Social Media

February 10, 2025 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Social Media Harm Young Girls & Young Women

By Shlomo Maital  

    The American Psychological Association’s journal,  Monitor, publishes annually the top 10 research papers published in the 89 APA journals, based on downloads by psychologists.  The results for 2024 show what problems US psychologists are dealing with and what is on their minds most.

     You guessed it.  The harmful impact of social media, especially on young girls and young women.

     The #1 article, “Living for the likes” finds that “women who use social media more than others experience more fear of missing out (FOMO), social comparison and appearance anxiety.

        #2:   “Viewing images of ‘thin-ideal’ body shapes lowers personal body images for  women of all ages and self-esteem levels.”  You might call this a “Barbie” effect. 

        Both these two articles were published in Psychology of Popular Media, vol 13, no. 3.   

      I recall as a youth how intensely sensitive I was about how I looked (and I am a male!), to the point where I refused to wear eyeglasses for almost two years (those who wore spectacles were called four-eyes).  And this was long before Tik-Tok.   Social media greatly amplify sensitivity to body image.

      #3.  “Limiting social media use decreases depression, anxiety and fear of missing out in youth with emotional distress.”    The title of this article tells it all.  Limiting social media use to one hour per day for 3 weeks was highly beneficial.  This paper too appeared in Psychology of Popular Media (advance publication). 

        Wise parents are finding ways to limit use of social media among their kids. But the resistance is strong, because the algorithms used by the media are purposely insidious, fostering dependence and constant use, simply to make more money. 

         In August 2023,  Associated Press reported this:  BEIJING (AP) —  The Cyberspace Administration of China on Wednesday published the draft guidelines on its site, stating that minors would not be allowed to use most internet services on mobile devices from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and that children between the ages of 16 and 18 would only be able to use the internet for two hours a day.”

       China is an undemocratic big-brother society that limits its citizens’ freedom relentlessly.  But perhaps this regulation does make a lot of sense. 

         And last year, Australia, a highly democratic society, “…passed one of the strictest internet crackdowns in the world last month, banning children under 16 from being on social media or opening new accounts. The law, which takes effect a year from now, holds social media companies responsible for verifying kids’ ages. Not complying could trigger fines up to nearly $50 million.”

          The evidence is clear.  Social media harm the young, and not only the young.  It is up to us adults to protect them, even against themselves.  But I think we are failing.

Is the world aleatoric? Or epistemic? Is Life One Big Lottery?

February 6, 2025 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Is the World Aleatoric? Or Epistemic?

By Shlomo Maital  

         Question:  What is your view of the world?  Is the world “aleatoric”? Or “epistemic”?

          Sorry for the two-dollar words.  Aleatoric means random, uncertain.  Epistemic means unexpected things occur, but only because we have not yet acquired sufficient knowledge.  In short, is the world inherently random, unpredictable,  or is the world full of the unknown BUT KNOWABLE eventually?

           I spent my life working in Academe.  People I work with are epistemic.  Academics believe that their research will turn the unknown into the knowable. And a great deal of scientific research does that.  One possible (though not inevitable) result, is that those with higher education believe in a distant God, or none at all, as we ourselves become God, in the sense of understanding scientific causality, rather than divine intervention.  Academe is epistemic.

           But what if the world is really aleatoric?  Divinely aleatoric?   That is – events are random, but the Divine hand is present in ways we do not understand, nor will we ever.  This is a variation on purely random, aleatoric world.

            Example?   In 1945 US Secretary of War Henry Stimson persuaded President Harry Truman NOT to bomb Kyoto with the first US atom bomb.  Experts felt that destroying Japan’s cultural capital and historic priceless treasures would strike a war-ending blow.  But as a 19 year old, Stimson had visited Kyoto and loved it.  He argued vehemently in two long meetings with Truman NOT to bomb Kyoto.  Result:  Hiroshima was chosen instead.

             Is this epistemic? Or aleatoric?  Moreover —  US B-29 bombers with the second A-bomb arrived at their second target – and found it covered with clouds.  They had to divert to an alternate:  Nagasaki.  So both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed, and their inhabitants decimated, by a virtually random cause – a trip by a teenager, and the vagaries of weather.  Aleatoric?  Epistemic? 

