Hattie Nicholson's blog

Forget-Me-Not: Can A Computer Remember For You?

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Forget-Me-Not: Can A Computer Remember For You?
We spent a morning at NESTA debating and demonstrating the relationship between people and digital memory, with an expert panel:
Sebastian Groes (Lecturer and Memory Network Researcher) 
Holly Pester (Sound Poet) 
Jon Silas (Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton) 
Elad Ben Elul (The Album People) 
Michela Magas (Scientific Director, MIReS: the future of music tech)
It began with an experiment on how we access and store data. The room was divided into two groups and each were presented with a series of words to process and then remember. A simple task... or so we thought! Turns out one group were actually being tested on their capacity to forget. Presented with the first set of words and asked to then forget that they saw them. Results showed that when told to forget we actually tend to remember better. Who knew?! 
The panel then went on to discuss the roles of memory in music, poetry and psychology.
Human memory's incompleteness is its greatest strength. We filter, connect and prioritise information. We do not store it like a hard drive does. The way we do this varies from person to person: abilities at the extreme ends of the spectrum can be debilitating or brilliant (or both). 
Cognitive services such as mapping and memory aids can fill in some of the gaps. But how will these change our sense of self and how we learn? What could they do for impaired or ageing brains?  
Knowledge has always been distributed between brains, tools and infrastructure. London taxi drivers' memory centres measurably swell as they learn the city's layout, but those of New York cab drivers and minicab drivers with Sat Navs don't. 
Technology is changing our memory. Whilst relying on prosthetic memories expands the amount that we can know it also leaves us vulnerable - data we can't find is lost from history, data we cannot control might be changed: false memories may be implanted or product placement slipped in. Will our shared photographs become permanent, public evidence and surveillance culture spread? Who owns this information? Do we have the right to be forgotten?
Will we look through Google Glass at our grandchildren's faces surrounded by status updates, health information, highlights of their school reports, prompts for caring questions and algorithmically-chosen presents? 
How far will this go? 
The event was one of a series leading up to Nesta's FutureFest, a weekend of events challenging us to imagine and shape the years ahead. We asked participants to answer the following question: How would you live your life differently if all your experiences were digitally stored, searchable and retrievable?

We spent a morning at NESTA debating and demonstrating the relationship between people and digital memory, with an expert panel:

Sebastian Groes (Lecturer and Memory Network Researcher)
Holly Pester (Sound Poet)
Jon Silas (Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton)
Elad Ben Elul (The Album People)
Michela Magas (Scientific Director, MIReS: the future of music tech)

It began with an experiment on how we access and store data. The room was divided into two groups and each were presented with a series of words to process and then remember.

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Chinwag Psych Interview: Fabian Stelzer "Changing Design to affect Consumer Decisions"

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Tomorrow is the day for our
Chinwag Psych event where attendees can learn from the experts working with psychology, machine learning and neuroscience in business.

If you fancy a little food for your brain, grab a ticket and join us, it’s going to be a packed event with more than enough to inspire.

One of the great speakers in our lineup is Fabian Stelzer, co-founder and CEO of EyeQuant.

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Neuromagic and Psychological Alien Detection: Get your head around this!

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Not long now until the Chinwag Psych event on May 9. If you don’t have your ticket yet you can still grab one here.

Meanwhile, whether you can attend the event or if you’re just interested in a little reading on the topic of psychology, neuroscience and machine learning, here’s our weekly round up to get you thinking.

Happy Birthday to the father of modern neuroscience

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More Speakers Announced for Chinwag Psych

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Chinwag Psych (@ChinwagPsych) is fast approaching and we have more speakers to introduce you to. 

May 9th is the date and Chancery Lane the place. 

The full day conference is jam packed full of case studies, theory, insight and plenty of practical advice centred around the latest thinking and application of psychology, neuroscience and machine learning.

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Chinwag Psych: First Speakers Announced

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Chinwag Psych (@ChinwagPsych) is coming to London on Thursday May 9th

It is a conference and online publication covering psychology, neuroscience and machine learning for business and marketing.

A limited number of Early Bird tickets are now available. Get your tickets here

We are excited to be able to announce our first two speakers. Here come the girls...

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Want Your Social Media Week Fix Early? Get Involved With The Digital Mission & SMW NYC

SMW

As you may know, Social Media Week London will be returning to your streets in September 2013, however if you can’t quite wait that long then why not be a part of Social Media Week NYC in February where Chinwag will be joined by some great companies for a Digital Mission trip to New York.

SMW NYC looks set to be a great week with its global theme of Open & Connected: Principles for a Collaborative World being explored by speakers including Ben Kaufman, founder & CEO of Quirky, Cindy Gallop and the MakeLoveNotPorn.tv team, and Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit.

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