“Changes from within do matter—and these changes may indeed be undervalued in their role in determining happiness. In fact, they may even have strong economic consequences.”
Category: ideas
No, We’re Not Actually ‘Wasting Time’ On The Internet
“Theorists say the internet is making us dumber, but something magical happened when my students wasted time together. They became more creative with each other. They say we’re less social; I think people on the web are being social all the time. They say we’re not reading; I think we’re reading all the time, just online.”
When Humans Can Control Each Others’ Brains Remotely, What Will Happen?
“These systems are potentially more precise and less invasive than existing techniques for altering brain activity such as deep brain stimulation. With so much progress on a variety of fronts, some form of human mind control – and the treatments and benefits it confers – should be here before long.”
What Does London Sound Like? Ask The Sound Hunters
“I mean, could you imagine if you could hear the sounds of 18th-century London today? … Even if it was just the sound of people spitting in the street, coughing — and a lot of people were sick back then, so it probably would be — it’d be fascinating.”
The Drama Of The Reclusive Artist
Think of Harper Lee or Frank Ocean. “How could someone with such an astute understanding of the world apparently want so little to do with it? How could someone craft so perfect a piece of art, only to shy away from the acclaim it produced?”
“Augmented Eternity” – The Machines That Will Learn Enough About Us To Be Us
Augmented Eternity doesn’t just ingest the data someone leaves; to create a convincing facsimile, it analyzes how they think and act. The “presentation layer,” could take many forms: a chatbot, a voice interface, or even a 3D avatar in virtual reality.
Why Do I Get Carsick? Turns Out It’s Because My Brain Thinks I’m Being Poisoned
It’s all about the way the thalamus (mis-)interprets the signals from the tiny, liquid-filled motion sensors in the inner ear.
The Happiness Industry – Narcissism For The Masses?
“You can’t really be happy if you are a victim of injustice or exploitation, which is what the technologists of joy tend to overlook. This is why, when Aristotle speaks of a science of well-being, he gives it the name of politics. The point is of little interest to the neuroscientists, advertising gurus or mindfulness mongers, which is why so much of their work is spectacularly beside the point.”
What’s Going On In Your Brain When You Get Hypnotized
MRIs indicate that it’s not (or not just) a placebo effect: there really are changes in certain areas of the brain – and in the connections between them.
One Enlightenment Philosopher Anticipated Donald Trump 250 Years Ago
“No Enlightenment thinker observing our current predicament from the afterlife would be able to say ‘I told you so’ as confidently as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an awkward and prickly autodidact from Geneva, who was memorably described by Isaiah Berlin as the ‘greatest militant lowbrow in history.'”