“When people are told which way to turn, it relieves them of the need to create their own routes and remember them. They pay less attention to their surroundings. And neuroscientists can now see that brain behavior changes when people rely on turn-by-turn directions.” – Washington Post
Category: ideas
Fresh Prey: Digital Privacy Increasingly An Issue For Those Who Can’t Pay
All kinds of companies pick through our online behavior for clues about how we might be convinced to spend money. These practices particularly affect poor people, who are more dependent on cheap or free online services. The services appear to cost nothing, but payment is in data rather than dollars. – The New Republic
Did Complex Societies Lead To Belief In Powerful, Punishing Gods? Or Vice Versa?
Vice versa, argues Joseph Henrich. “He contends that moralizing gods spurred societal complexity because belief in moralizing gods leads to success in intergroup competition. It increased trust and cooperation among a growing population of relative strangers, he said, and buttressed traits like bravery in warfare.” – Nautilus
Belief In Deities May Not Be The Important Part Of Religion
“What if belief in the supernatural is window dressing on what really matters — elaborate rituals that foster group cohesion, creating personal bonds that people are willing to die for.” – Nautilus
Can Algorithms Show Us Who To Trust?
Companies like Trust Science have put algorithms on the market that can help compile trustworthiness profiles of individuals and organizations. But does AI really possess such a “social” skill? This is an important question to ask because trust requires socially sensitive skills that are perceived to be uniquely human. So can algorithms providing advice in this area of human interaction be accepted by human decision-makers? – Harvard Business Review
Know This At Your Peril! How Knowledge Can Stand In The Way Of Truth
What more than true belief is required for knowledge? A natural thought is that your belief needs to be backed by good reasons. It can’t just be a guess that happens to turn out right. But this doesn’t seem enough either. – Aeon
The Celebrity Hologram – What Does This Say About How We Think About Fame?
It’s a given that celebrity image is built on smoke and mirrors. But we’re in a curious spot today, where the music industry is manoeuvering to convince audiences that the veneer of an artist’s presence is a compelling substitute to watching a flesh-and-blood performance. Enter the pop star hologram. – The Guardian
How Social Media Is Distorting The Value Hierarchy Of Higher Education
“The tools and rules of social media are increasingly swallowing up scholarly work, whether we join the new platforms or not. Where once discernment, hard-won expertise, and glacial, scrupulous scholarship read by only a small cabal of peers carried real weight, the research agenda is now driven by an economy of clicks, likes, follows, and retweets.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
Sound Wars: Where Silence Isn’t Silent And Sound Battles Sound
There are days when sitting in a room that noiseless sounds appealing. But some people are so unaccustomed to such levels of quiet that, after just a few minutes inside the chamber, they become disoriented. – The New Yorker
How Much Of What You Post Online Will End Up In Research Papers?
Our YouTube videos, Tweets, and other posts are public, but that can be hard to wrap your head around – and even harder to understand the long-lasting data-mining possibilities inherent in public posts. It’s not illegal, but “just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily unethical, either, but it’s worth asking questions about how and why researchers use social media posts.” – Slate