It’s easy to see why librarians of the 1970s set out to revolutionise search. Work across the academy was expanding to such a degree that, soon, there would not be enough human librarians to support all of it. - Aeon
The technocultural norms and habits that have seized us during the triple revolution of the internet, smartphones, and the social web are themselves in need of a thorough correction. Too many people have allowed these technologies to simply wash over them. - The Atlantic
In the past 50 years, despite overall economic growth, the quality of life for most Americans has declined. The wealthy have become wealthier, while the incomes and wages of the median American family have stagnated. As a result, our social pyramid has become top-heavy. - The Atlantic
At issue: "We still take our emotional responses to AI too seriously. In particular, I worry that we interpret our emotional responses to be valuable data that will help us determine whether AI is conscious or safe." - Wired
It was invented by NYT publisher Adolph Ochs in the late 1890s, and now it's certainly under assault. "But giving up on such an important guiding principle after experiencing the cheapened version of it is like renouncing all forms of air travel after flying easyJet." - The Atlantic
Yes, even ones that have nothing to do with Marvel or DC, like Barbie. And yet: The newest animated Spider-Man has figured out a way around the high walls of the IP garden. "There’s no house style to match, because there’s no house." - Slate
"Computers that we can all 'program,' computers that don’t require specialized training to adjust and improve their functionality and that don’t speak in code: That future is rapidly becoming the present." - The New York Times
Most of us want to live as long as possible but would like to avoid the deterioration of aging. So it’s only natural that antiaging remedies abound. Sadly, most of them are just false hope, hype, and snake oil. - Skeptical Inquirer
At least five GitaGPTs have sprung up between January and March this year, with more on the way. Experts have warned that chatbots being allowed to play god might have unintended, and dangerous, consequences. - Rest of World
It’s ridiculous that we’ve built a system that overvalues the sort of technocratic skills these universities cultivate and undervalues the social and moral skills that any healthy society should value more. - The New York Times
The great breakthrough in human enlightenment was to develop techniques – empirical science – to allow us to grasp the real complexity of the world and to understand it in terms of the interaction of mindless (or at least unintentional) processes rather than humanly meaningful stories of, say, good vs evil. - 3 Quarks Daily
Contemporary debates about who ‘owns’ the classical past obscure the intellectual role it played in the emergence of modern democracy, and the reasons we are surrounded by its iconography in the first place. - Aeon
Typical curriculums fail to imbue children with love and appreciation of maths. This is not teachers’ fault – the education system judges students on performance, not enjoyment. However, if we focus on content at the expense of feelings then that content is unlikely to stick. Worse, we end up producing maths-phobic or maths-sceptical people. - The Guardian
"Winning a prize is an undeniably thrilling, magical thing. It is, in essence, the world’s way of telling you that you’ve done something noteworthy and valuable. It’s your moment to shine. But on the whole, do prizes do any good." - The New York Times
"My first conversation with captioned glasses did feel like something out of the movies. I kept shaking my head in wonder at the captions floating in the air before me. 'This is so cool,' I kept saying." - The Atlantic
