EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY The Dark Side Of Digital Drama Key Takeaway: The subreddit “Am I the Asshole?” has become a cultural phenomenon, with 20 million members and a focus on dissecting digital disputes. The platform encourages users to share stories about their non-violent conflicts, transforming them into moral judgments with quick votes and comments. AITA’s success lies in its structured approach to storytelling, which […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Science Fiction Feedback Loop Key Takeaway: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sparked controversy by referencing the 2013 movie “Her” to highlight the novelty of ChatGPT’s latest iteration. Actor Scarlett Johansson accused the company of improperly using her voice after she spurned their offer to make her the voice of ChatGPT’s new virtual assistant. This highlights the “sci-fi feedback loop,” which […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Unconventional Origins Of Artificial Limbs Key Takeaway: The idea that humans can alter patients’ bodies in difficult and invasive ways has its roots in the American Civil War, which led to the development of amputation techniques and artificial limb design. By 1700, Europeans began to believe they could use amputation along with artificial limbs to shape the body. This change […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Inherent Risks Of A.I. Key Takeaway: Leading scientists and technologists often make terrible predictions about the direction of innovation, leading to misalignments between a company’s economic incentives to profit from its proprietary AI model and society’s interests in how the AI model should be monetised and deployed. Focusing on the economic risks from AI is not just about preventing […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY 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 […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS The Problem With Fashion Key Takeaway: The fashion industry relies on storytelling to create fashionable garments and spread positive messages about issues. However, it can also drive overconsumption and perpetuate unrealistic beauty expectations. The industry’s global reach allows for easy sharing of visual cues and messaging, especially during times of social and political unease. The UN’s report urges storytellers, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Do Racehorses Even Know They’re Racing? Key Takeaway: Horse racing is a spectacle where horses race to win a race. From a horse’s perspective, winning a race has few intrinsic rewards. While being first to reach the finishing post is important for the horse’s human connections, there is little direct benefit to motivate it to voluntarily gallop faster. Horses are social […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Is Being A Race Car Driver Physically Demanding? Key Takeaway Race car drivers face unique challenges such as physical effort, heat, and metabolic heat. They must constantly engage their arms, upper body, and legs to control the vehicle, generating G-forces that can cause muscle fatigue. Safety gear traps driver body heat, and the cars with roofs can generate a massive amount of heat, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Do I Even Exist? Brave New World. The Matrix. The Truman Show. Inception. Source Code. And the latest dystopia I’ve seen: Archive. They all trade on the same group of basic structures: the idea that we do not exist, and moreover, may never have; that we are but algorithms; that we are mere vestiges of something past; or that reality is anything but real, in spite of the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY Amazon And Quantum Computing One of the most commonly used examples used in schools and colleges to explain the need for quantum computing is the so-called traveling salesman problem, which requires complex combinatorial optimization skills to solve the following question: “Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Of Power Generation With Black Holes Key Takeaway: Black holes, a potential energy source, have been the subject of theoretical research since the 1970s. The Zel’dovich Effect, a theory that rotating objects could amplify energy waves, was tested in 2020. The experiment confirmed that a rotating cylinder could amplify sound waves and electromagnetic waves, revealing similarities between the rotating cylinder and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 19, 2024September 19, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secret Life Of Sunflowers Key Takeaway: Plants, once considered passive life forms, are now found to be dynamic and responsive. Researchers discovered that even seemingly insignificant behaviors, such as circumnutations, can have a profound impact on their survival and productivity. Sunflowers, for example, self-organize in a zigzag pattern to maximize sunlight exposure, promoting healthy growth and increased yield. This […] Written by Empirics Asia September 18, 2024September 18, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Volcanoes On The Moon? Key Takeaway: China’s Chang’e 5 mission has challenged long-held assumptions about the Moon’s volcanic past, suggesting eruptions occurred far more recently than expected. The lunar landscape might not have been as dormant as once believed, with volcanic activity on the Moon potentially being active as recently as 120 million years ago. The findings suggest that […] Written by Empirics Asia September 10, 2024September 10, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Freud’s Forgotten Theory: The Hidden Desires Behind Creativity and Genius Key Takeaway: Sigmund Freud’s theory of sublimation aimed to explain why some people display extraordinary talent by transforming repressed sexual desires into creative or intellectual prowess. He believed that Leonardo da Vinci’s life and work exemplified this process, as he left many of his paintings unfinished and engaged in scientific experiments that derailed his artistic […] Written by Empirics Asia September 9, 2024September 9, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Upcoming Revolution For Global Internet Access Key Takeaway: High-altitude platform stations (HAPS) are emerging as a new frontier in communications technology, offering a unique blend of accessibility and affordability. Positioned between 4 and 30 miles above Earth, these stations bring telecommunications equipment closer to the surface than satellites, resulting in stronger, higher-capacity signals. Researchers have demonstrated that HAPS could provide high-speed […] Written by Empirics Asia September 6, 2024September 6, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Mystery Of Horse Domestication Key Takeaway: Horse domestication remains a mystery, despite its significant impact on human civilization. The Indo-European or “Kurgan hypothesis” suggests that horse domestication began on the steppes of western Asia, specifically among the Yamnaya people. However, recent advances in technology have revealed that the horses from the Botai culture were not the ancestors of today’s […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2024September 5, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why Profit Alone Won’t Save Us Key Takeaway: A study by researchers has found that companies can make a difference without sacrificing financial performance by integrating social and environmental concerns into their business strategies. This approach, known as “social profit orientation,” places equal value on financial profits and positive social outcomes. Companies like Mastercard’s Girls4Tech initiative and World Central Kitchen’s Food […] Written by Empirics Asia September 4, 2024September 4, 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 — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — 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 Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s 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 You’re 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 I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked