All posts tagged: reality

For narcissistic people, the gap between perception and reality may go far deeper than we thought

For narcissistic people, the gap between perception and reality may go far deeper than we thought

Published by skeptic

Despite exuding confidence, narcissistic people relentlessly crave admiration. In other words, they are unable to convince themselves of their own brilliance. Growing research shows the gap between perception and reality for narcissistic people goes far deeper than their inflated views about their appearance, accomplishments and abilities. Narcissism is a personality trait that exists along a spectrum, where the lower end reflects a healthy balance of self-esteem and confidence. At the extreme end of the spectrum, however, narcissism is considered a personality disorder which affects 1-2% of the population. Most of us manifest narcissistic traits to varying degrees, but the more elevated the features are, the wider the gap between perception and reality. Narcissistic people with elevated features frequently belittle anyone who fails to provide them with the special treatment they feel entitled to. Ironically, they continuously undermine the false self they are trying to build and maintain. They can also be quick to respond with anger and aggression to criticism, in an attempt to protect their grandiose yet fragile sense of self. A 2021 UK …

The ‘Reality Check’ in Hunter Schafer’s Viral Passport Video

The ‘Reality Check’ in Hunter Schafer’s Viral Passport Video

Published by José

Remember Gal Gadot’s “Imagine” video? Apologies for dredging up this piece of regrettable pop culture, but back in March 2020, the Wonder Woman star recruited a gaggle of her famous friends to film themselves singing—no, butchering—John Lennon’s “Imagine” to boost morale as people began to quarantine amid the rise of COVID. The resulting clip, as my colleague Spencer Kornhaber put it at the time, “somehow made a global pandemic feel even more hopeless than it already does.” Public figures often attempt to move their fan bases, only to inspire a collective cringe instead. In 2022, the actor AnnaLynne McCord, then best known for starring in a reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210, taped herself reciting a poem she’d written to Vladimir Putin after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; it begins with the line “I’m so sorry that I was not your mother.” After posting it to social media, she was roundly mocked by online commenters. In January, Selena Gomez cried in an Instagram video as she discussed the mass arrests of migrants within the first week of …

Augustine vs Baudrillard: Are Words Signs of Reality or Hyperreality?

Augustine vs Baudrillard: Are Words Signs of Reality or Hyperreality?

Published by skeptic

  To say that the famous pessimist Augustine wrote prolifically because of his hope in the power of the word is not to speak rashly. Words, Augustine thought, illuminate the ontology of human existence. Contrastingly, the French postmodern philosopher and cultural theorist, Jean Baudrillard, conceived existence as a hyperreality hopelessly overrun by signs that, because of advertisers’ excessive fecundity, can point only to other signs. These signs obscure access to the real world and have no correspondence with material reality. Comparing Augustine’s and Baudrillard’s positions, this article asks, “Who is right?”   Words Are Signs of Reality (Or Hyperreality)? Random Illusion No. 4, Peter Phillips, 1968. Source: Tate Modern   A 4th-century philosopher and theologian, Augustine thought meaning manifests when the reality a sign points to is known. In his semiotics, signs enable knowledge of reality and how language works. Reality (or an object) is recognized through signs, and any disconnection of the sign from reality is superficial because, according to Augustine, as soon as the intention of the person using the sign is understood, …

It’s Like Virtual Reality Goggles for Your Mouth

It’s Like Virtual Reality Goggles for Your Mouth

Published by skeptic

Imagine you are video chatting with a distant friend who is eating lunch, and your pal’s sandwich looks delicious. What if you could ask your friend to dip a sensor into the meal, and give you a taste? Remote snacking has moved a bit closer to virtual reality. In a paper on Friday in the journal Science Advances, Yizhen Jia, a graduate student in materials engineering at Ohio State University, his adviser Jinghua Li and their colleagues report that they helped volunteers taste flavors meant to represent distant samples of coffee, lemonade, fried eggs, cake and fish soup. In an interview, Mr. Jia discussed a picture of him modeling one version of a device he and his colleagues built, which relies on microfluidics. Dangling from his lip are what look like five or six sauce packets that you’d add to instant ramen. The packets feed into a little tube slipped into his mouth. When miniature pumps in the packets receive a signal from a sensor dipped into a fluid far away, they get to work. …

Electronic tongue could let you taste cake in virtual reality

Electronic tongue could let you taste cake in virtual reality

Published by skeptic

Hydrogels with a taste are administered into the mouth via a small tube Shulin Chen An electronic tongue that can replicate flavours like cake and fish soup could help recreate food in virtual reality, but can’t yet simulate other things that influence taste, such as smell. Yizhen Jia at The Ohio State University and his colleagues have developed a system, called e-Taste, that can sample a food and work out how to partly recreate its flavour in someone’s mouth. This involves using chemicals that correspond to the five basic tastes: sodium chloride for salty, citric acid for sour, glucose for sweet, magnesium chloride for bitter and glutamate for umami. “Those five flavours are already accounting for a very large spectrum of the food we have daily,” says Jia. The system uses sensors to detect the levels of these chemicals in food, converts them to digital readings, and then sends these values to the pump, which pushes small amounts of different flavour-containing hydrogels into a small tube under a person’s tongue. First, the researchers tested the …

