Category: ideas

“It is the guiding principle of many applied mathematicians that if something mathematical works really well, there must be a good underlying mathematical reason for it, and we ought to be able to understand it. In this particular case, it may be that we don’t even have the appropriate mathematical framework to figure it out yet.”

“I can’t remember the last time I heard one person call another person ugly. Art: sure. But when it comes to other human beings, we seem to have invested almost totally in metaphoric deployments of the word: ‘ugly’ now describes degrading items like the steadily worsening rhetoric of Donald Trump; or, simply, sinful behavior, as in: ‘God don’t like ugly.’ … No longer does the outward merely track the inward: by an almost forgotten transitive process, the two have become one. … This creates an unnerving blind spot: What happens when evil is made beautiful?”

“The paintings provoked memories and engagement with both the art and other people. They became a way to connect with visitors and facility staff, who were pleased to have something more meaningful to talk to the residents about beyond time-for-your-meds type exchanges.”

“One possibility is that confusion is not itself beneficial, but rather a marker that an important cognitive process has taken place: The learner has appreciated some inconsistency or deficit in her prior beliefs. But another possibility is that confusion is itself a step toward learning – an experience that motivates the learner to reconcile an inconsistency or remedy some deficit”

“Every human culture has used masks for ritual disinhibition, shaming and play. Is being online the ultimate masquerade?”

Alva Noë: “Works of art, in all their variety, it seems to me, afford us the opportunity for boredom – and they do so when everything in our lives mitigates against boredom. Maybe this is one of art’s gifts? Could it be that the power to bore us to tears is a clue to what art is and why it is so important?”

“The economist who still insists that people really are economically rational agents displays a familiar contemporary version of that blindness. But since we all have to get along in a world that doesn’t work quite as our idealised misdescriptions say it ought to, we will somehow manage both to see things and not to see them.”

Gerald Dworkin: “I am not arguing for the view that lying is morally neutral. I accept the fact that there ought to be a strong presumption in favor of honesty. But it is a presumption that not only can be, but ought to be, overridden in many more cases than we assume.”

“We need to sometimes break with reality, but it’s always most fun when some element of the here and now lingers in that escapism.”

“Mass timber could prove to be a viable alternative to concrete and steel for mid-to-high rise buildings. … Moreover, the USDA is looking to these projects to mitigate climate change and support jobs in rural America.”