Is Pro-Natalism Weird?
From the Wisdom of Crowds: The new Democratic strategy is to refer to Trump’s GOP as “weird.” Because pro-natalism is becoming an increasingly hot topic, one that’s usually associated with
When Humanity Stopped Looking Backward, it Started Moving Forward
James Pethokoukis at Faster, Please: Part of my (quite popular!) recent essay “Why no Industrial Revolution in ancient Rome, Greece, or China?” deserves more explanation. I note in passing that
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What Haniyeh’s Assassination Means for a Gaza Ceasefire
By Mairav Zonszein at Time Magazine: On Wednesday morning, as news broke that Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran, the Israeli actress who plays a Mossad agent
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This Professor Has a Path Toward Human-Level AI. It Isn’t LLMs.
by Alex Kantrowitz at Big Technology: In Deepak Pathak’s telling, nobody is building human-level artificial intelligence with language alone. You could train a large language model on billions of descriptions
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Revisiting the ‘Research Parasite’ Debate in the Age of AI
C. Brandon Ogbunu at The Undark revisits a debate about so-called “research parasites” — scientists who use and reanalyze other people’s data. The large language models used in generative AI
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Downtowns Don’t Matter Anymore. Exurbanism is the New Urbanism.
Joel Kotkin at The New Atlantis: Simply put, downtowns matter less and less. In Austin and elsewhere, we are witnessing an epochal shift away from the highly concentrated urban center
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Has Netanyahu Finally Lost America?
Joshua Keating in Vox: From a purely visual standpoint, Netanyahu may have gotten what he wanted today: rapturous standing ovations, even if mainly from Republicans. But more than 70 percent of
Why Are There Protests in Bangladesh? 10 Things You Need To Know
by Team Zeteo: Hasina, head of the Awami League party, was once seen by many as a champion of democracy. She is, in fact, currently, the world’s longest-serving female head
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Negotiations Between Israelis and Palestinians Must No Longer be the Province of Men
Anne-Marie Slaughter and Xanthe Scharff at Project Syndicate: On July 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that negotiations on an agreement to release hostages held in Gaza and establish
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Gilles Deleuze: We are Riddled With Pointless Talk
From Poetic Outlaws: We sometimes go on as though people can’t express themselves. In fact they’re always expressing themselves. The sorriest couples are those where the woman can’t be preoccupied
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A Talking Point of the LUMS Founder Syed Babar Ali
An extract of interest from his talking points with Jugnu Mohsin at her program ‘Intikhab’ on Samaa TV recently: Watch the whole interview at YouTube:https://youtu.be/oKPL3JZnk0o?si=bJ8gUG1oguHTr-k0
The Shifting Nature of AI Risk
by Malcolm Murray at 3 Quarks Daily: As AI evolves, so do the risks it poses on society. The risks of AI today are already unrecognizable from those of a