Category: ideas

“The development of general anaesthesia has transformed surgery from a horrific ordeal into a gentle slumber. It is one of the commonest medical procedures in the world, yet we still don’t know how the drugs work. Perhaps this isn’t surprising: we still don’t understand consciousness, so how can we comprehend its disappearance?”

“If you head over to Whale.fm, you’ll be presented with a large whale call, placed on a Google map, and 36 smaller possible matches. Your task is to pick the one that’s closest to the original call, with the help of visualizations of what the audio sounds like.”

“There’s no culture on Earth without teachers. … And in the animal kingdom, teaching is exceedingly rare. In fact, it’s not clear whether any other animal can teach. I know this may come as a surprise, but it does so because we tend to mix up teaching and learning.” Indeed, not all behavioral scientists (or pet owners) agree on the distinction.

The Berlin Wall. The Great Wall of China. The Israel-West Bank barrier. The US-Mexico border fence that Republicans keep proposing. They may or may not keep people in or out, but they keep themselves in our minds. “Walls, then, are built not for security, but for a sense of security. The distinction is important, as those who commission them know very well.”

How did Shakespeare deal with Rome – and how did Rome (and Giuseppe Verdi) deal with Shakespeare? Let these books explain the cultural and temporal triangle.

“There’s no going back. There just isn’t. Newspapers are never again going to be a dominant force in our lives, and the bizarre economics that briefly made it possible to subsidize full-time professional arts critics via want ads and real estate listings are not likely to return.”

On reaction videos: “The great lesson of the genre is that we are physically different — our couches, beds, hairstyles — but spiritually uniform. A grandmother sitting in front of a ferret cage is the same as two college girls in a dorm room.”

“After 50 years of studying the brain, listening to philosophers, and most recently being slowly educated about the law, the issue is back on my front burner. The question of whether we are responsible for our actions — or robots that respond automatically — has been around a long time but until recently the great scholars who spoke out on the issue didn’t know modern science with its deep knowledge and implications.”

“A sense of humor is the lure that keeps our brains alert for the gaps between our quick-fire assumptions and reality.”