^ArchiveArticles

intellectual property. light bulb with chain

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post

Author
News
Date
November 8, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Education, Philosophy

Tagged
Charles W. Calomiris, Pano Kanelos, Tom Bartlett, University of Austin 2022, University of Austin and intellectual freedom}

How’s the University of Austin Coming? It’s Actually Happening

_{The “intellectual freedom” university continues to take shape in a world of “death to free speech”} _{News

November 8, 2022

4

Censorship, Education, Philosophy}

A very cautious article at Chronicle of Higher Education about the University of Austin fills in the rest of us. U Austin has come a long way since it was mocked at The New Republic as allegedly seeking to be “higher education’s premier institution of monetizing moral panics.” A couple of observations from senior Chronicle writer Tom Bartlett: The pioneer faculty have the money to get started: Chatter aside, the University of Austin is starting to take shape in the year since its raucous rollout. Curriculum is being developed. The accreditation process is underway. A deal for land in the greater Austin area is being hammered out. The university has lured several professors away from other universities and plans to Read More ›

Coronavirus maps disease 2019 situation update worldwide coronavirus spread,World map Coronavirus or Covid-19 Close-up countries with Covid-19, Covid 19 map confirmed cases report worldwide globally.

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post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 8, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Politics

Tagged
China and COVID-19, COVID-19 and international politics, COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis, COVID-19 origin and problem of totalitarian state, Featured, Huanan Market, Jeff Kao, Katherine Eban, Lab leak theory (COVID-19), Pressure suits in virus labs, Toy Reid, Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID origin}

Lab Leak Theory: A Biohazard Was First Noted in 2019

_{The dispatches indicate a “grave and complex situation” prompting an emergency visit from the director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences} _{Heather Zeiger

November 8, 2022

10

Medicine and Health, Politics}

A US Senate interim report has recently concluded that that “the Covid-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident.” The 35-page report, prepared by the minority oversight staff of the of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), used publicly available documentation to justify the findings. However, it did not include the 236-page report submitted by language expert Toy Reid, who analyzed Chinese Communist Party dispatches between scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and their supervisors in Beijing. Katherine Eban of Vanity Fair and Jeff Kao of ProPublica were given advanced access to the Senate researchers’ documents and spent months conducting their own investigation. They interviewed Reid, talked with members Read More ›

The electric chair apparatus in a Death row reenactment.

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post

Author
News
Date
November 8, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Politics

Tagged
Allen Harris Law, Death penalty for free speech, McLaughlin and Associates, Universities and free speech, University students endorse death for free speech}

Students: Free Speech Should Sometimes Result in Death Penalty

_{An open mind is apparently no longer valued at universities, the way it used to be} _{News

November 8, 2022

4

Censorship, Politics}

People who are used to thinking of college campuses as places where students go to learn about new ideas and the advantages of keeping an open mind might be interested in this recent survey conducted by McLaughlin and Associates: Calls for diversity on campuses and in Main Street businesses and banning hate speech, even that protected by the 1st Amendment, are no longer issues to fight over for American college kids. Now it’s a reason for the electric chair. And when it comes to speech, nearly half believe the death penalty is OK to shoot down hate speech. While the results might please left-leaning college professors, it is stirring concerns on the right who already feel that the left is Read More ›

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 7, 2022

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Blue Checkmark (Twitter), Brian Moynihan, Elon Musk, Elon Musk and changes at Twitter, Facebook layoffs (2022), Jacob Carpenter, JacobCarpenter on Twitter, Steve Tollman, Twitter, Twitter blue check marks, Twitter layoffs (2022)}

Musk’s Day at Twitter Dawned: And So What Really Happened?

_{For one thing, many layoffs — but layoffs are currently widespread in Big Tech} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 7, 2022

4

Social Media}

Important people seem to be taking Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover very seriously indeed. Were those of us who have disregarded Twitter in the past wrong? Blind sided? Here’s U.S. President Joe Biden: “Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that spews lies all across the world, There’s no editors anymore in America.” Maybe, but no one is forced to join Twitter or even listen… Many traditional tech watchers are sounding an alarm over Musk’s post-takeover layoffs. But before we get into that, let’s note that other Big Techs are also currently laying off personnel in considerable numbers: November 4 has been called the worst day for layoffs in 2022 (Black Thursday) at Fortune: News of job cuts came down Read More ›