            Scientists reported yesterday that they have models that can predict crowd movements, that today seem random.  Really?  Will we humans one day know EVERYthing?  Einstein fought quantum mechanics of Bohr, saying God does not play dice with the universe.  Some of us may believe, true – but it LOOKS like he does, and because we will never truly understand divine intervention, we might as well treat the world as divinely aleatoric, with God in the background (e.g. Bette Middler’s wonderful song “God is Watching Us ….At A Distance”.

          What is your own view?

          Incidentally:   Quantum computers are proving many times more powerful than conventional ones, based on the fact that a piece of information (bit) can be either zero, or one, or some probability inbetween, and the probability is an infinite set of fractions… making that ‘bit’ many times more powerful than its being either zero or one (as in conventional computing). 

          Quantum computing uses the aleatoric world in an epistemic manner (we figured out how to USE IT!). 

           A head scratcher.

Gadi Mozes

February 1, 2025 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Freed Hostage Gadi Mozes: Walks 7 kms. Daily In a 2 sq meter cell  

By Shlomo Maital  

          80-year-old Gadi Mozes, held hostage by Hamas for 14 months, agronomist, leading member of Kibbutz Nir Oz – has been released.   Held in darkness, without his glasses for 70 days (broken), he recounted on his release that he walked 7 kilometers daily, despite being held in a tiny cell. How?  He counted the floor tiles, knew the dimensions of each tile  (about four to a meter) —   and daily, made sure to walk 7 kilometers, keeping track by counting the tiles and pacing back and forth over the tiny floor area.

           Why did he do this?  I am roughly his age.  I get it.  I would have tried to do the same. Maybe with pushups as well.

           Elderly men and women tend to suffer from sarcopenia:  “a type of muscle loss that occurs with aging and/or immobility. It is characterized by the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass, quality, and strength. The rate of muscle loss is dependent on exercise level, co-morbidities, nutrition and other factors.”

           In short:   Seniors, use it or lose it.  And all around us, well-meaning family and friends are solicitous of us,  e.g. offering me seats on the train.  Even when I choose to stand. 

           Sarcopenia is insidious.  After you lose muscle mass, getting it back is really hard.  I just now walked several kilometers, half of it uphill, and it was pretty hard, after a doctor-prescribed pause following cataract surgery. 

           So, seniors.  Work out. Walk.  Lift things (with bent knees).  Resist pampering yourself.  Use those muscles.  You need them.  Hard to get ‘em back when they weaken.

           And, for Gadi Mozes.  Incredible admiration for his resilience.  First thing he said on returning:  I will rebuild (my kibbutz) Nir Oz. 

                And he will.  Anyone who can walk 7 kms. daily in a tiny dark cell can do anything. 

Great Leaders Are Like Orchestra Conductors

January 29, 2025 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

 Great Leaders Are Like Orchestra Conductors

By Shlomo Maital

      My wife and I recently enjoyed a Jerusalem Camerata concert, with a British guest conductor named Paul Goodwin.   The last piece was Josef Haydn’s Symphony #83 in G minor.  It was brilliant.  The orchestra played its heart out. The conductor’s leadership was spirited, energetic, and his body language interpreted the music, for his orchestra and for his audience.

          It occurred to me that quality leadership in strong leaders resembles conducting an orchestra.  For some conductors, who use distracting histrionics, it is all about them.  Just like egoistic leaders, who generally fail. 

           Because – strong leadership is about getting your followers to excel – to do amazing things way beyond what they think they can, what they are generally capable of, what they believe.  Great conductors make their orchestra members want to play beautifully, at the top of their games.  That was what we saw on Monday evening. An orchestra in top form, because they were motivated to be so by the conductor Paul Goodsin.  Even though it was the fifth time they were playing this concert (concerts in Israel are often played six times, in different cities, in order to pay for the guest soloists and conductors).   They played it, with excellence, and freshness, as if it was the first time.

          Great leaders are like conductors.  At the end, with rapt applause, the conductor made sure to focus on the orchestra members, asking groups to stand (concert master, violins, percussion, woodwinds, bass violins….) for applause.  It is pretty easy to tell which conductors have the love and respect of their musicians, who play their hearts out for them, and which have their players going through the motions, for this egomaniac jumping around on stage to gain all the attention.

