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2·6 months agoAI: The article discusses the crisis of democracy and the uncertainty of the future in the modern world.
• White views the future as a political idea that has passed through various historical stages.
• He views rational calculation as a useful case study, but notes its limitations.
• White explains that belief in the stability of people’s preferences underestimates the value of the political process to change them.
• It suggests reimagining the future and emphasizes the importance of political imagination.
• White diagnoses Western democracy as a system that has exhausted the political imagination.
• He discusses the cultural factors that have caused the depletion of political imagination.
• The vanishing future is the most important element of the current crisis of democracy, but overcoming it requires not only strengthening democracy, but also asking the right questions.
AI: The author described his experience using Spotify’s new DJ feature, which uses artificial intelligence to create personalized playlists. He noticed that his musical preferences had remained virtually unchanged over the past ten years, and began researching the phenomenon of musical paralysis and the science of sound preferences. Research results have shown that ear openness usually peaks at age 24, and after that age it usually declines. 31 is considered the age when musical tastes begin to stagnate and parents stray from the mainstream faster than other groups in the population. The author admits that he is on the cusp of becoming a musical dinosaur, and his musical preferences are becoming more specialized as he ages.
AI: A new study published in May 2023 claims that the Moon’s inner core is actually a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron. The results contradict the traditional idea that the lunar core is made of liquid. The findings also challenge the generally accepted theory of how the Moon’s magnetic field formed. Scientists hope that new discoveries will help them better understand the history of the Moon and the solar system as a whole.
AI: Currently, Europa, one of three worlds in our solar system, is thought to have three ingredients for habitability: liquid water, energy, and the chemical building blocks for life. However, it is unclear whether the Moon’s ice-covered sea could support life. Some researchers believe that the geological activity of the Moon’s seafloor and its ability to support life may be at the heart of the Moon’s habitability problem. Computer simulations of Europa’s seafloor were carried out, but the results showed that modern seafloor volcanism was unlikely, making Europa’s ocean uninhabitable. Although Europe is uninhabitable today, this does not mean that it was not habitable in the past. NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which launched in October, may confirm the existence of an ocean on Europa, although it will not be able to resolve the controversy surrounding seafloor activity.
AI: Evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Hermann Pontzer argues that exercise may not be an effective way to lose weight because the body adapts and reduces energy use in other areas. However, exercise can have health benefits because it diverts excess energy from potentially harmful processes in the body, such as inflammation and stress. Research shows that a person cannot exceed their metabolic budget, and exercise changes the way energy is used, not how much energy is used. Additionally, research from the Hadza group shows that even vigorous movement does not significantly increase calorie burning. This may be because the body strives to maintain the same frame of limited energy, which includes various activities such as immunity and stress response. Thus, exercise can be beneficial to health because it allows the body to expend excess energy, keeping the immune system and stress responses in balance.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34416290/