In the face of AI exerts repeatedly predicting the rise of sex robots, it’s increasingly difficult to insist that such machines strictly belong to a far-off, dystopian future. But some robotics experts predict we’ll soon be doing far more than having sexual intercourse with machines. Instead, we’ll be making love to them—with all the accompanying romantic feelings.
If you live in the UK, you already know that My dad wrote a porno is the funniest podcast—nay, the funniest comedic entertainment—of all time. (If that’s an exaggeration, it’s only a very slight one.)
You might wonder, at some point today, what’s going on in another person’s mind. You may compliment someone’s great mind, or say they are out of their mind. You may even try to expand or free your own mind.
The mystery of the female orgasm is far greater than frustrated women and their fumbling partners would like to believe. A paper recently published in Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology argues that it exists as a way for men to leverage control over their partners. This is far from the first new theory and won’t be the last. But do we truly have a sense of the purpose behind the female orgasm—or if there is a point at all?
Scientists are able to use brain tests on three-year-olds to determine which children are more likely to grow up to become criminals. It sounds like Minority Report come to life: An uncomfortable idea presenting myriad ethical concerns. But, though unnerving, the research is nuanced and could potentially be put to good use.
Stoicism is having a moment. The ancient Hellenistic philosophy, more than 2,000 years old, has recently been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Guardian. And, as these articles note, Stoicism has caught on among those pioneers of social trends: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Ryan Holiday, who’s written several popular books with a life-hacking take on Stoicism, says the philosophy gained attention among startups after Silicon Valley guru Tim Ferriss bought the audiobook rights to his works. He’s given several talks on the subject at Google’s offices and chatted about Stoicism with such eminent figures as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, venture capitalist Brad Feld, Digg co-founder Kevin Rose, and GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving.
2016 hasn’t felt very normal. A man who boasts about sexual assault has been elected United States president. The European Union is in total disarray over how to implement Britain’s self-inflicted exile. And populist far-right movements are rising around the world. So it’s hard to keep track of what “normal” even means.
It would be nice to believe that gifts are genuine tokens of affection, given without any expectation of recompense. (Indeed, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “gift” as something “voluntarily transferred” and “without compensation.”) But if you’ve ever had the niggling sense that something other than selflessness drives the presents you dutifully exchange with friends and family, then sociology has your back.
Powerful leadership has long been associated with a certain brash authority, a self-confident swagger. But that image of the arrogant alpha male as the ultimate powerful leader doesn’t hold up to psychological scrutiny. As Ashley Merryman notes in the Washington Post, a growing body of evidence shows that those who are humble are considerably more effective.
The theory that psychopaths don’t feel regret is so strong that evaluating such emotions is a key way of diagnosing the condition. Psychopaths are known as callous, unfeeling people, with the diagnostic Psychopathy checklist describing them as ”emotionally shallow.” But a team of researchers from Yale and Harvard, led by Yale psychologist Arielle Baskin-Sommers, has raised serious questions about this assumption in a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Deep, dreamless sleep is often described as unconsciousness. We certainly don’t see distinct objects or have linear and memorable trains of thought, as we do in daily life or while dreaming. But in a meta-analysis published last month in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, cognitive science experts argue that there is no clear line of consciousness between dreaming and deep sleep.
Religion and neuroscience are not an obvious pairing. But a 2016 study published in Social Neuroscience demonstrated that spiritual feelings activate the neurological reward systems of devout Mormons. The study used fMRI scans to show that the nucleus accumbens—an area associated with reward—is activated when Mormons who have a strong sense of spirituality carry out religious activities. The same area can also be activated by love, sex, drugs, and music.
The emergence of a white supremacist ”alt-right” movement is a deeply disturbing moment in US politics, and commentators are struggling to make sense of what motivates and how to define the group. But for insightful analysis on the psychology behind the alt-right’s trolling and bigotry, some of the best writing comes not from contemporary thinkers, but a text written 70 years ago.
Today, Tony Hawk’s brand is fairly impeccable. The poster boy of action sports is “seen as athletically talented, with performances that provide thrills,” notes Leigh Steinberg, a sports agent who has represented more than 300 top athletes. On top of that, the pro skateboarder is “intelligent, handsome, with a pleasing personality,” Steinberg says.
It’s all very well getting the right answer, but if the question you’re responding to is 2+2, nobody’s going to be very impressed. Choosing the question to focus on can be a far more important task than is often realized. To that end, a philosophy competition is asking members of the public to submit their proposals for the greatest philosophical question.
Google is notorious for its fiendishly difficult and somewhat bizarre interview questions. But failed applicants should take heart: even Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent, struggled to answer the brainteaser once put to Google interviewees.
Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro died today at the age of 90, and you can read about his life in obituaries in the New York Times, BBC news, the Miami Herald, and countless other publications. But the writers of these detailed obits didn’t rush to research Castro’s life when the news of his death broke overnight. Obituaries are often written years in advance and, in this case, it shows.
To those on the left, the presidential election of Donald Trump feels like an unprecedented time of confusion and misery in the United States. But two women who’ve led civil rights action for decades, poet Sonia Sanchez and activist Dolores Huerta, say that the US has been through such difficult and divisive times before. Far from being unprecedented, they say the current political climate is reminiscent of the late 1960s.
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, says she was “in shock, confused, mortified” when she realized Donald Trump would be the next president of the United States. President-elect Trump, who was endorsed by the KKK and once said a BLM protestor “should have been roughed up,” is a frightening leader for those campaigning to end police violence and create racial equality in the United States. But Black Lives Matter is carefully planning their response.
Donald Trump is a political candidate unlike any other. But while his tactics are novel within the world of politics, June Deery, media studies professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, believes they should be very familiar to those who watch reality TV.
Americans need encouragement to make use of their voting rights. Only 54% of those old enough to vote cast their ballot in 2012. Even though politicians are calling on the public to get out and vote, it turns out that there’s more to encouraging civic engagement than a pantsuit-clad Beyoncé performance (impressive though that is.)
This week, Slavoj Žižek, one of the most famous living philosophers, endorsed Donald Trump for president. As someone who cares greatly about philosophy’s role in the world, I was disappointed by this news, and not simply because I disagree with him. Žižek is an unusual philosopher. While he’s highly controversial, he’s both publicly and academically renowned and he uses his own philosophy and ideas from great historical thinkers to engage with contemporary events. As a result, he’s one of the few philosophers whose political views are widely reported and listened to.
At a time when many nations are struggling to come to grips with darker elements in society, the Japanese author Haruki Murakami has offered global advice, seemingly shaped by 20th century psychiatrist Carl Jung, on the importance of recognizing our shadows.
Donald Trump’s enduring popularity has surprised just about everyone. And no wonder, argues Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen. Half the nation consistently fails to understand the other half because the US is a nation divided between those who watch the news and those who read it. The conversations on the two different media are starkly different, she says, making it increasingly difficult for those who read news to understand the perspective of those who watch it, and vice versa.