James Bond spin-offs, origin stories, reality shows? After Amazon takeover, what happens to 007? | Ents & Arts News

James Bond spin-offs, origin stories, reality shows? After Amazon takeover, what happens to 007? | Ents & Arts News

Published by skeptic

Speculation about the next James Bond was rife even before Daniel Craig confirmed once and for all that he was stepping down. Aaron Taylor-Johnson? Idris Elba? Henry Cavill? James Norton? A female 007? Three-and-a-half years on from No Time To Die, already delayed due to COVID and other problems, there has not been a scrap of confirmation. But now – plot twist – comes the announcement that Bond‘s long-time producers and custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson are handing creative control to Amazon MGM Studios. Image: Daniel Craig in his first outing as Bond, Casino Royale, in 2006. Pic: Rex/Shutterstock It’s likely that all the behind the scenes wrangling to get to this deal announcement is why a new 007, whoever that may be, is yet to be named. And speculation now shifts from the next Bond to the entire future of Bond. Broccoli and Wilson are the daughter and stepson of Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the man responsible for the start of the franchise’s success, and have always been fiercely protective of the world’s …

For teens, virtual reality worlds aren’t all fun and games

For teens, virtual reality worlds aren’t all fun and games

Published by skeptic

3-D: Short for three-dimensional. This term is an adjective for something that has features that can be described in three dimensions — height, width and length.  attention: The phenomenon of focusing mental resources on a specific object or event. avatar: (in virtual reality) An electronic rendering of some image. It becomes the virtual form of some character (even a computer or game user) that will be moved and manipulated by a computer user. It can interact with its environment and other characters. behavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself. bullying: (v. to bully) A group of repeated behaviors that are mean-spirited. They can include teasing, spreading rumors about someone, saying hurtful things to someone and intentionally leaving someone out of groups or activities. Sometimes bullying can include attacks using violence (such as hitting), threats of violence, yelling at someone or abusing someone with violent language. Much bullying takes place in person. But it also may occur online, through emails or via text messages. Newer examples including making fake profiles …

‘New reality’ hailed as Slovak protests against pro-Russia Fico widen to small towns – POLITICO

‘New reality’ hailed as Slovak protests against pro-Russia Fico widen to small towns – POLITICO

Published by Sam

Milo Janáč, 49, told POLITICO that he had been returning to his home town of Gelnica (pop. 6,202) by train two weeks ago from a protest in Bratislava when a newspaper interview caught his eye. In it, teacher Eva Wolfová explained that “it’s no big thing to have 50,000 people demonstrating in Bratislava and 15,000 in Košice. But the moment they get 300 people protesting in Gelnica, it’s all over [for the Fico government].” Gelnica, an impoverished mining town settled in the 13th century by ethnic Germans from Bavaria, lies in the Slovak Ore Mountains in the east of the country. The average gross monthly wage there in August 2024 was €1,241, the third-lowest among Slovakia’s 79 districts. Fico’s Smer won in Gelnica with 30 percent of the vote in the most recent parliamentary elections. “I took it as a challenge, and even on the train I started messaging people to ask if they could help,” said Janáč, who in addition to writing and bartending also serves as the spokesperson for the Gelnica mayor’s office. …

Virtual reality cognitive training shows potential for depression

Virtual reality cognitive training shows potential for depression

Published by José

A study examining the effects of virtual reality cognitive training on Chinese adolescents with mild to moderate depression found that participants’ cognitive performance improved after treatment, and depressive symptoms decreased as well. The research was published in Psychiatry Research. Individuals with depression often experience cognitive impairments in addition to other symptoms of the condition, which further exacerbates their disease burden. Cognitive impairment in adolescents with depression often affects areas such as attention, memory, executive function, and processing speed, interfering with academic performance and daily activities. Depressed adolescents may struggle with concentration, leading to difficulties in completing tasks or retaining information. These impairments are thought to stem from disruptions in brain regions like the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, as well as imbalances in neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. Cognitive deficits in depression can persist even during periods of remission, potentially impacting long-term development and quality of life. Study author Sihui Lyu and her colleagues conducted research to explore the effectiveness of virtual reality cognitive training in improving the cognitive functioning of adolescents with mild to …

Infinite Reality raises B to increase its immersive tech portfolio

Infinite Reality raises $3B to increase its immersive tech portfolio

Published by skeptic

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Infinite Reality revealed today that it has raised $3 billion in funding from a private investor, which it plans to put towards the expansion of its immersive technology and its multiple existing initiatives. According to the company, it also puts their valuation at $12.25 billion. The investor, which remains unnamed, reportedly focuses on global tech and real estate investments. The company reports that they plan to use the investment to continue on its current path, which has seen it make significant collaborations and acquisitions, such as its deal with Google Cloud and its purchase of Landvault (which is now iR Enterprise). It also plans to continue feature development of its iR Studio, a no-code solution for creating immersive reality products; and continue its work in the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. John Acunto, Infinite Reality CEO, said in a statement, “This fundraise allows us to continue investing in our customers as they strive to be active …