The mind-bending cuts in every movie you watch
The best recent long reads in science and technology, including dolphin conversation, death in space and the discombobulating effects of cinema.
Vision | What it’s like to go blind
A blind person explains. “To many sighted people, the prospect of going blind is terrifying. They think about what they would lose: independence, visual beauty, reading labels at Costco. Pretty awful, huh? … It’s not that bad. It’s life, and you learn how to deal with it. You don’t lose as much independence as you’d think. Visual beauty is only one form of beauty. And reading labels at Costco isn’t all that interesting.” (Cristina Hartmann, Vox/Quora, 2,220 words)
Animals | Conversation with dolphins
Dolphins are “a kind of alien intelligence sharing our planet … The question is not how smart are dolphins, but how are dolphins smart?” They are almost certainly smart enough to use language, but if they do, we humans are not yet smart enough to understand it. “Dolphins use distinct signature whistles to identify and call to one another. Each dolphin is thought to invent a unique name for itself as a calf and to keep it for life.” (Joshua Foer, National Geographic, 4,200 words)
Mathematics | Game theory of thrones
What happens when you apply game theory to “Game of Thrones”? It’s complicated ‒ just like the real world. The principal characters are involved in multiple games ‒ at least five, including the race for the Iron Throne and the relationship between the Iron Bank and the Crown. To the game theorist, it is all a struggle for a Nash equilibrium – “the best that each party can get, conditional on the other trying to get the best they can also.” (Peter Antonioni, The Conversation, 1500 words)
Neuroscience | Why don’t our brains explode at movie cuts?
Imagine that everything in your visual field changed instantaneously in front of your eyes. You would think you were hallucinating, or bewitched. But that is what happens in film whenever the director cuts from one scene to another — and we don’t find cuts disturbing, unless the director makes them so. Did we learn to process cuts after the invention of film? Or do our brains come equipped to understand art and life differently? (Jeff Zacks, Aeon, 3,000 words)
Technology | What does Google want?
Google is “a vast machine-learning engine that’s been stuffed with data for a decade and a half … Everything that Google does is about reach for that underlying engine – reach to get data in and reach to surface it out … Google tests new opportunities to see if they fit, in the same way that a shark bites a surfer to see if they’re a seal. If not, you don’t change Google to fit the opportunity – you spit out the surfer.” (Benedict Evans, ben-evans.com, 1,720 words)
Icons | How to be as great as Elon Musk
A Quora visitor asks: “How can I be as great as Elon Musk?” Justine Musk, Elon Musk’s first wife, steps up to reply. The key thing is to be obsessed with your work. “Extreme people combine brilliance and talent with an insane work ethic, so if the work itself doesn’t drive you, you will burn out or fall by the wayside or your extreme competitors will crush you and make you cry. It helps to have superhuman energy and stamina.” (Justine Musk, Quora, 820 words)
Space | When an astronaut dies in space
Ethics in space. If an astronaut suffers a life-threatening injury on a mission to Mars, does the spacecraft turn around and go home, writing off billions of dollars in sunk costs? If he dies, how do you deal with the corpse, given that international law forbids dumping stuff in space? Do you “strap the body to the craft and call it a day”? Or do you bury the body on Mars and contaminate the biology of the planet for ever after? (Daniel Oberhaus, Slate, 1,900 words)
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