I think this is the first time I have ever seen someone claim that science fiction used to be mainstream and isn’t anymore!

John Mullan, Naughtie’s fellow judge for this year’s prize and professor of English at University College London, said that he “was not aware of science fiction,” arguing that science fiction has become a “self-enclosed world”.

“When I was 18 it was a genre as accepted as other genres,” he said, but now “it is in a special room in book shops, bought by a special kind of person who has special weird things they go to and meet each other.”

via Science fiction author hits out at Booker judges | Books | guardian.co.uk.

I have search alerts set up on a variety of sites for “theory of fun.” Today this little gem popped up: Rolighetsteorin. It translates as “theory of fun for safety” according to Google, and it appears to be a Volkswagen campaign in Sweden that is trying to use fun for social improvement.

This page is dedicated to the idea that something as simple as happiness is the absolute easiest way to get people to change. That it does not need to be more difficult than to make things a bit more fun to have to change for the better. Which does not matter as long as there is improvement. For yourself, the environment or whatever you want.

An example of what they mean: getting dramatically more people to take the stairs instead of the escalator (which of course, provides more cardiovascular benefit).

It is fun to see the expressions on people’s faces as they puzzle out why the stairs (or the garbage can that makes a whistling cartoon “falling from a great height” sound when you toss trash in it) are there. The stats seem to bear out that there is an effect.

I would posit that the trash can would have diminishing returns compared to the stairs, because the stairs have expressive potential and are more of a toy; the trash can will get old since there is only one input and one output.

Dr. Tracy Alloway of Scotland’s University of Stirling, says her study shows using Facebook stretches our “working memory” our short-term or recent memory, while Twitter, YouTube and text messages tend to weaken it.

Alloway studies working memory and has developed a training program to increase the performance of children – ages 11 to 14 – who are slow learners. She found:

• Keeping up-to-date with Facebook improved the children’s IQ scores
• Playing video games – especially those that require planning and strategy – and Sudoku also were beneficial
• Using Twitter, YouTube and text messaging does not engage enough of the brain to be helpful, and actually reduce attention span.

via HigherEdMorning.com » Blog Archive » Study: How Twitter is hurting students.

which was via @Dusanwriter on… Twitter.

At this point, it is completely unsurprising to see yet another validation of the ways in which games and puzzles can help the brain. It was interesting to see, however, that Twitter and the like may simply be more akin to the random reinforcement dopamine jolts of addiction.