Around The Web | What We’re Reading
If it’s not the endless social media scrolling then it’s our obsession with avocado on toast, well that’s how the media have pegged us millennials. But once in a while, we prove we’re more than just a gentrified postcode. This week we look at MIT’ pick of the 35 young bright things for 2017, working on everything from improving the shocking diversity stats in tech to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, these young innovators are using all the new-fangled tools at our disposal to pave the way for the future.
We then turn the lens on an emerging Gen Y trend: Instagram-friendly stores and cultural institutions. We round out the week with a look at Putin’s heed of a not too distant future where nation states are building a super force of GM soldiers, and they won’t have their shirts off, we hope.
Take a peek:
The most coveted actor of our time Daniel Day-Lewis heads in for one last victory lap as he makes an appearance in his last film from genius director Paul Thomas Anderson. In all honesty, it’s not the film trailer of the year, but perhaps the film will surprise us as Day-Lewis often does.
“Brightly colored rooms with flattering lighting that contain, among other things, a rock-candy cave, a unicorn, and a swimming pool of rainbow sprinkles, now Instagram-influencer-infamous. It smells like fruit-flavored chemicals. There are seemingly infinite backdrops against which to take a cute selfie. It’s like a haunted house for digital natives- a Willy Wonka induced fever dream.” Discover the latest cultural institute capturing Millennials across America, the Museum of Ice Cream. What’s the secret to its success?
“…There is hope. That’s no small cash reward, and with Trump quickly gaining enemies, is it beyond belief that someone in his inner circle would say ‘fuck it’ and give Flynt a call? Wouldn’t it be fitting if this whole nightmare ended with porn king Larry Flynt as the unlikely hero?” In an unexpected twist, the founder of notorious porn mag Hustler, Larry Flynt is offering a cool $10 million for anyone that can provide information to impeach Trump. Any takers?
“The human mind, when it doesn’t do the work of mindfulness, winds up becoming a prisoner of its myopic perspectives that put ‘me’ above everything else. We are so caught up in the dualistic perspectives of ‘us’ and ‘them’. But ultimately there is no ‘them’. That’s what we need to wake up to.” Jon Kabat-Zinn, the ‘Master of Mindfulness’ in the West, has been extolling the virtues of a meditative approach since the 1960s. Looking at events such as the Trump/Kim Jong Un fiasco and the Grenfell Tower disaster, Kabat-Zinn believes that now more than ever we need to go back to basics.
“Our findings remind me of the absent-minded professor – someone who’s brilliant, but off in his or her own world, sometimes oblivious to their own surroundings. Or school children who are too intellectually advanced for their classes. While it may take five minutes for their friends to learn something new, they figure it out in a minute, then check out and start daydreaming.” Good news for all the daydreamers out there; this study has found a positive link between the amount of time you spend in the clouds and your level of intelligence and creativity. Sound like you?
“Anca Dragan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley, is working to distil complicated or vague human behaviour into simple mathematical models that robots can understand. She says many of the conflicts that arise when humans and robots try to work together come from a lack of transparency about each other’s intentions.” Meet the 2017 shortlist of ’35 Innovators Under 35’, as chosen by MIT. From biodegradable heart valves to the Uber for beauty, the younger generation have the future covered.
“Man has the opportunity to get into the genetic code created by either nature, or as religious people would say, by God. All kinds of practical consequences may follow. One may imagine that a man can create a man not only theoretically but also practically…What I have just described might be worse than a nuclear bomb.” Speaking at a youth conference in Sochi earlier this week, Vladimir Putin warned scientists of the grave danger posed by tampering with the human genetic code, prophesizing that current research could lead to World War III fought by genetically modified superhumans trained as deadly soldiers. Should we be worried?