          How many world leaders are there, who resemble great orchestra conductors?  And, is it my imagination, or are the egomaniac leaders mainly men, and the ‘it’s about you not me’ leaders are mainly women?  Not to mention names, but,   Trump, Trudeau, Putin, Xi Jin Ping, Kim Jong Un, Viktor Mihály Orbán….Netanyahu…. 

Trumponomics

January 23, 2025 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Trumponomics

By Shlomo Maital

(from The Economist)

       “Trumponomics” is the economic theory that drives President Donald Trump’s planned economic policies.  It includes low interest rates; tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, and anyone else that sells more to the US than it buys; expelling immigrant workers; slashing taxes; removing renewable energy subsidies.

          What can we expect?  Here is Olivier Blanchard’s ‘take’.  He is an MIT economics professor, former chief economist of the IMF.

            “….perhaps the most crucial issue is what the Fed will do. If it sticks to its mandate, it will stand in the way of some of Trump’s hopes from the use of tariffs, deportation, and tax cuts. It will have to limit economic overheating, increase rates, and cause the dollar to appreciate.   The big question is thus whether Trump can force the Fed to abandon its mandate and maintain low rates in the face of higher inflation.”

             To explain:  The US already has a huge federal budget deficit,  some 7% of GDP.  US public debt exceeds its annual GDP.  Trumponomics tax cuts and gifts to the wealthy will further hamper revenues and increase the deficit.  Tariffs will make goods and services more expensive for consumers (no, people, it is not the Chinese or Canadians who will pay the tariffs, it is us).  The result will be more inflation, rather than, as promised, less.

           Enter the Fed:  Higher inflation brings tighter interest rates.  Trumponomics is in love with low interest rates.  Result:  A cataclysmic conflict with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who remains in his post until 2026.  At that time, Trump may try to appoint a non-mainstream new Fed Chair, who will maintain low rates in the face of inflation – leading to more inflation.   

            The US has been successful since 1776, mostly, because its Judiciary (Supreme Court) and its money people (Federal Reserve) have been constitutionally isolated from political influence, in general.  The judiciary now has a Trump majority.  When the Fed too falls into Trumponomics – yikes.  Risk premiums on US bonds rise, as capital markets start to wonder whether the US may, like Nicaragua or South Africa, fall into fiscal decay. 

        Here is Blanchard’s conclusion:   “Fed Chair Jay Powell has made clear he remains committed to the mandate and to staying at the Fed as chair until his term as chair expires in May 2026 (his term as board member ends in 2028). Current Fed board members are unlikely to follow a different line. But one board position opens in January 2026, and Trump could seek to name a more docile board member to the seat. If this is the case, and the board goes along (which is unlikely), the result will be low rates, overheating, and higher inflation. Given the unpopularity of high inflation, not to mention the reaction of financial markets to the loss of Fed independence, this prospect may be enough to make Trump hesitate to pursue this option.”

         Stay tuned!   We are headed for interesting times.

EQ: A Key Skill for Kids’ Success

January 16, 2025 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A Key Skill for Kids’ Success

By Shlomo Maital

        What is the one key skill that is most important for children’s success?

        Writing on inc.com, Jessica Stillman reports that “a team of dedicated psychologists who have been following and intimately recording the lives of more than 1,000 kids from the New Zealand town of Dunedin since 1972,”  That’s 40 years of research!

         What they found, summarized, is this:  “What is the most useful  [skill] for parents hoping to give their kids the best shot at a good life? Perhaps the incredible importance of building kids’ emotional intelligence for later-in-life success.  The best predictor of kids’ success? Emotional intelligence.

          Emotional intelligence  — EQ — is “the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions.”  It was popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman, in a 1995 book.

          Years ago, I ran a management workshop for Intel engineers and managers, in Ireland.  A very brief one-hour session, out of a four-day workshop, was devoted to EQ.  At the end of the workshop, we asked participants, what did you find most valuable?  EQ won, hands-down, despite the very brief session.  It was a skill that unlike thermodynamics or calculus, was not taught or even noted.

