~aeon | Bookmarks (103)

We can now create compelling experiences of talking with our dead. Is this ghoulish, therapeutic or something else again? - by Amy Kurzweil & Daniel Story Read at Aeon

River bank or bank account? How chatbots learned to make the quantum leap to context by training on billions of prompts - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

Though natural selection favours self-interest, humans are extraordinarily good at cooperating with one another. Why? - by Saira Khan Read at Aeon

In this immersive portrait of play, children transform the streets of Havana into a racetrack with handmade ‘chivichanas’ - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

When I moved to India for work, I found that rape was a cultural feature of the country, as deeply embedded as caste - by Evelyn Fok Read at Aeon

‘I think that freedom everywhere, anywhere is love.’ Father Giles, a monk for 47 years, shares his radical view of freedom - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

Nothing lasts forever: not humanity, not Earth, not the Universe. But finitude confers an indelible meaning to our lives - by Thomas Moynihan Read at Aeon

In order to bridge the yawning gulf between the humanities and the sciences we must turn to an unexpected field: mathematics - by Gordon Gillespie Read at Aeon

Striking slow-motion footage captures the awesome evolutionary diversity – and handy usefulness – of a lizard’s tongue - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

For most of history, the Moon was regarded as a mysterious and powerful object. Then scientists made it into a destination - by Danny Robb Read at Aeon

‘Will you send us our wages for the time that we served you?’ A freed slave answers his old master’s request to come back - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

For Mary Midgley, the Western philosophical tradition is shaped by the fact that its greatest practitioners were bachelors - by Ellie Robson Read at Aeon

A ceramicist puts a playful twist on Italian Renaissance pottery with dirty jokes, emojis and colourful commentary on menopause - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

By understanding the pernicious myths surrounding poverty, we can make progress towards a lofty goal: dignity for all - by Anirudh Krishna & Dirk Philipsen Read at Aeon

Humans are both the gravest threat and the greatest hope for the survival of the rare hoolock gibbons in northeast India - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

Moral panics about erotica have coursed through the country’s history. Why do so many Americans think of porn as harm? - by Rebecca L Davis Read at Aeon

A history of the ‘exquisite corpse’ in art shows how it embodies surrealist ideas of freedom, community and radical creativity - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

The modern era is often seen as the triumph of science over supernaturalism. But what really happened is far more interesting - by Peter Harrison Read at Aeon

In animations that evoke the fog of memory, Susan returns to her childhood in Korea, speaking a language she no longer knows - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

More than any other conflict, Israel/Palestine has provoked extraordinarily fervent emotion throughout the world. Why? - by Derek Jonathan Penslar Read at Aeon

Humans always end up with clogged arteries, right? That’s not what the lives of the Tsimane in the Amazon basin tell us - by Ben Daitz Read at Aeon

Is privacy inherently valuable, or just one more variable in a society’s blueprint? The philosophers’ view, from Plato on - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

It is the dark matter of conversation, the white space around a poem. For Rilke, listening is receiving the divine - by Faith Lawrence Read at Aeon

A filmmaker collaborates with a murmuration of starlings to create spellbinding visuals at the intersection of science and art - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon