New links…

Discussion welcome.

1. “Which animals have the capacity for conscious experience? While much uncertainty remains, some points of wide agreement have emerged” — several philosophers are among the signatories of The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness
2. “A fundamental aspect of intelligence is collective behavior: all intelligences appear to be made of parts, connected by mechanisms implementing policies that bind the competent components into a cooperative (and competitive) computational medium” — collective intelligence across and within organisms
3. “The burial place was in a garden reserved for Plato in a private area in the Academy, near the sacred shrine to the Muses” — further work on the charred Herculaneum papyri, believed to be authored by Philodemus, seems to reveal where Plato was buried (background here)
4. A Polaroid/Instax camera that produces not pictures, but AI-produced poetry — someone should create one that turns images into philosophical questions
5. “Goldman Sachs’ chief information officer, Marco Argenti, recently encouraged his daughter, a college student, to concentrate her education on philosophy if she wants to pursue a career in engineering” — on why “some of Wall Street’s top tech execs and recruiters” are recommending software engineering students study philosophy, English, psychology, etc.
6. Why is it good for a life to be “well-rounded”? And what does “well-rounded” mean, anyway? — an interesting interview with Amy Berg (Oberlin, soon Rice)
7. Despite what heated discussions on social media might suggest, “none of our disputes in political and social life are actually about the nature of truth” — Liam Kofi Bright (LSE) tries to trick us into accepting his postmodern relativistic poppycock

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

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. Thank you.

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