[Mittens_Da_Punk]

Stay with me here.
Would it not be amazing if you could watch a video that is a series of images played really fast and afterwards gain basic computing skills.

You could never master something such as programming this way, but it would really help brand new people get into it. Just watch a couple videos and you have some basic knowledge of programming languages and most commands. That would make mastering the skill so much easier, not having to worry about memorizing all the commands and just focus on implementing them.

[ryokimball]

Or we could culture brains already embedded with this knowledge, and the ability to psychic powers to read exactly what we want and do it, no questions asked!
Or we could plug wires into the base of our skulls and just download the stuff we want to know, or even download a whole virtual world to live in so we don't have to put up with this reality!

Not trying to pick on you TOO much, just saying that subliminal messages are quite what they are chalked up to be. We can affect the brain in many aberrant ways, such as Sony's patented but not developed sound-wave method (look it up --I don't have the time to link right now, sorry), but artificial learning such as this isn't quite... applicable.
If I'm unclear, I'll try to repost tomorrow.

[Mittens_Da_Punk]

Well my idea is plausible. Someone did a study where they gave people a pre-test thing on Martin Luther King Jr and like abstract random facts about him. Then they had half of them watch a video with 1/32 second blips in it with the answers to the test while the other half watched a regular video. The ones that saw the subliminal messages video had like a 32% increase in test score averages.

Don't quote me on this I don't remember the details entirely.

Plus, this is all just speculation.

The way I propose it, your not learning to program through subliminal messages, rather, you are having the commands and script embeded in your memory.

So your not learning how to talk, you are merley learning the words. Saying it would make learning to program easier, not remove learning all together.

BTW: Have you read Neuromancer? Great book and they had something like plugging chips into your skull. Kinda cool.

[kakariko81280]

Neuromancer was great, however I was always worried about the downside of such technologies.

Specifically, if I can program a chip so you know e=mc^2, then I can presumably program a chip so you know I'm a stand up guy and I can totally be trusted with your wallet.

The same problems apply to subliminal messages and whatnot.

Still, lawnmower man type 'uploads' would be fantastic.

Chris...

[elija]

Do you know kung fu?

I do now

[ryokimball]

Originally Posted by elija

Do you know kung fu?

I do now

Exactly. ^,^

Okay, how about this: find a history book, and open it up to a chapter you have no clue about (Titivillus is a cool daemon to read about...) and read the first half of every three lines of every other paragraph (or something random and spaced like that). You won't necessarily understand the big picture, but your will have enough of a general idea to start creating outlines of its own to "complete" the picture (Here's a visual version of this happening). "Subliminal" learning is hardly different from this. Many aspects of subconscious processing also come in to play, for instance if you were teaching someone how to shut down the computer subliminally, you could have the text "shutdown now" in white on a black background appear directly before or after or simultaneously with the image of, say, a computer with a light switch attached on the "off" position. The brain more or less figures that doing this (typing 'shutdown now') causes this to happen (the computer shutting down).
362,880.
But this isn't really learning, but rather just influencing. You have to either already know or be able to recognize and associate the articles from the subliminal episode (such as the text and image in this case). The mind, like the image of the star linked to above, associates the two articles together, so that when one happens you think of the other. Like how when I think of Starbucks or want fudge I always think of my good friend Tara, or how the smell of smoke most likely makes a person think there's a fire nearby.

As for the test, here's a fun one to try (no calculators allowed):

What's 1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8*9?

(a) December 11th, 1945
(b) 31,415,927
(c) 362,880
(d) e^(i*Π)

----------
Trivia: I don't have to calculate this answer because when I was in second grade-ish (don't recall for sure) I asked my father, and he made me calculate it in my head on the way to the grocery store. I figured it out right before we got the the magazines and comic book area, which was good because I really wanted to read the new Sonic comic. ^,^

[elija]

That's similar to how speed reading works. You don't get a detailed
knowledge, but the general idea goes in. Some of the real speed
reading freaks are scary. They are really really quick with 10-15%
selective comprehension.

At the speed they are going, it must almost be subliminal.

[Mittens_Da_Punk]

Almost but not quite. It's all about letting your eyes quickly pick out facts or details in the text then if you see something quickly read it.
So with Harry Potter, first book. You go through the first chapter in a minute or two and get the basic story.

[elija]

@ryokimball. This is interesting too

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Havrard uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe. Initsereg!!

Although it used to blather on about Cambridge university. Apparently, once you get that,
you have the key to speed reading. Then you learn to filter the little words and then to
read only the beginning of the words.

I still think that at the speed they are going, it has to be subliminal

[ryokimball]

lol yeah, I liked that one. I think I'll restrain from commenting on the speed reading stuff, though (some methods are total b.s. and others the verdict is still out on...).