From copying my music teacher to copying the great composers to mashing-up great recorded content to learning to ask AI to create – it’s all the same process. We are copying what already exists and trying our best to do it so others will consider it art – not craft. - Shelly Palmer
This question—why parents and taxpayers should support public schools that teach content that conflicts with their most cherished beliefs—has reverberated across the decades, sometimes registering only as a faint echo and sometimes, such as today, resounding at top volume. - The Point
That there is more than one way to interpret numbers might seem obvious, but is worth repeating at a time when, once again, historians claiming that they will emulate the supposedly ‘hard’ sciences are in a position to get huge grants and hire armies of assistants. - Aeon
Research shows that humans are born with an inherent sense of numbers, known as numerosity.5 The concept of numerosity is one of the only high-level cognitive functions that is mapped to a specific region of the brain. In other words, we are primed to do basic math, but culture gets in the way. - Nautilus
The universe is stranger than we can imagine, Albert Einstein is said to have said. Indeed, we should not even be sure there is a universe: we can see stars and nebulae and planets and whatever, but no one has ever seen a universe. - 3 Quarks Daily
We already have abundant material rebutting creationism on scientific grounds, but the Trollingers explicitly refrain from discussing the science. What they do instead is much more interesting. In an extended and detailed analysis, they apply the Museum’s own criteria to the Museum’s own display. It does not fare well. - 3 Quarks Daily
The ultimate goal, in Dr. Ferrucci’s view, is that A.I. becomes a trusted “thought partner,” a skilled collaborator at work and at home, making suggestions and explaining them. - The New York Times
The three-body problem is the best metaphor I’ve found for a social complexity that affects us all today—a problem resulting from the interaction of three major centers of gravity. This dynamic is scrambling our intuitions and making us long for order in what feels like an increasingly chaotic world. - Wired
We see others as crippled by ignorance and cowed by superstition; we don't see the extent to which we are, in our own ways, oppressed by our rationalism and lack of "superstition" (in a spiritual sense). - Salon
Given that the world we live in forces us to deal with pandemics, economic problems, wars and climate change it can seem overwhelming that we are supposed to be happy. It’s unrealistic to think we should always look at the bright side of events. - The Conversation
In theory, counting the population seems so basic, so neutral: a math problem, albeit “a serious slog” of one. But the numerical is political, with representation and resources at stake. - The New York Times
Does its very immensity undermine its utility as a source of information? How often is it burying valuable data under lots of junk? Say you search for some famous or semifamous person. Are you getting an accurate picture of that person’s life or a false, manipulated one? - The New York Times
"Our new century ... is dominated by Silicon Valley’s technological influence. This city has produced world-changing products and services (instantaneous search results, next-day delivery of millions of products, constant connectivity to thousands of 'friends') that create and shape new desires." - Wired
If research is publicly funded, the results need to be available for free as soon as it's published (by 2025), says a new White House rule - and it must be machine-readable, and that must be consistent across all federal agencies. Some academic journals are unhappy. - The Verge
From now on, what we think as a planet is what our children get as a planet. However crucial policy and diplomacy may be, global agency ultimately requires that billions of micro-choices made every day by billions of human beings be (at least slightly) biased in favor of altruistic action. - Nautilus
