Category: ideas

People want more choices in life, or so they say. But a new study suggests that people presented with more than a few choices have a much harder time making decisions, and may choose to make no decision at all, rather than cope with the stress of multiple options. So perhaps it follows that, when it comes to matters of public policy, our government needs to stop giving us so many options, and make a few well-reasoned decisions on our behalf. So said a psychology professor in a New York Times op-ed last week. But Ronald Bailey isn’t buying that argument: “One suspects that his unspoken converse is that sound public policy consists of the government restricting options and forcing Americans to do what people like Professor Schwartz think is good for them.”

Nearly everyone has heard stories of how humans with one damaged sense (e.g. hearing or sight) often experience heightened sensitivity in other areas. Now, a new study suggests that the theory of sensory trade-offs may hold true for the evolution of species as well. For instance, primates (including humans) have a highly developed visual sense, but the ability to see all the colors of the rainbow may have come at the expense of, say, a superior sense of smell.

“A British academic believes he has uncovered the secret of the Voynich manuscript, an Elizabethan volume of more than 200 pages that is filled with weird figures, symbols and writing that has defied the efforts of the twentieth century’s best codebreakers and most distinguished medieval scholars.” As it turns out, the entire thing is a bunch of meaningless gibberish, designed to mystify scholars and make a substantial profit for its author based solely on the mystique of the unknown. Worked like a charm, apparently.

Scientists know that art has a profound impact on the activity of the human brain. Exactly what that activity signifies, and what it says about art or about humans, is an open question, however, and an entire field of study has developed to seek such answers. “Neuroaestheticians… imagine that, over time, these kinds of studies will become more and more precise: They hope to get ever-finer detail about what happens in the brain in an ever-growing range of aesthetic situations.”

“That deafening seismic discord at the end of 2003 – a low moan followed by a ripping noise and then a heavy crash – was the sound of Western civilization falling apart, its alabaster pillars splitting like Popsicle sticks, its flagstone terraces shredding like saltines in water. Then again, maybe not. If you believe that culture – music, literature, film, the visual and performing arts – is a rarefied realm to which only the work of an exalted few should be admitted, then doom is imminent. If, however, you believe that culture is a wide-open arena that can accommodate a variety of approaches and levels of complexity, then you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about.”

The controversy surrounding the WTC memorial in New York is indicative of a larger disconnect, writes Edward Rothstein. There was a time when American cities were viewed as great models of social engineering, vast islands of humanity where hard work and a general devotion to the public interest could overcome all sorts of human failings. No more: “The [modern] city’s greatest achievement, it often seems, is the protection of the private realm and competing private interests; about the public realm there is no clear understanding… New forms of urban life have to develop. But in the meantime, the public seems to exist only in the midst of cataclysm.”

It’s official. Video games have become an ingrained part of our national consciousness, and their grip on our minds has begun to affect the way we view the world around us. Like any other cultural bellwether, gaming inspires devotion in the younger generation which has embraced it, and anger and fear in the older generation which sees the movement as a threat to its values. A new San Francisco art exhibit is examining the “moral, cultural and technical implications of the games industry,” from the effects of violence in gaming to the cultural impact of a generation which chooses to live, at least part-time, in a virtual world.

Will more college education for more people make Britain more meritocratic and shrivel the class system? Nope. “Employers are becoming less interested in educational qualifications. That’s happening for two reasons. Part of the job of higher education is to send a signal to employers—that someone has learnt to think, to persevere, to absorb information and to present ideas. As the supply of graduates grows, and the quality of teaching in Britain’s shabby, crowded universities declines, this signal is fading. At the same time, services have been growing at the expense of manufacturing, and, increasingly, the qualities that employers in the service sector want are those the middle classes acquire at home: articulacy, confidence and smartness.”