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
November 7, 2022

Categorized
Law, Robotics

Tagged
Declaration of Independence and human rights, Featured, Human rights in Judeo-Christian view, Intelligence (varieties of intelligence), John Locke on human rights, Jonny Thomson, Rights (bases for rights), Rights (objective vs subjective criteria), Robot rights, Robot rights as downgrading human rights, Robots and natural rights, Sapience and robots, Sentience and robots}

Why Don’t Robots Have Rights? A Lawyer’s Response

_{Robots are hardware and software packages that lack a nature or any abilities outside of whatever their designers imagine} _{Richard W. Stevens

November 7, 2022

8

Law, Robotics}

“Free the Robots!” “Equal Rights for Robots!” Or maybe: “Set Us Robots Free!” Such future protest signs might well pop up in social media, to judge from “Why don’t robots have rights?” (Big Think, October 31, 2022) Writer Jonny Thomson worries that “ future generations will look back aghast at our behavior” when humans can “no longer exploit or mistreat advanced robots” as will presumably be the case in the 21st century. Dig into the article and get techno-whiplashed as Thomson suddenly starts talking about “the 22nd century [when robots] are our friends, colleagues, and gaming partners.” Thomson’s article considers robot rights as analogous to animal rights. The summary asserts: When discussing animal rights and welfare, we often reference two Read More ›

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Author
Jeffrey Funk
Date
November 7, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Economics

Tagged
Amazon's value proposition, Artificial intelligence and energy costs, Consumers and technology, Delivery drones and obstacles, Featured, Law of etendue and VR, Paul Krugman on computers, Satellite internet and slow service, Self-driving vehicles and edge cases, Tech growth as slowing (2022), Virtual reality and law of etendue}

Tech bubble? Our Progress Towards Value to Users Has Slowed…

_{We should be wary of glowing forecasts when newer technologies don’t offer anywhere near as large benefits} _{Jeffrey Funk

November 7, 2022

8

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Economics}

Today’s new technologies, from virtual reality to nuclear fusion have recently received record investments from venture capitalists, but their revenues are not growing as fast as technologies of past decades. Startup losses are unprecedented — far larger than in past decades. Share prices and private valuations have also been collapsing in 2022. Optimists mostly focus on the good news and ignore these facts. They believe that the heavy funding for these new technologies is a good measure of potential and thus any criticism is unjustified. Here is their typical argument: Paul Krugman and other “experts” criticized the Internet, personal computers, and other technologies in their early years. But these technologies succeeded. Therefore, criticisms of the new technologies are unfounded — Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
November 6, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Programming

Tagged
Artificial intelligence doomsday scenarios, David Nield, halting problem, Marcus Hutter, Michael K. Cohen, Tower of Babel and doomsday scenarios}

Two Computer Doomsday Scenarios: How Likely Are They?

_{One features a computer superintelligence beyond human comprehension and the other features a computer that destroys the world for an algorithmic reward} _{News

November 6, 2022

5

Artificial Intelligence, Programming}

In an open-access paper last year at the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, a research group concluded that a computer superintelligence, if developed, could not be contained. It would be a HAL 9000 that couldn’t just be turned off. Science writer David Nield explains: The catch is that controlling a super-intelligence far beyond human comprehension would require a simulation of that super-intelligence which we can analyze (and control). But if we’re unable to comprehend it, it’s impossible to create such a simulation. Rules such as ‘cause no harm to humans’ can’t be set if we don’t understand the kind of scenarios that an AI is going to come up with, suggest the authors of the new paper. Once a computer Read More ›

Quantum Nuclear Fusion Entanglement, 3d Representation

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post

Author
News
Date
November 6, 2022

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Physics

Tagged
Consciousness, Consciousness as affecting outcomes, Elizabeth Fernandez, Quantum Mechanics, Wigner's Friend (thought experiment)}

As Conscious Observers, Do We Help Create Our World?

_{That’s the big question in quantum mechanics, as science communicator Elizabeth Fernandez explains} _{News

November 6, 2022

4

Philosophy of Mind, Physics}

Elizabeth Fernandez asks whether there is “something unique” about the fact that we are conscious observers of our world. Interesting question. Inanimate objects don’t “observe” anything. If the inanimate objects are equipment that we have designed and produced, they may record observations for us that our senses could not make on their own. But they are still our observations because we can understand and interpret them. What about a dog’s observations? Along the lines of what he understands, they may be pretty good. He can pick up the scent of a hare with considerable precision and he is likely quite conscious of what that means and what to do abut it. But dog consciousness has its limits. He not only Read More ›

