Word: functional
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...danger. The government or anyone smart enough to hack a security system could end up using biochips to track a person's movements and activity. Should biochips become commonly used, people might then be forced to have them implanted. And if that happened, anyone without a biochip could not function in this society...
Some of those variables may be found by studying the function of the brain. At Washington University, researchers have been conducting brain imaging to investigate a trait they call persistence--the ability to stay focused on a task until it's completed just so--which they consider one of the critical engines driving ambition...
Such opinions don’t stray too far from historical debates over the purpose of art. It wasn’t too long ago that some philosophers, such as Georg Hegel, deemed the sole function of art as a way to convey the Spirit of God in visual terms. Its ultimate purpose, in his opinion, was to disappear entirely once mortals were enlightened with the Spirit. Plato himself believed in the eternal existence within the subjects of a work as an imitation of a phenomenal world...
Luckily, things have changed, and the purpose of art has expanded greatly. Consider the function of photography in the imagery of Vietnam or the Great Depression, or the role of Constructivist art in uniting millions of Russians. Pop art forces us to examine our absurd consumer society by parodying such a culture. Art is an immensely powerful tool in shaping the way in which society sees the world in a particular context and reflecting upon that context...
...Maramaldi said “the database was created so that it could be adapted,” adding that Harvard’s ultimate goal is to make an even wider range of funding opportunities available on the site. She added that the website’s search function is similar to that of online vendor Amazon.com. When users perform a search, Amazon not only spits out a list of results but offers suggestions based on previous buyers’ preferences. Maramaldi said the new site is “user-friendly and straightforward,” and that...