Few believe that LLMs are truly sentient, but some argue that they show signs of genuine intelligence and of having a conceptual understanding of the world. These claims, whether right or not, are forcing us to revise ideas about what intelligence and understanding actually are. - Prospect
It’s not just that some of us believe we might have to rethink the standard model of cosmology; we might also have to change the way we think about some of the most basic features of our universe — a conceptual revolution that would have implications far beyond the world of science. - The New York Times
At first, our hominid ancestors probably did not count very high. Many body parts present themselves in pairs—arms, hands, eyes, ears, and so on—thereby leading to an innate familiarity with the concept of a pair and, by extension, the numbers 1 and 2. - Lapham's Quarterly
A new theory proposes the brain sorts memories by how likely they are to be useful as guides in the future. Memories of predictable things are saved in the brain’s neocortex, where they can contribute to generalizations about the world. Memories less likely to be useful are kept in the hippocampus. - Quanta
All of us experience aesthetic properties when we’re not in a condition to fully appreciate them because we are tired or distracted. Yet the virtues of a work may still be apparent to us. If the apprehension of aesthetic properties is tied to feeling states, how are dispassionate observers able to identify them? - 3 Quarks Daily
A survey of the past shows that genius is not randomly scattered about, like the seeds of a dandelion, but concentrates: ancient Athens, Renaissance Florence, Silicon Valley, among other examples. Why these fertile eras and places appear, peak, and then decline is understudied as a historical phenomenon. - City Journal
ChatGPT is the oversized A.I. elephant sitting front and center in every classroom. Instructors can try to ignore or prohibit it, but doing so doesn’t change the reality of the situation: Students are curious about it, talking about it, worried about it, and using it. - Slate
I was spending seven hours a day looking at my phone. I spent the following weeks actively trying to bring the number down. I deleted social media apps off my phone, but I just ended up looking at my account using my phone’s browser instead. - Wired
Given the vast difference in agency prevailing between artists and patrons, is an intellectual, artistic, ethical discussion on equal terms even possible? - 3 Quarks Daily
Here lies the difference between viewing criticism as a passive medium of arbitration versus an act of creation—one that requires the critic to take a stand, to use her influences as materials, rather than be used by them. - The Point
What if we could learn to habitually reframe failure as a source of discovery and personal development? What if we could face problems and setbacks with honesty, determination and a healthy sense of realism? What if failure, as a token of our shared humanity, provided us with feelings of inclusion, not ostracism? - The Guardian
"The increased attenuation of human creativity from the actual generation of the final work will prompt challenging questions regarding how much human input is necessary to qualify the user of an AI system as an ‘author’ of a generated work.” - The Guardian
Celine Song, writer and director of Past Lives, was trying to leave theatre for film, sick of theatre's politics. Then came a fateful moment in a New York cocktail bar. - The Guardian (UK)
"It may seem funny to praise a great fantasy and science-fiction novelist—the first speculative writer published by Library of America!—for facing reality. However, Le Guin is a trustworthy demystifier because she’s a wonderful fabulist, not despite it." - LitHub
