Silicon Valley Aesthetics, Applied History, and 400-Year-Old Sharks: Lux Recommends #44
Welcome to Lux Recommends #44, the newest edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (and want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
Welcome to Airspace: How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world: A great piece on Silicon Valley minimalism aesthetic and faux authenticity. — Zavain
It’s Really Hard to Make Money as an Olympian: “The biggest impact is lost earning potential. Training for gold leaves little time to train for a career.” — Adam K
An industrial robot arm can perform intricate tattoos on human bodies: “Pierre Emm and Johan da Silveira created Tatoué, an industrial robot arm that can autonomously perform intricate tattoos on humans.” — Adam G
The Sharks That Live to 400: “In 1620, the Mayflower set off from Plymouth, carrying hopeful pilgrims to the New World. As it sailed over the Atlantic, it passed over deep, cold waters, where baby Greenland sharks were starting out their lives. Those youngsters slowly grew into giants. And if a new study is right, some of them are still alive today.”— Adam K
Applied History Manifesto — Establish a White House Council of Historical Advisers Now: On the need for applied history in shaping government policy and thinking.—Sam
Seven Phases in the Evolution of the Old London Bridge, 1209–1831 — Sam
A Nihilist’s Guide to Meaning: A fantastically thought-provoking essay on meaning and purpose in one’s life. — Sam
Books
You May Also Like: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice by Tom Vanderbilt: Seeks to explain the unconscious influences on our choice. — Josh
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: From the author of the Wayward Pines trilogy. A great mix of science, science fiction, mystery, murder, neuroscience, quantum physics, and the nature of reality. Fast-paced short paragraphs track the protagonist professor-scientist with an artist wife and a young teenage son, who goes out to get ice cream after a family dinner and in one sense, never comes back. There are parallel versions of the paths life could have taken; one has him as an epic award winning scientist that cracked the code on Schrodinger’s Cat and superposition of states of reality that collapse when observed — and then employed by a high-tech family owned venture that has invested billions to possess the understanding, if not the method. Thought-provoking take on many-worlds hypothesis of reality and the choices we might make and realities we might choose. — Josh
Videos
The jobs we’ll lose to machines — and the ones we won’t: “Will a robot do your job in the future?” — Adam G
“Imagine studying anatomy by looking at 3D body parts in front of your eyes. I wish I was a medical student now.” — Adam G
Online Toys
Moral Machine: “We show you moral dilemmas, where a driverless car must choose the lesser of two evils” — Sam
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