IDEAS

Middle Schoolers, Blocked From Most Social Media, Turn Comments On An NPR Podcast Into A Hangout Spot

“When Glass asked one of the kids why they picked this particular podcast, they said, ‘We just, like, looked for podcasts that didn’t have many comments.’” Ouch. But also, creative as heck. - The Verge

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger On Creativity

A culture of creativity is also a culture accepting of failure. Creativity is not a science. You can’t possibly bat 1,000. There are inevitable failures, and it’s really important to know as a culture how to process failure so that when you do, it doesn’t destroy people’s ability to continue to create. - Harvard Business Review

Why America Looks The Way It Does

It would be hard to overstate how ignorant the Founders of the United States were about their own country. The main map they’d used to negotiate the postwar peace with Britain was woefully inaccurate. - The New Yorker

AI And The Flattening Of Creative Aesthetic

Like the coffee shops of 2016, widespread AI adoption is generating a massive amount of content and products that share an eerie sameness. - Noema

Habermas’ Ideas On Public Debate

He explained the three types of discourse that characterise deliberation – moral, ethical, and pragmatic – and was clear that when it comes to the moral, there are no experts: only individuals working out, together, what’s right in a given context. - Aeon

Is AI Above The Law? Outside? Under?

At least for now, then, robots legally are things, not persons. But neither category quite fits. Instead, robots are outlaws: they lie outside the protection of the law, and their actions are not answerable to it. - The New Yorker

Are Debates Over Student AI Use Arguing Over The Wrong Things?

The battle for the role of AI in higher education this fall is being fought over when and where AI and other digital technologies should be used. This combat ignores the larger crisis: how can colleges verify that they are preparing students to become productive members of society in a digital age? - Post Alley

Looking Back On What The Literary Theory Generation Wrought

A half-century after poststructuralism broke out of Parisian lecture halls and stumbled into unexpected acclaim and vitriol in the English-speaking world, we now have enough distance from the culture wars of the 1980s and ’90s to look back on theory with clearer vision. Or so it would seem. - Hedgehog Review

The Real Qualities Of A Skeptic

‘Sceptic’ comes from the Greek skeptikos, meaning enquirer, and has a long and serious pedigree in philosophy. Yet, since the 1990s, the term has been hijacked by science-denial movements, giving us oxymorons like ‘climate sceptic’, ‘vaccine sceptic’, and ‘evolution sceptic’. - Aeon

New UK Company Will Recreate Famous Concerts With Hyper-Realistic Digital Avatars In Any Space

The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by manifesting musicians as digital avatars. - The Guardian

Turns Out The Lucas Museum Provides A Great Backdrop For Jedi-Themed Protests

At the event, about workers’ rights and the upcoming Olympics in L.A., “protesters from the Fair Games Coalition — wearing Jedi robes and Jar Jar Binks masks and carrying lightsabers — rallied together outside the new museum.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Why Do So Many Of Us Love A Good Small Murder Town?

Sure, they started with Miss Marple and the written word, but “the Small Murder Town really came into its own with the advent of film—and not just any film. Small Murder Towns thrive on the small screen; this is a trope that was made for television.” - Reactor

Are Efforts To Silence Filmmakers And Musicians Only, Actually, Marketing Their Work?

For instance: “Macklemore, who hasn’t had a major hit since the 2010s, is relevant again. He has the support of artists, fans and thousands more outraged by his dismissal.” Then there’s NAZA. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

As Studies Suggest Cognitive Decline With AI Use, Universities Are In A Bind

As A.I. leaders warn about the dangers of their own technology, the dissonance between optimism of university leaders and the fears of many students and professors may increase. Professors and students are often in a bind about what they should do: Use more A.I. to stay relevant, or dial back to preserve learning and thinking? - The New York...

Rebellion Against Flock Camera Surveillance Has Become a Rallying Cry

In at least 36 states, opponents of the technology have taken matters into their own hands, destroying or impairing ALPRs rather than wait for local governments to step in. - The Conversation

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