links for 2009-07-06

• More evidence that the Prius’ display changes driving behavior « Nudge blog
  (tags: driving psychology displays behavioral_economics energy consumption)
• The author of the MPG illusion on why we misunderstand the meaning of miles per gallon (and why we shouldn’t completely hate the hybrid Cadillac Escalade) « Nudge blog
  "Certainly a car that gets 50 mpg looks great compared to one that gets 33 mpg. But many other trade-ins for small improvements didn’t seem worthwhile. Why bother trading in a 16 mpg car for a 20 mpg one? Why bother putting hybrids on huge SUVs (like the Chevy Tahoe or the Cadillac Escalade), increasing their mpg from 12 to 14? What’s the environmental payoff? Surprisingly, however, for the same distance driven, each of the improvements listed above is equally beneficial in reducing gas use. They all save about 1 gallon over 100 miles and 100 gallons over 10,000 miles... Without question, 50 mpg is the most efficient level and ideally everyone would strive for it. But, if we are simply considering changes to existing vehicles, 16 to 20 mpg can help save as much gas as 33 to 50 mpg.... [MPG] obscures the value of improvements as fuel efficiency improves, leading people to undervalue small mpg improvements on inefficient cars, and overvalue large jumps between efficient cars.
  (tags: psychology economics environment blog nudge behavioral_economics behavior driving)
• LRB · letters page from Vol. 31 No. 6
  Andy Clar's response to "Jerry Fodor’s amusing, insightful, but fatally flawed review of my book, Supersizing the Mind."
  (tags: philosophy mind cognition books cyborg)
• LRB · Jerry Fodor: Where is my mind?
  Long review of Andy Clark's latest book. Features a critique of the Extended Mind Thesis (EMT).
  (tags: cyborg philosophy books mind)
• The End of the Virtual: Digital Methods
  "I would like to put forward a new era in Internet research, which no longer concerns itself with the divide between the real and the virtual. It concerns a shift in the kinds of questions put to the study of the Internet. The Internet is employed as a site of research for far more than just online culture. The issue no longer is how much of society and culture is online, but rather how to diagnose cultural change and societal conditions with the Internet."
  (tags: endofcyberspace scholarship research academia)
• The end of Cyberspace? | emergencemarketing.com (2006)
  "Cyberspace and virtual worlds used to be very distinct from the physical world. You had to make an effort to access cyberspace, the rules were different, and the the economies were different. Now however, you can access cyberspace from public parks, in airports, in your car while driving, or in the air while flying to your destination. And you don’t need a dedicated computer to access cyberspace anymore, your DVR is connected, your cell phone, your watch, soon your fridge, your camera, even your clothes if you want to."
  (tags: endofcyberspace marketing)