Category: Whatever
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The Island of Knowledge: How to Live with Mystery in a Culture Obsessed with Certainty and Definitive Answers
…a celebration of human achievement and a gentle reminder that the appropriate reaction to scientific and technological progress is not arrogance over the knowledge conquered, which seems to be our civilizational modus operandi, but humility in the face of what remains to be known and, perhaps above all, what may…
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The dawn of artificial intelligence
“THE development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Stephen Hawking warns. Elon Musk fears that the development of artificial intelligence, or AI, may be the biggest existential threat humanity faces. Bill Gates urges people to beware of it. Dread that the abominations people create…
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UH Researchers Create Lens to Turn Smartphone into Microscope – University of Houston
Researchers at the University of Houston have created an optical lens that can be placed on an inexpensive smartphone to amplify images by a magnitude of 120, all for just 3 cents a lens. Source: www.uh.edu
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Magic Mushrooms Create a Hyperconnected Brain
The research, which was published today (Oct. 28) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, is part of a larger effort to understand how psychedelic drugs work, in the hopes that they could one day be used by psychiatrists — in carefully controlled settings — to treat conditions such…
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At the Blackboard
I want to share with you something I’ve learned. I’ll draw it on the blackboard behind me so you can follow more easily [draws a vertical line on the blackboard]. This is the G–I axis: good fortune–il Source: laphamsquarterly.org Kurt Vonnegut talks about story telling. Quite brilliant, really.
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Shamans and scientists
In 1999, three molecular biologists travelled to the Peruvian Amazon to see whether they could obtain bio-molecular information in the visions they had in sessions orchestrated by an indigenous shaman. They had no previous experience of ayahuasca shamanism or of the Amazon, though they did have an interest in alternative…
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Why Tesla’s announcement is such a big deal: The coming revolution in energy storage
The major upshot of more and cheaper batteries could be a much greener planet. Source: www.washingtonpost.com
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The Untold Story of Silk Road | WIRED
“…Ross had a flash of insight. “The idea,” he wrote in his journal, “was a website where people could buy anything anonymously, with no trail whatsoever that could lead back to them.” He wrote that he’d “been studying the technology for a while but needed a business model and strategy.”…
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Why Does a Cup of Single-Origin Coffee Cost $3.50?
In an ideal world, you’d be able to trust exactly where your beans come from when the package says “Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia,” and what it took for the farmers to produce them. While new certifications and standards are improving things, the coffee supply chain remains murky. In the best cases, farmers can see…
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David Simon and the Two Americas
“America is a country that is now utterly divided when it comes to its society, its economy, its politics. There are definitely two Americas. I live in one, on one block in Baltimore that is part of the viable America, the America that is connected to its own economy, where…
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Sentimentality or Dangerous Love?
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. Love of a lover is not a mere affection, sentiment, or passion. Affections come, sentiments disappear, passions wane. Yet love, insofar as it is love, not only resides but also grows. Emotions perish, love endures. Furthermore, love of a lover is a religious concept. I devote myself to my lover, with this…
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Achieving Escape Velocity: Breaking Free from the Impact Failure of Applied Philosophy
As in the sciences, the humanities also feel the pressure to demonstrate societal relevance. Applied philosophy is a natural place to look. But how has it fared in terms of having an impact?” Source: blogs.lse.ac.uk
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The Myth of Working Your Way Through College
A lot of Internet ink has been spilled over how lazy and entitled Millennials are, but when it comes to paying for a college education, work ethic isn’t the limiting factor. The economic cards are stacked such that today’s average college student, without support from financial aid and family resources,…
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What Will Education Look Like in a More Open Future?
Technology and rapidly evolving student needs are influencing how schools can think about trust, autonomy and collaboration. Source: ww2.kqed.org
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3quarksdaily: The Spectre of History: Thoughts on an Islamic Reformation
The powerless, freed from the responsibility of consequences, can wallow in their misery, create imaginary histories, and nurture delusions of promised grandeur. In imposing their new order, the European powers took away both the capacity of governance from Muslim rulers and the possibility of challenges to this governance from reformers,…
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