What defines humanity is not just our unusual level of intelligence, but also how we capitalize on that intelligence... If we merely lived up to our scientific classification—Homo sapiens—and just sat around thinking all day, we’d be much different creatures. - The Atlantic
"Urban planners, architects and designers around the world are looking to make cities spongier—using nature-based solutions to better absorb water," and that's where playgrounds come in. Instead of asphalt, grass - "or at least porous turf." - Fast Company
The relationship between sleep, dreaming, and creativity has been the subject of conjecture for hundreds of years. Reports of creative inspiration and discoveries made by artists, inventors, and scientists while dreaming suggest these states of mind are intimately bound together. - Nautilus
The worst abusers of the technology tend to be the hardest to catch, operating anonymously, adapting quickly and sharing their synthetic creations through borderless online platforms. - The New York Times
The pandemic accelerated a generational shift: "Past program choices are not adequately energizing younger audiences. They want the experience to be new and different, on their feet, immersed in the experience and socially connected." - Seattle Times
Turns out it's what's already in your mouth. "When people eat, he explains, they don’t actually savor the food itself, but a mixture of the food plus saliva." - Smithsonian
Things didn't go well: "Because an AI program can’t 'be there,' it ends up, like a lazy college freshman, culling what material it can find floating around the internet and regurgitating it in a generic format." And the factual errors weren't great either. - Dallas Morning News
Transhumanism emerged as a distinct school of thought in the 1980s, when philosophers, scientists, and artists began to think intensively about how technology might transform human bodies and minds. - American Scholar
It's all going to plan. But also, "Anime's fans are largely online, and the pandemic — when people were suddenly able to focus on at-home or online interests — helped fuel growth." - NPR
"You might be desperate to find a grant ... to allow you to write for two weeks. Or you might have all the money in the world, but other hindrances to you getting to the page. How do we overcome that and live a life that’s dedicated to art?" - Slate
Since 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has been investigating what makes people flourish. After starting with 724 participants the study incorporated the spouses of the original men and, more recently, more than 1,300 descendants of the initial group. - The Atlantic
Smart Questions are, typically, kind of dumb. And, just as typical, questions that might initially seem dumb or underinformed, or downright unintelligent, are the smartest way to learn stuff if you’re a journalist, an academic, or anybody else. - The Atlantic
While there will always be a need for essays and written assignments – especially in the humanities, where they are essential to help students develop a critical voice – do we really need all students to be writing the same essays and responding to the same questions? - The Conversation
For Herbert Read, “culture” is capitalism’s breaking apart of life and art, and the subsequent fencing off of the poet, the architect, and the painter into separate institutions, giving politicians titles such as Minister for Culture, and making artists subservient not to the “natural” forms of life but the will of political power. - Jacobin
