ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

IDEAS

How I Learned To Appreciate The Intelligence Of Trees

The idea of intelligence without a brain can sound mystical or speculative, but the initiative has attracted quite a lot of human intelligence so I was intrigued. - The New Yorker

Study: Brain Fluid From Young Mice Improves Memory In Old Mice

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from young mice can improve memory function in older mice, researchers report today in Nature. - Nature

Josh Hawley’s Copyright Law Proposal Is Deeply Unserious

This is not a radical rethinking of copyright. It is regression as a meme, a fart in the wind, an empty and cynical gesture meant for a future fundraising email. All because Disney is the latest punching bag for a Republican party. - The Verge

AI Is Creating Art. But Is It, Really?

What discussions about AI and creativity often overlook is the fact that creativity is not an absolute quality that can be defined, measured and reproduced objectively. The Conversation

How Big Data “Nudges” Our Decisions

The combination of Big Data and the success of nudging could thus be conceived of not only as aid to our decision-making, but also as a threat. - 3 Quarks Daily

How American Discourse Got To Be So Stupid

We all know what we're doing in a classroom; we're putting on a class and we all share the same script as to what this is. But what began to happen in 2015—and I now realize it's because of social media—is that it's very difficult to have everyone in the same story. - Persuasion

A New And Thriving Genre Of AI-Generated Poetry

Dozens of websites, with names like Poetry Ninja or Bored Human, can now generate poems with a click of a key. One tool is able to free-associate images and ideas from any word “donated” to it. - The Walrus

How The Ukraine War Has Re-Energized How Britain Thinks Of Itself

Truss’s central idea is that the West has grown complacent since the end of the Cold War, because of a spiritual crisis in which it has forgotten what it stands for and how to defend its ideals, allowing its opponents to take advantage of its institutions and openness. - The Atlantic

How To Explain The Allure Of Conspiracy Theories? (The New Books)

The conspiracy theorist’s dogmatism often distracts from the objects of his skepticism, and it is the latter that I believe are more revealing. The ideas or events that provoke his strongest doubts show us what he flees, what he trades away so many mental comforts to avoid. - Guernica

Why Are Corners Of The Internet Suddenly Nostalgic For Medieval Peasant Life?

Let's be honest: "Assertions about our glorious history usually don’t quite check out—they tend to be based on misunderstandings, disputed or outdated scholarship, or outright fabrications long ago passed off as historical record. But that doesn’t stop people." - The Atlantic

Reese Witherspoon Represents, Onscreen And Off, The Bumpy Road Of Being An Ambitious Woman

That is, an ambitious woman in a sexist society. "Likable ambitious women are women who don’t appear to be ambitious at all." - LitHub

When Did The Middle Ages End (It’s Important To Know)

The Middle Ages are a chimera, a fantasy, all but impossible to define or date, at least at a global level. The conventional chronological markers used to define them are deeply problematic. - History Today

Are Human Lives Inherently More Valuable?

Can we really justify the idea that some lives carry more ethical weight than others in general, and that human lives carry more ethical weight than nonhuman lives in particular? And even if so, does it follow that we should prioritise ourselves as much as we currently do? - Aeon

Another Grand Sweeping Narrative Of History (and It’s Optimistic)

Whether or not you have a “future-oriented mindset” – in other words, how much money you save and how likely you are to invest in your education – can, he argues, be partly traced to what kinds of crops grew well in your ancestral homelands. - The Guardian

The Physical (And Spiritual) Power Of The Vibrations From A Single Musical Note

Though horribly abused and exploited by various New Age fads over the years, the old intuition still holds: vibrations reveal a lot about life, consciousness and the integrity of matter. - The Spectator

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