Michael Brooks
@mike
Michael Brooks
Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in... See more
“Yego’s rise was enabled by YouTube. Yet since its founding, popular consensus has been that the video service is making people dumber. Indeed, modern video media may shorten attention spans and distract from longer-form means of communication, such as written articles or books. But critically overlooked is its unlocking a form of mass-scale tacit... See more
YouTube: The Learning Machine
Why should the universe have a purpose? The question of the purpose of the universe is an invention of human minds, and has no significance, except for the way that it illuminates the psychology of scholarly pursuit and of the pursuing scholars themselves. We should not impose human-inspired attitudes and questions on material things. There is a
... See moreA good note on why maybe being observers is a worthy pursuit, and why assigning purpose might not track.
ai and on writing
Is writing just writing, or is writing also thinking? In the future, if many of us resort to AI to write, we may be left with people who can’t write at all—which may mean we may lose a generation capable of thinking, too.
A helpful prompt when using AI:
Do not simply affirm my statements or assume my conclusions are correct. Your goal is to be an intellectual sparring partner, not just an agreeable assistant. Every time I present an idea, do the following:
1. Analyze my assumptions. What am I taking for granted that might not be true?
2. Provide counterpoints. What
... See moreThat is, to me, everything is fair game. (If something powerful and negative exists in the world and we don’t write about it, what is writing for?)
"It’s so strange how we’re able to carry forward this mystery of personal identity even when our present selves are so different from our future selves and from our past selves most of all. I think a lot about this question of, what is a person? Am I the same person as my childhood self? Sure, we share the same body, but even that body is so... See more
Maria Popova • Maria Popova — Cartographer of Meaning in a Digital Age
A Velocity of Being: Illustrated Letters to Children about Why We Read by 121 of the Most Inspiring Humans in Our World
themarginalian.org
Creativity: “I can’t get new ideas staring at a blank page. Creativity, for me, requires motion. When you go on a walk, you can turn your world into an idea-generating sensorium, and ideas will spring up from the most unlikely sources. There is one thing that’s absolutely certain about creativity: It’s an active process, not a passive one. The best... See more