CategoryPolitics
Is Our World, Post-1950, Really a Geological Epoch?
Some earth scientists lobby for calling the past 75 years the Anthropocene epoch, giving it equal importance with the 16-million-year Upper Jurassic
If Information Is Wealth, Are Deepfakes a Form of Counterfeiting?
The current tech media overdose on panic over deepfakes. They could be drowning out practical ways of fighting back
When Censorship Parades Itself as a Science…
A House Subcommittee discovered that the National Science Foundation — which is supposed to support science and engineering — is readying censorship tools
Will Deepfakes Be Used to “Show” Us That Computers Can Now Think?
As the deepfake technology advances, William Dembski wonders whether some AI zealots might try to “fake it till they make it,” Theranos-style
Autonomous Vehicles Are Catching Up Fast
There are winners and losers. GM's Cruise was kicked out of California over safety issues but Alphabet's Waymo, which emphasizes safety, is still chugging along
Citizen Scientist Forrest Mims Tells His Remarkable Life Story
In his new book “Maverick Scientist,” he details the ups and downs of an extraordinarily productive life in science, with few credentials to hide behind
Will Scientists Be Forced to Consider the Occult as Science?
When the World Economic Forum invited a witch to Davos to offer incantations, it was more than just window dressing
A Darwinian Argument for a Global Government
The evolutionary researchers worry that we have not evolved to be worthy of a global government and will face ecological ruin in consequence.
How Bottom Up Media Now Threaten the Traditional Top Tier
New media resources like subscription-based Substack are rapidly becoming the venue of choice for whistleblowers with stories to break
How Bottom Up Media Are Slowly Replacing Top Down Media
The decline and death of legacy media organizations is speeding up and the media replacing them are much smaller, more numerous and more independent
When Science Writers Say Things We Hardly Expected…
Some science writers are monotonous boosters for Answers from Science but the better ones challenge themselves, and thus challenge us too
Does Deep Social Change Underlie the War on Math?
Why is the universal language of science sinking under the weight of claims about trauma and privilege?
A Warning From the Unpublished Preface to Orwell’s Animal Farm
Only discovered in 1971, the Preface offers George Orwell’s critical but neglected insights into the nature of censorship in a free society
The War on Math Becomes a Fight Over Textbooks
Florida, for example, rejected 54 math textbooks of 132 submitted by publishers on account of political content
Note to Parents: Grooming and Wokeness Are Embedded in Chatbots
With or without tuning, all AI chatbots are biased one way or another. AI without bias is like water without wetFirst impressions of a person can be wrong. Further interactions can reveal disturbing personality warts. Contrary to initial impressions, we might find out they lie, they are disturbingly woke, they can’t do simple math, their politics is on the extreme left, and they have no sense of humor or common sense. I have just described Open AI’s GPT3 chatbot, ChatGPT. Initially, users are gobsmacked by the its performance. Its flashy prose responses to simple queries look amazing. But become roommates with the chatbot for a few hours and its shortcomings become evident . It can’t get its facts straight, can’t do simple math problems, hates Donald Trump, and is being groomed to be “woke.” Its performance warts are so numerous that Bradley Center Senior Fellow Gary N. Smith hoists a Read More ›
How San Francisco’s Gun Fears Prevented Lifesaving Innovation
Killer robots in law enforcement would reduce the death toll but they are a bridge too far for many politiciansIn November, 2022, San Francisco voted to allow police to deploy killer robots. Less than a month later, the city reversed their decision. Initially, in an 8-3 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors allowed law enforcement to use robots “as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.” Sounds like reasonable policy, but protestors held up “NO KILLER ROBOTS!” signs at City Hall and the Board of Supervisors caved. This may be a case of hoplophobia, an irrational fear of firearms. So-called “killer robots” can deploy explosives to allow passage through blockaded doors or, in extreme situations, kill those who put innocent Read More ›
Trend: Steeper Decline in TV, Hollywood — and Comic Books
It’s as if the public has simply lost the sense that the media represent the average watcher or reader — and that’s probably true in many casesWe’ve already noted the significant decline in circulation and collapse of trust in major newspapers (online or in print). But 2022 reported steep declines in other media as well. From the entertainment industry’s Variety mag, we learn that while there were some winners in TV — ESPN, crime shows, and digi-nets — most TV of all types continued to see losses, many of them double-digit losses. As commentator Don Surber noted, “The drop in viewers came despite an Olympics, a popular war and a federal election.” The drop in viewers is reflected in an overall drop in revenue, projected to continue. A highlight from Samba TV’s State of Viewership report: Gen Z and millennials are driving the shift away from Read More ›
When Scholars Simply Don’t Want To Believe Something Obvious…
… they are very good at developing clever arguments to avoid seeing itThis article was originally published in Salvo 62 (Fall 2022) under the title “The Whitewashing.” In Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), University of California historian Richard Weikart demonstrated painstakingly that the Nazis had developed an ethic based largely on applying Darwinian evolution principles to government. Scholars have since tried hard to obscure the connection, most likely because they believe in Darwinism and see it as science. Any suggestion that the Nazis were avid Darwinists too is unseemly and must be refuted by any and all means. With racism very much in current news, Weikart has focusing in Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism (Discovery Institute Press, 2022) on the way Read More ›
Veteran News Hound: Why Not To Trust Mainstream Media Anymore
Matt Taibbi and Douglas Murray’s resounding triumph in the Munk debates sheds light on why mainstream media are dyingOn November 30, at the prestigious Munk Debates in Toronto, 20-year news veteran Matt Taibbi and author and columnist Douglas Murray faced off against New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg on the question: “Be it resolved, don’t trust mainstream media. The outcome was remarkable: As Taibbi tells it: A pre-event vote of attendees and listeners showed 48% support for our “side,” versus 52% for theirs. 82% of thousands of audience members claimed to be willing to change their minds. They were telling the truth, as it turned out. In a bitter slugfest that featured tense confrontations, impassioned oratory (especially from Douglas), and several almost unbelievably petty exchanges, Douglas and I swung the vote 39% Read More ›