Stories

Maybe the nightmare about AI isn’t that it will go rogue and threaten our existence with lethal viruses. Maybe the likely endgame is similar to the enchanted broom—more mundane but no less messy: humanity flooded with bullshit. - The Walrus

It’s the age-old problem of the relationship between the good and the popular. Plato saw the popular as the enemy of the good, but then he is at one end of the scale, famously arguing that democracy was bad because it confused the good with the popular. - 3 Quarks Daily

"When I'm in my practice sessions with my breakdance crew, sometimes I put some classical instrumental music and I invite them to actually explore that because music dictates movement. - NPR

“We’re the first to see our downtown as impacted as it is, because when we said ‘Work from home,’ everyone just grabbed a laptop, and boom!” That reliance on tech made downtown especially vulnerable. - The New Yorker

Bound together as parasite/host, neither people nor technologies can exist apart from the other because they are constitutive prostheses of each other. Such an interrelation is not unique to human beings. - Noema

The biggest windfall is headed straight to Swift, who stands to make as much as $4.1 billion from the Eras Tour, according to estimates from Peter Cohan, an associate professor of management at Babson College. - Washington Post

Google said on Thursday that it will defend users of generative artificial-intelligence systems in its Google Cloud and Workspace platforms if they are accused of intellectual property violations, joining, Adobe and other companies that have made similar pledges. - Reuters

Marvel has been mighty tight-lipped about where things are headed, so possibly dubious casting rumors are all obsessive fans have. - Washington Post

Our hardwired love for "cute" may cause a few issues as "new robotic or artificial personas use cuteness to solicit our affection." - The Guardian (UK)

The statement comes hours after Martyn Brabbins said he could not “in all conscience continue to support the Board and Management’s strategy for the future of the company.” Brabbins resigned after the ENO announced plans to cut 19 musical staff positions and put the remaining staff on part-time contracts. - OperaWire

Walt visited an English village and heard a lot of tales about his purported ancestors - and thus, in Norton Disney, was the Disney crest born. - BBC

Patrick Page - the voice of Hades in Hadestown - loves being a villain, or, currently, all of Shakespeare's bad guys. - Slate

They destroyed it - or rather, transformed it, turned it into a web. Will that work in a world obsessed with rankings? - American Theatre

Weirdly: "People who do not know how librarians select material are much more likely to also believe librarians should be prosecuted for that material." - BookRiot

If filmmakers want to tell the stories of the Native peoples of the U.S., well, there's a lot to choose from. - Los Angeles Times