Psychology
essay
Stories and literature
The sonnet machine
A sonnet contains an emotional drama of illusion and deception, crisis and resolution, crafted to make us think and feel
Timothy Hampton
essay
Biology
Octopus time
We humans are forward-facing, gravity-bound plodders. Can the liquid motion of the octopus radicalise our ideas about time?
David Borkenhagen
essay
Computing and artificial intelligence
What has feelings?
As the power of AI grows, we need to have evidence of its sentience. That is why we must return to the minds of animals
Kristin Andrews & Jonathan Birch
essay
Philosophy of mind
Super-cooperators
Clear and direct telepathic communication is unlikely to be developed. But brain-to-brain links still hold great promise
Gary Lupyan & Andy Clark
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
Teaching an AI to beat video games still takes human imagination
5 minutes
essay
Knowledge
A sliver of reality
Science and mathematics may never fully capture the physical universe. Are there hard limits to human intelligence?
David H Wolpert
essay
Evolution
Connected-up-brains
Bat friends, monkeys sharing, and humans holding hands: the brains of social animals synchronise and expand one another
Sofia Quaglia
essay
Knowledge
Imaginology
We need a new kind of approach to learning that shifts imagination from the periphery to the foundation of all knowledge
Stephen T Asma
essay
Cognition and intelligence
Modular cognition
Powerful tricks from computer science and cybernetics show how evolution ‘hacked’ its way to intelligence from the bottom up
Michael Levin & Rafael Yuste
video
Philosophy of mind
Embodied cognition seems intuitive, but philosophy can push it to some strange places
14 minutes
essay
Stories and literature
The art of the plot twist
Some twists infuriate; others are brilliant. But they both use the surprise story as a self-exploding confidence game
Vera Tobin
essay
Human evolution
Homo imaginatus
Imagination isn’t just a spillover from our problem-solving prowess. It might be the core of what human brains evolved to do
Philip Ball
essay
Cognition and intelligence
On the origin of minds
Cognition did not appear out of nowhere in ‘higher’ animals but goes back millions, perhaps billions, of years
Pamela Lyon
video
Film and visual culture
A Palme d’Or-winning animation toys with the way our eyes perceive light
5 minutes
video
Knowledge
What can a Kurosawa classic tell us about reality, knowledge and truth?
5 minutes
essay
Biology
Enduring memory
How can animals whose brains have been drastically remodelled still recall their kin, their traumas and their skills?
Thomas R Verny
essay
Cognition and intelligence
A theory of my own mind
Knowing the content of one’s own mind might seem straightforward but in fact it’s much more like mindreading other people
Stephen M Fleming
video
Film and visual culture
A series of animated illusions illustrates how we project depth on to flat surfaces
8 minutes
video
Cognition and intelligence
How a ‘periodic table’ of animal intelligence could help to root out human bias
5 minutes
video
Cognition and intelligence
No, Mozart isn’t a brain hack for babies – here’s how music really affects intelligence
5 minutes
essay
Information and communication
The misinformation virus
Lies and distortions don’t just afflict the ignorant. The more you know, the more vulnerable you can be to infection
Elitsa Dermendzhiyska
essay
Beauty and aesthetics
A philosophy of sound
From the Big Bang to a heartbeat in utero, sounds are a scaffold for thought when logic and imagery elude us
Christina Rawls
essay
Ageing and death
The gender of dementia
Are women really at greater risk from dementia? Until we reckon with social roles and inequalities, it’s impossible to say
Kate Gregorevic
essay
Cognition and intelligence
How to be a genius
I travelled the world and trawled the archive to unearth the hidden lessons from history’s most brilliant people
Craig Wright