Because intelligence is such a strong genetic trait, rapidly advancing genetics research could result in the ability to create a class of super-intelligent humans one-thousand times higher in IQ than today’s most brilliant thinkers.
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Psychophysics secretly permeates our people-sciences (it assumes we’re motivated by physics-like forces). But as every infant—each a great causality detector—knows, but many scientists ignore, people aren’t biological billiard balls. 1. […]
While it’s more pleasant to be pleasant with those around you, being a crank can have its benefits when it comes to getting your way.
For those of us young enough to have grown up in a world in which the internet has always been a thing, these maps of the web from 10-15 years ago are practically relics from an ancient time.
“War is simply a continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means,” Carl von Clausewitz wrote in his famous book on battle strategy, On War. Many misquote that […]
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store, explains that his employees are the company’s most valuable asset and that it’s important to pay them what their worth to foster a positive workplace culture.
There is a point beyond which life is no longer worth living, both because of diminished mental and physical capacities, and because of how the living will remember us.
Two astronomers have a new theory which suggests that intelligent life on planet Earth may be as old as can be expected in our galaxy.
The Norwegian town of Lillestrøm recently undertook an experiment that demonstrated the economic value of emission-free transportation by giving cash to its citizens.
Although Isaac Asimov declined to participate in a 1959 government-run conference for anti-ballistic missile technology he did pen some thoughts about the nature of creativity.
Two U.N. rapporteurs have advised Detroit’s government that its actions risk violating international human rights norms as a result of its shutoff policy.
A great number of stories in the Western “literary” canon were not written to be read at all, but rather to be seen on stage in the purview of the live theatre.
We often extrapolate from coincidental events to say they “happen for a reason,” suggesting that there is a greater meaning to them. Even atheists do it, but is it good for us or society?
And what it might — and might not — give us useful insights into. Image credit: Karen46 of http://www.freeimages.com/profile/karen46. “The anthropic principle – the idea that our universe has the properties it does because […]
Mark Hatch, a leader of the Maker Movement, is CEO of the DIY workshop TechShop. Hatch explains how TechShop allows makers the opportunity to harness its resources to innovate and create amazing things.
Some neuromyths — incorrect statements about how the brain works — have become “common knowledge,” repeated by educators and used to influence everything from public policy to parenting practices. It’s time for that to change.
Serial tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has established a $100,000,000 fund to support start-ups that seek to bring about a sci-fi future in the present.
Ayah Bdeir had a dream – take electronics out of the hands of experts and large companies and put them in the hands of ordinary people in order to make […]
Where most designers with a focus on senior living strive to make tasks easier, Tommy Dykes hopes his designs will encourage curiosity and promote conversation.
With the iconic pillars and fairy inside, this star-forming region in our galactic plane just might be the most spectacular of them all. Image credit: ESO, via http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0926a/. “The most […]
About 75% of Americans aged 18 to 30 disenfranchised themselves by not voting in the 2010 midterm elections. The Economist recently explored the political apprehensions of the country’s most fickle voter bloc.
The popular party drug causes the brain to release huge amounts of serotonin, dopamine, and other pleasure-inducing chemicals. But when the body seeks to restore equilibrium, sometimes too many of the chemicals get destroyed leaving the user with a depressing and lethargic hangover.
The more time you and your employees spend answering the same old questions, the less time you have to conduct business. Empower your customers by providing simple avenues by which they can find answers to all the usual queries.
“A writer — and, I believe, generally all persons — must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.”
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.”
When Howard Zinn first published A People’s History of the United States in 1980, he hoped to start a “quiet revolution” in the way people viewed history. By giving voice […]
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof discusses the importance of a compelling narrative that appeals to human biases when promoting a good cause.
The terrible injustice of Jerrie Cobb, who deserved to be the first female astronaut, yet never made it to space at all. Image credit: © 2011 501(c)(3) Non Profit National […]
Google’s self-driving car and the automobile industry’s related efforts are breathing life into the seven-plus decade dream of the automated highway, which was first introduced as a concept at the 1939 […]