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David Brooks: Why AI Won’t Replace Us

 Over the past few months, I’ve become an A.I. limitationist. That is, I believe that while A.I. will be an amazing tool for, say, tutoring children all around the world, or summarizing meetings, it is no match for human intelligence. It doesn’t possess understanding, self-awareness, concepts, emotions, desires, a body or biology. - The New York Times

Science Fiction Is Chockablock Full Of Aliens. But “Alien” Is So Hard To Comprehend, So We Describe Them In Human Terms

“A truly alien alien is so incomprehensible that stories about them just become stories about human beings,” Jaime Green writes in her new book, The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Universe. - The New Republic

Amapiano – Can The South African Dance Music Craze Go Global?

In Zulu, amapiano means “the pianos,” or “piano people,” and the genre’s name refers to its origin as a jazzy variant of house music—at parties around Johannesburg and Pretoria, d.j.s would sometimes invite keyboard players to improvise chords over the beats. - The New Yorker

Why Are Published Editions Of Under-represented Composers So Riddled With Errors?

Some inaccuracies were very obvious, while others needed more detailed detective work, and only became apparent as we got to know the music more intimately. - Classical Music UK

Inside Philadelphia’s Thriving Mural Culture

“There was this idea that, OK, industry and maybe some people left this city, so now it’s our playground." (the city’s population declined from about two million in the 1960s to about 1.5 million in 2021). “If you leave a building abandoned, it’s going to get filled with art.” - The New York Times

AI Is Coming For Us. So What Could Go Wrong?

With all this talk of killer robots, humanity may be overlooking the more immediate dangers posed by AI. - The Atlantic

The Censored Parts Of Elizabeth I’s First Biography Have Been Revealed

"State-of-the-art imaging technology has enabled the British Library to read hidden pages of William Camden's Annals for the first time. … Those pages had been either over-written or concealed beneath pieces of paper stuck down so tightly that attempting to lift them would have ripped the pages and destroyed evidence." - The Guardian

AI Company Says It Created 100 Million New Songs

An artificial intelligence company in Delaware boasted, in a press release, that it had created 100 million new songs. That’s roughly equivalent to the entire catalog of music available on Spotify. - The Honest Broker

Orbán Government Fines Budapest Bookstore $36,000 For Displaying A Gay Young-Adult Graphic Novel

"Hungary’s right-wing government has fined a bookstore nearly €32,000 (12,000,000 forints) for displaying the award-winning young adult graphic novel Heartstopper in the children's section of the store." - Euronews

San Diego Symphony Delays Reopening Of Its Concert Hall

The reasons for the delay are being attributed to unexpected construction and redesign challenges that have emerged as the nearly 100-year-old hall undergoes a $125 million renovation. - San Diego Union-Tribune

Translating A Stately, Centuries-Old Confucian Ritual Dance Into 21st-Century Performance

For their US debut, Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theater and stage director Kuho Jung have adapted the "il mu" dance from the royal Jongmyo Shrine, combining it and other ritual movement with contemporary dance to create the stage work One Dance. - The New York Times

Major Consolidation: Frieze Buys Armory Show And Expo Chicago Fairs

Both the Armory Show, which is led by executive director Nicole Berry, and Expo Chicago, led by founder and president Tony Karman, will operate as separate divisions under Frieze with their existing teams but will share business services. - ARTnews

A Ukrainian Nonprofit Collects The Graffiti Invading Russian Soldiers Have Left Behind

"The cultural nonprofit Mizhvukhamy is documenting these findings in Wall Evidence, an open archive created for future research (on) the Russian invasion." Some samples: "It was an order. Sorri." "I'll burn other people's villages with a smile." "Sorry for the mess, but it’s okay, Americans will help with cleanup." - Hyperallergic

Pianist Andre Watts, 77

Watts made his national concert debut when he was 16 years old with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. Shortly after, he was asked to substitute in place of Glenn Gould with the Philharmonic. That performance is credited with launching Watts’ career. - WFYI

Why Did Dürer Paint Himself Into An Altarpiece? Spite, According To New Research

"The Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer took revenge on his patron" — Jacob Heller, a wealthy Frankfurt merchant — "after a bitter row over pay by placing his own self-portrait in a 1500s altarpiece that he painted for him." - The Guardian

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