“Measuring behavioral markers for depression through GPS and usage sensors, researchers were able to predict with 86 percent accuracy whether or not the individual was depressed.”
Category: ideas
Are Human Beings The Only Political Animals? (Nope)
“If all social life is political, won’t it be necessary to think of the designation ‘political animal’ as a genus name, including many species, rather than as something unique to human beings? After all, and as Aristotle knew well enough, there are many highly social species of animals.”
A Language That Has Only 123 Words (And You Can Say All You Want With It)
“While the Oxford English Dictionary contains a quarter of a million entries, and even Koko the gorilla communicates with over 1,000 gestures in American Sign Language, the total vocabulary of Toki Pona is a mere 123 words.”
There’s No Such Thing As A Psychopath
“Unlike discrete psychological disorders such as schizophrenia or depression, psychopathy is a disorder sustained by rhetoric rather than by science – ‘psychopath’ is just a strong word for a deviant, in the same way that ‘jerk’ describes someone you don’t like but reveals little about that person’s psychology.”
A Rant Against “Critical Thinking”
It involves a chain of “and/or” activities that can happen in so many contexts (including the most ordinary “experience”) that one would be hard pressed to find a place where it isn’t happening, on some level. It is a sort of mental Swiss Army Knife, able to unfold a range of analytic tools depending on the circumstances.
The Brain’s Remarkable Sculpting Of Memories
“Some memories persist for a lifetime, even if sometimes only at the level of uncertain contours, says commentator Marcelo Gleiser. How does the brain do that?”
Millennials Don’t Watch Baseball Live, So Baseball Has Adjusted Completely To Digital Media
Is there a lesson for the performing arts in the story of baseball’s adaptation to social media and mobile-first strategies? (Imagine a StatCast for decibel levels at different areas of the stage during a Mahler, for instance … )
When DIY Education Came From Someplace Other Than YouTube
“Self-education went beyond solitary reading. For many, literary societies — called ‘the literary’ — marked the highlight of intellectual and social life, as young men and women gathered at night to debate, mingle and flirt. One young woman surveyed her entertainment options in rural Kansas and concluded: ‘We just have the jolliest, best times at the Literary.'”
Let’s Face It: Empathy Is A Choice
“Empathy for people unlike us can be expanded, it seems, just by modifying our views about empathy.”
When New York Vanished
“Prior to the landmarks law there was no legal means for protecting historic sites like the Roxy. Many had fallen into disrepair. … It took the destruction of many beloved places before the law gained the political support it needed.