IDEAS

AI Will Upend Culture. How Should AI Companies Be Regulated?

What should the government do? We asked a panel of experts to assess the risks A.I. presents and the tools of governance that could be adopted to address them. - The New York Times

Study Upends Understanding Of How Language Works

A groundbreaking study challenges 70 years of assumptions about how human language works. By analyzing billions of word uses, scientists discovered that meaning is organized around power, danger, and order rather than emotion alone. - ScienceDaily

We’re Enhancing Real Life as a Cinematic Experience

The result is that cinematic, as a descriptor, now connotes not a break from regular life but an enhancement of it. - The Atlantic

Billionaire Tech Nerds And Their Investment In Ending Democracy

As Trump’s behaviour became increasingly authoritarian—openly defying laws, targeting his enemies with prosecutions, dispatching troops into Democratic cities, and turning US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into a shock force to terrorize immigrant communities—many in Silicon Valley cashed in on the action. - The Walrus

Does The California Gold Rush Teach Us Anything About The Rush To AI?

In 1849 alone, more than forty thousand people travelled overland to California, while roughly the same number headed there by sea. - The New Yorker

Why Some Youth – The Ones Who Joust On Bikes, For Instance – Are Going Medieval

One "emerging medieval strand 'wenchcore,' which offers 'a more acceptable voracious sexuality, the ribald, singing, dancing, drinking, doesn’t-need-to-be-perfect idea of womanhood and of masculinity … more of just whatever goes.'" - The Guardian (UK)

The Art Of Attention

“You can’t talk about aesthetics,” he wrote, “without talking about the principle of hope and the existence of evil.” Attention, for him, was a matter of life and death, or at least of their cultural equivalents, remembering and forgetting. - The New York Times

Why Friction Is Necessary For Making Progress

The reality is that friction, despite seeming so antagonistic, is necessary and even productive. The force that resists motion has, since humans first struck a spark from a stone, been the very thing that propels us forward. - Aeon

The Creative Mindset

Actively shaping this perception, rather than only letting it shape you, is a big part of what makes you creative. You need to actively create an attitude that enables you to do work amidst your circumstances, or even transcending it.  - 3 Quarks Daily

Research: Why AI Won’t Replace Humans At Creativity

While AI can bypass years of artistic training, it cannot replace the transformative experiences that give creativity its deeper meaning. The research suggests that the future of art may lie less in producing impressive works and more in using technology to inspire exploration, meaningful experiences and new ways of seeing the world. - TechExplore

Arundhati Roy On The AI End Game

Remember how, in Thailand and Indonesia, the ocean drew back from the coastline? People ran out to marvel at the miles of pristine new beach that suddenly emerged, not realising that, far out at sea, a wall of water was building up and would come crashing over them. - Equator

How Intuition Works

The key is to see that intuition works in much the same way as perception, in that both can directly present something to us as actual. Once we understand what gives perception this feature, we can see why intuitions might involve exercising the same basic kind of cognitive capacity. - Aeon

Brewster Kahle: Why The Internet Needs A Memory

Many people assume that once something is published online, it will remain forever retrievable. The saying that “the internet never forgets” has produced a dangerously false sense of permanence. In reality, the internet forgets continuously. Websites are constantly revised, deleted, and abandoned altogether. - The Atlantic

The Harms Of Zombie Copyright

Fifty years ago today, copyright law in America changed fundamentally. That change was an accidental disaster for both creators and the culture they create. - Lawrence Lessig

Does AI Collapse The Need To Get Bigger?

AI is making enterprise-grade capabilities available to companies that are a fraction of the size and without all of the bureaucratic weight that historically came along with it. If Goldberg is right, the rules of competition are changing for good, and companies no longer need to be big to compete. - Wired

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