"Using the data we collected, we experimented with every feature of our games to see which versions allowed us to extract the most time and money from our players. For us, game addiction was by design: It meant success for our business." - The New York Times
Humanities departments have to face up to what's happening to their students, both undergrad and (here, the news is even worse) graduate students. Where can history majors, for instance, get jobs? "We must do a much better job of providing students with windows into careers." - Inside Higher Ed
The brain begins becoming less connected within those separate networks and more connected globally across networks. By the time we reach our 80s, the brain tends to be less regionally specialized and instead broadly connected and integrated. - Big Think
A state compelling social-media companies to host all user content without restrictions isn’t merely “the most angrily incoherent First Amendment decision I think I’ve ever read.” It’s also the type of ruling that threatens to blow up the architecture of the internet. - The Atlantic
Physicists and philosophers may have different approaches to the structure of time, but what unites them is a rejection of the notion that that there is a ‘now’, a present moment, that moves from the past toward the future. If that is true, and time does not really move, we are left with a question. Psyche
One thing that sleep researchers are pretty sure of is that every system in our body seems to be impacted by sleep. When we miss out on sleep, it impairs our circulation, our digestion, immune system, metabolism, and of course, brain function. In fact, if you go without sleep long enough, you will die. - Quanta
This raises the possibility that laughter may have been preserved by natural selection throughout the past millennia to help humans survive. It could also explain why we are drawn to people who make us laugh. - The Conversation
Will a new generation of warehouse robots that can grasp goods almost as well as human hands make work better or easier for the people doing these jobs? Or will the technological evolution eliminate the need for these workers and their jobs? - Vox
“That was the problem. Using music, rather than having it be its own experience … What kind of music am I going to use to set a mood for the day? What am I going to use to enjoy my walk? I started not really liking what that meant.” - The Guardian
An ambient culture of shame saturates the online social environment. On such platforms as Twitter or TikTok or YouTube the risk of humiliation is ever present. Some online performers have neutralized the threat of cringe through stylized self-embarrassment. - The Yale Review
Everything has a potential to be used as a weapon—imagery, words, music, text. But we also see an opportunity here for people who never knew that they had access to art. - The Atlantic
"Technological changes may seem inevitable, but they often come down to one person making an arbitrary choice. If Henry Ford had decided to build electric cars rather than gas-powered ones, it would have changed the course of our whole civilization." - Wired
Our nation once idolized astronauts and civil-rights leaders who inspired hope and empathy. Now it worships tech innovators who generate billions and move financial markets. We acclaimed the power of technology, and so technology has gained the most power. - The Atlantic
Analytic philosophers avoided the subject of meaning in life till relatively recently. The standard explanation is that they associated it with the meaning of life question they considered bankrupt. But it’s surely also because the subject conflicts with some of the core tendencies of the analytic tradition. - The Point
With the proper setup, Whisper could easily be used to transcribe interviews, podcasts, and potentially translate podcasts produced in non-English languages to English on your machine—for free. - Ars Technica
