IDEAS

There was in the 19th century, a growing feeling that, far from there being universal standards of taste and beauty, every age needed to find its own style of artistic expression: The idea of the “spirit of the age” had arrived. - Wall Street Journal

Does adhering to the ‘rules’ of a new home, ie embracing a new way of life, itself produce that much-needed sense of belonging? Does adopting the manners and habits of the local place itself suffice to fulfil this need? - Psyche

It seems counterintuitive in the age of neuroscience, but I increasingly think that how cognitively impaired you are is a function of the social context in which you find yourself. - The Guardian

Across that chasm of difference between bats and seals, whales and humans, the unlikeliest new intelligence of computers have been able to discover more that’s similar than might have once been supposed, though even Melville could recognize in the whale a kindred creature “both ponderous and profound." - 3 Quarks Daily

The brain tags experiences worth remembering by repeatedly sending out sudden and powerful high-frequency brain waves. Known as “sharp wave ripples,” these waves, kicked up by the firing of many thousands of neurons within milliseconds of one another, are “like a fireworks show in the brain.” - Wired

“Our new fictional nightmares are all about being trapped: mice running in an endless maze, too cowed by the complexity of the system to plow through the dead ends and find freedom.” - The New York Times

Let’s not pretend it’s easy to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, no matter what Patti Smith’s memoir says. - LitHub

“When it comes to crowd work, I’m the one who came to work. The audience didn’t come to work. They came to laugh. I don't understand this obsession with that. ... Like, ‘Are y'all dating?’ Who cares? There's no unique story to that. And they didn't pay for that.” - Wired

LLMs challenge traditional notions of intelligence and consciousness, blurring lines between AI and biology. - Psychology Today

When you think of creativity, you probably imagine a genius behind an easel or at the heart of a brilliantly directed movie. However, people can also tap into their creative juices if they want to rise to power, enact revenge, or just create trouble. - Psychology Today

There’s something disconcerting about a sophisticated piece of surveillance technology deployed for something as banal as selling candy. - The Walrus

"The sudden flashes of insight we have in states of meditative distraction—showering, pulling weeds in the garden, driving home from work—often elude our conscious mind precisely because they require its disengagement." - Open Culture

The Real that art helps us come into contact with is something far more slippery, and far closer to what Walter Benjamin called the “true surrealist face of existence.” - Harper's

Should we trust the most optimistic voices coming from Silicon Valley, AI could be the vehicle we use to create boundless wealth, cure all ills, heal the planet, and move toward immortality, while the pessimists warn that it may be our downfall. Has our time come to join the gods eternal? - Harper's

Artificial intelligence stands accused of devastating the creative industries, guzzling energy and even threatening human life. Understandably, OpenAI wants a voice that makes people feel at ease using its products. What does artificial intelligence sound like? It sounds like crisis management. - The New York Times