Category: ideas

It turns out that the neurochemistry of the human brain during REM sleep (the kind when we have the most vivid dreams) is similar to what happens after taking some hallucinogens. “Dreams, in short, are transient ‘trips’ and, when they forcibly and suddenly break through into waking life, they sometimes become visions or hallucinations.”

“The key is to have a rich, detailed view of what the student knows and can do. Advancement will then be at the student’s pace, but there will be expectations for how quickly a student should advance.”

“With apologies to Monty Python, whose influence on contemporary comedy is tremendous and undeniable, we focused only on American humor.”

“Library director Paula Laurita said the harsh new rules were necessary because offenders were effectively stealing from the library and taxpayers.”

“On Sunday, I attended my funeral. It was a short ceremony, held in a small auditorium at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The pastor who led it made note of my professional accomplishments. He also cited my habit of eating straight out of the bulk bins at Sprouts.”

“Woody Allen once said, ‘Eternity is a very long time, especially toward the end!’ Eternity sounds great on the surface, but actually experiencing it may be an entirely different matter. For some people, the very notion of infinity sends chills up the spine. In fact, for many who suffer from ‘apeirophobia’ – a term for the fear of eternity – the thought of an existence that goes on forever amounts to torture.”

Om Malik: “Much like ‘the cloud,’ ‘big data,’ and ‘machine learning’ before it, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ has been hijacked by marketers and advertising copywriters. A lot of what people are calling ‘artificial intelligence’ is really data analytics – in other words, business as usual. If the hype leaves you asking ‘What is A.I., really?,’ don’t worry, you’re not alone. I asked various experts to define the term and got different answers.”

“Ultimately, democratic politics are a numbers game. Politics are what concern everyone, which is why “everyone” talks about politics. Art, by contrast, is what concerns one person, intimately. Culture is a matter of power; art is a matter of beauty. It’s also a matter of freedom—of spiritual freedom, of free-spiritedness—and so it’s also political, though not in any immediately recognizable way and, above all, not in any way that lends itself to the think-piece brand of discourse. The power of beauty, the impact of beauty on a single person, eludes discussion and invites silence, even as it incites something radically different from analysis: ecstasy. That’s the force behind the side of criticism that, if it’s any good at all, converges with the work of art by being itself a literary, poetic, philosophical inspiration.”

“This concept has been a standard in self-help for many years: Fake it till you make it; sulk until you hulk. Act the way you want to feel, and the rest will fall into place. … Smiling can make you happy or decrease your stress.” Now the studies on which the concept was based have been re-tried by researchers, and the old results haven’t been replicated. Daniel Engber lays out the history.

Sam Kriss: “You might not like what I’m about to say about the multiverse. But don’t worry; you’ve already had your revenge. If there are an infinite number of parallel universes, there will be any number of terrible dictatorships, places where life has become very difficult for people who like to string words together. Somewhere out there, there’s a society in which every desperate little essay like this one comes with a tiny, unremarkable button: push it, and the author will be immediately electrocuted to death.”