In 2021, psychologists found that forming parasocial bonds was strongly related to avoidant attachment. That is, people who tended to push others away in their day-to-day lives were more likely than others to relate to fictional characters, and especially to characters who are also emotionally avoidant. - The Atlantic
It’s suddenly plausible to imagine that freethinking, that tradition of poking and prodding at all fixed ideas and institutions, will drift into obsolescence, because an oracular machine will instantly spit back answers to life’s questions with an aura of scientific authority. - The Atlantic
AI poses a threat to work opportunities across the board by giving producers the tools to recreate their favourite voices on demand, without the performer’s knowledge or consent and without additional compensation. - The Walrus
Though there are many theories about the place of imagination in cognitive architecture, two are worth mentioning here, not least because all others can be traced to them. - Psyche
Arguments for anger tend to frame themselves in terms of empowerment: in the face of oppression, we should not feel grief, sadness, or fear—we should feel anger. Anger motivates action. Anger is empowering. That seems clearly true. - LA Review of Books
It makes sense that we'd want these things. "In addition to providing the cozy fire of a feel-good story to warm your soul, these viral internet fictions can lull you into believing there's some justice in the world." And yet, no. - Wired
The show had to learn "how different characters would have referred to the LAPD and FBI during in Depression-era L.A.; what words English- and Spanish-speakers would have used to protest and show dissent; what jump-rope songs would have been sung." - Los Angeles Times
"I required a reminder that there were quick and even wise people in the world with ideas, quips, even lectures that would force me to learn something. ... The connection I sought would need to be bracing, nonintimate, and entirely unmaternal." - The Atlantic
Where Quantitative Aesthetics is really newly intense across society—in art and everywhere—is in how social-media numbers (clicks, likes, shares, retweets, etc.) seep into everything as a shorthand for understanding status. - Artnet
These accusations of harmful magic were often combined with the suspicion that fortunetellers were frauds taking advantage of popular credulity. In the 17th and 18th centuries, many European countries abandoned attempts to prosecute witches. - The Conversation
There is a part of me that, despite myself, wants to entertain the possibility that the world really does have supernatural dimensions. I don’t believe the Universe contains supernatural forces, but I feel it might. - Aeon
Theory of mind helps us communicate with and understand one another; it allows us to enjoy literature and movies, play games and make sense of our social surroundings. In many ways, the capacity is an essential part of being human. What if a machine could read minds, too? - The New York Times
In 21st-century culture, knowingness is rampant. You see it in the conspiracy theorist who dismisses contrary evidence as a ‘false flag’ and in the podcaster for whom ‘late capitalism’ explains all social woes. It’s the ideologue who knows the media has a liberal bias – or, alternatively, a corporate one. - Psyche
The traditional construct of the intellectual has produced and reinforced bigoted ideas of group hierarchy—the most anti-intellectual constructs existing. But this framing is crumbling, leading to the crisis of the intellectual. - The Atlantic
