
Monthly Archive September 2018


Google is collecting data on schoolkids
Some say it’s okay because the firm supplies a lot of free software and hardware to schools
Children are watching much less TV
But what we learned from children’s TV is coming back to haunt us
Will AI triumph?
Will that phone end up smarter than your kid?
Do either machines—or brains—really learn?
A further response to Jeffrey Shallit: Actually, brains don’t learn either. Only minds learn.
Inner peace: Is there software for that?
Tech billionaire funds neuroscience in a search for the secret of contentment
Google Powering China’s Snoop Culture
They’ve suppressed the memo but can’t suppress the uproar around it
Machines really can learn!
A computer scientist responds to my parableJeffrey Shallit argues that a computer is not just a machine, but something quite special.
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So lifelike…
Another firm caught using humans to fake AI
The Hills Go High Tech
An American community finding its way in the new digital economy
Digital dictatorship?
China’s “social credit” system coming under scrutiny
Does digitization threaten science?
It enables new abuses, according to a Cambridge nanoscientist
Apes Can Be Generous
Are they just like humans then?
Maybe iGen really IS fragile
Did social media's troll frenzies trigger the campus war on ideas?
Is the octopus a “second genesis of intelligence”?
Can its strange powers provide insights for robotics or the human mind?
Artificial intelligence is impossible
Meaningful information vs artificial intelligence
You Have Just Six Emotions
At least it would be easier for the machines if we did
Is the future of jobs over?
Should people be paid to let machines do the work?
Coconuts Go High Tech
Plastics from coconut waste offer economic benefit to poor farmersOne of Walter Bradley’s longstanding goals as an engineer and materials scientist has been to harness advanced materials technology to help the world’s poor, most of whom are poor farmers.
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