Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

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Waq al-waq has just learned that Hamid al-Ahmar will be a guest on al-Jazeera’s Bila Hadud on Wednesday. Watch, enjoy and then comment.

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

A human silhouette filled with birds and insects is overlaid with a circular target, binary code, and abstract shapes against a sky background with clouds.

The Well

Social media supercharged our disagreements. Could AI help us resolve them?

Duke sociologist Dr. Christopher Bail on the tech’s potential to foster empathy in an age of division.

Pixelated grayscale close-up of an AI prince's face with strong contrast and visible mosaic-like squares.

Business

Leadership philosophy: Why Machiavelli’s “virtù” fits hand-in-glove with AI

Author and geopolitical strategist Paulo Cardoso do Amaral urges us to ask: Will we shape AI with wisdom, or will AI reshape us with strategy?

Books

5 of the strangest books ever written

Some books are remembered for their lyrical prose or engaging stories. Others are remembered for simply being weird.

A slot machine displays various icons, including brains, cherries, a clover, and the number seven—an homage to Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s work—with two brains and a seven visible in the central row.

Smart Skills

How to escape the “dopamine crash loop” and rewire your curiosity

Stuck on a hamster wheel of mindless social media scrolling? Neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff explains how to consciously redirect your reward system.

Union soldiers in blue uniforms escort prisoners past a burning building with a large hole in the wall while smoke and flames rise, during the American Civil War.

Books

The rise and fall of John Wilkes Booth: America’s first celebrity assassin

Before becoming America’s most infamous assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a magnetic actor who was beloved by audiences and courted by critics.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Jabal Dukhan

News Yemen helps to explain the strategic importance of Jabal Dukhan and gives a bit more information, which is helpful since the mountain is not in my mu’ajim al-buldan.