Science & Society

After reading Sascha's excellent article [Robopocalypse Now] regarding the effect and direction of robotic/AI development and its coevolutionary influences, it occurred to me that perhaps a shift in how we view such developments could promote a more intuitive understanding of what is occurring. Essentially my point is that we consider "tools" as coevolutionary developments which can be regarded in a similar manner as symbiotic relationships are in biology.  It is important to note that I'm not suggesting that we suddenly imbue inanimate objects or human inventions with all manner of…

The problem, in a word, is language.Carl Zimmer’s recent article Can Life Be Defined in Three Words raised just that issue.He referred to the many attempts that have been made by scientists to define what life is, and in doing so, unwittingly exposed some of the main problems in reaching a definition of life.He described Radu Popa’s study in which Popa went to the trouble of counting the definitions of life, and gave some of the definitions. For example, “Some scientists define life as something capable of metabolism.” Can you see the problem with that approach? Those who tackle the…

In the USA, it is, I understand, a great insult to call a member of the fair sex a “Tub of Lard”.  So folks from across the Pond may do a slight double-take when they read       Tub of lard found fit to eat after 64 years  Millions of tins of “Swift’s Bland Lard” –which was used as a spread similar to butter or as a cooking fat – were distributed by US soldiers to West Germans after World War II in care packages that included other essentials like powdered milk, cheese and sugar. Some of those made their way across the Iron Curtain, including one to…

Robopocalypse, see also here on Boing Boing, is a novel by roboticist Daniel Wilson, who foretells a global apocalypse brought on by artificial Intelligence (AI) that hijacks automation systems globally and uses them to wipe out humanity. Computers and now also robots make amazing progress these years and out-compete humans in everything but snakes and ladders. Many fear that humans will soon be the robot overlords’ Neanderthals.   Others who work on robotics, like Samuel Kenyon from In the Eye of the Brainstorm, ridicule the notion of robot uprisings as mere Hollywood tropes that…

Ok, don't forget PIPA and SOPA.  They're important too.  But whereas PIPA and SOPA only have the potentialto be misused for censorship, RWA is designed from the ground up to block the free flow of information.RWA, the Research Work Act, would do the exact opposite of its appellation.  Its sole purpose is to keep science behind a paywall, where the only ones allowed access are either residing in an ivory tower or willing and able to pay per page.  This would be bad for the public, bad for science, bad for scientists, and for the economy. Science is published in peer-…

Many publishers attract a significant amount of bile from scientists. However, most bile is reserved for that titan of publishers, Elsevier. Now, many academics are signing on online pledge called The Cost of Knowledge, where you can pledge to boycott Elsevier journals. This can either involve refusing to submit papers, or refusing to provide refereeing or editorial work. You may wonder why Elsevier in particular are being targeted. After all, as I've pointed out recently, while Elsevier certainly does charge obscene amounts to make obscene profit, it is not alone in doing so. Many of the…

Who has more credibility to the NPR audience, a scientist or someone who runs an organic yogurt company?  It depends on the issue, of course.  When it comes to global warming, science is awesome but when it comes to food security for poor people, science is evil corporations out to kill us all. So they accept the facts of the yogurt maker. Henry Miller of Forbes - physician and molecular biologist, founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology from 1989 to 1993 and, more recently, scholar at Stanford University's Hoover Institution - is calling them out.  He discusses…

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent case study in denialism on Friday, in the form of a letter from sixteen scientists seeking to perpetuate gridlock in climate policy.  While nothing they have to say raises any scientific issues about climate change, the letter is interesting to peruse simply to see what arguments they use, and what that says about their motivations. The letter uses several denialist tactics, including, 1) Cherry-picked examples placed out of context,2) Unsupported claims3) Irrelevant distractions4) Implications of conspiracy, and 5) Self-portrayal as…

Over 30 percent of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, according to a report published today by researchers in the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence based at the University of Maryland and the University of Massachusetts-Boston.  So what areas should you avoid, if you play the odds? Way out in front is Manhattan, with 343 attacks.  Los Angeles is next with 156 followed by Miami (103 attacks), San…

The news of the world are filled again with anti-Chinese propaganda. I am appalled at how simplistic anti-Chinese bickering is allowed to be, because it hides the real problems and dangers of China, and there are also positive aspects, like that China has done much for secularism and science. While portraying every unwelcome Middle Eastern movement as extremist religious terrorism, Western double-moral wants to tell us that such issues are absent in China. But self-immolations, just as much as suicide attacks, and attacking other, of suffering capable beings, is not peaceful islam, and most…