Incognito Sum

Alan Kohler: End of the tech bubble and rise of humanoid machines Fears of a recession in the United States have brought the great artificial intelligence boom/bubble to shuddering halt.

Meet me at Open Day - Sunday 28 July 11am Swinburne University of Technology

We're halfway through the year.

Take a moment, small or large, to consider the Long Now — time not just on the scale of the year or even the decade, but on the scale of millennia and tens of thousands of years.

These French Cheeses Are at Risk of Extinction A lack of microbial diversity could eventually spell the end of cheeses like Camembert

"The Hobbit" is a textbook example of what comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell calls the monomyth or the “hero’s journey.” The concept, based on his lifelong study of myths and legends from across the globe, is a narrative blueprint shared by many well-known stories. Formulated in Campbell’s 1949 book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," the journey can be divided into eight steps:

1️⃣ The hero receives a call to adventure
2️⃣ They refuse the call
3️⃣ They meet an inspiring mentor
4️⃣ They decide to “cross the threshold” and accept the call
5️⃣ They leave their home and face obstacles, enemies, and allies
6️⃣ They fail to achieve the goal
7️⃣ They try again and succeed
8️⃣ Finally, they come home with a reward

[Campbell] believed this monomyth was an abstract representation of growing up — the hero slaying the dragon being a metaphor for confronting and conquering our own insecurities and shortcomings.

However, over time, the universal nature of The Hero's Journey has been challenged and reevaluated. While narratives like the story of Moses in the Book of Exodus and the battle between Marduk and Tiamat in Mesopotamian mythology can be summarized as hero’s journeys, many other tales of old — from tragedies like "Oedipus Rex" to folktales like "Rumpelstiltskin," not to mention most creation myths — cannot.

In recent decades, feminist scholars have argued that many heroic figures from myth and literature aren’t as admirable as they were previously made out to be and that the interest scholars like Campbell show them is tantamount to the glorification of violence, aggression, and patriarchal social structures. It’s a harsh criticism, but maybe not altogether uncalled for. The Hero with a Thousand Faces focuses on male heroes, many of whom are out to save a princess.

✒️ Words by Tim Brinkhof

'People with money are using AI and robots like their new slaves" Li Edelkoort says Trend forecaster Li Edelkoort discusses why she believes the use of robots and AI is a "new form of colonialism", how Arts and Crafts might be our future, and her book celebrating the Global South in this interview.

Many people think college is a place where students go to figure out career plans and life ambitions, where they form clear and confident goals for the future. But this, Arthur C. Brooks writes, is not true: “You should not have your future all figured out. Not now, and not later.” https://theatln.tc/V0xxApCW

This lesson comes in part from the 13th-century Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart, who taught that we should “live without a why.” Eckhart did not mean that people should be directionless, or that life is meaningless. Rather, he believed in teaching the ultimate objective of life: “to act in a spirit of pure love before all else, and not to let worldly aims of money, power, and prestige distract us from this objective,” Brooks explains in a column adapted from a commencement speech he delivered at Providence College, a Catholic institution founded by Dominican friars.

Goals such as getting a decent grade, graduating college, and finding a full-time job are all healthy, but “what is not healthy is to be attached to worldly goals in such a way that your happiness depends on them.” This, Brooks continues, is “a belief that almost invariably leads to frustration and disappointment.”

Ultimately, setting goals should not distract you from love and service; that way, “you can also stay open to finding yourself on another, better path,” Brooks says. And for many, this path begins with unlearning a series of false lessons. “The first untruth is that you must know your destination,” Brooks writes. “The second is that a good life is one that minimizes suffering, and the third is that you must know and live your own truth.”
In the place of these untruths, your new life path should begin with repeating three affirmations each morning, Brooks argues: “1) I do not know what this day will bring, but I will live it the best I can, with an attitude of love and generosity. 2) I am grateful for the good I experience today, but I do not fear the bad, which is part of being alive and an opportunity for learning and growth. 3) I do not possess the absolute truth, but today I will seek it with honesty, an open heart, and a spirit of adventure.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/V0xxApCW

Earth's Magnetic Field Nearly Collapsed 600 Million Years Ago. Then, Weird and Complex Life Evolved A new study suggests more solar radiation reached Earth while the magnetic field weakened, leading to a rise in oxygen that drove an explosion of multicellular organisms during the Ediacaran Period

A Study Reveals Trees Have Hidden Clocks—and They’ve Started Going Haywire

Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare | Quanta Magazine A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.

On lived experience, from the Romantics to identity politics | Aeon Essays The term is ubiquitous and double-edged. It is both a key source of authentic knowledge and a danger to true solidarity

Slightly crazy. This world map shows only countries that are officially recognized by Bhutan. Source: https://buff.ly/4aFEPv1

‘The ghost has taken the spirit of the Moon’: how Torres Strait Islanders predict eclipses A lunar eclipse ceremony from the Torres Strait turns our understanding of the history of science on its head.

Vale

What If the Singularity Does NOT Happen? | Vernor Vinge Technology acceleration is like what happens approaching the singularity in the center of a black hole--- everything is transformed utterly and unpredictably...

When is Wakanda: Imagining Afrofutures | Lonny J Avi Brooks "As a forecaster and Afrofuturist who imagines alternative futures from a Black Diaspora perspective, I think about long-term signals that will shape the nex...

On Exactitude in Climate Science Climate models could become infrastructure for our collective knowledge – but the choices we make in building these simulated worlds matter.