Monthly Archive December 2018
Can genes predict which birds can learn to talk?
A recent study disappointed researchers, who really hoped to learn why humans use language
If Computers Thought Like Fruit Flies, They Could Do More
But even with more sophisticated buzz, there remain "non-computable" things that a computer cannot be programmed to thinkRecently, researchers discovered that fruit flies use a filter similar to a computer algorithm to assess the odors that help them find fruit, only the flies’ tools are more sophisticated: When a fly smells an odor, the fly needs to quickly figure out if it has smelled the odor before, to determine if the odor is new and something it should pay attention to,” says Saket Navlakha, an assistant professor in Salk’s Integrative Biology Laboratory. “In computer science, this is an important task called novelty detection. Computers use a Bloom filter for that, Navlakha, an integrative biologist, explains: When a search engine such as Google crawls the Web, it needs to know whether a website it comes across has previously Read More ›
Consumers Were Not Buying Robots as Friends This Year
The market for drudgery busters remains strong. For dogs and pals, not so much
Can Big Data Help Make Your Book a Best Seller?
It’s more likely to help you picture your odds more clearly and clarify your goals
How is Human Language Different from Animal Signals?
What do we need from language that we cannot get from signals alone?
Science Confronts Credibility Issues?
Not to worry, prestigious researchers blame them on social media trolls and bots
That Plant Is Not a Cyborg
Or a robot. The MIT researcher's underlying idea is a good one but let’s not “plant” mistaken ideas
Quantum Randomness Gives Nature Free Will
Whether or not quantum randomness explains how our brains work, it may help us create unbreakable encryption codesWhen I was boy, my father explained free will and predestination to me: I dig a fence post hole. · Did I create the hole because of my own free will? · Or was the hole already there and I simply removed the dirt? If true, the hole was predestined. The question cannot be answered by examining the evidence. In philosophy terms, it is “empirically unanswerable.” That is the sort of stuff that philosophers debate. Religious people might point to scripture to support one conclusion over the other.1 In physics, however, quantum randomness offers a definitive answer to the question of predestination vs. free will—for subatomic particles. In the world of classical physics (Isaac Newton’s physics), it can be argued Read More ›
Stephen Hawking and the AI Apocalypse
Can doomsday headlines, chasing fame, stand in for deep knowledge of a subject?
Dogs Are Not as Intelligent as Seals?
That doesn't sound right to you? Putting aside the hoopla around IQ tests for furries and flipperies, there is a serious science question about what “intelligence” really is
McDonald’s, Meet McPathogens
What happens when the drive to automate everything meets the Law of Unintended Consequences?