Category: ideas

“Research from psychologists [on the West Coast] claims to show that exposure to surrealism” – such as Kafka’s story “The Country Doctor,” which was used in the study – “enhances the cognitive mechanisms which oversee implicit learning functions.”

“At face value, these connections seem purely symbolic. In real life, loneliness doesn’t really send us shivering, and guilt doesn’t really make us feel dirty. Or do they? Recent research has found that these physical sensations can often accompany our emotions.”

“There’s a skeptic born every minute. Every man a mountebank, every man a mark! These are your new commandments, O children of Barnum, Borat, and Blair Witch. … Still, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish a prank from a scam, a sham from a fraud, a Nigerian prince from Prince Albert in a can.”

“There is a lively debate in progress about what some call Gov 2.0. One camp sees in the Internet an unprecedented opportunity to bring back Athenian-style direct democracy.” People on the other side “worry that [the Web] creates a falsely reassuring illusion of equality, openness, universality.” And the Gov 2.0 they’ve seen so far doesn’t look so promising.

“Dogs, it seems, are Aristotelians, but with their own doggy teleology. Their goals are not only radically different from ours; they are often invisible to us. To get a better view, [cognitive scientist Alexandra] Horowitz proposes that we humans get down intellectually on all fours and start sniffing.”

“The problem is not the status of the expert but its politicisation. All too often experts do not confine their involvement in public discussion to the provision of advice. Many insist that their expertise entitles them to have the last word on policy deliberation. Recent studies indicate that in public debates those whose views run counter to the sentiments of scientific experts find it difficult to voice their beliefs.”

“For anyone who’s ever forgotten something or someone they wish they could remember, a bit of solace: Though the memory is hidden from your conscious mind, it might not be gone [from your brain].”

“Ancient Egyptian temples were aligned so precisely with astronomical events that people could set their political, economic and religious calendars by them. So finds a study of 650 temples, some dating back to 3000 BC.”

Ron Rosenbaum: “Has the term been applied somewhat – or wildly (Tarantino?) – indiscriminately of late? … On whom do we bestow the name? How profoundly must a ‘genius’ transform our world?”

“I don’t believe there is any such thing as genius,” says the author of the new book The Nature of Technology, “… There are not magic wands or bright ideas in bathtubs. … What you really need in invention is a superb command of the pieces in a toolbox” and the ability to combine them in new ways.