           Success requires that we interact, engage and collaborate with others.  Doing this well requires the ability to read others’ emotions and deal with our own.  In my own experience, I recall occasions when I spoke harshly to colleagues – and sealed my fate as a team player. 

           We teach kids lots of things – but self-awareness, a key first step to high EQ, may not be one of them.  For me – I gained some self-awareness rather late in life, doing basic training in the military, running a marathon (at age 42) and climbing Kilimanjaro. 

            I find that young parents have become really good at instilling EQ.  They encourage their kids to express their feelings in words.  Recognizing emotions, giving them a name, is a key initial step toward managing them.  I think this is partly why speech is so important for child development.  Prior to gaining the ability to speak, when young children can’t express their needs and communicate them in words, frustration results ..and some supersonic tantrums.

             We all know many adults who have low EQ.  They can be very unpleasant.  As grandparents, we can play a role, in helping our grandchildren to hone their EQ.  Such as, when we play games with them – and they lose.  I think one key reason EQ is so vital, is that the way we deal with failure and frustration is crucial in later success.  Strong EQ can help us navigate the perils of failure and despair.

J

Stuck? Try things.

January 15, 2025 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Stuck?  Try Things

By Shlomo Maital

    Have a problem?  Stuck?  No solution? 

    Try this – Return to childhood.  Copy the kids.

     Try things.  Try everything.

      Ever watch how kids learn?  They experiment. They try things.  New gadget?  They poke it, stroke it, shake it, swipe it, until it works.  Recall the famous ‘hole in the wall’ experiment, when Indian researchers put a tablet screen into a wall in a poor area of India, and kids learned to use it, and even hack it, to do things it had tried to prevent.

       Sometimes, the elderly seem technically challenged.  Part of the reason may not be technical skill, but hesitance to experiment.  If there is a ‘right way’,  and we don’t know it, then – dead end.  Right?

        Wrong!    Try things. 

        Try things is a good recipe for an interesting life.  Try different foods.  Try listening to different types of music.  Try reading different kinds of books.  Try things.  Mostly it will not work.  But once in a while – Jackpot!  

           Kids know it intuitively.  Let’s learn from them.  

We Think Too Fast

December 28, 2024 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 1 comment

We Think Too Fast

By Shlomo Maital  

     We think too slow.  This is a conclusion of a lovely article in the New York Times by Carl Zimmer. * 

      Streaming a high-definition video takes about 25 million bps (a ‘bps’ is bit per second, and ‘bib’ is a unit of information, say, zero or one).  The typical download rate, engineers have found, in a US household is 262 million bps. 

      OK, that’s the Internet. Now, how fast is the ‘download’ rate in the human brain?  How fast does information flow from our brain to our bodies? 

       Caltech neuroscientist Markus Meister has published a study in Neuron, according to Zimmer, and speaks about the endless hyperbole about how incredibly complex and powerful the human brain.

       Actually, it’s pretty slow, Meister says.  He and colleagues estimate the flow of information ‘downloaded’ from the brain to the body is….   “just 10 bps”.  Ten bits per second.  The title of their article?  “The unbearable slowness of being”.   This is a clever play on the 1984 novel by Czech writer Milan Kundera, The unbearable lightness of being. At 10 bps, you couldn’t begin to download even a silent black and white movie from 1920.

         Just 10 bps.  Not even enough to download a high definition vide.  Huh!

         Let me make an opposing argument.  Even 10 bps is far too fast.  Have you ever said things you wish you hadn’t?  Yes?  Many times?  Reacted too fast?

         Radio stations have a kill button.  What you hear is delayed by a second or two, before it is aired.  This is just in case someone calling in uses a profanity, not allowed by FCC rules, and the host hits the kill button to avoid broadcasting it.

          I find I need a delay/kill button.  Think something.  Think if it really needs to be said. Is it hurtful?  False?  Emotionally disturbing?  Hit the delay before you send it out into the air.  I wish I had done this more often – before I invented my own ‘kill button’ —  think it, listen to it as if you are saying it, and only then, actually say it.

      No, scientists, the brain is not too slow. If anything, it may be too fast.  Slow it down a bit. Believe me – it will keep you out of hot water, especially with your partner or spouse.

