“The modern media, at least according to the modern media, is our cultural Gin Alley — a virtual world that caters to our basest instincts, fuels a mass addiction to sex and violence, and blinds us to the big political and social picture. Before we conclude that we’re all going to hell in a cleverly marketed handbasket, though, it’s worth putting this cultural lament in historical perspective.”
Category: ideas
Doing Art Since The Beginning Of Time
“For years, scholars regarded the appearance of figurative art as the initiation of an evolutionary process, that art became progressively more sophisticated as humans experimented with styles and techniques and passed this knowledge to the next generation. But a growing body of evidence suggests that modern humans, virtually from the moment they appeared in Ice Age Europe, were able to produce startlingly sophisticated art. Artistic ability thus did not ”evolve,” many scholars said, but has instead existed in modern humans (the talented ones, anyway) throughout their existence.”
Big Brother’s Watching… Does Anybody Care?
It used to be that surveillance was thought to be a bad thing. But a new book argues that reality TV makes being watched cool. “Reality shows glamorize surveillance, he writes, presenting it as one of the hip attributes of the contemporary world, an entree into the world of wealth and celebrity and even a moral good.”
Does American Culture Have Legs For The Long Run?
American culture dominates the world like no other in human history. But will it have the staying power of Plato? “Some experts believe US domination of communication channels makes it inevitable that its messages will become far more entrenched than those of previous empires. The main difference now in favor of American culture is the importance of technology – telephone, Internet, films, all that did not exist in ancient Greece or the Mongol empire.”
Are Laws Killing Digital Creativity?
“Who knows what creativity could be unleashed by the growth of digital distribution and the widespread availability of programs to create, sample and manipulate content. But if we treat copyright as an absolute property right, and allow the limitations on re-use forced on us by digital rights management technologies, we will never find out.”
How Music Affects Our Brains
“Music plays tunes in the brain that scientists are just beginning to hear. Recent discoveries include how people’s emotional reaction to music can alleviate pain, why certain musical intervals sound more pleasing than others, and how musical training alters the growing brains of children.”
So Secure We’re In Danger
All this increased security and impingements on personal privacy… does it make us safer? A growing number of experts say no – in fact trying to photograph, fingerprint, search and profile more and more people makes us less safe, not more. Jeffrey Rosen is the latest to weigh in, with a new book.
Of Intellectual Property And Agribusiness Subsidies…hmnnn
Lawrence Lessig writes that intellectual property laws and agribusiness subsidies ought to be tied together. “Both the subsidy of agribusiness and the subsidy of local culture and science violate the principles of free trade by ignoring American intellectual property laws. Both violations are bad. But the two bads should be resolved together. Indeed, if anything, American subsidies should be ended first. The actual loss to US firms from piracy worldwide is not terribly high – if ‘actual loss’ means the amount Americans would get if the piracy ended.”
Why Humanities-Speak Is So Incomprehensible
A computer engineer goes to a humanities conferene to give a presentation and comes away baffled by the other speeches. “I think it’s human nature for members of any group to use the ideas they have in common as metaphors for everything else in life, so I’m willing to forgive him. The really telling factor that neither side of the debate seems to cotton to, however, is this: technical people like me work in a commercial environment. Every day I have to explain what I do to people who are different from me – marketing people, technical writers, my boss, my investors, my customers – none of whom belong to my profession or share my technical background or knowledge. As a consequence, I’m constantly forced to describe what I know in terms that other people can at least begin to understand. Contrast this situation with that of academia…”
Natural Law Party
Each year, John Broackman posts a big-idea question to important thinkers. This year he wonders what law of nature is waiting to be declared. “There is some bit of wisdom, some rule of nature, some lawlike pattern, either grand or small, that you’ve noticed in the universe that might as well be named after you.” What, he asks, is your law, one that’s ready to take a place near Kepler’s and Faraday’s and Murphy’s. More than 150 responses totaling more than 20,000 words have been posted so far…