It might not be a good idea to tell this to bookish readers, but it looks like loneliness can kill you.
The Perils of Being a Hermit
“Elbowing, nudge-nudge, wink-winking”
Recommended Listening: Alissa Nutting discussing her new novel on Brad Listi’s Other People Podcast.
Our young robot overlords
Looks like our robot overlord is going to be a 13-year-old boy: the Turing Test has been passed for the first time by a bot simulating a preteen, making history for artificial intelligence research and teenagers alike. “Our main idea was that he can claim that he knows anything, but his age also makes it perfectly reasonable that he doesn’t know everything,” researchers explained.
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Borges, Writing and God
“When I have an idea that will later, sadly, become a story or a poem, I have a sensation of receiving something. But I do not know if that “something” is given to me by something or someone or if it bursts out on its own.” An excerpt from Borges‘s conversations with the Argentinian poet and essayist Osvaldo Ferrari on writing, memory, and God is now available on The New York Review of Books blog.
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A helping hand
This week, Melville House is donating all profits from books purchased on their website to Japan disaster relief.
Wordpocalypse
In the beginning, God died, and it was bad. Then the pun died too, and despair came over the people.
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