Category: ideas

“Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe and non-invasive method of temporarily altering the activity of neurons by passing weak currents through electrodes on the scalp. It can enhance mathematical skills, memory, attention and language learning.”

“Now the kids who were kids when the Western canon went on trial and received summary justice are working the levers of culture. They are the editors and the reviewers and the arts writers … Even the most august publications and broadcasts no longer attempt to shape taste. They merely seek to reflect it. They hold the cultural mirror up to the reader … Narcissus looks into the book review and finds it good.”

“[Even] as our streets become safer, our cars more crash-proof, and our food and drugs better regulated, we still keep finding ways to become more tense. And don’t assume that this is a problem that affects all nations equally. … I spoke with scores of psychologists and neuroscientists about this question, and I picked up three main themes in their replies.”

“Wondering what happens after death was an Ancient Egyptian preoccupation. (Maybe because most had their children when teenagers and died by age 35.) They left more writings about the subject than any equivalent civilization. Certainty about the afterlife was a cultural given.”

“According to the review of almost 150 studies, married people live longer, happier and healthier lives than singletons. What’s more, the longer the couple are together, the smugger they can be, because these benefits only increase with time.”

“The hippies of the Haight were hardly the first victims of San Francisco’s tourist industry, however. The city pioneered American slumming back in the 19th century, when tour operators started offering package deals on nocturnal Chinatown visits.”

Humpback whales and Japanese quail repeat their calls numerous times. Right whales raised the pitch of their songs so as not to compete with shipping noise. Hummingbirds, marmosets and manatees, among many others, simply try to shout above the din, just like we do.

“A Serious Game could provide an effective mechanism for exposing and mitigating cognitive bias,” the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency announced Tuesday.

“But our collective desire for apologies may not be a great indicator of their effect once delivered. Studies have shown that people are poor forecasters of their emotional responses to life and tend to overestimate future reactions to both positive and negative situations.”

“The problem is that we’ve lost touch with the bigger picture: what is it that makes life good for us humans? The Enlightenment left us with few resources for thinking about that larger question, because it was so focused on winning individuals their freedom. In any case, now that we are relatively free, we need to ask again what life is for. There is another ethical tradition that can help. It’s known as virtue ethics.”