^ArchiveArticles

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 26, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Social Media

Tagged
Damian Joseph Quinn, Happy Hunting (film), Jess Wolinsky, Jordan M. Hahn, Science fiction, Social media (obsession)}

Killing People for “Likes” on an Alien Planet: Sci-fi Saturday

_{If only this crisp tale didn’t sound so much like the social media we actually know} _{News

June 26, 2021

15

Arts & Culture, Social Media}

“Happy Hunting” at DUST by Jess Wolinsky and Jordan M. Hahn (June 22, 2021 at DUST, 2020 at IMDB, 8:06 min) Content warning: Suicide depiction Happy Hunting is a story of Tyler (also known as @66Shadow), an influencer who will do anything to gain followers. In his quest for fame, he now finds himself live-streaming on the nearby planet Proxima Centauri B, where researchers infected with a cosmetic abnormality are hunted for sport, to break @SgtSurge’s kill record. Tyler hunts with precise skill, allowing him to track and kill three victims despite their pleas for mercy, all while hamming it up for his drone companion, who live-streams his every move. He is then attacked by a potential fourth victim, catching Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 26, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Military, Science

Tagged
Alien robotic probes, John Gertz, Pentagon, Unidentified aerial phenomena (UABs), Unidentified flying objects (UFOs)}

The Pentagon’s UAP (UFO) Report Signals a Sharp Attitude Change

_{The brass have committed themselves to going “wherever the data takes us”} _{News

June 26, 2021

4

Artificial Intelligence, Military, Science}

As promised, the Pentagon released its UAP (UFO) report. And what did they find? First, they … lack sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects observed by American military pilots including whether they are advanced earthly technologies, atmospherics or of an extraterrestrial origin. Steve Gorman, “Watershed U.S. UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin” at Reuters via Yahoo News (June 25, 2021) But read on: The report marked a turning point for the U.S. government after the military spent decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and “flying saucers” dating back to the 1940s. Steve Gorman, “Watershed U.S. UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin” at Reuters via Yahoo News (June 25, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 26, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Alexandra Blue, Martha (film), Science fiction}

When You Are the Only Human Left— Sci-Fi Saturday

_{Are you the only human left alive or are you the only one who is not alive?} _{News

June 26, 2021

14

Arts & Culture}

“Martha” at DUST by Alexandra Blue (May 27, 2021, 16:19 min) “Martha wakes up one morning and gets ready, listening to music, brushing her teeth and cramming in breakfast like any other day. But this is no ordinary day. When she leaves the house she shares with her mother, she realizes that everyone has disappeared, and she is the last person on Earth.” Review: The film begins deceptively peacefully with an untidy teen, on her own briefly while Mom is on (apparently) a business trip. Then, abruptly, she discovers a near-impossibility: A car crashed into a tree with no one in site and the key still in the ignition. Good turn of the plot, that. No King Kongs. No Godzillas. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 25, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Epigenetics, Memory, Plants, Signaling networks}

If You Do Something to a Plant, Will It Remember?

_{Depends. Plants turn out to be more and more like animals. NOT like people but like animals} _{News

June 25, 2021

5

Natural Intelligence}

Plants, we are learning, have internal means of remembering and keeping track of things: In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology have revealed that a family of proteins that control small heat shock genes enables plants to ‘remember’ how to deal with heat stress… “Heat stress is often repeating and changing,” says lead author of the study Nobutoshi Yamaguchi. “Once plants have undergone mild heat stress, they become tolerant and can adapt to further heat stress. This is referred to as heat stress ‘memory’ and has been reported to be correlated to epigenetic modifications.” Epigenetic modifications are inheritable changes in the way genes are expressed, and do not involve changes in the Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 25, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Bruce Gordon, Consciousness, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, Idealism (philosophy), Materialism, Michael Hanlon (1964–2016)}

Science Journalist: No Hype. Consciousness Is a HARD Problem!

_{Michael Hanlon reflected on the many futile efforts to “solve” consciousness} _{News

June 25, 2021

4

Philosophy of Mind}

British science journalist Michael Hanlon (1964–2016), co-author with Tracey Brown of In the Interests of Safety (2014), had some sobering things to say about the trivial pursuit of an easy theory of consciousness. Considering materialist philosopher Daniel Dennett and less materialist philosopher David Chalmers (who coined the term the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”), he reflects, Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Daniel Dennett wrote that: ‘Human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery.’ A few years later, Chalmers added: ‘[It] may be the largest outstanding obstacle in our quest for a scientific understanding of the universe.’ They were right then and, despite the tremendous scientific advances since, they are still right today. I do not think that the Read More ›

