Security is perhaps the most well-known illusion human beings have contrived. From the cursory seduction of emotional stability to the wrathful manifestation of raging armies, the painful longing for complete […]
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Recent break-ins at several Texas hotels have been traced to a digital pickpocketing tool that takes advantage of a security vulnerability in locks found in millions of rooms worldwide.
Our prehistoric ancestors are the ones who did the heavy mental lifting for which we owe our expanded frontal cortexes. So who has the right brain for today?
British Airways passengers can now be assured of finishing any in-flight movies they watch, thanks to an agreement between the airline and the UK government.
Jeff DeGraff: At Christmas, I change from one culture into another and yet another still and back again.
Here, in a Big Think interview at his Beijing studio, Ai Weiwei discusses the challenges China faces to becoming a truly “great nation.”
Like any big, bold idea, Elon Musk’s plan for colonizing Mars strikes you at first glance as indeed crazy. And yet, the reason for Musk’s success in leading four of the most innovative companies in America is that he is analytically minded, first and foremost.
Should employees be incentivized to deliver high performance on day-to-day tasks? Of course we need that, but 20-30 percent of incentives should be based on “breakthrough new pathways for the company, experiments,” says entrepreneur Jack Hidary.
Next in the company’s plans for world domination: The ability to find answers to the questions you normally don’t think of going to a computer to ask.
The University of Cambridge has set up a center designed to examine the risks posed by advancing technologies and climate changes to the survival of the human species.
My latest column has been posted on AlterNet, 50 Reasons to Boycott the Catholic Church. In it, as you might have guessed from the title, I list fifty arguments for […]
We’re having a conference—sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute—at Berry College next Friday and Saturday on POP CULTURE and REAL CULTURE. All the details can be found here. YOU are […]
I was touring a tony private school the other day and came home impressed but disquieted. The teachers and parents were welcoming, genuinely pleasant and unfailingly polite, yet I felt […]
Increased benefit choice brings along with it increased risk. For instance, what if employees choose options like paid time off at the expense of long-term benefits that will be much more valuable to themselves and their families over time?
In his recent post, fellow Big Think blogger Adam Lee blames the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict on competing religious fundamentalisms. The recent renewal of fighting on the Gaza border, he writes, […]
Participants from various Asian countries recently attended a conference in Bangkok centering on transforming men’s beliefs about themselves, including “sexual entitlement” that often leads to violence against women.
If you devote the patience necessary to finish this short post, you will end up a better decision maker. But then, as you will discover in the paragraphs below, […]
New Delhi’s MedTech Row is home to a growing number of health sector companies, partnerships, and nonprofits that are focusing on how to provide affordable care to the country’s poorest citizens.
For those of us who are committed to creating a better world how do we respond to the evil and heinous acts of our violent past? I just got back […]
After several days, the fragile ceasefire in the latest iteration of Israel and Gaza’s endless war is still holding. But while the bombs were falling, there was no shortage of […]
An innovative program in La Paz provides one free meal consisting of foods made from traditional ingredients. Malnutrition is down, but obesity is up.
Several case studies suggest that the absence of non-verbal communication cues and a tendency to idealize online relationships can result in symptoms of psychosis.
Despite our growing understanding of how the human brain works, myths persist among the public at large and even among educators who express an interest in neuroscience.
With their unique prefab approach, a Chinese company has already built a 15-story hotel in 48 hours and a 30-story tower in 15 days. This one — 220 stories — is scheduled to be completed by March.
In Ghana, where 96 percent of citizens identify as religious according to a recent poll, a conference held last weekend drew humanists from across West Africa.
Distinctions matter in debate. When we conflate and equate, for example, controversial groups of people that are not the same, it means we are not reacting accurately. For example, just […]
New “deep-learning” software helps computers recognize patterns in large data sets the same way the human brain recognizes patterns in the world. The result has been much better A.I.
The Guardian’s Oliver Burkeman explains why new age authors like Deepak Chopra shouldn’t be ignored because they are labeled as pseudoscience. Wisdom needn’t be scientific, says Burkeman.
We have a background assumption that we are living in a technologically-accelerating civilization. Peter Thiel has a different view of where we are headed, and he says we need to fight hard to improve our future prospects.
Neuroscientists at MIT and Boston University have located pairs of neuron ensembles that oscillate differently depending on which thought is being entertained, illuminating a mystery of cognition.