In On Liberty (1859), John Stuart Mill offers the most compelling defence of freedom of speech, conscience and autonomy ever written. Mill argues that the only reason to restrict speech is to prevent harm to others, such as with hate speech and incitement to violence. Otherwise, all speech must be protected. Even if we know a view is false, Mill says, it is wrong to suppress it. We avoid prejudice and dogmatism, and achieve understanding, through freely discussing and defending what we believe against contrary claims. – Aeon
Category: ideas
A Home Improvement TV Show Helped ‘Restore’ Waco, But Does Waco Want To Be Instagram Central?
For those over a certain age – people who can remember the first years of the Clinton administration – “Waco” used to mean one thing: Branch Davidians. Now it’s all about the empire of the couple behind the Home Improvement show Fixer Upper. “It’s difficult to shake the feeling, walking from shop to shop, of being haunted by the physical manifestation of a targeted Instagram ad. But there’s something about Chip and Joanna Gaines — and, by extension, the changes they’ve helped catalyze in Waco — that tends to disarm cynicism.” – BuzzFeed
As Social Media Ages, Some Who Documented Their Own Lives Turn Away, For Their Kids
Don’t do it for the children! In other words, some parents, even in tech-obsessed San Francisco, refuse to put their kids online. “They cite reasons ranging from preserving children’s safety to giving their children agency over their own online presences.” – San Francisco Chronicle
The Joys And Learning Of Cultural Appropriation
Yes, some of it is bad, or uncomfortable, or a real mess of power dynamics. But “the impulse to play dress-up in other people’s cultures goes beyond teenagers wearing qipaos to prom, or Coachella girls in feathered headdresses. It’s an impulse that is nearly universal.” – The New York Times
It’s Past Time To Let Go Of Robinson Crusoe
The colonial fairytale doesn’t hold up at all in our contemporary world. Crusoe, to put it bluntly, was a slave trader – but somehow it became a children’s story: “Educationists agreed that the island narrative of Crusoe was an ideal text for teaching the virtues of self-reliance, careful management of resources and trust in the overall – if a little mysterious, but that’s a part of the appeal – wonderfulness of the Christian God. That the novel could be harnessed to the business of empire was a further recommendation.” – The Guardian (UK)
Nobel’s Science Prizes Don’t Reflect The Ways Research Is Done Today
“The Nobel committee seems not to recognise how collaborative science is today; their paradigm remains the lone genius, or a duet or troika at most. Year after year, they perform their arbitrary and often cruel calculus, leaving deserving physicists shivering in the pool without any medal to show for it.” – Aeon
Warning: AI Research Is Being Compromised
The lack of diversity within artificial intelligence is pushing the field to a dangerous “tipping point,” according to new research from the AI Now Institute. – Engadget
If AI Composes Music, Does That Make It An Artist?
Music is based on influences of music that has come before. So music created by artificial intelligence is composed based on the data and algorithms provided to it. So if AI-made music sounds like say, Beyonce, does that mean Beyonce is owed something? – The Verge
What Does It Mean When We Talk About The “Soul” Of A City?
Often, it’s really about politics, nostalgia, and the fear of community change…
Cognitive Science: What We Know About How Fake News Works
Creative people that have a strong ability to associate different words are especially susceptible to false memories. Some people might be more vulnerable than others to believe fake news, but everyone is at risk. – NiemanLab