EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Being Thoughtful In The Age Of A.I. Key Takeaway: Concerns about AI’s potential roguehood and potential harm to privacy and dignity are a significant concern. AI’s algorithms, programmed by humans, are also biased and discriminatory. However, a psychologist’s research suggests that AI is a threat to making people less disciplined and skilled in making thoughtful decisions. Making thoughtful decisions involves understanding the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK The Economics Of Betrayal Key Takeaway: Judas Iscariot, a disciple of Jesus, is often associated with treachery and betrayal due to his loyalty. However, research suggests that acts of betrayal are rare, as most humans can be trusted due to their interests. In a trust game, the sender can keep the money or send it to the receiver, who […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE Why We Will Never Master The Financial Markets Key Takeaways: Stock market enthusiasts often claim to predict financial market trends with great accuracy, but this is not possible due to the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of the environments in which we make daily decisions. Human cognition tends to favor a reductionist approach to information processing, sometimes called “tunneling,” which can lead to biased […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE The Halo Effect Key Takeaway: A recent study suggests that the “halo effect” is more complicated than previously thought, as attractive people may receive more help from strangers, higher wages, and more job opportunities. This can lead to more favorable treatment in life, such as lighter prison sentences. However, in court, jurors show biases, and more attractive defendants […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SOCIOLOGY How A.I. Might Shape Religion Key Takeaway: AI is transforming our engagement with faith and spirituality by making access to ancient texts easier and enabling AI-tutors to guide people through them. However, AI also poses challenges, such as misinformation and misrepresentation, which could lead to hate crimes and community tensions. In the future, AI will become a co-pilot for all […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY The Secret Science Behind Dating Apps Key Takeaway: Research shows that viewing dating profiles can influence our judgments, particularly in terms of facial attractiveness. Sequential effects, or “serial dependence,” are a type of bias in psychology that affects how we judge the current item. High similarity between faces leads to more assimilation, while low similarity produces less or even contrast. These […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE Does Science Show Free Will Doesn’t Exist? Key Takeaway: Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky’s book, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, has been criticized for arguing that free will is an illusion. Determinism, the idea that we are causally determined to act as we do due to our histories, is a radical position that only 11% of philosophers agree with. However, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE How Christmas Music Brainwashes Us To Spend More Key Takeaway: Research shows that people worldwide are unaware of how what they hear affects their attitudes and behavior. This year, Tesco’s Christmas advert features OMC’s “How Bizarre” song, while John Lewis’s features a young boy raising a Venus flytrap to Andrea Bocelli’s “Festa”. Morrisons and Waitrose use 1980s hits, while Marks & Spencer uses […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY How A.I. Sees The World Key Takeaway: A team of researchers has used a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to study satellite imagery and identify certain types of poverty with accuracy close to that of household surveys. This technology could help in developing countries where land use changes rapidly, monitoring via satellite and potentially identifying areas in need of aid. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY The Philosophy Of Parenthood Key Takeaway: Anti-natalism is a philosophical view that it is ethically wrong to bring anyone else into being, focusing on worries about suffering and choice. It is not an exclusively modern attitude, but it is based on ancient Greek playwright Sophocles’ belief that life contains far more suffering than good. Contemporary arguments focus on the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Did Ancient Scientists & Philosophers Believe In Aliens? Key Takeaway: In 17th-century Europe, there was a debate about the existence of life on other planets due to the transition from a Ptolemaic view to a Copernican view. This led to the idea that if we were more like other planets and moons close to us that revolved around the Sun, they were more […] Written by Philip Almond April 17, 2024April 17, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Building Blocks Of The Universe Key Takeaway: Peter Higgs, the creator of the Higgs boson, has died at the age of 94. Higgs, a great scientist in particle physics, discovered the Higgs boson in 1964 after reading a paper by American theoretical physicist Philip Anderson. This led to the development of the Standard Model, which explained how fundamental particles and […] Written by Harald Fox April 16, 2024April 16, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Proven 5 Steps To Psychological Wellness Key Takeaway: Wellness culture, which claims to provide happiness and meaning, has been criticized for its superficial focus on superficial aspects like candles and juice cleanses. Psychological research suggests that long-term wellbeing comes from a committed pursuit of both pleasure and meaning. Martin Seligman’s Perma model, which breaks wellbeing into five pillars: positive emotions, engagement, […] Written by Ben Gibson April 8, 2024April 8, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
When Will Quantum Computers Actually Become Practical? Key Takeaway: Quantum computing, which uses entanglement to represent information, has the potential to revolutionize everyday life. However, the development of quantum computers has been slow due to the need to demonstrate an advantage over classical computers. Only a few notable quantum algorithms have been developed, such as the BB84 protocol and Shor’s algorithm, which […] Written by Adam Lowe April 4, 2024April 4, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Predicting China’s Economy In 2024 Key Takeaway: China’s leaders have declared a GDP growth target of 5% in 2024, despite facing economic problems and a property crisis. The country’s rapid economic growth has been attributed to market incentives, cheap labor, infrastructure investment, exports, and foreign direct investment. However, none of these drivers are working effectively. The government’s determination to deflate […] Written by Hong Bo April 3, 2024April 3, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Of Human Computing Key Takeaway: Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, aims to implant a brain-computer interface (BCI) in people’s brains, allowing them to control computers or phones by thought alone. This technology holds the promise of alleviating human suffering and allowing people with disabilities to regain lost capacities. However, the long-term aspirations of Neuralink include the ability to […] Written by Allan McCay April 2, 2024April 2, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Real Mystery Of Sand Dunes Key Takeaway: Sand dunes, primarily formed of quartz and feldspar grains, can also be formed from ash, snow, and gypsum. They can record a history of climate changes and can be enormous, with the largest being as tall as skyscrapers. Only a fifth of deserts are covered by sand dunes, and only about a fifth […] Written by David Thomas April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction โ a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Ravenโs Matrices โ has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Instituteโs new report, โReskilling China: Transforming The Worldโs Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learnersโ, which focuses on the countryโs biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why Youโre Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business Iโm about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and Iโll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what โcommunityโ means for business. โWhere should community fit in my organization?โ and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked