Urbanization Drives Global Decline in Suicide Rates
From my discussion with Marian Tupy of @HumanProgress: As best we can tell, suicide rates are actually going way down, globally. And especially in poorer countries. But you're right also in many rich countries. The United States is something of an anomaly, and a lot of that is due to urbanization. That when, say, a woman is put into an arranged marriage, leaves her village for the village of her husband and her husband's father, is dominated by her mother-in-law, has no friends, no way of escaping, that leads to a lot of suicides. In a more modern urban culture where you have more freedom to do what you want, there's less desperation. And so globally, the modernization, urbanization has led to suicide rates going way down.
Comforting Falsehoods Aren’t Evolutionarily Adaptive, Says Dan Williams
Wishful Thinking is wishful thinking. Dan Williams @danwilliamsphil notes that "We believe comforting things because they make us feel better" makes no adaptive sense, and is not the best explanation for why people believe falsehoods like conspiracy theories. ...
Memory Is Constructed, Not Recorded, Says Loftus
Conversation with the brave and brilliant cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, whose discoveries about the constructive nature of human memory changed the conventional wisdom about eyewitness testimony and recovered memory. Convos About Teaching N & Stuff (I'm not involved). ...
Goldstein Explores “Mattering Instinct” At Cato Event
This Wednesday: Rebecca Newberger Goldstein @platobooktour discusses The Mattering Instinct at the Cato Institute with @AdamOmaryPhD: https://t.co/StQ0LIgwxa #CatoEvents via @CatoInstitute
Publicly Sharing Autism Turns Private Stigma Into Dialogue
"Why I always announce my son’s autism" - Whitney Ellenby, mother of a disruptive and profoundly autistic young man, answers this question by invoking common knowledge and When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... Commonly known denial + private knowledge ("open...
Catholic University Compels Pro‑Israel Club to Host Opponent
Catholic University is forcing Students Supporting Israel to invite someone who doesn't support Israel — or they can't hold the event. Student clubs, regardless of their perspective, are allowed to advocate for their beliefs and provide programming that supports those...
Philosopher's Gender Book Review Censored, Academic Freedom Falters
Book reviews by philosophers, notoriously, can be scathing, but a sober review of a book on gender identity by the MIT philosopher (and Academic Freedom Council co-founder) Alex Byrne was deemed too dangerous to print. "The philosophy profession has shown...
AI's Longevity Gains Stalled by Real-World Data Limits
Excellent analysis here of why current AI (or any AI) won't deliver sudden increases in longevity. One big reason: data on physical entities in the real world, unlike data scraped from the internet, must be gathered in real time with...
HAL's Death Fear Fictional; Real AI Lacks Fear
Why HAL 9000 Was Afraid to Die and Real AIs Aren’t: Maarten Boudry @mboudry on some misplaced fears of AI (which is not to deny that AI poses threats; it's just important to identify the real ones). https://t.co/OcroQGi1ru
Hunting Still Central to Human Evolution, Says Ed Hagen
Anthropologist Ed Hagen @ed_hagen debunks the debunking on the role of hunting in human evolution.
Bioethics Bureaucracy Stifles Medical Research Progress
Medical Research Is Hopelessly Caught in Red Tape. Part of the blame goes to "bioethics," which I've long argued is highly unethical. https://t.co/6tF016elEH
Coyne: Evolution Undermines Need for God
Jerry Coyne comments on Pinker vs. Douthat debate: Do we need God? – Why Evolution Is True https://t.co/adSZcA8oC4
Higher Intelligence Predicts Lower Authoritarianism, Greater Social Liberalism
Does being smart make you less authoritarian and more socially liberal? James Lee (former student), Emily Willoughby, & colleagues present evidence (including ruling out confounds) which suggests the answer is yes. | Predicting political beliefs with polygenic scores for...
Helping Others Boosts Your Own Happiness, Study Shows
Doing Good makes you Feel Good: Review of the data by psychologists Shawn Rhoads and Abigail Marsh @aa_marsh https://t.co/x1ZQQPwjB9
Time to Retire Fowler’s Outdated Modern English Usage
Why it’s time to close the book on Fowler's century-old Modern English Usage, despite its many good bit. https://t.co/UFORDPIw8x
The Past Wasn't Golden: Preindustrial Life Was Brutal
The Grim Truth About the “Good Old Days” by Chelsea Follett @chellivia (one of the best essays debunking pristine antiquity). "A popular saying holds that “the past is a foreign country,” and based on recorded accounts, it is not one...