ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

IDEAS

Using Novels To Predict The Next War

The idea that novelists are modern-day Cassandras – “speaking always truths, never grasped as true” – may sound positively esoteric. - The Guardian

Turns Out AI Can Be Pretty Easily Fooled By Patterns

The ability to succeed at the task can be thought of as a foundation for all kinds of inferences that humans make. - Quanta

Suffering Under The Weight Of Happiness

Wanting to copy the happiest people in the world is an understandable impulse, but it distracts from a key message of the happiness rankings—that equitable, balanced societies make for happier residents. - The Atlantic

In Praise Of The Meritocracy

Meritocracy, for all its flaws, may well be, like the democracy it has sometimes served, better than the alternatives. At the very least, we should be cautious about consigning it to the dustbin of history too soon. - Literary Review

The Basic Tensions Between Individualism And The Greater Good

Do we want conflicting disconnected atoms or thriving autonomous individuals? And what role do culture and society have in their formation? - 3 Quarks Daily

Summer Is A Scam

But there are a few ways to fix it. - The New York Times

No Mass Outbreaks From The UK’s Test Events

Great, 58,000 people and only 28 positives - but at the time of the test events, "virus levels were low and testing before and after events was also low, making conclusions difficult." - BBC

How Abstract Ideas Shape Our Practical Perceptions

They are imbued with grandeur precisely because of their superb indifference to mundane human concerns. Having knowledge is practically useful, but why would we also need the concept of knowledge? - Aeon

The Market Economy Is An Illusion — Why Neo-Liberalism Is Heavily Subsidized

In reality neoliberalism has depended on huge levels of government support for its entire existence. The global neoliberal economic order could easily have collapsed into a 1930s-level Great Depression multiple times over in the absence of massive government interventions. - Boston Review

Using Design Thinking As A Process To Solve Bigger Problems

In fact, while design thinking is not exactly the same as the scientific method we learned in school, it bears an uncanny resemblance. - Smashing Magazine

AI And The Mystery Of Consciousness

The collective confusion around the arrival of virtual beings, the horror mingled with wonder, is apparent right from the start. - LitHub

Lessons About Learning From Failure

Many workplaces now lionise (whether sincerely or not is another matter) the importance of learning through failure, and of creating environments that encourage this. - 3 Quarks Daily

What If You Were Unable To Form Any Mental Images?

Aphantasia is a recently-identified variation of human experience affecting 2-5% of the population, in which a person is unable to generate mental imagery. Can you still be an artist? - The Conversation

Made Up Places For Real Interactions

What if cultural endeavors, particularly the public and the performative, are themselves a form of political action? - 3 Quarks Daily

An Ode To Procrastination

When I’m procrastinating, stalling, temporizing, I am defined at the metabolic level by the thing that I am not doing. - The Atlantic

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