ANATOLY IVANOV / PROSE / CATEGORIES / EGO AND SOCIETY

ИСКУССТВО КИНО – THE LAST ISSUE TO PRINT

CINEMA / JOURNALISM / ESSAYS / OUTSIDE NEWS / 2023-05-24

Искусство Кино — published since 1931 and thus, together with “Sight & Sound” and “Cahiers du Cinéma” one of the earliest magazines to cover the film industry, art and theory — has printed its last issue. Yes, my work has been featured in it. But  + 

ELON MUSK: IF AI COULD REPLACE ME, SHOULD I BE DOING THIS?

HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-05-17

Elon Musk just said on CNBC something I’d been thinking about a lot: “If we do get to this sort of magic genie situation, where you can ask the AI for anything. And let’s say, even if it’s a benign scenario… How do we actually  + 

HOW TO BE HAPPY? MY 5 MINUTES DIALOGUE WITH CHATGPT

COMPUTERS / HEALTH / LINGUISTICS / ESSAYS / 2023-05-16

My conversation about human happiness with ChatGPT took 5 minutes. Question: According to what is currently known to science, what 50 factors, listed from most influential to least, influence a human (male, with an IQ above 100) self-reported feeling of happiness  + 

THE GLOBAL HARMONIZED STANDARD OF WOMEN

HEALTH / INDUSTRIAL DESIGN / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-05-08

Social media, especially Instagram, has succeeded to complete the Global Harmonized Standard of Women™, an industrialized process started by the female magazines (Vogue, ELLE…) It’s all pretty… scary. We now have a draft proposal for ISO review.  + 

NO MORE TINDER FOR RUSSIANS

POLITICS / SOCIAL MEDIA / OUTSIDE NEWS / 2023-05-06

The Match Group withdraws from Russia. Tinder, OKcupid, Hinge… will all vanish from Russian social space by June 30. Meanwhile, The Russian Government™ is planning — finally, again, for real this time — to launch RuTube… and close access to YouTube.  + 

THE BLOCK FOREVER ARCHIVE

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIAL MEDIA / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-05-02

Only thoughtless people do crazy things, publish emotional photos, record damming TikToks, break up “forever”… relying on the “Delete Chat” and “Block” buttons of messengers and social apps. Those unable to think ahead imagine they will never face the consequences. Our digital footprint describes our  + 

DELEGATE AN AI (LLM) TO TALK WITH YOUR TINDER MATCH

COMPUTERS / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-04-21

Wow. The Match Group did indeed introduce chat-assist to Tinder. Just look at their suggestions to start a dialogue after a match: 😱 • Hiiii Jane! Getting into anything fun this week? • Hello Jane. How’s it going? • Hi there! Getting into anything fun  + 

MORE THAN HALF OF AMERICAN WOMEN ARE SINGLE

SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-04-07

52% of American women were unmarried or separated in 2021. The rising share of single women households has been driven entirely by women who have never married. Over 80% of women under 30 have never tied the knot in 2021… Despite all the readily-available research  + 

CLIMATE CHANGE? NO, WE WILL NOT LIMIT ANYTHING.

CYCLING / ECONOMICS / ENVIRONMENT / ESSAYS / 2023-04-04

As a civilization, we’d known about our impact on climate since the 1950-60s. We’ve also continued to fail to agree on anything that would have prevented its negative impact… since the 1970s. 50 years later, the IPCC reports, again, that nothing’s changed. We will not  + 

THE ARGUMENT BY FUZZY CONCEPT

LINGUISTICS / PHILOSOPHY / PSYCHOLOGY / ESSAYS / 2023-02-11

The “argument by fuzzy concept” fallacy is second only to ad hominem… An argument of intellectual indoctrination, laziness and dullness which, if pressed, degenerates into circular reasoning, requiring, at best, a definition by negation (“not hate, not lust, not friendship, not nⁿ…”) Got a World  + 

WHY ARE WE NOT FREE?

PSYCHOLOGY / RELIGION / SOCIETY / SPIRIT / ESSAYS / 2023-02-10

Are we really free? Are we free to be who we really are? The answer is no, we are not free. True freedom has to do with the human spirit — it is the freedom to be who we really are. Who stops us from  + 

MORE MONEY CAN BUY YOU MORE PILLS

ECONOMICS / HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-01-24

“America is a kind, generous place… if you have money. It’s a rapacious, violent place if you don’t have money. To be wealthy in America is to be loved. People find you interesting, they want to know you. You have a broader selection of mates.  + 

DAVID GOGGINS RUNS BECAUSE HE HATES IT

PSYCHOLOGY / RUNNING / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-01-18

“I run every single morning. That’s because that’s the one thing I hate to do more than anything in the world” — David Goggins, an ultramarathon runner and triathlete. I wonder whether people who worship him realize the all-too-common pattern of self-abuse and hate in  + 

NICK LANE’S “THE VITAL QUESTION” BOOK REVIEW

BIOLOGY / CHEMISTRY / EDUCATION / HEALTH / REVIEWS / 2022-12-26

A review of Nick Lane’s “The Vital Question” is easy to write: just re-arrange a dozen of his own passages. The book itself, though, is not easy to read. Unless… you understand at least the main principles of physics, chemistry and Latin. However interesting the  + 

RUNNING A BUSINESS IS NOT AS FUN AS YOU MIGHT THINK

ACCOUNTING / MANAGEMENT / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-11-27

Where does this voguish idea of everyone becoming a glamorous and fun entrepreneur come from? Sorry, but: 1) most people are not born with the DNA required to run a business; 2) while being an entrepreneur adds a lot of positive nouns to your life,  + 

HALF OF AMERICANS HAVEN’T READ A SINGLE BOOK THIS YEAR

LITERATURE / SOCIETY / LINKS / 2022-10-26

Over 50% of Americans haven’t read a book in 2022. Nearly 25% of adults have not read a book in 1-2 years. 11% haven’t read a book in 3-5 years. And 10% of US adults haven’t read at least 1 full book in the past  + 

LIFE IS SHORT AND UNCERTAIN… ACT NOW

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / SPIRIT / ESSAYS / 2022-10-18

Life is short. You might have heard that one before. And uncertain. You can die at any moment, making it even shorter. So think hard about what you do with your gift of life right now, not after you “get funded” or “feel inspired” or  + 

ROBERT SAPOLSKY ON WHY RUSSIANS ARE STUCK IN A SUBMISSIVE / AGGRESSIVE LOOP

POLITICS / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / LINKS / 2022-10-12

An interesting take on why Russians have been stuck in a submissive / aggressive loop for centuries by Robert Sapolsky, who privileges the nurture (culture) component rather than the nature (DNA) factor. I’d disagree somewhat: the negative selection pressure has expunged the country of its  + 

WHY EVERYONE AND YOUR GRANDMOTHER NEEDS AN AR-15?

POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-10-07

A well-researched, superbly edited, humorous video explaining why every American, especially a senior, needs an AR-15 gun. In all seriousness. Or how to build the perfect straw man with a bit of a circular thing goin’. His logic: US civilians need the same firearms as  + 

“CHEAP SEX” BOOK REVIEW – IT’S GONNA COST US MORE THAN WE THINK

BIOLOGY / ECONOMICS / HEALTH / SOCIETY / REVIEWS / 2022-09-19

“Cheap Sex” is a great book by sociologist Mark Regnerus to compliment David Buss’ “Evolution of Desire”. It describes the current personal and interpersonal sexuality / gender relations state of affairs in the US. The local trends and stats which do or will impact the  + 

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