In the 1990s, teens were learned things that turned out not to be true. “Self-esteem would keep us from doing drugs, teachers told us; self-esteem would keep us from having premarital sex. (The first time I had sex with a confident stoner, I was very confused.)” But what is self-esteem? And how is it different from narcissism? – The Atlantic
Category: ideas
Don’t Get It Wrong: AI Is A Tool, Not A Mind
“For two millennia, humanity has endured good and bad in the name of God. We are on the cusp of repeating the same drama on a new plane. Some people believe AI is a mind. They describe its functions with active verbs. They revere AI’s potential as infinite, as if it were some divinity. Non-believers disagree and say, “An AI ‘mind’ is not a real mind. You wrongly credit AI with power.” Believers grow angry and demand respect for AI.” – The American Interest
Advancing Philosophy Comes In Clarifying Existing Ideas
“It is no triviality to define analytic philosophy. Broadly, it combines a faith in formal logic as a tool for eliminating philosophical confusion with an almost unquestioned, at least in recent decades, belief in its own status as continuous with the natural sciences.” – The Point
Silicon Valley’s Miracle Tech Was Supposed To Make The World A Better Place. What Happened?
These magical machines were supposed to provide a solution to the economic and political problems of the late twentieth century, a way to transcend and break free of the confining aspects of postwar capitalism. This was a feint, a way of imagining a miracle fix to tensions and conflicts that had no easy resolution. Computers, Margaret O’Mara suggests, have long been metaphors as much as machines. – The New Republic
Why Civility Is So Difficult In A Democracy
“To regard one’s opposition as being on the wrong side of an important political dispute is to regard them as being on the side of injustice. Thus, heated tones, raised voices, and spicy language – not to mention a measure of frustration, impatience, and resentment – are precisely what should be expected in many democratic disagreements.” – 3 Quarks Daily
How Nietzche’s Ideas Still Permeate Our Thinking
The adventures of “super” and “über” are a case study in the inescapability of Nietzsche’s philosophy, which has affected everyday discourse and modern political reality like no body of thought before it. – The New Yorker
Research: Arts, Sports Might Help Cut Homelessness
“Meaningful activity might be an essential component of youth homelessness prevention. This includes resources that encourage social inclusion (e.g., community and recreation centres) and natural supports. For example, neighbours may be able to help facilitate housing retention once a young person leaves the streets.” The Conversation
A.I. Software Is Learning To Write Prose — Could It Get Good Enough To Write A ‘New Yorker’ Piece?
John Seabrook does a deep dive into how artificial intelligence programs learn the rules of English grammar and syntax and teach themselves how to predict what you, at the keyboard, might write next — and even, eventually, to write the way you do. Then he and a computer scientist feed a program the entire New Yorker nonfiction archive as a dataset to learn from, and they ask it to try, based on the opening, to complete a real New Yorker article. – The New Yorker
Theoretical “Science” You Can Never Prove. Is It Real?
“In our post-truth age of casual lies, fake news and alternative facts, society is under extraordinary pressure from those pushing potentially dangerous antiscientific propaganda – ranging from climate-change denial to the anti-vaxxer movement to homeopathic medicines. I, for one, prefer a science that is rational and based on evidence, a science that is concerned with theories and empirical facts, a science that promotes the search for truth, no matter how transient or contingent.” – Aeon
Addicted To Your Screens? It’s Your Own Fault!
“We talk about addiction, but when it comes to Candy Crush, really? Facebook? We’re not freebasing Facebook. We’re not injecting Instagram here,” Mr. Eyal said one morning over croissants at New York’s Bryant Park. “These are things we can do something about, but we love to think the technology is doing it to us.” – The New York Times