"One of the first people to recognise the problem of disengagement between the arts and sciences was C.P. Snow. He identified the schism in his famous 1959 lecture “Two Cultures“. In it, he argued that the disengagement between the worlds of the sciences and the arts stymied our ability to solve our most pressing problems."
"We commemorate not solely to pay homage to the dead but to learn the lessons of their lives. We commemorate the war and think about the courage and sacrifice of the soldiers, as well, in my opinion, as the immense risks of statecraft and the need to seek de-escalation and diplomacy. Spanish Flu cries out for commemoration because of the millions who died and because of the millions who could die in the future. We have not eliminated the risk of pandemics. We are, in fact, in some ways making ourselves more vulnerable to them." Ben Sixsmith
"My discussion with Gideon made me reflect. If the technology industry is indeed a friendly place for Aspies and those who have subclinical levels of autism traits, then intuitively, it is going to attract and retain more men than women, due to baseline rates of systematising, combined with men’s demonstrated interest in working with “things” rather than people. Stating this is not sexism, it is simply engaging in probabilistic reasoning."
"Yes, of course, that evolved capacity for attachment to those who are close to us—that partiality—is also at the root of the tribalism that wreaks so much misery. The Harvardians deserve kudos for elucidating the dangerous and ugly underside of our partiality. But to fail to allow for the way in which that partiality is also constitutive of what is best in our lives is a mistake."
"The real risk then, is that Artificial General Intelligence is the ultimate winner-take-all scenario. Its inception serves as the harbinger of near-unlimited growth – as a greater-than-human general intelligence necessarily means that it will have a superior working model of intelligence, and, as a result, will be able to create an intelligence that is also greater than itself."
"But recall that Noam Chomsky himself, a titan of left thought, rejected postmodernism for his entire life, and debated Michel Foucault in 1967, dismissing the blank slate and Foucault’s naïve argument that there was no defined human nature. Chomsky traces much of postmodernism to the peculiarities of French intellectuals in Paris, condemning them by noting that many were “the last Stalinists, if they weren’t Stalinists they were Maoists…"
"If Nick Lane and virocell theory are both right, the first living cells emerged from an alkaline hydrothermal vent field where they had evolved over the lifetime of the vent field – say one million years – in a cellular Garden of Eden"
"Scholarship that refuses to be criticized isn’t scholarship; it’s an age-old mimic known as sophistry — the kind of philosophical-looking poppycock that assumes its conclusions and writes endlessly in circles trying to hide that fact. It doesn’t need to be this way. Feminist theory and gender studies more widely could be both worthwhile and interesting if they valued evidence and rigor and accepted criticism. Currently, they do not."
"Serwer is promulgating a polarizing description of reality that rests on erroneous data and gross oversimplification. Worse, his version of events is now being promoted to millions of Americans as “mandatory reading.” Genuine racial hostility undoubtedly motivated a minority subset of Trump voters. But as a liberal alienated by the toxic identitarian political direction of our country, I worry that these broad-brush ‘whitelash’ interpretations allow the Left to demonize millions of Americans and dismiss their concerns."
"She takes a deep breath. “When you see so many who should be supporting you give in to manipulation by your enemy, you just despair. There’s this argument out there that to criticize Islam is considered racist. This is toxic for public debate. I don’t have any problem with being called an Islamophobe. I am indeed a religio-phobe. It’s not a crime to be afraid of religion. To be afraid of religion as a woman is normal.”
A selection of new releases for the brand new year.
Our most read article of 2017 -- a response to the claims made in the infamous Google Memo -- by psychologists Lee Jussim, David Schmitt and Geoffrey Miller and neuroscientist Debra Soh.
Our 2nd most read article of 2017 came from clinician & social worker Lisa Marchiano.
Our 3rd most popular article this year came from Swedish journalist Paulina Neuding.
Our 4th most popular article of 2017 was Jeffrey Tayler's profile of the brave and eloquent freedom-fighter Sarah Haider.
Our 5th most popular article was from evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller.
Our 6th most popular article of 2017
Read our 8th most popular article of 2017
