Culture & Religion — May 23, 2010

The Bilbao Effect

Can investment in the arts be justified as a solution to the economic crisis? No, writes Prospect Magazine, and the illusion that it can or should devalues the arts’ role in society.

bigthinkeditor

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Can investment in the arts be justified as a solution to the economic crisis? No, writes Prospect Magazine, and the illusion that it can or should devalues the arts’ role in society. “The arts are certainly crucial to the cultural health and prestige of a successful city, region or nation. But to expect an arts centre or festival to be the primary trigger of regeneration has been the fallacy of a generation.”

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The Present

Growth is killing us: An interview with Jason Hickel

The British economic anthropologist Jason Hickel proposes “degrowth” in the face of recession.

Food Stamp President? The Science of Why Gingrich’s Race-Tinged Label Sticks

In Monday’s GOP primary debate, Newt Gingrich earned praise from conservatives while drawing justifiable anger from many for his labeling of Barack Obama as the “food stamp president.” As the […]

Culture & Religion

Reflexive urbanism

This essay describes a model for urban development that takes into account and makes use of the externalities that exist in the built environment. Buildings and the people that inhabitat them makes neighborhoods and vice versa the value of a building is in its locations. How can better frame this relationship between an object and its environment? How can develop strategies for a integral area development that learn from the best global examples?

Person sitting at a dimly lit table with a laptop, using a smartphone. Another person is visible in the background. There are buildings and lights visible through the window.

Neuropsych

Are you a workaholic? How to spot the signs

In a major shift, psychologists now view an out-of-control compulsion to work as an addiction with its own set of risk factors and consequences.

A close-up view of a computer graphics card featuring an array of components, including capacitors, resistors, and a central processing chip, all mounted on a black circuit board.

The Future

The AI chip startup that could take down Nvidia

Just eight of Etched’s Sohu chips could replace 160 Nvidia GPUs.

Up Next

Technology & Innovation

Helping Hand

MIT’s Yasheng Huang says the U.S. would help repair the global economy more by teaching China about small business administration than politicizing its currency exchange rate.