“The internet isn’t just a matrix of a squillion numbers meshed in fibre optics; it’s a network of billions of human beings, most of whom spend a lot of time terribly frightened of being lonely and left out and who are prepared to do a lot of things they aren’t proud of to allay those fears. That’s the terrifying power of the social network.”
Category: ideas
Researchers Teach Robots To Play Beethoven
“The Khepera bots, as they are called, look more like bugs than bots. They’re just 5.5 centimeters across, they’re packed with sensors and they scoot around on two wheels.”
Five Things People Misunderstand About The Bible
“One of the greatest challenges for modern readers of the Hebrew Bible is to allow the text to mean what it says, when what is says flies in the face of doctrines that emerged centuries later from philosophical debates about the abstract category ‘God’.” (What’s more, it’s not actually a book; it’s more like a library.)
Is The God Of The Bible Perfect? Can He Be?
Yoram Hazony: “As far as I can tell, the biblical authors avoid asserting any such thing. And with good reason. … The belief that any human mind can grasp enough of God to begin recognizing perfections in him would have struck the biblical authors as a pagan conceit.”
A Light Bulb Goes Off (But Only If It’s A Smart Light Bulb)
“The bulb, in concert with other home technology, is an almost magical item that augments your lifestyle. Maybe its convenience and smart powers even add to your relaxation, health or happiness. Seriously, it might.”
Humans May Not Be As Sheeple-Like As You Thought
Remember the famous Stanley Milgram obedience study? Time to rethink its conclusions – and see that humans are more complex, and more nuanced, than the study reported.
Bricks And Mortar Video Game Stores Still Exist – But Not For Long
Just like bookstores and music stores – or almost any physical store, if Amazon same-day delivery has its way – gaming stores struggle with a market that’s rapidly moving to online and cloud-based games.
Apple Censors Books – Is This The New Censorship?
It simply advises artists that to gain access to the Apple platforms, they have to meet the guidelines. “But that means artists will begin to self-censor their work and that’s not healthy.”
That Guilt You Feel? It Only Makes Transgressing Sweeter
“According to newly published research, the guilt we feel may make that decadent treat taste even more delicious than it otherwise would.”
Is There Such A Thing As The Female Conscience?
“Does difference mean that a male and a female live in irreconcilable moral universes and will always find it difficult to agree? Or is the female conscience, if one assumes such exists, complementary to the male’s (and vice versa), and the two together make up a coherent moral whole?” The issue goes all the way back to Plato (at least), and his ideas held their power right through Aquinas, Hegel, John Stuart Mill and (from a different angle) even Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Jane Addams.