Big Think

The Energy Transition is live! Highlights: ⬤ The centuries-old dream of eating sunlight directly — and the scientists now making it real, by Thomas Moynihan ⬤ Why AI data centers might actually lower electricity prices, by Steven Ross Pomeroy @SteRoPo ⬤ Why rest alone doesn't restore your energy (and what does), by Anne-Laure Le Cunff @neuranne Read the issue here: buff.ly/Et1kWOG 🎨 Vincent Romero

Why pilots don't trust their memory | Lisa Genova @lisagenova

Who decides which minorities deserve protection? In this excerpt from "The Future of Free Speech," Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff report how the line between defending democracy and undermining it is beginning to blur. Read the full article: buff.ly/q53ITr7

How Virginia Woolf broke the rules of storytelling | David Epstein

A new framework for consciousness: Can we read conscious brain activity by measuring spikes of neural entropy? @DrTomFroese Read the full article: buff.ly/VG6Dn8n

Why you are avoiding your goals | Chris Bailey

Why do people fall in love with chatbots? Neuroscientist Christoff Koch @koch_means_cook suggests that a culture that values doing struggles to tell the difference between intelligence and consciousness. Read the full article: buff.ly/X5JQ2Rg

The 12 values that define you | Chris Bailey

The real secret of the periodic table | David Epstein

Will AI strengthen democracy or undermine it? In "Rewiring Democracy," Bruce Shneier and Nathan Sanders explore AI's role as a power amplifier. Read the full article: buff.ly/TniQF2f

How your #brain builds and edits your identity. The voice in your head feels like your own, but it’s actually constructed by neurological processes. We explain how this system shapes both perception and identity. bigthink.com/perception-box… @ethan_kross @bigthink

@bigthink's latest issue on The Energy Transition is out, and it's a great one! Thrilled to have contributed an article on self-healing grids and their potential to make energy infrastructure more resilient. Check it out!

@SteRoPo Read the issue here: buff.ly/Et1kWOG

The Energy Transition is live! Highlights: ⬤ The centuries-old dream of eating sunlight directly — and the scientists now making it real, by Thomas Moynihan ⬤ Why AI data centers might actually lower electricity prices, by Steven Ross Pomeroy @SteRoPo ⬤ Why rest alone doesn't restore your energy (and what does), by Anne-Laure Le Cunff @neuranne Read the issue here: buff.ly/Et1kWOG 🎨 Vincent Romero

If crime is going down, why are kids less free than ever? Stephen Johnson explores the disappearance of the free-range childhood. Read the full article: buff.ly/av3brrh

Is time travel possible. In this recent (13 min) interview with @BigThink I talk about the possibility of time travel into the future and the past according to our current understanding of physics and the problems it raises. youtu.be/q466zz0vMag?si… via @YouTube

Another gorgeous issue of @bigthink in print. Proud to contribute the opening essay. Congrats to Stephen Johnson, @KristinJHouser, @BobbyHugh, @seantmcvey, @chandlertuttle, and the whole team at Big Think. The world needs more beautiful quarterlies!

The secret to beating procrastination | Chris Bailey

Can resilience be learned? Rock climber Tommy Caldwell @tommycaldwell1 reveals how pain, trauma, and "elective hardship" forged on of the sport's living legends. Read the full article: buff.ly/2nAXPjV

How he wrote a book with only 50 words | David Epstein

Modern physics is forcing us to rethink existence | Michelle Thaller: Full Interview 0:00 How astronomers seek to answer the biggest questions in the universe 2:20 The reality of being an astronomer 4:58 How scientists actually come up with new ideas 7:39 What astronomers actually study vs. big cosmic questions 13:28 Rethinking reality: Einstein, space & time 18:30 Quantum mechanics & the nature of spacetime 25:50 Neutron stars are the most extreme objects in the universe 33:04 The strange physics of empty space 37:41 The hidden danger of the Sun (solar wind explained) 43:55 Could a solar storm wipe out civilization? 52:16 Mining asteroids, magnetic fields & navigating the universe 58:05 When astronomy realized the Sun isn’t what we thought 1:00:20 Big Bang, universe origins & limits of human understanding