All Videos — April 6, 2011

What Do Toddlers and Shakespeare Have in Common?

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

They both experiment with language, recombining words and phrases in novel ways. Steven Pinker explains how his studies in childhood linguistics try to shed light on linguistic creativity in general.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Silhouette of a person against a blue background, overlaid with white node and line networks.

Thinking

Mechanized minds: AI’s hidden impact on human thought

While we’re busy wondering whether machines will ever become conscious, we rarely stop to ask: What happens to us?

Starts With A Bang

Political realities do not change scientific ones

In partisan political times, recognizing the scientific truth is more important than ever. Scientists must be vocal and clear about reality.

Colorful geometric design painted on the balustrades of a staircase against a pale building background.

Neuropsych

Color is in the eye, and brain, of the beholder

The color of the shirt you’re wearing right now depends on many factors, from your eye shape to what language you speak.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Is antigravity even possible?

Humans, when we consider space travel, recognize the need for gravity. Without our planet, is artificial or antigravity even possible?

A robotic hand and a human hand reach towards each other, with a glowing DNA helix in the background, symbolizing humanity's last exam in the intersection of technology and biology.

Starts With A Bang

Why “humanity’s last exam” will ultimately fail humanity

A crowdsourced “final exam” for AI promises to test LLMs like never before. Here’s how the idea, and its implementation, dooms us to fail.

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Guest Thinkers

Write Like Shakespeare

This is Twilight, for poets. It’s not designed to fly over your head; it’s designed as to shoot straight to your heart.