“TL;DR” isn’t just an obnoxious crack, we’re afraid. Farhad Manjoo looks at some depressing statistics on how people read online – and how much they’ve actually read when they tweet or share a link.
Category: ideas
Surprise (Subscription) Gift Packages Making Snail Mail Cool
“Old-timey physical boxes that you can touch — that’s totally a contrast to a lot of what’s out there, but I think we’re going through this period of correction where people realize there are experiences in the tangible world that are more powerful than any digital interaction.”
Troubled High School Kids Stay In School – And Get Jobs – WIth The Arts
“‘I don’t think I would have graduated high school if I hadn’t come to A.R.T.,’ says Cami Shishko, who recently completed her freshman year at the Cornish College of the Arts.”
All Philosophy Needs To Become Relevant Is A Good Marketing Plan
“If philosophy is so important, then selling itself to the culture at large is important too. So it’s time for philosophers to put their clothespins on their noses, wade into the stench of real-world commerce, and ask some of those tanned and toned marketing majors who skipped out on Philosophy 101 for some help.” After all, philosophy already has a popular product: thought experiments.
What Christians Can Learn From Listening To Young Atheists
Last year the Fixed Point Foundation began a nationwide campaign to interview members of college atheist groups. “The rules were simple: Tell us your journey to unbelief. It was not our purpose to dispute their stories or to debate the merits of their views. Not then, anyway. We just wanted to listen to what they had to say. And what they had to say startled us.”
Decoding How Time And Space Are Perceived In The Brain
“While most people are familiar with the ensuing influence Einstein’s ideas had on both the academic and public conception of the physical universe, few people are aware a similar revolution against space and time is underway in the fields of experimental psychology and neuroscience.”
Getting Computers To Learn Like A Child Does – By Recognizing Things
“Always seeing the world with fresh eyes can make it hard to find your way around. Giving computers the ability to recognise objects as they scan a new environment will let them navigate much more quickly and understand what they are seeing.”
There Could Be Devices To Let Us Communicate With Animals: Researcher
Says animal behaviorist Con Slobodchikoff, who has successfully decoded some of the language (yes, it seems to be a language) used by prairie dogs, “It’s probably five to 10 years out. But I think we can get to the point where we can actually communicate back and forth in basic animal languages to dogs, cats, maybe farm animals.”
The Internet Makes Us Think We’re Seeing More (But Are We Actually Seeing Less?)
“While it’s easier than ever to share information and perspectives from different parts of the world, we may now often encounter a narrower picture of the world than in less connected days.”
Science Listens To The Voices In Our Heads
“But although philosophers have long been interested in the relationship between language and thought, many believed that inner speech lay outside the realms of science. That is now changing, with new experimental designs for encouraging it, interfering with it and neuroimaging it. We are beginning to understand how the experience is created in the brain; its subjective qualities – essentially, what the words ‘sound’ like; and its role in processes such as self-control and self-awareness.”