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
If excessively strong cravings were simply the result of drugs corrupting the reward systems in the brain, they should be produced across individuals who use drugs repeatedly over time. This is not the case. - Aeon
Deepfakes have brought with them a new level of uncertainty around digital media. To detect deepfakes, many researchers have turned to analyzing visual artifacts – minute glitches and inconsistencies – found in video deepfakes. - The Conversation
 Arts of illusion are often taken for granted, explained away as a series of clever tricks, but in the sharp and magical transition from possible to impossible we find answers to some of the most fundamental questions in philosophy and cognitive science. - Psyche
Our current debates about disinformation and the pernicious effects of social media could be rather more productive if the participants would bother to read Lippmann—not because Lippmann provides any workable solutions, but because his analysis of the extent of the problem is so clear-eyed. - The Bulwark
Other winners included a study of why ducklings swim in a straight line formation (the physics prize), research on ritual enemas in Mayan pottery (the art history prize), and developing an algorithm to help gossips decide when to tell the truth and when to lie (the peace prize). - Ars Technica
The groups with blowhards were less neurally aligned than were those with mediators, the study found. Perhaps more surprising, the mediators drove consensus not by pushing their own interpretations, but by encouraging others to take the stage and then adjusting their own beliefs — and brain patterns. - The New York Times
You want to be happy and well, but your messy circumstances bite and gnaw at you relentlessly, distracting you from the habits of thought and action that could help you find enjoyment and remember the meaning in your life. - The Atlantic
It's a soft power wave. "My resigned teenage self could never have imagined that one day, my non-Korean friends would be recapping the latest hit K-dramas before I’d heard of them, or that I’d be shopping for Gotchu hot sauce ... in Brooklyn." - The Guardian (UK)
