IDEAS

How The Humanities Declined Into Crisis

A combination of technological, economic, political, and cultural forces, at work both within and without the university, had by the early 2020s effectively pummeled the tradition of universitarian humanism into unconsciousness. - Chronicle of Higher Education

Why It’s So Difficult To Get Our Heads Around AI

Artificial intelligence is both a technology and a theology, and in its latter aspect, it too often resembles a doctrinal dispute among an assortment of shrieking priests. - The Nation

It’s Our Phones That Have Caused Our Brains To Rot. Not AI

Even if you spend very little time online, there’s little you can do outside the logic of the internet. It is a force that warps our reality, a cosmic background noise that is everywhere and nowhere — something inhuman that’s subtly reshaping our language, our politics, even our minds. - The New York Times

The Industrial Revolution Killed Jobs. To Fill Idle Time With What, Was The Question

It might repay us to take a moment, not just from our jobs but also from our leisures, to make some to-do about doing nothing. - The American Scholar

When Thinking About AI And Authorship, What Is Real?

The further artists move out of amateur hour and into the professional realm, of course, the more we expect their work to reflect their “real” capabilities. But what is real? - The New Yorker

The Fake Fans Problem

In the dream world of an executive, fandom is something like a parasitic disease — contagious through mere exposure, trafficking quickly between hosts with immediate contact and little to no external intervention. - Words from Eliza

Translation Isn’t Just Words, It’s World View. AI Translators So Far Aren’t Good At That

Linguistic diversity among AI systems is real and growing. Cultural worldview diversity, however, has not kept pace. - The Conversation

Heists Are So Hot Right Now, From Art To KitKats, But Why Are We Fascinated?

“What is it about these heists that people like, as long as nobody gets hurt?” - The Guardian (UK)

Making Technology So Easy To Use Was Clearly A Huge Design Error

“What started as a technique to support human understanding in the face of increasingly complex tools became a way to replace human understanding. Ease became an unquestioned good. Complexity became something to hide.” - Slate

Dear NYT Freelancer Who Used AI To ‘Write’ A Book Review, You’ve Missed The Point

“The role of the critic isn’t to summarise or repackage art, but to actively participate in a conversation about it,” and using AI isn’t going to help with that. - The Conversation

What Age-Verification Laws Are Really About: Centralized Control And Censorship

The letter characterizes this tech, also known as “age assurance,” as a tactic for the “centralization of power.” The letter notes, “Those deciding which age-based controls need to exist, and those enforcing them gain a tremendous influence on what content is accessible to whom on the internet.” - The Baffler

Study: UK Teachers Report Decline In Student Cognitive Skills Because Of AI

Two-thirds said they had observed the decline among children who they also said no longer felt the need to spell because of voice-to-text technology. - The Guardian

A Short History Of Pedantry

The academic humanities today broadly maintain the same basic sense of what history is and of the value of studying it that Renaissance humanists developed in their polemics against medieval scholasticism. - Hedgehog Review

How To Build A Diagnostic Brain

Some research suggests that many, if not most, diagnostic errors arise from failures in thinking—cognitive bias, premature closure, insufficient reflection. Accordingly, some researchers frame diagnostic error as largely a problem in clinical judgment. - The Atlantic

Artists Cast Themselves As Humanity’s Last Stand

A flamenco guitarist and juggler explain why they're the antidote to our tech-flattened souls. Because apparently what civilization really needs is more passionate strumming and flying objects to remember we're human. - Aeon

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