Why do we have contempt for cowardice?

The best of the week’s long reads in science and technology, including the apparent dawn of the age of immortality, and humanity’s troubling attitude to bullying.

Mental health | Phrases to avoid

“In this article, we present a provisional list of 50 commonly used terms in psychology, psychiatry, and allied fields that should be avoided, or at most used sparingly and with explicit caveats. For each term, we (a) explain why it is problematic, (b) delineate one or more examples of its misuse, and (c) when pertinent, offer recommendations for preferable terms.” Problematic terms include 'a gene for', 'fetish', 'acting out'. (Scott Lilienfeld et al, Frontiers In Psychology, 9,800 words)

Economics | The Economics of Star Trek

There aren’t any. “No one is doing business. There is almost no one buying and selling, except for a few species for whom commerce is a form of traditional religion. Food and luxuries are free. Recreation, provided by virtual reality, is infinite in scope. Scarcity – the central defining concept of economics – seems to have been eliminated.” A utopian vision. But without scarcity, what happens to desire and motivation? (Noah Smith, Bloomberg, 900 words)

Technology | The smartphone is the Sun

The five billion adults on Earth use about four billion mobile phones, of which half are smartphones. Soon everybody will have a smartphone and replace it every two to three years. The smartphone will be a “universal product for humanity – the first the tech industry has ever had”. Our gadgets will surround us like a solar system, with “the smartphone as the Sun and everything else orbiting around it”. (Benedict Evans, Ben-evans.com, 670 words)

Psychology | The world favours bullies

The general contempt for cowardice is both universal and strange, since the effect is to encourage cruelty – from bullying in the schoolyard to massacres in time of war. We find it easier to admire an aggressor than a victim – so long as we are not the victim. “Our first instinct when we observe unprovoked aggression is either to pretend it isn’t happening or, if that becomes impossible, to equate attacker and victim.” (David Graeber, The Baffler, 4,700 words)

Ethics | The problem with bioethics

Biomedical research promises “vast increases in life, health, and flourishing”, but it can deliver these things only if scientists are encouraged to work freely, unconstrained by laws and codes that ban particular directions of experimentation for fear of imagined consequences in the distant future. Scientific progress is unpredictable. The best contribution that bioethics can make is to get out of the way. (Steven Pinker, Boston Globe, 850 words)

Society | Realising immortality

The hope of longer life used to be tempered by the fear of ageing: who would want a thousand-year-old body? As scientists begin to understand the biology of ageing, and how to halt it, radical life extension starts to look much more attractive. But beware those who claim to have the formula already: “Most gerontologists who are widely known to the public are unscrupulous purveyors of useless nostrums.” (Philip Ball, New Statesman, 3,500 words)

Publishing | Who is really in control?

The publishers are surrendering to the platforms. They talk of content “partnerships” with Facebook, but when Facebook hosts the content, Facebook owns the audience. Facebook “supplies the entire context for the publisher, gradually assimilating its most profitable parts and perhaps leaving the parts that are either too labour-intensive or carry too much liability, not out of malice but rather obvious and rational self-interest”. (John Herrman, Awl, 3,300 words)

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