{"id":7483,"date":"2024-07-26T19:11:19","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T02:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2024-07-26T19:11:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T02:11:19","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-463","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2024\/07\/26\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-463","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 463"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions. If you read something fascinating please pass it my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is volume 463, a prime number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Why your smartphone might be stopping you from following Jesus<\/a> (Martin Saunders, Premiere Christianity): \u201c[Haidt] argues that smartphones actually drive spiritual degradation: \u2018[social media] trains people to think in ways that are exactly contrary to the world\u2019s wisdom traditions: Think about yourselves first; be materialistic, judgemental, boastful, and petty; seek glory as quantified by likes and followers.\u2019\u2026 <\/em>our digital culture isn\u2019t neutral; it\u2019s offering a kind of anti-discipleship.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Move Over, Mathematicians, Here Comes AlphaProof<\/a> (Siobhan Roberts, New York Times): \u201cA pair of Google DeepMind models tried their luck with the problem set in the 2024 International Mathematical Olympiad, or I.M.O., held from July 11 to July 22 about 100 miles west of London at the University of Bath. The event is said to be the premier math competition for the world\u2019s \u2018brightest mathletes,\u2019 according to a promotional post on social media. The human problem-solvers \u2014 609 high school students from 108 countries \u2014 won 58 gold medals, 123 silver and 145 bronze. The A.I. performed at the level of a silver medalist, solving four out of six problems for a total of 28 points. It was the first time that A.I. has achieved a medal-worthy performance on an Olympiad\u2019s problems.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Standing Out, Crafting Hooks, and Accidentally Revealing Everything That\u2019s Wrong With You<\/a> (Max Nussenbaum, Substack): \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t think that people\u2019s natural instinct would be to reveal their full litany of psychological issues in their profiles, but it actually is. They just don\u2019t realize that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing.\u201d About a year old.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Online opt-in polls can produce misleading results, especially for young people and Hispanic adults<\/a> (Andrew Mercer, Courtney Kennedy & Scott Keeter, Pew Research): \u201c\u2026several recent studies have documented large errors in online opt-in surveys due to the presence of so-called \u2018bogus respondents.\u2019 These respondents do not answer questions sincerely; instead, they attempt to complete surveys with as little effort as possible to earn money or other rewards. Studies have shown that bogus respondents can cause opt-in surveys to overestimate rare attitudes and behaviors, such as ingesting bleach to protect against COVID-19, belief in conspiracies like Pizzagate or support for political violence.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Patronage vs. Constituent Parties (Or Why Republican Party Leaders Matter More Than Democratic Ones)<\/a> (Tanner Greer, personal blog): \u201c\u2026many discussions of American politics assume that that the structures and operational norms of the two parties are the same. If these party differences were more widely recognized, I suspect we would see fewer evangelicals frustrated with their limited influence over the GOP party platform, fewer journalists shocked with J.D. Vance\u2019s journey from never-Trump land to MAGA-maximalism, and greater alarm among centrist Democrats about the longer-term influence that the Palestine protests will have on the contours of their coalition.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Evangelicals Must Stop Their Preferential Treatment of the Left<\/a> (James R. Wood, First Things): \u201cToday, centrists and those on the right are more fertile soil, I believe, because they are more open to reality. They recognize that the cultural revolutionaries\u2019 projects to rewrite reality are destroying civilization. These refugees crave clarity about basic moral realities because of how much confusion the negative world has produced. They are looking for voices who stand up to the civilizational destroyers\u2014maybe even voices who boldly proclaim supernatural truths.Like the \u2018god-fearers\u2019 that early church missionaries often targeted, we today need to consider the \u2018reality-respecters\u2019 in our mission.\u201d