Showerless morning, breakfast cereal had banana in it ;)
Off to CompBio, had a productive discussion with Ruzzo; we figured out what the form of the errors had to be, if not how to estimate them from the ReadBackedPhasing quality scores. We also got started on some coding. I wrote up a forum question for the GATK guys.
Physics was interesting but uneventful–we discussed the 4-momentum intertangling of energy and momentum, and the associated invariant, mass. Sat with Stefana, Talia and Ali again :)
Off to Music. The discussion wasn’t as intense today since Profesora had been sick and so we were all confused about what we were supposed to have read / had forgotten the details of the old reading. So my mind bounced around and came to some insights about System 1 vs. System 2. I refined some of them on my walk later. Part 1 seems obvious in hindsight, yet it also seems very important. Here they are:
- Systems 1 and 2 use the same cognitive resources. You can’t expect to attack a problem logically with the System 2 and simultaneously get the same kind of spontaneous connection-ing from System 1, or vice versa.
- As a first approximation, System 1 thinking benefits from immersing oneself in a diverse environment, as in taking a walk. Stimuli in such an environment will trigger random connections (and interestingly, prevent System 2 looping). System 2 thinking benefits from concentration, which prevents System 1 distraction.
- However, at a more detailed level, all thinking (for me, I don’t know about other people) is interleaved periods of System 1 and System 2 thought. Typically, System 1 open-endedly tries to make connections relevant to the problem at hand (or even relevant to a problem that you’ve been noodling on for a while), and when it has identified one, it calls out to the System 2, which examines the line of thought in detail. “System 1” thinking just spends more time in connection-ing and cuts off detailed analyses; “System 2” thinking reduces the scope of connectioning to leave more time for the System 2 analysis.
- The operating system parameters which govern switching between System 1 and System 2 deserve some examination.
Tension in music also came up in class. There appears to be a very deep similarity between harmonic tension, pitch tension, and rhythmic tension, where discrepancies between an ideal structure and what is played gives emotion and drive to the music. Western classical music doesn’t employ pitch or rhythmic tension–discrepancies wrt the ideal structure in these areas are errors–whereas in other types of music (Profesora discussed jazz) these discrepancies are also exploited to make tension. Intriguing! As an aside, this universal concept of “tension” fits in very well with the “Predictive Processing” model of human cognition.
After the class, I went back to M and made myself some grilled sandwiches; I ate them while reading physics. Then I took a lovely walk across the bridge and into some beautiful neighborhoods. Ran back, did a short workout, took a shower. Went to Glee :D We finally started to click, it sounded good!
Unfortunately Johan was sick and couldn’t meet for dinner. I went to M and halfheartedly went back to work. Then I got a message from my old bud Chase and checked if he wanted to get dinner.So we went to CaliBurger with a coupon I’d gleaned :) We had a good time, which I’m now too tired to describe! Chase returned my old comic making book, which I’d forgotten I lent him. We chatted about his best friend’s upcoming wedding, crazy! Had some philosophical conversation, continuing to Chase’s apt in Stevens. Then I had to get some physics homework done, so I went back, did that, read the end of the physics book, wrote this log and hit the hay!