  • Carl Zimmer. “The speed of human thought lags far behind your internet connection, study finds”.  New York Times, December 26, 2024.

Abduction: How AI Thinks Like We Do!

December 19, 2024 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Abduction: How AI Thinks: Like We Do!

By Shlomo Maital  

       How does AI think?   Until now, we haven’t really understood this;  AI is often referred to as a ‘black box’   even by its inventors and developers.

       Now, in a New York Times article (Dec. 16),  Peter Coy explains some research, in which researchers did a brilliant and rather obvious thing – They asked AI to tell us how it is thinking!   And here is the result:  

        AI thinks as we do.  By abductive reasoning!

       What is that?   So, naturally, I asked ChatGPT to explain it:

      “Abductive reasoning  is a logical process in which an explanation is inferred from the available evidence, even though it may not be the only possible explanation. It’s often described as “inference to the best explanation” because it seeks to identify the most likely cause or reason for a set of observations, even if all the facts are not known.

       “Unlike deductive reasoning, which moves from general principles to specific conclusions (certain), and inductive reasoning, which involves drawing broad generalizations from specific instances (probable), abductive reasoning  aims to find the most plausible explanation given incomplete information.

        In other words:  Hey? Don’t know the answer?!  Well – take a shot at it.  Take a guess.

        ChatGPT’s example of abductive reasoning:

       You walk into a room and see a puddle of water on the floor. Possible explanations (hypotheses): 1. Someone spilled water  2. The roof is leaking. 3. The window was left open and rain came in.  Using abductive reasoning, you consider the available evidence (the puddle of water) and evaluate the most plausible cause. If you know that there was a heavy rainstorm earlier, and the window is slightly open, you might conclude that the rain came in through the open window, even though you can’t see the exact cause. Based on the best explanation, you might infer that the open window is the most likely reason for the puddle of water, even though there could be other potential causes.”

      AI is often lambasted, criticized, because it fantasizes – makes wild guesses when it doesn’t know the answer.  Well, so do we humans!   Abductive reasoning, connecting the dots that seem unconnected, often generates powerful innovative ideas.  AI makes inferences, sometimes wild ones.  Programmers are striving to ‘cleanse’ AI from this – when it may be one of its most powerful advantages!

     So —  the one thing we thought AI lacked, creativity, is actually something it does have.  Abduction, linking X with Y. 

      Holy smoke!

Rethinking Dark Matter & Dark Energy

December 16, 2024 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

 Rethinking Dark Matter & Dark Energy

By Shlomo Maital  

       Adam Riess is a Johns Hopkins U. professor of astrophysics and 2011 Nobel Laureate. His research showed that the universe is expanding (Hubble found that years ago), at an increasing rate – which defies the standard laws of gravity, that suggest that as cosmic bodies grow more distant, the force of gravity weakens.   This means that there is unobserved dark matter and dark energy out there, which does not interact with conventional matter and energy, and it must be some 95% of existing energy and matter (63% dark energy, 32 percent dark energy).

        Riess is part of a team researching the cosmos using the DESI, dark energy spectroscopic instrument.  It is located in the Sonora Desert, atop Kitt Peak, in Arizona. It is creating a 3D map of the positions and velocities of 40 million galaxies across 11 billion years of time.  The first map just released covers six million galaxies.  The director of DESI, Michael Levi, said that “we’re seeing some potentially interesting differences that could indicate that dark energy is evolving with time’.    

       Riess said about the results that “it may be the first real clue we have gotten about the nature of dark energy in 25 years!”.  His words were reported by Dennis Overbye, in the New York Times. Overby covers astrophysics and brilliantly explains complex subjects in a lucid understandable manner.

       If the current standard model is true, then the universe will grow darker and darker, as cosmic bodies grow more distant one from another – and eventually, even atoms will rip apart and everything will disintegrate,  billions of years from now.  But if dark matter and dark energy are evolving, changing in a dynamic manner,  well – maybe not.

       Perhaps one day, we will actually find a way to observe and understand dark matter and dark energy.  

        Meanwhile, it is exhilarating to see how astrophysicists are eager and willing to admit that what they thought they knew is not the case.  Would that all of us would be so wise.         

Blog entries written by Prof. Shlomo Maital

Shlomo Maital

Pages