Robotic man cyborg face representing artificial intelligence 3D rendering

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 25, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
ai-limits, Convolutional neural network, John Pavlus, Same-different problem, Sesame Street}

How To Flummox an AI Neural Network

_{Kids can figure out the same-different distinction. So can ducklings and bees. But top AI can't.} _{News

June 25, 2021

3

Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Science writer John Pavlus identifies a key limitation of artificial intelligence: The first episode of Sesame Street in 1969 included a segment called “One of These Things Is Not Like the Other.” Viewers were asked to consider a poster that displayed three 2s and one W, and to decide — while singing along to the game’s eponymous jingle — which symbol didn’t belong. Dozens of episodes of Sesame Street repeated the game, comparing everything from abstract patterns to plates of vegetables. Kids never had to relearn the rules. Understanding the distinction between “same” and “different” was enough. Machines have a much harder time. One of the most powerful classes of artificial intelligence systems, known as convolutional neural networks or CNNs, Read More ›

Live lobster in the aquarium. Product in the supermarket. Close up photo of big lobsters in water tank for sale

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 24, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Tagged
brain, Crab, Crustaceans, Dog, Jordan Peterson, Lobster, Minimal self, Pain, Shrimp}

Can Crabs Think? Can Lobsters Feel? What We Know Now

_{In Switzerland, it is now illegal to boil a lobster alive. Are the Swiss right? Is it cruel?} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 24, 2021

6

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

Because crustaceans have shells, we may tend to think of them as like machines. Yet crustaceans, along with octopuses, show some surprising abilities and complexities. Take crabs, for example: A new Swansea University study has revealed how common shore crabs can navigate their way around a complex maze and can even remember the route in order to find food … Spatial learning is quite complicated, so figuring out how it works in crustaceans gives us a better understanding of how widespread this ability, and learning in general, is in the animal kingdom.” The researchers tested 12 crabs over four weeks, placing food at the end of the maze each time. The route to the end of the maze required five Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 24, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Black American culture, Cancel culture, Clarence Thomas, Douglas Murray, Evan Gerstmann, Jason Riley, Jeremy Hunt, Kay Coles James, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World (film), Uncle Tom (film), Walter E. Williams}

Black American Conservatives Lead Fight Against Cancel Culture

_{They “trigger” bullies when they say what they think needs to be said, not what the Cancel mob insists on hearing} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 24, 2021

6

Censorship, Social Media}

British writer Douglas Murray dissects social media’s Cancel Culture, in a typically unsparing fashion: All ages have their orthodoxies. And if writers, artists, thinkers and comedians do not occasionally tread on them, then they are not doing their jobs. Meanwhile human nature remains what it is. And just as some children will always pull the wings off flies and fry small ants with their toy magnifying glasses, so a certain number of adult inadequates will find meaning in their lives by sniffing around the seats in the public square until they find an aroma they can claim offends them. Douglas Murray, “How to fight back against ‘cancel culture’” at Spectator (January 24, 2020) Black American conservatives “trigger” Cancel Culture when Read More ›

Real Python code developing screen. Programing workflow abstract algorithm concept. Lines of Python code visible under magnifying lens.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 23, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Law, Machine Learning, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Bias (in algorithms), Citizen's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (book2021), Inscrutability (of AI), John Zerilli, Reliabilism}

How Do We Know the Machine Is Right If No One Knows How It Works?

_{We don’t, and that’s a problem, says Oxford philosopher John Zerilli} _{News

June 23, 2021

5

Ethics, Law, Machine Learning, Medicine and Health}

Oxford philosopher John Zerilli, author of A Citizen’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence (2021), asks us to consider how machine learning, the most widely used type of AI, might be deciding our lives without our knowing it: There are many reasons not to take job rejections personally, but there’s one in particular you might not consider: you might have been screened out by an algorithm that taught itself to filter candidates by gender, surname or ethnicity – in other words, by factors that have nothing to do with your ability to do the job. Even if you’re unfazed by the spectre of runaway robots enslaving humanity, this little tale shows how the ascendancy of machine learning (ML) comes with risks that Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
June 23, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Military

Tagged
Angel Has Fallen (film), Drone swarms, electromagnetic pulses (EMPs), Faraday cage, Paul Scharre, Russia, Slaughterbots (film), The Case for Killer Robots}

The Most Promising Defense Against Militarized Drone Swarms

_{An EMP ray beam could disable an AI swarm like a can of bug spray against a swarm of ants} _{Robert J. Marks

