Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · 8d

Can we move beyond the common human tendency to think in largely dualistic terms? The wellbeing of our societies, and even their survival, may in part, depend on it. bit.ly/3RZneWK

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · 12d

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · 14d

Although the subject of pronouns are today most associated with that strange identity fixation of the culture wars, for linguists their more normal use hold keys to understanding concealed aspects of our psychology and social relations. bit.ly/46Tmr1h

The Science of Storytelling

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · 24d

“Stories are actually a form of technology. They are tools that were designed by our ancestors to alleviate depression, reduce anxiety, kindle creativity, spark courage and meet a variety of other psychological challenges of being human.” bit.ly/3IvGgQo

Humans are hardwired for stories, which have served as diverse functions as encoding survival information to cultivating higher perception.

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · 28d

For much of human history, storytelling was a spoken art. But millennia of dynamic and ever-evolving oral storytelling eventually succumbed, in different times and places, to the new tool of writing. That rendered the spoken storytelling experience as static and fixed in time. bit.ly/49o5QCJ

The Future of Batteries…and the Future of Energy

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Sep 15

Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn. But in a rapidly changing world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to question our assumptions, rethink our beliefs, and change our minds. bit.ly/46K1CFJ

2 5

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Sep 11

1 3 6

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Sep 5

Batteries power the clean energy transition, but current technology is falling short. Breakthroughs in chemistry, design, and policy will decide how quickly better batteries arrive, and how much they reshape our energy future. bit.ly/42eoLyn

Batteries help to power the clean energy transition. But the current technology, along with several other challenges, has them falling short.

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Sep 3

For most of human history, stories were spoken or sung, playing a vital role in the transmission of cultural, historical, and mythological knowledge, while providing a primary means of entertainment, education, and preserving the collective memory of the community bit.ly/4bHR6QP

2 4

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Aug 28

What is it about stories that enables them to work as they do? To understand where stories come from, and why they are crucial to human life, we need to travel back at least 500,000 to long before the birth of our own species. bit.ly/4bHwcS2

Perception of Colors—and the Words We Use to Describe Them

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Aug 26

The way in which different cultures describe and classify colors reveals differences in how they perceive the world. It also might help us better understand and navigate the increasingly polarized nature of our conversations, globally, into the future. bit.ly/4hwhsXB

How different language communities describe and classify colors reveals the small differences in how they perceive the world around them.

Social media is engineering amnesia

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Aug 18

2 3

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Aug 12

In ‘The Teachers of Gurdjieff’, author Rafael Lefort traverses the Middle East and Central Asia in a quest to uncover the legacy of a famous early 20th century mystic. What he finds instead is a lot of commentary about the real meaning, and methodology, of spirituality. bit.ly/4aHMQ2f

2

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Aug 6

Why you can remember a book you read last year but can't remember what you saw on social media yesterday.

unherd.com

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jul 28

In his book ‘The Righteous Mind’ social psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows how the moral judgements that determine our contending politics arise not from reason, but from gut feelings. He also explains why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. bit.ly/3RdQZUU

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jul 23

Decades after Ornstein and Ehrlich published ‘New World New Mind,’ arguing the need for “conscious evolution”—for humanity to deliberately up its game—are there any indications we are heeding their call? Or is it simply: new world, same mind? humanjourney.us/.../new-worl...

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jul 17

2

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jul 14

In Fluke, political scientist Brian Klaas explores the phenomenon of random chance and the outsize impact it has on shaping the future. Our latest review by @melraff.bsky.social bit.ly/4eNiKOd

Proto-Indo-European: The World's Parent Language

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jul 10

There is consensus that one common parent language spawned all tongues in the Indo-European language group—spoken by over 3 billion people. But that parent language, Proto-Indo-European, is known more through inference than direct evidence. The latest post from our Field Notes blog. bit.ly/407YIIf

One parent language, Proto-Indo-European, likely spawned many tongues spoken by 3 billion people. But the evidence is inferred, not direct.

Desalination and the Global Water Crisis: A Complicated Solution

2

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jul 8

Desalination is gaining ground as a potential long-term strategy to address shrinking freshwater reserves. It’s important to examine the capabilities, limitations, and impacts of this high-tech process—and the factors that will shape its viability as a global solution.

Port Stanvac Desalination Plant under construction, South Australia. Source: Wikimedia Commons Freshwater reserves are shrinking while climate pressures rise, and desalination is gaining ground as a p...

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jul 4

Exploring wider contexts alters our perceptions and reframes, more healthily, how we view ourselves in respect to the bigger picture.

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jun 30

David Sobel MD suggests that exploring wider contexts not only alters our perceptions in general, but also reframes more healthily how we regard ourselves in respect to the bigger picture.

Looking Up, Looking Out

humanjourney.us

What AI Can't and Shouldn't Replace

The Human Journey Project @humanjourney.bsky.social · Jun 14

As artificial intelligence grows in leaps and bounds, so too does the idea that “the robots are taking over”. But as Ella Jane Mortensen writes, the dangers of AI may lie as much in their impact on our minds and culture. Our latest from the Field Notes. bit.ly/4n0CyRY

As AI use grows, so too does the idea of the robots "taking over”. But its dangers may lie more in its impact on our minds and culture.