Category: ideas

“Two years ago, pop culture analyst Mark I. Pinsky unleashed The Gospel According To The Simpsons, a book analyzing the surprising spiritual topics knitted into Fox’s irreverent animated TV farce. Now it’s The Gospel According To Disney… So what’s the substance of Disney’s substitute gospel? Good is always rewarded. Evil is always punished. Overcome adversity. Work hard (even ‘Whistle While You Work’). All things work together for good in the long run. And have faith, faith in yourself but also in an undefined something beyond yourself.” And before you even ask, this gospel applies to Disney’s films, not to its corporate power structure.

“Orthodox theory says that dreaming is linked to a phenomenon called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. That orthodoxy has been challenged of late, by studies that show people dreaming during other phases of sleep, as well. It also challenges the idea that dreaming is somehow necessary for mental well-being—in particular, the theory that it is involved in the process of memory formation.”

Philosophy, while usually an exalted profession in academic circles, has rarely held much interest for the public at large, with its convoluted language and bafflingly theoretical views of real-world events. “These days, though, philosophers are engaging with the world more readily than before. During the past 10 years there has been a spate of books intent, not so much on taking philosophy to streets, as taking it to the dinner parties. And they’re a mixed bag. Many are just crass attempts to cash in on the movement – the worst kind of arranged marriage between publishing and opportunistic editors.” But some of the books are legitimately moving philosophy into the mainstream without much dumbing down.

“Today’s postal systems are staring over a precipice. Unless they reinvent themselves, some observers say, they won’t last two decades – let alone a century. Can hand-delivered paper survive in the world of e-mail and instant messaging? Despite ominous trends, the answer, surprisingly, is almost certainly yes.”

It was probably inevitable – marketers want to see inside your brain to see what products you like. “Using the tools of neuroscientists are trying to learn more about the mental processes behind purchasing decisions. The resulting fusion of neuroscience and marketing is, inevitably, being called ‘neuromarketing’.”

“Collectively we may stand—as Marshall McLuhan suggested years ago—at an exit from the time when the book, with its writing, its publication, and its reception, was central to human flourishing. We owe it to ourselves, then, to figure out what it was we, as members of the human species, most valued about the book, so we can try to preserve it. The humanities must now take steps to preserve and protect the independence of their activities, such as the writing of books and articles, before the market becomes our prison and the value of the book becomes undermined.”

A new study shows that children who study music score higher on IQ tests. The University of Toronto study also tested students who studied drama and found an increased IQ but not as big an improvement as in those who studied music.

TV news, reality shows, pop magazines – they’re full of stuff that was formerly the domain of the supermarket tabloid. “Our world has been tabloidized. Where once tabloids occupied a fantastic fringe of pop culture, they now are at the center of pop culture.”

“Acoustics, in particular, are a crucial part of the experience of a building — concert halls and corporate offices alike. But as the long, sad history of acoustical missteps proves, perfecting a sound aesthetic is easier said than heard. Most architects are forced either to make an educated guess about the play of sound or begrudgingly consult acousticians, who have technical expertise but few practical ways to demonstrate their ideas.” Now, a way to find out what a building will sound like before it’s built…

Are your political beliefs dictated by the architecture of your brain? “Is there something intrinsically reductive or fatalistic in connecting political values to brain functioning? No more so than ascribing them to race or economic background, which we happily do without second thought. Isn’t it more dehumanizing to attribute your beliefs to economic conditions outside your control? At least your brain is inalienably yours — it’s where the whole category ‘you’ originates.”