There’s no question that they’ve helped me write. And yet, if I look back over my career as a writer, the value I’ve derived from carefully controlling my environment has paled in comparison to my main source of motivation: scary e-mails from editors. - The New Yorker
Is it a helpful shorthand for describing the remarkable plasticity of our nervous system or has it become a misleading oversimplification that distorts our grasp of science? - Aeon
Institutions foster cooperation by rewarding good behaviour and punishing rule-breakers. Yet they themselves depend on cooperative members to function. We haven’t solved the cooperation problem – we’ve simply moved it back one step. So why do institutions work at all? - Aeon
What happens in a performer’s brain while playing? Traditional brain-imaging tools like functional m.r.i. (f m.r.i.) require subjects to lie motionless in a scanner. Newer wearable technologies, including EEG (electroencephalography) caps fitted with electrodes, make it possible to study musicians in more natural settings. - The New York Times
From the jarring morning alarm to the podcast we listen to on the way to work; from the constant murmur of the office to the background music in the café; from the endless information on our smartphones to the television that’s on just to have “something” playing. - 3 Quarks Daily
There is satisfaction in pressing a button or cranking a dial that no touchscreen will ever replicate. There is also certainty; if I reach for my car’s temperature control, I know it will be there, without taking my eyes off the road to click through six sub-menus. - The Guardian
It’s true that Chinese universities have made remarkable strides, and some of them host superb centers of research and education. However, they aren’t nearly as dominant as those rankings suggest. - The New York Times
In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, we found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. - Harvard Business Review
Through Hart’s teaching business, Plot Prose, she’s working on a proprietary piece of software that can “generate a book based on an outline in less than an hour, and costs between $80 and $250 a month.” - Gizmodo
The immediate risk to employment may not be AI itself, but the way companies, seduced by its promise, overinvest before they understand what it can actually do. - The Atlantic
Art has inherent value, and public and private investment in the arts should not require a strong demand for continuous justification. The social benefits of the arts are self-evident, supported by extensive research and experienced by humanity since the dawn of time. - New England Foundation for the Arts
We already carry muscle memory: voting, organizing for fairness and equity, creating the beauty of art expressed in what we share between us — images, songs, movements, designs, or letters — shapes the will of the people and creates knowledges and visions of a fully manifested democracy. - GIA Arts
The (very) popular social media and community site will now require a facial scan or government ID scan for age verification. After an incident in October where a third-party vendor breach exposed thousands of government IDs, it’s possible that not every user will trust this plan. - The Verge
Yes, Soylent Green is people, and … so is Waymo? “The autonomous vehicle company uses remote workers in the Philippines to assist its self-driving cars, including those operating daily on Bay Area roads.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo)