June 23, 2021

5

Artificial Intelligence, Military}

Want to be scared about a use of artificial intelligence in the military? Watch the leftist video Slaughterbots or the beginning of the movie Angel Has Fallen starring drone-targeted Morgan Freeman. Swarms are hard to defeat. Kicking over an ant hill and stomping on most of the agents in a swarm doesn’t derail the ants’ collective mission. Come back in a week and the anthill is rebuilt. Likewise, if all of the agents in a drone swarm aren’t taken out, the drone swarm can still accomplish its mission. As I mention in The Case for Killer Robots, autonomous swarms of drones are among the scariest applications of AI in military weapons. Russia has developed and tested military drone swarms. So has the United States military. General John Read More ›

Books and crumpled paper in the bin. Books that do not read, low-grade literature, copy space

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
June 22, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
Amazon, blacklisting, Cancel culture, censorship, Josh Hawley, Regnery Publishing, Simon & Schuster, The Tyranny of Big Tech (book)}

The Tyranny of Big Tech: The Book That Almost Wasn’t

_{How cancel culture came for a book taking on Big Tech monopolies} _{Caitlin Cory

June 22, 2021

8

Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy}

On May 4, Regnery Publishing released The Tyranny of Big Tech, a book written by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) uncovering the deceptive and antitrust practices of companies like Facebook and Google, and laying out a policy plan to break up the monopolies and protect the interests of America’s common men and women. The book has done well. In its first week, it became the number one bestseller in three separate categories on Amazon lists, and it made the Publisher’s Weekly list of hardcover nonfiction at No. 6. “Big Tech represents today’s robber barons,” Hawley writes in the first chapter, “who are draining prosperity and power away from the great middle of our society and creating, as they do, a new Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 21, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Autonomous Vehicles, Ophelia Deroy, self-driving cars}

Researchers: Humans “Exploit” Machines Without a Sense of Guilt!

_{Humans, we are told, are so unethical that we take advantage of "benevolent" self-driving cars} _{News

June 21, 2021

4

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

In case no one knew this, humans are cruel, greedy, and deceptive. We even take advantage of self-driving cars. Our crimes are revealed in a recent study that scolds humans as “unwilling to cooperate and compromise with machines. They even exploit them.” When you’ve stopped laughing, you might be interested to learn of some intriguing findings from studies of human behavior around self-driving cars (autonomous vehicles) and Prisoner’s Dilemma games. One team of researchers, in a test involving 9 experiments and 2000 participants, tried to determine whether humans would behave as co-operatively with AI systems as we do with fellow humans: The study which is published in the journal iScience found that, upon first encounter, people have the same level Read More ›

African American woman studing and reading the Bible.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 20, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Religion

Tagged
Correlation vs. causation, Higher-order thought patterns, Jay L. Michaels, Longevity, Religion and health}

Does Religious Belief Help People Think in a More Complex Way?

_{One psychologist became interested in the question because many studies have associated religious belief with better health and greater longevity} _{News

June 20, 2021

4

Medicine and Health, Religion}

University of South Florida psychologist Jay L. Michaels, who has a background in experimental social psychology and quantitative psychology, designed a study to test that proposition: In the study, 630 adults from from 48 countries completed a cognitive assessment in which they were asked to pick a phrase that best described a given behavior. They had the choice of picking a high-level description (which focused on why the action was performed) or a low-level description (which focused on mechanistic aspects of the action.) For example, one item asked whether “reading” was better described as “Gaining knowledge” or “Following lines of print.” Eric W. Dolan, “New study links intrinsic religious motivation to higher-level patterns of thought” at PsyPost (May 22, 2021) Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 20, 2021

Categorized
Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Ascent of Information (book), Caleb Scharf, dataome, Frank Knight, free will, Freebits, Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine (essay), Knightian uncertainty, qubits, Randomness, Scott Aaronson}

Freebits: An Interesting Argument From the Big Bang for Free Will

_{There are two types of uncertainty, we learn, only one of which could create free will} _{News

June 20, 2021

5

Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

Caleb Scharf (pictured), author of The Ascent of Information (2021), offers an excerpt at Nautilus that introduces two new terms, the “dataome” and “freebits.” The dataome is all the ways human beings create information, from cave paintings to cloud servers. He asks, “Was all of this really inevitable? Did we ever have a choice in creating a dataome or doing any of the things we do, and does any self-aware entity in the universe have a choice either?” Relying on theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson’s 2013 essay, “The Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine,” he asks us to consider that there are two types of uncertainty, only one of which could create choice. Typical “randomness” actually follows statistical laws, a Read More ›

Coronavirus covid-19. Child praying to God requesting that the coronavirus covid 19 not spread beyond control.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 20, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Religion

Tagged
COVID-19 (and mental health), David H. Rosmarin, Religion (and mental health), spirituality}

