Category: ideas

“Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed algorithms that let robots determine whether they are in a situation where they should deceive other robots or humans.”

“Despite the belief that happiness has remained constant in modern societies, recent research says otherwise, citing rising democracy and increased basic freedoms as the cause.”

“It’s not just people who have different accents but bats as well develop dialects depending on where they live which can help identify and protect different species, according to Australian scientists.”

Some anthropologists are concluding “that the unique ability to observe and control the behavior of other animals is what allowed one particular set of Pleistocene era primates to evolve into modern man. … [The] human story has been a collection of interspecies collaborations – between humans and dogs and horses, goats and cats and cows, and even microbes.”

“The Chicago Manual of Style explains it this way: If you write ‘My older sister, Betty, taught me the alphabet,’ you are implying that Betty is your only older sister. But if you write ‘My sister Enid lets me hold her doll’ – with no commas around the name – Enid is not your only sister.” Commas thus become facts that need to be checked. But “[how] much time should you spend finding the answer – commas or no commas – to a question nobody’s asking?”

“For one thing, there is the complex matter of why an indigenous community might choose to abandon its mother tongue for English (or Spanish or French or Portuguese, as the case may be). … [L]anguage death could be seen as just an extreme form of language change – a natural process that has been going on for thousands of years.”

“The Jewish world of the 21st century has very few, if any, rabbis and scholars universally accepted as ‘great’ or ‘sagely’ who are admired even by those outside the specific sect, stream, or group on which the rabbi in question presides.” Is this an issue of personnel or of the changing nature of Judaism?

What do disgraced baseball player Roger Clemens and disgraced “memoirist” James Frey have in common? “[The] charge of illicitly boosting their games by employing prohibited substances (anabolic steroids and fictional experiences, respectively). In other words, these are scandals of ambition. They’re about people doing what it takes – or what they believe it takes – to enhance their position in the marketplace.”

“New research finds people’s taste in entertainment remains remarkably consistent, regardless of whether they’re reading, watching or listening.”

“Science too has its share of mysteries (or rather: things that must simply be accepted without further explanation). But one aim of science is to minimize such things … The religious attitude is very different. It does not seek to minimize mystery. Mysteries are accepted as a consequence of what, for the religious, makes the world meaningful.”