Today’s highlights include: Are we really getting dumber, or just differently wired? One writer argues yes, and we all know it in a brisk tour of the reversed Flynn effect in “A Theory of Dumb” (MSN). In another essay, “We Live in an Age of Self-Optimization” traces our metrics-obsessed selves back to Victorian diaries (Aeon).
AI is now a permanent scene partner: “How Software Has Changed Choreography” looks at “computational choreography.” (Dance Magazine) And Ballet confronts the mind–body gap in “New Emphasis on Dancers’ Mental Health.” (NYT)
The Louvre has shut a gallery amid fears its floor might give way in “Louvre Closes a Gallery Because Its Floor Might Cave In (AP). Finally, Bill Ivey, the folklorist who calmed the NEA’s culture-war storms as chair of the NEA at the turn of the Century, is remembered in “Bill Ivey… Has Died at 81” (NYT)
These stories and more below.
