Category: ideas

“Scientists inspired by the legendary improv of Miles Davis and John Coltrane are peering inside the brains of today’s jazz musicians to learn where creativity comes from.”

“A virtual child controlled by artificially intelligent software has passed a cognitive test regarded as a major milestone in human development. It could lead to smarter computer games able to predict human players’ state of mind.”

“Impressionists seem to use visual images to ‘become’ the people they are imitating, according to a brain-scanning study that started as a public demonstration and is now being expanded.”

“Are we too busy twirling through the songs on our iPods — while checking e-mail, while changing lanes on the highway — to consider whether we are giving up a good thing? We are most human when we feel dull. Lolling around in a state of restlessness is one of life’s greatest luxuries — one not available to creatures that spend all their time pursuing mere survival.”

“Wary of the macabre suggestion that they are willing to exploit the dying for their organs, surgeons abide by a code known as the ‘dead donor rule,’ which forbids removing body parts from the living. Yet a few outspoken medical ethicists say the dead donor rule is broken all the time — and, perhaps even more surprising, that the rule itself should be abandoned.”

“We have more big cities now than at any time in our history. In 1900, only 16 had a population of one million; now it’s more than 400. Not only are there more of them, they are larger than ever. In 1851, London had two million people. It was the largest city in the world by a long way, twice the size of Paris, its nearest rival. That version of London would seem like a village now.”

The New York Philharmonic’s decision to perform in North Korea has sparked plenty of debate, and one artist says that all the arguing shows once again that Americans are simply too worked up over a) the two Koreas and b) our own supposed importance in the world.

“The internet is providing access to vast amounts of data about human behavior that Barry Shneiderman argues provide the opportunity to study our interactions with the rigor seen in the natural sciences. He points to the success of design testing by prominent websites like Facebook and sees a future where scientist-designers move quickly from basic to applied research.”

“If I disclose information to you, your power with respect to me increases. One way to address this power imbalance is for you to similarly disclose information to me. We both have less privacy, but the balance of power is maintained. But this mechanism fails utterly if you and I have different power levels to begin with.”