Words for the Weekend
The best stories we read this week.
The Man Who Would Teach Machines to Think
TECHNOLOGY: Douglas Hofstadter, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, is trying to figure out how thinking works by writing computer programs that think. In other words, he’s attempting to build a smart machine. Can a computer be not just intelligent, but creative too?
Is There Such a Thing as “Human Nature”?
ANTHROPOLOGY: As Westerners, we like to believe we’re independent thinkers, but anthropologist Joe Henrich begs to differ. His research suggests (in part) why Western researchers have failed to consider the relationship between culture and cognition in human psychology.
A short history of the short story
STORIES: Author William Boyd discusses how the the short story has evolved—from the neanderthals to Chekhov and Poe and Melville. Today, he says, short stories remain “snapshots of the human condition” that can show us more than real life is able.
Inside the Cheater’s Mind
PSYCHOLOGY: Why do people cheat? Early research suggested it was ruled by moral development, but modern studies argue that cheating is a result of our environment—and that almost anyone will cheat in the right (or wrong) circumstances. The New Yorker’s Maria Konnikova unpacks the latest science on the psychology of cheating.
How Has Twitter Changed the Role of the Literary Critic?
LITERATURE: True literary criticism is hard to find on Twitter. Adam Kirsch and Anna Holmes argue the odds, with Kirsch positing that the twittersphere is dominated by information—quick judgements—rather than experiences of “a mind engaged with a text.”
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