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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 742 posts.
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Information is like snacks, money, and drugs to the brain
Can’t stop checking your phone, even when you’re not expecting any important messages? Blame your brain. A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has found that information acts on the brain’s dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food. “To the brain, information is…
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How I Almost Destroyed a £50M War Plane and the Normalisation of Deviance (2016)
‘RECOVER!’ came the shout from the back seat of my Tornado GR4 combat jet but it wasn’t necessary - I had already started…
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$1B for 20,000 Bay Area homes
As Google grows throughout the Bay Area, we’re making our biggest investment yet to help with the housing crisis.
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Software made me loathe my car
I am the disgruntled owner of a 2015 BMW 320d xDrive. That’s a luxury car, at least to a Dane. And I’m a bit surprised that it’s come to this point. It is, mechanically, a wonderful car. The double-clutch transmission is smooth, it’s easy to drive, the engine is modest, but decent, the milage is great (20 km/l or ~47…
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The Internet of creation disappeared. Now we have surveillance and control
An interview with this specialist in human rights, technology and freedom of expression to discuss how today’s societies are advancing to the drumbeat of “digital colonialism”.
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Humans who are not concentrating are not general intelligences
Recently, OpenAI came out with a new language model that automatically synthesizes text, called GPT-2. It’s disturbingly good. You can see some examples (cherry-picked, by their own admissio…
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When it comes to privacy, default settings matter
What if I told you that on nearly every single website you visit, data about you was transmitted to dozens or even hundreds of companies, all so that the w
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Johns Hopkins Launches Center for Psychedelic Research
The center, believed to be the first and largest of its kind, will use psychedelics to study the mind, identify therapies for diseases such as addiction, PTSD, Alzheimer's
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No one should have to travel in fear
I’ve worked for Silicon Valley companies for more than a decade and international travel is a necessary part of my job. I’ve had my fair…
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What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance
David shares how the new age of information abundance is transforming commerce, education, and politics. Read here.
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It's Way Too Easy to Get a .gov Domain Name
Many readers probably believe they can trust links and emails coming from U.S. federal government domain names, or else assume there are at least more stringent verification requirements involved in obtaining a .gov domain versus a commercial one ending in .com or .org. But a recent experience suggests this trust may…
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Sci-Hub and Alexandra Basic Information
I decided to make a quick summary of facts about Sci-Hub and myself, because in our times you cannot fully trust articles published in media, Wikipedia pages. Well, they do present facts about Sci-…
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US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums
Only the Netherlands has a higher average compulsory payment wedge than the US.
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Why brilliant people lose their touch
It hasn’t been a great couple of years for Neil Woodford — and it has been just as miserable for the people who have entrusted money to his investment funds. Mr Woodford was probably the most celeb…
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China is blocking all language editions of Wikipedia
translation: 中国封锁了所有语言版本的维基百科 China recently started blocking all language editions of Wikipedia. Previously, the blocking was limited to the Chinese language edition of Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org), but has now expanded to include all *.wikipedia.org language editions. In this post, we share OONI network measurement…
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Strava cuts off Relive
Here I thought yesterday was going to be a peaceful random July Thursday morning. Nothing but Italian chirping birds at the Giro Rosa, and catching the Tour de France later in the afternoon on TV. Turns out, Strava had different plans for it.
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Isolation, anxiety, and depression in the remote workplace
Productivity inspiration and tactical advice that's actually useful.
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49% of workers, forced to change passwords, reuse same one with minor change
A new survey has revealed some alarming news about the way users are choosing their passwords in their homes and workplace.
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75% of med students are on antidepressants, stimulants, or both? (2017)
As scientists, we can’t continue to approach medical education reform as a neurotransmitter deficiency in medical students. Can we?
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