The late anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, writing in Tristes Tropiques:
My hypothesis, if correct, would oblige us to recognize the fact that the primary function of written communication is to facilitate slavery.
Dan Videl unpacks it, then injects it into a rumination on Tino Sehgal’s recent exhibition at the Guggenheim. Via Robert Cottrell.
In the throes of an economic downturn, with unemployment rates mounting, the very idea of a robot chef might seem indulgent at best — at worst, downright offensive.
On the subject of designing lovable robots to prepare our food.
“The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade [...]” ☞
Want to bury some warm childhood memories under a mountain of cold analysis? A close examination of the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ aesthetic.
A recent post of Things Magazine—where I happened upon the above link—offers a review, of sorts, of such ‘graph fetishism’.
From Japanese writer Yoko Tawada, a rumination on snowless winters in Tokyo.
Cargo rockets, auto-driving cars, color-coded freeway lanes, never walking anywhere: Magic Highway USA (or, the future of American infrastructure as imagined by Disney in 1958).
New York Times film critic A. O. Scott’s thoughtful piece on whether Where The Wild Things Are—and the whole nascent crop of kids’ movies that don’t even pretend to be just for kids—represents a brand new problem for overprotective parents.
The New Yorker‘s Richard Brody weighs in.
Every year, the possibly deranged Michael Pusateri collects time-lapse photography of Halloween costumes and detailed “Well who are you supposed to be?” stats viz. those Trick ‘r Treaters who are unlucky enough to land on his doorstep.
In 2009, ‘nothing’ was the second most popular costume. Also note the ~30% increase in attendance vs. 2008. Possible economic indicators?
What is a mind—a soul or a brain? As David Brooks wrote last month, that’s the trendiest question in modern science.
But when you think about it, the issue broke free of academic science a long time ago. For sure, it’s undermined the popular distinction between clinical depression and plain old despair. And it’s given rise to a new, annoying trend in literature: the neuronovel.
