Category: ideas

“Action figures provide all the interactivity of video games without the eyestrain — but with much of the freeform imaginary wonder of sticks and rocks. I would contend that the Star Wars toys many of us used to play with … open up remarkable new avenues of creativity for children.”

“The character of Los Angeles would be strikingly different. It would be a more public-minded, greener and perhaps a more equitable city than it is now.”

“Seeing the digital world for what it is – tangible, material, and made by us – is the first step. But we also have to learn how to describe it, how to read it. The most effective explorers of that world, the people we work with at Lighthouse (media artists, critical engineers and speculative designers) are giving us tactics, tools and prisms that can make this world more legible.”

“The standard line of thought seems to be that we have no evidence at all for his existence and so have every right to deny it. … But back in the day (say, 500-400 B.C.), there would seem to have been considerable evidence, enough in any case to make his reality unquestioned among most members of a rapidly advancing Greek civilization” – even as that civilization developed philosophy and metaphysics.

“Measuring productivity is central to economic policy — it’s especially crucial in the decisions made by the Federal Reserve — but we are increasingly flying blind.”

“In the past few years, the brain has lost its influence; fMRI hucksters are on the run. I don’t mean to say that neuroscientists have given up–their field of study is as vibrant as it’s ever been, and it still exerts a massive influence on research funding. But as a cultural force–one capable of duping journalists and making money for “slick neuroentrepreneurs”–the brain is almost cooked.”

“They used to have operators for telephones, and now everyone is their own operator. The same thing is going to happen with 3D printing, but it’s going to take a lot longer because that’s another step up in intellectual endeavor.”

“They have found a strong link between living one’s life with a sense of purpose and enjoying a robust immune system. However, shallower forms of happiness such as “simple self-gratification” produce the opposite result, weakening the body’s immune response.”

“For some reason, the spirits started appearing in the middle of the 19th century and mostly around Seneca Lake in western New York.” By the 1870s, towns like Auburn and Moravia were meccas of the Spiritualist movement.

“Ohio State professor of philosophy Kevin Scharp is a Linnaean taxonomist of thought, compiling charts, ‘Information Boxes,’ and hand-drawn diagrams of the ‘Sociology of Philosophy'” into two 4′ x 44’ charts, one from 600 BC to 600 AD and the other from 600 to 1935.