The Ingenuity drone-helicopter has separated from the Perseverance rover on Mars and prepares for its first flight. 3d render. Element of this image are furnished by NASA

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post

Author
News
Date
November 5, 2022

Categorized
Physics

Tagged
Biosignature detection, Bob McDonald, Carolyn Collins Petersen, Daniel Whitmire, DAVINCI mission to Venus, Extraterrestrial life, Extraterrestrials and rights, Gold, Good Night Oppy (2022), Haumea, Joshua Sokol, Kerry Henley, Lipids as biosignature, Lisa Kaltenegger, Neutron stars, Nicolás M. Morato, Paul Scott Anderson, Paul Sutter, Phobos, Plants grown on space stations, Rare elements, Robert Lea, Tamlin Magee, Technosignature detection, Trash as technosignature, Venus, Water inhibiting life}

News From the Search for Extraterrestrial Life 12

_{Some stars seem to be defying the known laws of physics; others are found to produce specific rare elements when they collide} _{News

November 5, 2022

11

Physics}

In our universe: Researchers are finding more evidence that colliding neutron stars forge not only gold but strontium, lanthanum, and cerium. They expect to discover more rare elements in the debris as well. (Universe Today, October 29, 2022) At this rate, we won’t run out. 😉 The paper is open access. When neutron stars collide: Speaking of stars, some seem to be defying the known laws of physics: “An international team of astrophysicists has made a puzzling discovery while analyzing certain star clusters. The finding challenges Newton’s laws of gravity, the researchers write in their publication. Instead, the observations are consistent with the predictions of an alternative theory of gravity. However, this is controversial among experts. The results have now Read More ›

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
November 5, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Abortion in science fiction, Anaya (character in Orville series), Charly (character in Orvilles 3), Dr. Finn (Orville character), Ed Mercer (character in Orville series), Featured, Gently Falling Rain (Orville 3 4), Kelly Grayson (character in Orville series), Krill (characters in Orville series), LaMarr (character in Orvilles 3), Orville Season 3 Episode 4, Planetary Union in Orville series, Political messaging in science fiction, Seth McFarlane, Teleya (character in Orville series)}

Episode 4: The Orville Writers Try Their Hand at Woke Messaging

_{No, it doesn’t work. In Season 3, the plot gently falls apart} _{Gary Varner

November 5, 2022

11

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Episode 4 of The Orville, Season 3, titled “Gently Falling Rain,” starts out strong and then gradually falls apart, in a way that is almost reminiscent of a frog slowly boiling in a pot of water. For most of the episode, there is only one really glaring plot hole and it’s easy enough to ignore. But then within the last quarter of the show, viewers are pounded with so much idiocy that we barely have time to realize what’s happened. As the episode opens, the hostile Krill are ready to sign a treaty with the Planetary Union. They’ve been taken to a futuristic Broadway production of Annie — it’s good to know that that little overplayed gem of a production Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
November 4, 2022

Categorized
Language, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Cormac McCarthy, Cormac McCarthy on language, Cormac McCarthy on the unconscious, Unconscious mind (McCarthy's view)}

Cormac McCarthy Tries To Make Sense of the Unconscious Mind

_{He offers shafts of light that make the “hard problem of (un)consciousness” feel less forbidding} _{News

November 4, 2022

4

Language, Philosophy of Mind}

In a classic piece at Nautilus, novelist Cormac McCarthy (b. 1933) — author of, among other novels, All the Pretty Horses (1992) and The Road (2007) — muses on the origin and nature of the unconscious mind. As we might expect from a novelist, it’s not his grand theory that is of much use at all. His grand theory is that “the unconscious is a machine for operating an animal,” which makes no sense. He adds, “All animals have an unconscious. If they didnt they would be plants.” How does he know that pond hydras, for example, have an “unconsciousness” but maple trees don’t? Well, he doesn’t. And yet, he also offers shafts of light that make the “Hard Problem Read More ›

Concept of a program for a smartphone to translate from different languages

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post

Author
News
Date
November 4, 2022

Categorized
Language, Transhumanism

Tagged
Darshana Narayanan, Darshana Narayanan on Juval Noah Harari, Yuval Noah Harari, Yuval Noah Harari on language}

Neuroscientist Takes Aim at Yuval Noah Harari’s Claims re Humans

_{Behavioral neuroscientist Darshana Narayanan says that much of what Harari writes “sacrifices science for sensationalism” and is “riddled with errors”} _{News

