Visionaries – 10.31.16

“Michael Silver.” Mike is an architect, professor, student of consciousness, and principal of Critical Systems Lab. Mike studied architecture at Pratt Institute and Columbia University and has taught at key architecture schools. We discuss consciousness, the mind/body problem, artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, and what all this has to do with architecture.

Every 25 Seconds – The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States

Neal Scott may die in prison. A 49-year-old Black man from New Orleans, Neal had cycled in and out of prison for drug possession over a number of years. He said he was never offered treatment for his drug dependence; instead, the criminal justice system gave him time behind bars and felony convictions—most recently, five years for possessing a small …

DEPRESSION CHANGES GRAY MATTER IN YOUNG BRAIN

The brains of children who suffer clinical depression as preschoolers develop differently than those of preschoolers not affected by the disorder, a new study shows. These children’s gray matter—tissue that connects brain cells and carries signals between those cells and is involved in seeing, hearing, memory, decision-making, and emotion—is lower in volume and thinner in the cortex, a part of …