This is the AI era in a nutshell. Squint one way, and you can portray it as the saving grace of the world economy. Look at it more closely, and it’s a ticking time bomb lodged in the global financial system. The conversation is always polarized. Keep the faith. - The Atlantic
Major changes of all kinds are undoubtedly coming in our future, but they won’t arrive with a firework display or a Hans Zimmer score. They’re much more likely to creep in over time and pile up against all the stuff that currently fills our lives. - The New York Times
“Slocum first threw this party on April Fools’ Day in 1978; just 10 people gathered in the living room of his Beverly Hills home.” Now, with more than 500 people, “The destination moves on a three-year cycle among the United States, Europe and Asia.” - The New York Times
And on confronting the ways that media that appeal to anyone over 35 (OK, sure, that’s “older”) don’t deal in any serious way with something that occupies many, many people’s time. - The Verge (Internet Archive)
The fact that social reading goes beyond the individual requires an astute consideration of digital community, because “interactions and bonds between individuals meeting via digital media can occur in different ways.” - PublicBooks
You might think of Google as a search company, but 80 percent of its quarter-trillion-dollar annual revenue comes from ads—both hosting them and placing them throughout the internet. And a big part of what makes Google the most profitable advertising company in the world is that it knows a lot about you. - LitHub
Early modern skeptics understood something we’re still grappling with today: Certain people are more vulnerable to believing extraordinary claims. They identified “melancholics,” people predisposed to anxiety and fantastical thinking, as particularly susceptible. - The Conversation
“The most striking result is the disparity between how important creativity is for science versus how much opportunity and value is given to it within the research environment.” - Nature
"We believe creative professionals can harness new technologies while still upholding their foundational creative and ethical principles." - The Conversation
MAID now accounts for about one in 20 deaths in Canada—more than Alzheimer’s and diabetes combined—surpassing countries where assisted dying has been legal for far longer. - The Atlantic
But how would Austen handle one of today’s extremely normal plot lines: “If marriage is the ultimate accomplishment, or if your accomplishments all amount to marriageability, what does that mean for you if your marriage ends?” - LitHub
From Mexico’s 1976 Canoa to France’s Age of Panic from 2013, critics choose the films that show their countries, at their best, worst, and most complicated. - The Guardian (UK)
If you have a world in which everyone is encouraged to be a total individualist, they tend to get trapped in that mindset. It’s wonderful when things are going well, because you, your own desires and thoughts are the centre of the world. But the moment things go wrong, you retreat into yourself. - The Guardian
Machines no longer assist our lives from the outside; they increasingly define the conditions under which we think, work, and relate. And here Skidelsky joins a growing chorus of artists, poets, and writers in asking the big questions we once debated and wrote about—questions of meaning, purpose, and the conditions of human freedom. - LA Review of Books