November 4, 2022

4

Language, Transhumanism}

Many readers have read our article last June on historian and transhumanist Yuval Noah Harari’s musings on what to do with the people that artificial intelligence is rendering “useless.” Now, first off, what Harari envisions is not happening. As business prof Jay Richards is fond of noting, AI enables more people to craft the jobs they want, with AI doing the traditional drudgery. Despite automation (or because of it),there are still plenty of Help Wanted signs out there. Call the argument Homo Deus vs. The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines, if you like. But at Current Affairs, behavioral neuroscientist Darshana Narayanan offers another critique. Apart from having a disturbing attitude to fellow Read More ›

A jay in its beak holds an acorn. A colorful Eurasian jay sits on a thick oak branch. Close-up. Autumn. Natural blurred background. Wild nature.

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 4, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Delayed gratification in animals, Eurasian jays, Marshmallow Test and jays, Self-control in humans, Self-control in jays}

Researchers: More Intelligent Jays Show More Self-Control

_{The researchers say that the same relationship holds true for cuttlefish, chimpanzees, and humans} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 4, 2022

6

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

A recent study finds that Eurasian jays can pass a version of the “Marshmallow test” and that the smarter jays had the greatest self-control. The original Marshmallow test tested children to see if they could resist eating one marshmallow if they were offered two later. So enterprising researchers decided to try it on smart birds: To test the self-control of ten Eurasian jays, Garrulus glandarius, researchers designed an experiment inspired by the 1972 Stanford Marshmallow test — in which children were offered a choice between one marshmallow immediately, or two if they waited for a period of time. Instead of marshmallows, the jays were presented with mealworms, bread and cheese. Mealworms are a common favourite; bread and cheese come second Read More ›

Robotic head made of metallic chrome cubes. Machine face surrounded by shiny steel boxes. Liquid metal effect. 3d rendering illustration

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post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity

Tagged
Ben Thompson, Featured, Larry Nobles, Non-Computable You book excerpt, Pablo Picasso on computers, Robert J. Marks, Swarm intelligence (bullies vs. dweebs)}

Marks: AI Looks Very Intelligent — While Following Set Rules

_{In an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Non-Computable You, Larry Nobles reads Robert J. Marks’s account of evolving AI “swarm intelligence” for Dweebs vs. Bullies (transcript also)} _{News

November 3, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Creativity}

In Podcast 211, Larry Nobles reads an excerpt from Chapter Two of Robert J. Marks’s Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will (Discovery Institute Press, 2022). The book is now available in audiobook form as well as Kindle format and, of course, paperback. Chapter Two addresses the question, “Can AI be creative?” Pablo Picasso didn’t think so. He is reported to have said, “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” Nobles reads Dr. Marks’s account of how he and a colleague got a “swarm” of little programs (Dweebs) to evolve a solution to a problem that required a good deal of creativity on his and colleague Ben Thompson’s part — but not on the part Read More ›

Fearful young woman with aluminum hat browsing social media. Conspiracy theory about 5g network destroying brain. High quality photo

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 3, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Medicine and Health, Politics, Science

Tagged
Anthony Fauci and virus research funding, COVID and plea for amnesty, COVID-19 as bioweapon, Emily Oster, Fact checking, Fact checking and experts, Fact checking and lab leak theory, Fact checking and science, Jeff Kao, Katherine Eban, Lab leak theory (COVID-19) as conspiracy theory, Nicholas Wade on COVID origin, Tedros Adhanom on lab leak theory, US Senate Report on COVID origin, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID origin}

How Fact-Checking Can Hide Needed Information From the Public

_{What role did fact-checking play in the suppression of inconvenient but essential facts about the origin of COVID-19?} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 3, 2022

7

Censorship, Medicine and Health, Politics, Science}

Earlier this week, we looked at the recent news that Facebook has a special portal for government to look in and report “disinformation,” — as if government, in a highly charged political atmosphere, were some kind of neutral third party. The assignment of some sort of neutrality to power sources or experts who may not be neutral or have any reason to be is one of the characteristics of fact-checking, as it has developed over the last decade in mainstream and social media. Why was the Wuhan lab leak theory supposed to be a conspiracy? In that context, let’s look at the claim that COVID-19 originated in an accident at a high-level virus lab in the upcountry Chinese city of Read More ›

Annoyed black woman having video chat on smartphone at home

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post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2022

