Category: ideas

“New technology is changing the landscape in which philosophical conversations — and arguably all conversations – take place. It has allowed contemporary philosophers to reach global audiences with their ideas, and to take philosophy beyond the lecture halls. But there is more to this ‘spoken philosophy’ than simply the words uttered, and the ideas discussed.”

“Astonishing though it may seem, there are ways in which the continuing existence of other people after our deaths – even that of complete strangers – matters more to us than does our own survival and that of our loved ones.” Samuel Scheffler offers two thought experiments to demonstrate why.

Author David Skinner talks with the Lexicon Valley guys about the hell that broke loose in 1961 when Merriam-Webster’s Third American Dictionary admitted words like ain’t and beatnik, cited Mickey Spillane and Betty Grable instead of Shakespeare and Lincoln, and changed the entire philsophy behind American lexicography.

“It has to be trained, and it has to be practiced. If we cater to short attention spans by offering materials that can be managed with short attention spans, the skill will not develop. … It is as if you complain to a personal trainer about your weak biceps and the trainer tells you not to lift heavy things.”

“Hotel chains have signature scents; Starbucks has soundtracks to complement the flavor of its coffee. In the past most marketing passed through the aural and visual channels, and the other senses were neglected. Now the idea is that, with so much competition for consumers’ attention, no sense should be left unturned.”

“No matter how trivial the present, the replay Web can remix it into something significant. The instant replays are starting to become my favorite part of the Web, since the reactions to and commentary on the news often tend to be more interesting than the news itself.”

“We have begun to treat search engines, Evernote, and smartphones the way we’ve long treated our spouses, friends, and workmates. They’re the handy devices we use to compensate for our crappy ability to remember details.”

Q: “To a person who upon considering all of this, at best, feels an overwhelming rush of anxiety and at worst, now feels unmoored to existence, just floating through a universe without any familiar organizing principles, what would you say?” A: “Don’t worry!”

“Say goodnight to the dream that education, journalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions. It turns out that in the public realm, a lack of information isn’t the real problem. The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are.”

“Thinkers in the grip of the Newtonian picture of science want a general basis for general phenomena. Life isn’t like that. Unity fails at both ends. To understand the fundamental processes that go on in living things – mitosis, meiosis, inheritance, development, respiration, digestion and many, many more – you need a vast ensemble of models, differing on a large number of details.”