Guest Thinkers — August 3, 2011

Video: A Mariachi Band Serenades a Beluga Whale

Lindsay Beyerstein

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

In my Room 101, I am this beluga: Watch.

HT: Loren Beyerstein.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A collage featuring hands holding a plant, additional hands in sepia tone, a grid background, orange accents, and the text "Reclaim Meaning" with the number 4.

Thinking

How to reclaim meaning in a changing world

What if the barrier to a fulfilled life isn’t technology but culture?

Black and white portrait of a man with a thick mustache and short hair, looking slightly to the side.

Thinking

The case for Nietzsche’s “Overhuman” as a prophecy of superintelligent AI

“Could you create a god?” Nietzsche’s titular character asks in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”

Two scientists in lab coats and gloves examine a small transparent plate with colorful dots, held by tweezers, in a laboratory setting.

The Future

The big problems driving nanotech development

It’s been 65 years since Richard Feynman saw “plenty of room” in the nano-world. Are we finally getting down there?

A black-and-white photo of two prisoners in uniforms stands next to a colorful animated image of a hot dog bun character with a sausage character, creating an unexpected juxtaposition that highlights the beauty of contrasts.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: If beauty is subjective, is “Shawshank Redemption” no better than “Sausage Party”?

Will “Sausage Party” survive the test of time?

Global geoid map with colorful variations representing differences in Earth's gravity field. The scale ranges from -100 (low) to 100 (high). Europe's position is central.

Starts With A Bang

Scalar fields: the secret sauce of theoretical physics

Scalars, vectors, and tensors come up all the time in physics. They’re more than mathematical structures. They help describe the Universe.

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Guest Thinkers

Wednesday Whatzits: Orange alert at Cleveland, more Italian eruptions, Kilauea’s lava lakes and more!

Lots of pieces of volcano news I’ve missed reporting over the last week, so I thought I could try to round them all up. Alaska: A 40-meter lava dome/flow was […]