Guest Thinkers — February 16, 2011

Notebook Musings 4

Scott McLeod

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

(Seth Godin, The Big Moo, 2005, p. 35)

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Do gravitons need to exist?

Electromagnetism, both nuclear forces, and even the Higgs force are mediated by known bosons. What about gravity? Does it require gravitons?

An open ancient book reveals two pages, intricately illustrated with a pentagram and hexagram, surrounded by handwritten text in a faded script that whispers secrets of necromancy.

The Past

The “Demon Method”: How necromancy once solved everyone’s problems

Grab a sword, a small plate, and a young child. We’ve got a demon to summon.

Starts With A Bang

The 16 stories that shaped physics and astronomy in 2024

There was a lot of hype and a lot of nonsense, but also some profoundly major advances. Here are the biggest ones you may have missed.

A painting on an easel at the entrance of Plato's cave overlooks misty mountains, with a small fire flickering nearby.

Thinking

Plato’s cave and the stubborn persistence of ignorance

Plato’s cave metaphor illustrates the cognitive trap of ignorance, where we may be unaware of the limitations of our understanding.

The Future

Can humans purge the bots without sacrificing our privacy?

“Personhood” credentials could cleanse the internet of bots — but are the costs worth it?

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