If Julius Caesar hadn’t accidentally burned down the Library of Alexandria, the story goes, we long ago would have colonized Mars. That notion, popularized by Carl Sagan, among others, is that the […]
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This blog was originally posted on Law Think. MON 21/5/2012 Immigration: House of Commons A brief discussion was had concerning immigration and Article 8. New immigration rules will be in […]
As part of considering the costs and benefits of major regulations, the federal government assigns a dollar value to human life. This is not a real person, just an […]
One of the great mysteries of art is why it exists. Although our desire to create and enjoy art is so widespread that it appears as natural as eating or […]
Interview with Jason Silva by Frank Rose One afternoon recently I spent a couple of hours with Jason Silva, the longtime Current TV host who’s been making much-talked-about micro-videos about the […]
“Facebook is worth $100 billion, but all I got was this lousy status update.” That just about sums up the type of public sentiment that has been inundating the Internet […]
The battle over Bisphenol A (BPA) rages on, and continues to teach lessons far beyond the particulars of the issue itself. Environmentalists argue that BPA (the supposedly dangerous chemical […]
Humor fosters community and builds character, two virtues that educational reformers neglect.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, it is a very popular idea in psychology, philosophy and various social sciences that people experience their lives as a story or collection of […]
We were promised Jetsons-style helpers but all we have is a big hockey puck that vacuums hardwood floors. Will inventors ever create great humanoid robots? If they do, will we accept them?
I agree with the sagacious Carl Scott that the conservative bloggers have gone too far in their attacks on our president’s Occidental professor Roger Boesche. Obama called Boesche his favorite professor at Occidental, and he […]
The consistency of individual autonomy, as Mill outlined, indicates that just as we can live as we wish (with certain constraints), we ought to be able to die as we […]
Even though AI systems are no substitute for interactions with a real human, they do have the potential to improve our quality of life.
Earlier this week I caught a post on Lindsay Beyerstein’s blog Duly Noted, highlighting a horrifying NYT story wrestling with the question of whether children can be psychopaths, and if […]
In 2003, a man broke into Vonette W.’s house in the middle of the night, wearing a scarf to cover his face. He held a gun to her head and […]
Google’s “augmented reality” glasses are upon us, complete with stylish company codename (“Project Glass”) and Orwellian rhetorical judo: “People I have spoken with [i.e., Google employees] who have have seen Project […]
Many of the physical spaces occupied by our institutions—office buildings, universities, shopping malls—are nothing more than low-bandwidth information transfer. Say goodbye to them.
People who think intelligence is malleable are more likely to learn from their mistakes, indicates new research. Those who think intelligence is a fixed quality learn less.
They are looking for Etan Patz again. He was 6 years old when he went missing in New York City in 1979, a disappearance that, along with those of […]
Today the Friends of Yemen met in Riyadh. One of the key issues, as it often is at these meetings, is that of foreign aid. Several days ago a group […]
“Are great musician born or made?” That question was posed by Gary Marcus, who at the age of 38, wondered if he could overcome a lifetime of musical failure – […]
Ever find yourself dozing off during a lecture or seminar? Dread walking through those classroom doors because you know exactly what’s on the other side? Just the sight of a […]
Valentine’s Day is really just a massive coordinated signaling opportunity that taps into our need to think about “value” in relative, rather than absolute, terms.
Hacking is about having a small group of individuals who are skilled enough to attack much larger prey. Thanks to their attack, future technological innovations flourish—for a time…
One of the interesting developments in the Asian start-up scene over the last year has been the invasion of Western venture capital firms. Someone has obviously predicted that Asian tech […]
Rather than being afraid of our new publicness, says Jarvis, we ought to use it to solve some of our most complex problems.
What if all the study habits you were taught in school are wrong? Psychologists now say not to take notes, to stop studying for extended periods and to study in many different places.
A new report by the Pew Global Attitudes Project reinforces the widespread judgment that America is in decline. It observes that “perceptions of China’s economic power continue to grow” among […]
The information age has already touched most industries, disrupting the flow of goods and services. With the ability to track and aggregate massive amounts of patient data, health care is next.
In a post last May, entitled The First Trillionaires Will Make Their Fortunes in Space, we speculated about how the future explorers of space will be chasing unimaginable riches: As Peter Diamandis […]