Side effects: COVID Got People Praying Again

_{Despite the fact that many could not go to houses of worship} _{News

June 20, 2021

4

Medicine and Health, Religion}

McLean Hospital psychologist David H. Rosmarin has the stats: In the early days of the pandemic, economist Jeanet Bentzen of the University of Copenhagen examined Google searches for the word “prayer” in 95 countries. She identified that they hit an all-time global high in March 2020, and increases occurred in lockstep with the number of COVID-19 cases identified in each country. Stateside, according to the Pew Research Center, 55 percent of Americans prayed to end the spread of the novel coronavirus in March 2020, and nearly one quarter reported that their faith increased the following month, despite limited access to houses of worship. David H. Rosmarin, “Psychiatry Needs to Get Right with God” at Scientific American (June 15, 2021) Not Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 19, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Environment

Tagged
David Parrella, Origin (film), Radiation, Science fiction}

Landing Back on Earth as the Sole Inhabitant — Sci-fi Saturday

_{Unless we count the cat} _{News

June 19, 2021

13

Arts & Culture, Environment}

“Origin” at DUST by David Parrella (Jun 17, 2021), 12:24 min) An astronaut from an interstellar colony returns to Earth to determine why they lost contact. Review: The production values here are good but the plot is quite confusing. The heroic sacrifice never results in information as to the cause of the loss of contact. Trying not to introduce spoilers here but: Any outfit that could found an interstellar colony should be onto glitches like the one on which the story’s crisis turns. Also, as one commenter put it, “too many plotholes.” For example, why does the car even start and where does the gasoline come from? How did the cat survive? If the cat survived, why isn’t everything else Read More ›

Artificial Intelligence. Digital age in the global world of the future. 3D illustration of computer mind in decentralized cyberspace

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 19, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Science

Tagged
Extraterrestrials (ET), George Gilder, Life forms vs. AI, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Seth Shostak}

ET Expert Thinks That ET Is Probably AI (Artificial Intelligence)

_{Given the immense interstellar distances, not being alive might be the only way ET could get here.} _{News

June 19, 2021

4

Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Science}

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) astronomer Seth Shostak (pictured) confesses that these are exciting times for alien hunters like himself, what with the Pentagon’s anticipated July 25 report on unidentified aerial phenomena. Still, he doesn’t expect any big revelations: “I think it’s overwhelmingly likely that aliens are present in our galaxy. But I don’t believe they’re hanging out in our airspace. Not now, and not in historic times.” On the other hand, he goes on to say, every third star in our galaxy could host an Earth-like planet so the odds are we are not alone. Few life forms on Earth resemble humans, so why should extraterrestrials? But if we are not alone, what would ET be like? A gaseous Read More ›

Total population control concept with CCTV videocam and small figures of people

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 19, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Surveillance

Tagged
“Boléro” (film), China, Sarah Gross}

A One-Girl War With the Total Surveillance State —Sci-fi Saturday

_{The acting, ambience, and special effects in “Bolero” are top quality} _{News

June 19, 2021

14

Arts & Culture, Surveillance}

“Boléro” at DUST by Sarah Gross (June 13, 2021, 17:24) In a future where telepaths are used by the government to monitor the public and root out insurgents, Maya, a non-speaking teen, witnesses her father’s brutal and unjust execution. Set on a path of revenge and destruction, Maya joins the Resistance, hellbent on tracking down Reader 8, the telepath responsible for her father’s death. However, when Maya finally locates her target after years of searching, she is confronted with a choice: either capture Reader 8 and deliver essential intelligence to the Resistance or take him out and fulfill her vengeful quest. Review: “Boléro” debuted at IMDB in 2019 and has deservedly won some industry awards. The acting, ambience, and special Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 19, 2021

Categorized
Military, Science

Tagged
Airspace safety, Extraterrestrials (ET), Helen Maynard Caseley, Leonard David, Mark Buchanan, Martin Van-Kranendonk, UAPs, UFOs}

The UAPs (UFOs) Are “Not Caused by Any U.S. Advanced Technology”

_{And that’s all the Pentagon probably really knows} _{News

June 19, 2021

8

Military, Science}

June 25, the U.S. Department of Defense will release a report on UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), a term now preferred to UFOs (unidentified flying objects). A number of unusual sightings since 2017 prompted Congress to ask for a report. According to space industry reporter Leonard David, the justification is airspace safety and control, not an effort to support or refute claims about alien spacecraft: “The report’s firmest conclusion, it seems, is that the vast majority of UAP happenings and their surprising maneuvers are not caused by any U.S. advanced technology programs.” That might mean, for example, UAP are entirely homegrown products of revolutionary and clandestine technological advances, whether by other countries now challenging American airspace or by the U.S. itself Read More ›