A new collection of philosophy-related links…

1. Bond evolution, breaking and formation — recorded on film, at the atomic scale, for the first time
2. Love and lust in Lolita — Jennifer Frey (South Carolina) & Becca Rothfeld (Harvard) on “the tensions we readers are forced to navigate between the awesome beauty of Nabokov’s prose and the ugly perversion that is the central focus of our attention in the novel”
3. “Who, on Earth or on distant planets, would aim to engineer consciousness into AI systems themselves?” — Susan Schneider (Connecticut) on why there may be nothing that it’s like to be a superintelligent alien
4. A summer institute to help philosophy instructors design courses that convey the value of philosophy — put on by the Council of Independent Colleges, it is directed by Ned Hall (Harvard)
5. New research on the logical operations that the brain’s individual dendritic compartments can perform — one possible upshot: “Brains may be far more complicated than we think”
6. The impeachment of Donald Trump is a teaching moment — especially if you’re teaching Rousseau, says David Williams (DePaul)
7. “What It Is Like To Be” is an anamorphic sculpture by Thomas Medicus made of 144 hand-painted glass strips — it was inspired by Thomas Nagel’s “What Is It Like To Be A Bat?”. Watch the video. (via Colossal)

Mini-Heap posts appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, the ever-growing collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers. Discussion welcome.

The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap. Thanks!

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