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jtotheizzoe: Beyond “The Selfish Gene” to “The Selfish Network” The grasshopper is the gene, and the locust is the networked swarm. David Dobbs has a very interesting article out in Aeon about the incompleteness of “selfish gene” theory and the rise of an idea called “genetic accommodation”. Accommodation is the appearance of a trait, say larger muscles…
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theatlantic: The Things You’ll Miss My mom died on July 18, 2013, of pancreatic cancer, a subtle blade that slips into the host so imperceptibly that by the time a presence is felt, it is almost always too late. Living about 16 months after her diagnosis, she was “lucky,” at least by the new standards…
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blakegopnik: DAILY PIC: This is a second of Ad Reinhardt’s Black Paintings in the current Zwirner show, from the week’s worth that I’ll be Daily Pic’ing. If you were looking at it in good lighting, you’d be able to tell that it was different from yesterday’s choice, but it wouldn’t be easy. Among other things,…
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senjukannon: gloriousbacon: Cyber-psychologist Berni Goode talking about Flow on Charlie Brooker’s How Videogames Changed the World. Flow is extremely important. So, so important. It’s what keeps some people sane. It’s what drives the world’s most skilled and accomplished athletes, the most intense gamers, the hardcore hobbyists, even many of the most talented artists, musicians and…
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Small human beings learn by mimicking and so they learn patience by mimicking patience. Perhaps this means that a larger human being somewhere many thousands of generations back took a long and patient breath as the smaller human being in his or her arms squirmed. Perhaps the smaller human being saw this long and patient…