Television became the de-facto voyeurism tool with the arrival of “reality television” like the many incarnations of Big Brother or Survivor. The seemingly random opportunity to see naked bodies is like playing a sexually driven slot machine in the privacy of your own home. You become not only addicted to the moving images, the lights…
Is the way we talk about the human mind messing with our ability to think about it clearly? The philosopher Colin McGinn is a tough book reviewer. He looks like a cop in an old movie about cops and robbers, and writes like one. And when he decided to take down Ray Kurzweil’s new book,How to…
A leading neuroscientist says Kurzweil’s Singularity isn’t going to happen. Instead, humans will assimilate machines. Miguel Nicolelis, a top neuroscientist at Duke University, says computers will never replicate the human brain and that the technological Singularity is “a bunch of hot air.” “The brain is not computable and no engineering can reproduce it,” says Nicolelis,…
In 2009, the life of Levi Felix, a young Jew of 25 and a graduate of the University of Santa Barbara, looked quite glamorous. He was the vice president of Causecast, a startup that helps not-for-profit organizations gain exposure and organize activities, he earned a handsome salary, had a fine apartment and was looking forward…
How smartphones, family dinners, and admitting you don’t know everything can help you connect. THE YOUNG BOY with spiky blond hair lies in bed wearing football pajamas and staring at the miniature solar system hanging from his ceiling. His bearded father lies beside him, fielding a few questions before turning out the lights. “How far away…