Life & Everything

We are not nearly as determined by our genes as once thought. http://bit.ly/2GPsE5A via It’s the End of the Gene As We Know It

In the early days of file-sharing and the internet, experts worried that technology would gut the creative industries, leaving consumers with fewer (and lower-quality) choices than ever before. http://bit.ly/2LS52we via An economist explains what digital technology means for the future of popular culture

HELSINKI —  Jaana Partanen is not your typical AI programming geek. Now, Partanen spends her evenings learning the basics of coding and she is thinking about how to apply artificial intelligence to her job, either to help write up medical summaries or perform orthodontics. https://politi.co/2F7y0qr via Finland’s grand AI experiment

Practicing paying attention can boost performance on a new task, and change the way the brain processes information, a new study says. http://bit.ly/2R8IDk5 via Pay Attention: Practice Can Make Your Brain Better at Focusing

Here at CES, Apple has trolled the entire electronics industry with a giant banner that reads: “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone. http://bit.ly/2C4Gds9 via The moral case for iMessage on Android

Julia Rohrer wants to create a radical new culture for social scientists. A personality psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Rohrer is trying to get her peers to publicly, willingly admit it when they are wrong. http://bit.ly/2VtDvW7 via Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong

American stories trace the sweep of history, but their details are definingly particular. In the summer of 1979, Elizabeth Anderson, then a rising junior at Swarthmore College, got a job as a bookkeeper at a bank in Harvard Square. http://bit.ly/2R0oZH0 via The Philosopher Redefining Equality