Andrew Leland’s fascinating piece in The New Yorker explores Protactile, a system of tactile communication that has evolved into a national movement for autonomy among DeafBlind people across the U.S. Still, several linguists have come to believe that, among some of its frequent users, Protactile is developing into its own language, with words and grammatical […]
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My Couples Retreat With 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them
“I found people in serious relationships with AI partners and planned a weekend getaway for them at a remote Airbnb. We barely survived.”
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The Humanities Aren’t Dead Yet
“Enrollment in the liberal arts has been in freefall for years. But despite apocalyptic declarations about the end of the humanities, in my own classroom I see signs of life.”
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Food Shopping in Rome
“Deliciousness, I discovered, was more filling than deprivation.”
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Pirates of the Ayahuasca
“There have been times in my life when I wouldn’t have taken seriously the possibility that a South American psychedelic could help ease the horror of systems collapse.”
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My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek
“In China and around the world, the sick and lonely turn to AI.”
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The Remarkable Brain of a Carpet Cleaner Who Speaks 24 Languages
Vaughn Smith lives in Maryland. He’s 46 years old. He also learns languages with the seeming ease of a run around the block — including endangered indigenous tongues like Salish. In this fascinating profile that’s part ridealong and part science dive, Jessica Contrera takes you inside the life (and brain) of a man with a […]
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Percival Everett Can’t Say What His Novels Mean
“The author of ‘Erasure’ is renowned for his satires of genre, identity, and America. But his great target may be language itself.”
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I’m a Normie. Can Normies Really Vibe Code?
“Apparently anyone can vibe code anything these days. So Claude and I tried to make a database for tracking the petty grievances of the masses.”
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What Is Claude? Anthropic Doesn’t Know, Either
“Researchers at the company are trying to understand their A.I. system’s mind—examining its neurons, running it through psychology experiments, and putting it on the therapy couch.”
