June 3, 2025

Foreigners sure talk fast, don’t they? When you listen to someone speaking a foreign language, you’re sure they’re speaking very quickly, far faster than you speak in your more refined native language. It turns out they think exactly the same thing about the way you talk. It’s the “Gabbling Foreigner Illusion.” Speech scientists have studied it…

November 12, 2024

These two photos look identical to me. What I see looks like the photo on the right. I have mild deuteranomaly – red-green colorblindness. Eight percent of men are red-green colorblind. (Almost no women. It’s a genetic thing.) It’s hard to describe, because my world has a full spectrum of colors – “colorblind” does not…

October 29, 2024

Some demos were posted this week that make it easier to picture how technology can change reality. The picture above shows a laptop in a perfectly normal apartment with a Game of Thrones augmented reality overlay. Stick with me and I’ll explain enough for you to know what that means, and maybe you’ll scroll back up…

October 8, 2024

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have cameras in the frames. You can take pictures and shoot videos, then upload them. It’s a fast and convenient way to record a moment without pulling out your phone. You can post the images to Facebook or Instagram, or ask AI questions about them. Last week two Harvard students got viral coverage of…