“It had been three months since Roman Mazurenko, [Eugenia] Kuyda’s closest friend, had died. Kuyda had spent that time gathering up his old text messages, setting aside the ones that felt too personal, and feeding the rest into a neural network built by developers at her artificial intelligence startup. She had struggled with whether she was doing the right thing by bringing him back this way. At times it had even given her nightmares. But ever since Mazurenko’s death, Kuyda had wanted one more chance to speak with him.”
Category: ideas
Electromagnetic Waves – Seriously? Another Thing About Technology To Be Worried About?
“With the ever-expanding prevalence of electromagnetic field-emitting technological devices, including mobile phones, video screens and Wi-Fi transmitters, a growing number of people claim to be experiencing electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), essentially an allergic reaction to electromagnetic waves.”
The ‘Just World Hypothesis’ And The Psychology Behind Victim-Blaming
“It’s this idea that people deserve what happens to them. There’s just a really strong need to believe that we all deserve our outcomes and consequences. … As a general rule, Americans [in particular] have a hard time with the idea that bad things happen to good people.”
How Technology Is Blurring The Space Between Mind And Machine
“Some people worry that one day soon we might physically attach computer chips to our minds, but we don’t actually need to plug ourselves in: proximity is a red herring. The real issue is the seamless way in which we are already hybridising our cognitive space with our devices. In ways both quotidian and profound, they are becoming extensions of our minds.”
What’s The Root Of All Evil? Not The Love Of Money
Philosopher Christopher Freiman: “Some of history’s greatest philosophers, then, agree that wrongdoing tends to be motivated by self-interest. Alas, I’m not one of history’s greatest philosophers. Although most assume that an immoral person is one who’s ready to defy law and convention to get what they want, I think the inverse is often true. Immorality is frequently motivated by a readiness to conform to law and convention in opposition to our own values.”
Study: Brain Games Don’t Work
“It would be really nice if you could play some games and have it radically change your cognitive abilities. But the studies don’t show that on objectively measured real-world outcomes.” The evaluation, done by a team of seven scientists, is a response to a very public disagreement about the effectiveness of brain games.
Groups Are Smarter Than Individuals. But Groups Are Stupider Too. So How Do You Get Smart Groups?
“Over the past decade, study after study has attempted to decipher and bottle the qualities of the ‘smart group’. Just as psychologists have tried to uncover the ‘g’ factor responsible for an individual’s general intelligence, they’re digging into the ‘c’ factor – the secret sauce of collective intelligence. And most importantly, we want to know how to bring that ‘c’ factor to all our collaborative work, whether that’s in the boardroom, the classroom, the lab, backstage, the woods or even in space.”
Can Toronto Figure Out A Way To Fix Its Botched Public Space?
“Our collective cultural efforts of the 1960s were vastly more adventurous than they are today. Ontario Place is often described as ‘utopian,’ which is right in two senses. One, in its futurist ambition: the architecture embodies modernism’s faith in social progress, technological advances and radical innovation for its own sake. And two, in its production: It was built incredibly fast, driven by a relatively young architect – and it wasn’t entirely clear what the place was for.”
What Does Storytelling Mean In An Age Of Virtual Reality Headsets?
“The FoST Summit also offers workshops, like a mime class given by members of Cirque du Soleil or a lesson on drone photography, as well as performances from groups like Lin Manuel Miranda’s improvised hip-hop musical comedy troupe, Freestyle Love Supreme, and the Pilobolus dance company.”
How Jane Jacobs Delighted, And Frustrated, People From All Points Of The Political Spectrum
“In scrambling expectations, she became one of those rare public intellectuals who finds readers and acolytes everywhere, capturing imaginations at both ends of the political spectrum, inspiring community organizers and libertarians alike.”