age groups, men reported higher rates of orgasm than did women. Men’s orgasm rates ranged from 70% to 85%, while women’s ranged from 46% to 58%. Men reported orgasm rates between 22% and 30% higher than women’s rates. Sexual orientation impacted orgasm rates by gender but not uniformly across age groups.

Clinical Translation

The persistence of the orgasm gap across ages necessitates a tailored approach in clinical practice and education, focusing on inclusive sexual health discussions, addressing the unique challenges of sexual minorities and aging, and emphasizing mutual satisfaction to promote sexual well-being for all.

Strengths and Limitations

This study is the first to examine the orgasm gap with respect to age, and does so in a large, diverse sample. Findings are limited by methodology, including single-item assessments of orgasm and a sample of single adults.

Conclusion

This study revealed enduring disparities in orgasm rates from sexual intercourse, likely resulting from many factors, including sociocultural norms and inadequate sex education.

The New York Times has an article about the study: Catherine Pearson, The ‘Orgasm Gap’ Isn’t Going Away for Straight Women, August 6, 2024.

Surprise!

"Inside Out" provides a language for therapy

Melena Ryzik, How ‘Inside Out’ and Its Sequel Changed Therapy, NYTimes, Aug. 7, 2024. Opening paragraphs of the article:

In 2012, when Olivia Carter was just starting out as a school counselor, she employed all sorts of strategies to help her elementary-age students understand and communicate their feelings — drawing, charades, color association, role playing. After 2015, though, starting those conversations became a lot easier, she said. It took just one question: “Who has seen the movie ‘Inside Out’?”

That Pixar hit, about core emotions like joy and sadness, and this summer’s blockbuster sequel, which focuses on anxiety, have been embraced by educators, counselors, therapists and caregivers as an unparalleled tool to help people understand themselves. The story of the moods steering the “control panel” in the head of a girl named Riley has been transformational, many experts said, in day-to-day treatment, in schools and even at home, where the films have given parents a new perspective on how to manage the turmoil of growing up.

“As therapeutic practice, it has become a go-to,” said David A. Langer, president of the American Board of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. In his household, too: “I have 9-year-old twins — we speak about it regularly,” said Langer, who’s also a professor of psychology at Suffolk University. “Inside Out” finger puppets were in frequent rotation when his children were younger, a playful way to examine the family dynamic. “The art of ‘Inside Out’ is explicitly helping us understand our internal worlds,” Langer said.

And it’s not just schoolchildren that it applies to. “I’ve been stealing lines from the movie and quoting them to adults, not telling them that I’m quoting,” said Regine Galanti, a psychologist and author in private practice on Long Island, speaking of the new film.

Anxiety:

And the new movie’s focus on anxiety, which has reached crisis proportions among adolescents, normalizes experiences that for young people could seem isolating or overwhelming, and makes them relatable.

“Almost every day there’s a student who’s struggling or having a panic attack,” Carter said. “I could see this being something that I lean on pretty heavily for a long time.”

Later:

“INSIDE OUT” ARRIVED at a moment when educators and caregivers were paying more attention to what’s known as social-emotional learning, prioritizing connection and communication skills, and recognizing, not tamping down, children’s sensibilities as part of their self-regulation. [...]

Acknowledging feelings “is like a magical thing,” Damour said. “If a person says, ‘I feel sad,’ they suddenly feel less sad.”

That “Inside Out” helps families have those conversations together amplifies one of its messages, to embrace our personalities in all their shades and shadows.

There's much more at the link.

Is OpenAI imploding? More leaders are jumping ship.

OpenAI looking like Game of Thrones.

Ilya, Andrej, Jan Leike, etc departing in last several months and now … this: pic.twitter.com/YttEWfThhn

— Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus) August 6, 2024

I shared the following note with my OpenAI colleagues today:

I've made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI. This choice stems from my desire to deepen my focus on AI alignment, and to start a new chapter of my career where I can return to hands-on technical work. I've decided…

— John Schulman (@johnschulman2) August 6, 2024

Terry Eagleton on the death of criticism

From the YouTube page:

April 9, 2010: One of Britain's most influential literary critics, Terry Eagleton is Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster, and Visiting Professor at the National University of Ireland, Galway. In addition to his widely known "Literary Theory: An Introduction", Professor Eagleton is the author of over forty books, including "The Ideology of the Aesthetic", and "The Illusions of Postmodernism". Part of the Townsend Center for the Humanities' Forum on the Humanities and the Public World.

Eagleton's remarks on "culture," starting at 45:38, a particularly interesting.

Breakfast horizons

The Marshmallow Test does not reliably predict adult functioning

Jessica F. Sperber, Deborah Lowe Vandell, Greg J. Duncan, Tyler W. Watts, Delay of gratification and adult outcomes: The Marshmallow Test does not reliably predict adult functioning. Child Development, 00, 1-15. 29 July 2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14129

Abstract: This study extends the analytic approach conducted by Watts et al. (2018) to examine the long-term predictive validity of delay of gratification. Participants (n = 702; 83% White, 46% male) completed the Marshmallow Test at 54 months (1995–1996) and survey measures at age 26 (2017–2018). Using a preregistered analysis, Marshmallow Test performance was not strongly predictive of adult achievement, health, or behavior. Although modest bivariate associations were detected with educational attainment (r = .17) and body mass index (r = −.17), almost all regression-adjusted coefficients were nonsignificant. No clear pattern of moderation was detected between delay of gratification and either socioeconomic status or sex. Results indicate that Marshmallow Test performance does not reliably predict adult outcomes. The predictive and construct validity of the ability to delay of gratification are discussed.

AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data

Shumailov, I., Shumaylov, Z., Zhao, Y. et al. AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data. Nature 631, 755–759 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07566-y

Abstract: Stable diffusion revolutionized image creation from descriptive text. GPT-2 (ref. 1), GPT-3(.5) (ref. 2) and GPT-4 (ref. 3) demonstrated high performance across a variety of language tasks. ChatGPT introduced such language models to the public. It is now clear that generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as large language models (LLMs) is here to stay and will substantially change the ecosystem of online text and images. Here we consider what may happen to GPT-{n} once LLMs contribute much of the text found online. We find that indiscriminate use of model-generated content in training causes irreversible defects in the resulting models, in which tails of the original content distribution disappear. We refer to this effect as ‘model collapse’ and show that it can occur in LLMs as well as in variational autoencoders (VAEs) and Gaussian mixture models (GMMs). We build theoretical intuition behind the phenomenon and portray its ubiquity among all learned generative models. We demonstrate that it must be taken seriously if we are to sustain the benefits of training from large-scale data scraped from the web. Indeed, the value of data collected about genuine human interactions with systems will be increasingly valuable in the presence of LLM-generated content in data crawled from the Internet.