[extropy-chat] no electronics at Singularity Summit???

[Damien Sullivan]

On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 12:32:38AM +0100, Russell Wallace wrote:
>    On 5/22/06, Damien Sullivan <[1]phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:

>      I have a dim memory of studies actually looking at this, and
>      finding performance deficits, but I don't remember any specifics.
>      Well, cell phones hampering drivers.
> 
>    Well yeah, having one hand completely occupied and unavailable for the
>    steering wheel or gear stick is going to be a problem with a real-time
>    physical task like driving. I don't think it's a good analogy here.

No, it's the phone conversation itself, even with a handsfree set, which
increases the chance of your needing that cryonics contract.  Attention
is a limited resource.

http://www.nsc.org/library/shelf/inincell.htm
http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/cellphones/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/051209113320.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050205121600.htm

And I'd note that if we're going to use computer metaphors such as
multi-tasking, we should remember that context-switching is not
costless.  It may be worth the cost, but there'll be one, unless the
tasks can be run automatically by different parts of the brain.  But if
attention is needed for both tasks then I think context-switching is
going to apply.

-xx- Damien X-)