EXCLUSIVE: Following 15 years as a talent agent at Paradigm, Jeff Kolodny is moving over to the management side, after joining Cognition, the boutique talent management company founded by Brian DePersia. Bringing extensive experience representing some of the industry’s most respected actors, Kolodny will work alongside DePersia and the Cognition team across film, television, theatre, […]

A simple writing task may offer clues about aging brains. Researchers found that dictation, in particular, exposed subtle differences linked to cognitive impairment. Handwriting depends on both fine motor skills and complex mental processes, including selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information. Because writing places heavy demands on the brain, changes in handwriting may help…

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that certain immature brain cells may help some people resist the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, even when the disease is already present. The findings hint at previously unknown mechanisms that could shape how the brain ages. Why do some people develop memory loss and cognitive decline as Alzheimer’s disease progresses, while [...]

I have been battling Large Language Models (LLM1) for the past couple of weeks and have struggled to think about what it means and how to deal with its fallout.

Because the fight has come from many fronts, I've come to articulate this in terms of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Sound track: Metallica's The Four Horsemen, preferably downloaded from Napster around 2000, but now I guess you…

Being open and transparent is a radical strength, not a weakness. We should not throw this away in the pursuit of a convenient perceived inevitability.

Do parrots actually use names the way humans do? A new study analyzing hundreds of captive parrots reveals surprisingly complex social communication. Like many animals, parrots produce calls that can sound as though they are communicating with one another, perhaps even addressing a particular bird. But whether they use names in anything like the human [...]

HEPA air purifiers can slightly boost brain function in adults 40+, potentially reducing pollution-related cognitive decline. Using a HEPA air purifier for one month may modestly improve cognitive performance in adults over 40, particularly in areas like mental flexibility and executive function. The study, conducted in a high-traffic urban area, suggests that reducing exposure to [...]

Teen cannabis use is linked to slower cognitive growth, especially memory, with THC as a likely contributor during key developmental years. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, report that teenagers who begin using cannabis show slower improvement in thinking and memory skills as they age. The findings, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, are [...]

Can only read up till the first graf of the first point, but the first point is really good.

Humans are low-data learners. Infants acquire a basic understanding of objects, persistence, containment, support, and causality through relatively sparse but richly structured interaction with the environment. They are not ingesting terabytes of text. They are embedded in the world, acting in it,…

Gut microbiome changes may drive age-related memory loss via inflammation and disrupted brain signaling, but interventions in mice show this process can be reversed. Memory tends to decline with age, but this pattern is not the same for everyone. Some individuals remain mentally sharp even at 100, while others begin experiencing noticeable memory issues much [...]

Chimpanzee experiments suggest early humans were likely fascinated by crystals because of their unique transparency and geometric shapes. Archaeologists have repeatedly uncovered crystals at ancient sites alongside the remains of early humans. Some of these finds date back 780,000 years, yet the stones show no signs of being used as tools, weapons, or jewelry. If [...]

A new study by researchers at the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) introduces the concept of “cognitive surrender,” our tendency to adopt AI outputs with “minimal scrutiny,” overriding “both intuition and deliberation.” I’ve read it, and the findings, although unsurprising, are still quite scary.

The paper is called “Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial: How AI is Reshaping Human…