But someday, maybe sooner than you think, we will learn how.
Measurement underpins science, but how do you measure the subjective? Can science use advances in technology to uncover the quirks and imponderables of the human mind, and how people interact with the world? The answer is that science is trying to. A new set of EU research projects is looking at the interface between different disciplines and the human experience; somewhere between psychology, engineering and physiology comes Measuring the Impossible.
Interesting, but I dunno. For instance, from the article:
Quote:
'When you see great items, they have that special something, what we would call perceived quality, which over time we may even come to associate across an entire brand. So ‘that something’ can add a huge premium in terms of value, not fractions of a per cent, just look at the success of [Apple] iPods.
And
Quote:
‘When measuring comfort, designers of fast trains found that passengers missed the movement of the train - it was too smooth, and somehow, the perfection spoiled the experience,’ said Dr Saraiva Martins. ‘So why not accentuate the corners, increase the sensation of speed, and so increase the experience?’ he asks. This is what marketers call ‘added value’. Measuring the Impossible aims to break down the empty space between objectivism and empiricism, by bridging it.
But, both cases are a ‘measurement’ of something one was told to look for, the first by advertising hype and the second by (swiping from Proust) ‘remembrance of things past’ for train buffs. It doesn’t measure how well a device reproduces music nor how efficiently a train gets from point A to point B.
I suspect that they’ll find out something about psychology, but not much more. And, alas, much of what they find out will be of most use to the hype masters who are already driving the surf biz all too well.
How many have bought a board X feet Y inches long with Z fins, because ‘you’ll surf better on it’ according to an ad or a salesdroid in the local shop or it’s what the local hotshot rides? Versus, say, taking a bunch of boards out to try, one against the other, which would maybe give a better idea. Let alone using a radar gun or something to see how fast it goes or something else that ( heaven forbid) spits out numbers.
I dunno - I have a feeling that this is more a marketing thing than something that’ll produce improvements in surfcraft performance, but I’ll confess to my own a prori biases. Be interested to see what they come up with…
Geez and I thought NEST teams were only called out in case of a nuclear attack?
measuring feelings should be fairly easy.
heart rate
brain alpha wave activity
PH level
iris reaction
skin color/body temp
same thing they do when “re-educating” or are 'interviewing" a combatant principle in cuba or the unacknowledged dark places in europe, jordan, egypt or syria… You have to know when to stop
I think perhaps measuring the contents and depths of one’s soul maybe the ultimate challenge.
So the question I guess really is…
if a thing as simple and silly as a surfboard were to have no intrinsic value (which is probably true anyway) then what is its true value anyway?
And the only reasonable answer can only be along with everything else in life…
“it just depends!”
pretty much the single answer to 70% of the questions around here lately…
but you knew that answer all along in your heart anyway right my friend?
