Episode 23: Ambient Knowledge – Personalized Culture

Written by Phil in Uncategorized

Phil explains something he’s been mulling over, something of a half-baked idea. The working definition is:

Ambient knowledge refers to the knowledge of geography, customs, regulations, and other often-unstated information that would be useful to know. The outcome of not knowing can result in social gaffs, but more often it will simply result in squandered money through overpaying, scams, or fines.

How we distinguish it from culture, more broadly, is that Ambient Knowledge is the individualized collection of cultural information that a single person has collected. Few of us know everything about our own culture, despite being immersed in it our entire lives, so the slice that you do have could be called your ambient knowledge.

This episode was edited by Phil Shea.

References

  • Old Town Road (The one Phil doesn’t know about)
  • Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson talk that Phil was referencing (Video)
  • Ambience (Feeling, mood): a feeling or mood associated with a particular place, person, or thing
  • Ambient: an encompassing atmosphere
  • Cultural Capital: comprises the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech, style of dress, etc.) that promote social mobility in a stratified society.[1] Cultural capital functions as a social relation within an economy of practices (i.e., system of exchange), and includes the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers social status and power.
  • Pierre Bourdieu
  • Socialization: the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus “the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained”.
  • Centripetal force: Phil Misspoke, it “is a force that makes a body follow a curved path.” If you’re spinning a weight on a string, the string is the centripetal force stopping the weight from flying off in a single direciton.
  • Centrifugal force: This is what Phil mislabelled as centripetal force; it is the force outwards from the string.
  • What’s the difference between a coupe and a sedan?
    • Coupe: a car with a fixed roof, two doors, and a sloping rear
    • Sedan: an automobile having a closed body and a closed trunk separated from the part in which the driver and passengers sit, typically more than 2 doors.
  • Ambient Awareness: “very much like being physically near someone and picking up on mood through the little things; body language, sighs, stray comments…”Academic Andreas Kaplan defines ambient awareness as “awareness created through regular and constant reception, and/ or exchange of information fragments through social media”. Therefore, in effect two friends who regularly follow one another’s digital information can already be aware of each other’s lives without actually being physically present to have a conversation.”
  • Parasocial Relationships: “television personas offer the media user a sense of intimacy and have influence over them by using their appearance and gesture in a way that is seen as being engaging, directly addressing the audience, and conversing with them in a friendly and personal manner.”
  • Overton Window: the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.
  • Ambient Knowledge (Computer Science): “Implicit intent can also be established via “ambient knowledge,” based on environmental factors like the user’s device, location and time of the day. Ambient knowledge allows intelligent apps to determine features that can be activated for specific users. An example of this is a claims adjudicator using augmented reality (AR) to record and analyze the environment in real-time while working in the field.“
  • Echo Chamber
  • Information Solo
  • Divide and Conquer
  • Russia Influencing Social Movements: Coordinating a protest and its own counterprotest in 2016 (Business Insider; New York Times; Vice)
  • Incels: “an online subculture of people who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one. Discussions in incel forums are often characterized by resentment and hatred, misogyny, misanthropy, self-pity and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against women and sexually active people.”
  • Counting to 10 on one hand (Chinese Style)

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