Mind To The Grind

A case for the irrelevance of personhood: "...the point is to show how academic discourse — specifically, philosophical discourse — utilizes intellectual ingenuity (bizarre thought experiments, assuming the positions of your philosophical rivals, arguing for theses that are not politically in vogue) as a means of trying to make the strongest case possible for a given position. Plus, within the analytic tradition at least, there is premium placed on clarity and rigor."

"He explains that there are certain qualities that immediately contribute to a ‘look of trust’: “The bigger the eyes, the more they reveal. People with smaller eyes are deemed to be shadier. They’re not necessarily bad, but give off the impression that they’re quieter, more calculative, and like to keep things in their heart.” Beyond the eyes, a person’s natural eyebrows are also important. “Eyebrows that extend beyond the length of one’s eyes reveal a sentimental and compassionate person. Shorter and sparser brows tend to depict someone who doesn’t focus much on the emotive part of things. Basically, they cut the crap,” he says."

"Language is always evolving and it feels like it’s evolving faster than ever. Like, if you were to type the words “on fleek” on Twitter right now, your phone would self-destruct like an Inspector Gadget dispatch. Did that one have a shorter window than most new words? Possibly. But in general the cycle with which phrases enter our lexicon and get played out seems to be speeding up or at least maintaining this crazy new pace. If you can invent a new word that suddenly becomes the thing to say for that day, that’s a powerful thing. Pun or not. Just a couple weeks ago, we were all talking about “romphims” (a pun) and whether or not there’s any value there–someone had so many of us saying it for a couple days there. That’s power. The ability to play with language in a catchy way can get your article passed around, to put it in media terms, or net you a hit single, and who knows, it may even decide an election. I have no proof of that last one."

"The use of mobile phones in school is a huge issue. Instead of being taught that he has to bear the consequence of breaking the school rules, the parent is sending a signal to the child that problems can be settled with money and legal action."

Teachers hoping to exchange teaching methods can now do so on a dedicated online portal. A collaboration between the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Institute of Education, the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) will allow educators in Singapore to share their lesson strategies across 24 areas.

“Close to 85 per cent of all schools here - from primary level to junior colleges - are now making use of information technology (IT) systems for attendance-taking.”

"Commitment is required, and we should continue learning it as there is no limit to learning," he said, adding that Chinese culture should be used as a way to develop a student's lifelong interest in learning the language.

"The question of what balance to strike between arts education and a rigorous academic curriculum is one that Sota's management needs to address, Sota teachers told The Straits Times. A related issue is the widespread perception among Singaporeans, including some parents of Sota students, that to pursue a career in the arts is to court unemployment and hardship."

"Welcome to The Fragment Room, Singapore's first rage room, where stressed-out people can relieve their pent-up frustration by smashing wine bottles, plates, laptops and television sets."

"On this issue, I do not think it is a case of, if the optimists are right, then the pessimists must be wrong, or vice versa. It is obvious that the rise of robots and AI will enable the human race to do what was once impossible, but not without displacing some workers and making it necessary for many other workers to adapt, including those who either do not want to change or fear it. What I do not subscribe to is techno-determinism, which is the belief that given the march of technology, a specific outcome is inevitable : either automation means job loss, end of story; or augmentation leads to more and better jobs. As software programmer and activist Seth Finkelstein has pointed out, "a technological advance by itself can either be positive or negative for jobs, depending on the social structure as a whole. This is not a technological consequence; rather, it's a political choice." " "The super-intelligent machines that are being developed today do not set their own goals, as Dr Hassabis took pains to get across. It is thus incumbent on the human designers to "make sure the goals are correctly specified". In other words, the AI challenge is as much about ethics as it is about technology."

"Last month, Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim announced a $3 million plan, dubbed the Digital Maker Programme, that aims to distribute 100,000 micro:bits to schoolgoing children and adults over the next two years to teach basic coding."

"Let me conclude with a simple piece of advice to my fellow Singaporeans. Please be very careful each day you pick up the newspapers to read some Anglo-Saxon media analysis of contemporary problems, like North Korea or Syria, Ukraine or Iran. When you read these analyses, please ask yourselves: Are you reading an objective analysis? Or are you reading a distorted world view?"

"A country grows old when its organisations become big, multi-layered and bureaucratic, when decision-making slows down and its people are afraid to take risks. I don't think this is a widespread problem in Singapore - yet. But there are worrying signs that its reflexes have slowed down and it is not moving as fast and nimbly as it should."