“It is now relatively easy to produce and distribute content. But it also proves a challenge to find one’s way around in a zone that is somehow expanding, crowded, and borderless, all at once. With such difficulties in mind, then, I want to propose a kind of public-works project. The time has come to create a map. In fact, it is hard to imagine things can continue much longer without one. At very least, we need a Web site giving users some idea what landmarks already exist in the digital space of academe.”
Category: ideas
Where The Population Is Declining
World population growth is a big problem. But “forty-three of the 193 nations around the world will register a decline in population by 2050. Russia’s population is expected to decline by a staggering 31 million, from 143 million people to 112 million people. Alcohol is one of the main factors contributing to this decline, primarily among men. It is accountable for the world’s largest life expectancy gap between men and women in any country. On average, Russian men can expect to live only to the age of 55.”
The Age Of Airports
“Major airports are beginning to drive business siting and urban development in the 21st century, much as highways did in the 20th, railroads in the 19th, and seaports in the 18th. As aviation-oriented businesses cluster at and near major airports, a new urban entity is emerging: the Aerotropolis.”
Why Is Art Supposed To Be Easy?
“According to current wisdom, listening to music, reading poetry or contemplating a painting should not be thought of as work, least of all as hard work. Works of art that demand serious attention, time and effort are treated with suspicion because they might not appeal to a significant section of the population.The official politics of culture of our time stigmatises such art for not being inclusive. Inclusive art is that which is readily accessible since it does not require much effort or understanding on the part of the public. From this standpoint, the engagement with art is not seen as a challenge but as an easily digestible act of consumption.”
Scientists: Man Can Control Computer Functions With His Brain
“With a tiny electronic chip implanted in the motor cortex of his brain, a 25-year-old man paralyzed from the neck down for five years has learned to use his thoughts to operate a computer, turn on a TV set, open email, play a video game and manipulate a robotic arm.”
How Technology Is Changing The Arts
How will technology change the arts? How isn’t it? The ways we make, distribute and consume art are changing quickly, and we can hardly imagine what the next 15 years will bring…
Two Kinds Of Genius
Researchers have found that “genius – whether in art or architecture or even business – is not the sole province of 17-year-old Picassos and 22-year-old Andreessens. Instead, it comes in two very different forms, embodied by two very different types of people. ‘Conceptual innovators’ make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young. They make the rest of us feel like also-rans. Then there’s a second character type, someone who’s just as significant but trudging by comparison – ‘experimental innovators’.”
Do Plants Hold The Next Engineering Breakthroughs?
Scientists looking for new engineering breakthroughs are “studying plant bionics, which involves cherry-picking evolution’s best biological solutions and applying them to engineering problems. The advantage is that you have these hundreds of thousands of (biological) systems and you know they work because of evolution.”
Do We Fetishize Endings?
“The ending of a film, or any narrative, bears a disproportionate amount of the artistic weight. Endings are the last thing we see, and the thing most likely to stay in the memory. And there’s a natural inclination, in any long and complex work, to focus on the ending: Art, like life, often passes by in a state of semi-confusion, but a solid ending proves to the audience that the director had control all along. And the power of a good ending has particular resonance in a ‘closure’ society, a society that strives for finality in things of the heart (closure after grief) and clairvoyance in most everything else (how’s this going to turn out?).”
You Can’t Win Without Words
Times are tough for Republicans, no doubt about it, but somehow, the current public dissatisfaction with the Bush Administration has yet to translate into anything approaching widespread support for the opposition Democrats. Why are the Dems so totally incapable of seizing the moment? One linguist suggests that while the GOP may be on the outs politically, they’re still the reigning champions when it comes to effective use of language. “The right has been incredibly successful in capturing the English political vocabulary. In a way, it’s a tribute to their ability to spin compelling narratives.”