Categorized
Psychology, Relationships, Social Media

Tagged
Featured, iOS 16 iPhone, iOS 16 iPhone editing sent messages, Karl D. Stephan on editing text messages, Kim Komando, Text messages (editing after sending)}

Sorry! I Take It Back (But Only With iOS 16)

_{The new iOS lets you edit messages, but only within 15 minutes of sending them, and guess what—the recipient can see all your edits…} _{News

November 3, 2022

6

Psychology, Relationships, Social Media}

This article by Texas State University engineering prof Karl D. Stephan is republished with permission from MercatorNet November 1, 2022) Everybody has said something they later regret saying. If the person you’re talking to is right there in front of you, there’s nothing you can do to unsay it. As country singer Jon Langston says in one of his song titles, “I Can’t Take Back Words.” But according to tech guru Kim Komando, the new iOS 16 operating system for iPhones (version 8 and later) lets you do that with text messages—sort of. Ever since commercial text messaging became available on mobile phones in the mid-1990s, it has shared with verbal interchanges the fact that once you send a text, it’s Read More ›

The zero covid text on china flag 3d rendering

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post

Author
News
Date
November 2, 2022

Categorized
China, Global Technology

Tagged
Foxconn workers and Zero Covid, Gordon Chang, Zero-Covid policy in China, Zhengzhou}

What Your Made-in-China iPhone Really Costs – Updated 2

_{Chaos has ensued as workers have fled Xi’s latest Zero COVID lockdown at the iPhone factory} _{News

November 2, 2022

11

China, Global Technology}

Updated as of November 2, below the first vid: Fresh off an unusual third term as President, Xi Jinping found his brutal zero COVID policy facing an uncharacteristically harsh light of publicity. The BBC zeroed in on Apple phone workers fleeing a targeted site: Workers have broken out of Apple’s largest iPhone assembly factory in China after a Covid outbreak forced staff to lockdown at the workplace. Video shared online showed about 10 people jumping a fence outside the plant, owned by manufacturer Foxconn, in the central city of Zhengzhou. Sam Hancock, “Apple: Chinese workers flee Covid lockdown at iPhone factory” at BBC News (October 30, 2022) Taiwan-based Apple supplier Foxconn, has hundreds of thousands of workers in Zhengzhou, capital Read More ›

A businessman appoints a leader to the head of the team. Creation of an effective teams of specialists for the implementation of a new project. HR recruiting. Management appointment. nepotism

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 2, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Media, Social Media

Tagged
Blogging software, Brendan O'Neill, Elon Musk and Twitter takeover, Lauren Leffer, Leighton Woodhouse, Mainstream media decline, Rich Cromwell, Stacy Lennox, Twitter moderation, Twitter moderation post-Musk}

Musk’s Twitter Takeover Sparks Crazy Talk From Mainstream Media

_{Has entrepreneur Musk sensed a transition in the offing? Ramped-up social media may soon replace the former mainstream media altogether} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 2, 2022

7

Censorship, Media, Social Media}

Now that Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, he isn’t short of verbal assailants, concern trolls, and volunteer freelance advisors. Brendan O’Neill offers an interesting collection at Spiked Online, including: From EuroNews Next, “Will Elon Musk’s Twitter become a beacon of free speech or a soap box for hate speech?” A Washington Post columnist: “I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter” and, inimitably, from back in April: Today on Twitter feels like the last evening in a Berlin nightclub at the twilight of Weimar Germany. — Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) April 14, 2022 Wow. O’Neill comments: The most striking thing about Musk and Twitter is the demented reaction to it. Musk himself is Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 1, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Physics

Tagged
AI and classical mechanics problems, Tom Hartsfield}

AI, It Turns Out, Is Not Currently a Very Good Physicist

_{A physicist takes issue with a research paper’s claims which inspired an IFL headline, “An AI May Have Just Invented ‘Alternative’ Physics”} _{News

November 1, 2022

2

Artificial Intelligence, Physics}

Physicist Tom Hartsfield, commenting on a new paper, takes issue with its claim that “Without any prior knowledge of the underlying physics, our algorithm discovers the intrinsic dimension of the observed dynamics and identifies candidate sets of state variables.” That doesn’t seem to have happened. The problem set for the computer was a classical mechanics one: For a pendulum hanging on another pendulum, compute the number of variables needed for a solution: This problem requires two variables — the angle of each pendulum to the vertical — or four variables if a Cartesian (xy) coordinate system is used. If both pendulum bobs are hung from springs instead of rigid rods, the two variable spring lengths are added to get six Read More ›