It's always cars. We really messed up on that one. Initially just another mode of transport, but now also a status symbol, the core of everything we build, and a source of dementia.
You've probably heard of enshittification, a term coined by Cory Doctorow and also a book (which I recommend). Here's a video from the Norwegian Consumer Council that demonstrates it with humour incredibly well.
A fascinating look inside a hidden greenhouse in Los Angeles filled with rare plants. Carlos, their passionate caretaker, gives the tour.
The average IQ was increasing year over year until about 2010, when it started declining. One popular hypothesis is the simultaneous decline of print and the increase in short-form and video content that decreases deep thinking.
A really significant feature of books is that if you make a case in print, you have to make it logically add up. You can’t just assert things in the way you can on TikTok or on YouTube… print privileges a whole way of thinking and a whole way of processing the world that is logical, that is more rational, that is more dense information, that is more intellectually challenging.
There's a persistent belief in the tech world, particularly in AI, that the human brain is basically a computer and that once we figure out how it stores and processes information, we'll be able to upload our consciousness to the cloud.
This has always seemed quite reductive to me. As Douglas Rushkoff would say, "What about the squishy bits?"
Anyway, this fascinating article by a senior research psychologist describes how the brain changes in response to experiences rather than simply storing data in a specific group of neurons.
