Farmers’ fight: Industrial dairy farming is among the leading causes of climate change. But recent efforts to purge the European Union of its dairy industry, and in particular, of its small farmers, only serve to mollify an anxious public’s worries, Declan Rexer writes in the latest issue of The Harper Review. Europe has decided to wash its hands of agricultural oversight and climate responsibility—and a rich tradition of European farming and rural culture is left on the chopping block. Read now in The Harper Review.
Artificial paradises: The virtual reality revolution is here. Artificial people, animals, and landscapes now appear in movies, video games, and training simulations. In response to the exploding virtual reality market, tech firms have begun dispatching teams to map and digitize the entire world. These breakthroughs raise urgent questions: Will the virtual reality revolution be a net benefit to humanity? Or will it ultimately distract and alienate us from the problems and wonders of real life? In her new essay for The New Yorker, tech correspondent Anna Wiener explores the virtual reality boom and all of its exciting—and sinister—implications.
What are children for?: In their new book, Point magazine editors Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman discuss modern men’s and women’s uncertainty about having children—and how to move beyond it. What Are Children For?: On Ambivalence and Choice, which will be released this June, describes how becoming a parent went from something expected of virtually all people to a potential threat to self-fulfillment. Contra arguments that childbearing accelerates climate change and prevents women from finding meaning and self-worth outside the home, Berg and Wiseman maintain that we must embrace the fundamental goodness and value of human life. Our ability to live happy and contented lives not only in the present but in the future, as well, depends on it.
Bobos in dystopia: In the latest issue of the literary magazine The Lamp, managing editor Nic Rowan examines the plight of the bourgeois bohemian, or “Bobo” for short. New York Times columnist David Brooks first coined the term Bobo in his 2000 book Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There to describe the new “talented, self-cultivated, self-employed, independent-minded, sexually liberated, ambitious in the kitchen, technologically savvy” elite that had gained prominence in Reagan-era America. Now, according to Rowan, the Bobos increasingly suffer from “depression, melancholy, ennui—whatever you want to call it.” How did the so-called new upper class come to face such a predicament at the height of their social and political dominance, and what are some possible cures for their ailments? Read Rowan’s essay to find out.
Doomerism: When there is lots of hubbub about a subject, it is wise to turn to those with experience. Given all the talk, fears, and hype around artificial intelligence, and the possibility of a superhuman artificial general intelligence (AGI), it might be the time to do just that. Join renowned AI researcher Stuart Russell of UC Berkeley in conversation with the University of Chicago’s Rebecca Willet at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society on April 25th at 5 p.m. Russell will explore the possibility of AGI, whether there can be an alignment of human and AI interests—that is, making the latter work for the benefit of the former—and whether we are on the right track (spoiler: we may not be).
Cultural crackup: Berlin’s art scene has suffered a “cultural crackup” as a result of sanctions placed on artists and cultural organizations who publicly express pro-Palestine and anti-Israel views amid the Israel-Hamas war. In a recent piece for Critic’s Notebook of The New York Times, Jason Farago argues that pressures on free speech and association threaten Berlin’s reputation as a capital for avant-garde art. In post-wall Germany, Berlin cultivated its arts scene through government funding, but certain artists have come into conflict with the government’s support for Israel. Farago writes that Germany sees this support as part of its “Staatsräson” or “reasons of state,” which is aligned with a national project of assuaging guilt about the Holocaust. He argues that anti-Israel critique, even by government-funded artists, is censored because it’s seen as a threat to German national identity. Farago warns that overregulation of the arts, however, risks counteracting the German end of countering bigotry, including anti-Semitism.