If Thoughts Were Data, Machines Could Write
Human experience is what makes sense of the written wordThe fact that creativity does not follow computational rules may well be a ceiling for machine writing and it is not made of glass.
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Walter Bradley: Tell People about AI, not Sci-Fi
His struggle to bring reality to“sci-fi” origin of life research is the Center’s inspirationThe Bradley Center hopes to have a similar effect by promoting more general knowledge of fundamental issues around “thinking computers and the real effects of technology on human well-being.
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Are 3-D Virtual Fossils a Boon or a Threat?
Many paleontologists fear losing control of the storyOne of the characteristics of information is that, unlike matter and energy, it is not reduced by being shared. And when it is shared, it can generate new information. Of course, some well-sourced new information may contradict earlier ideas or even important beliefs.
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The video game is more than just a distraction!
It can challenge a techno-materialist view of lifeEric Holloway concludes that while video games often are used to trap people within a limited worldview, focusing on the mechanics of video games can open a window.
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SXSW 2019: Grappling with AI’s immense culture shifts
Panelists Robert J. Marks and Jay Richards spot the human advantage in an AI-driven cultureFrom homeschooled teens to high-tech entrepreneurs to retired doctors to University of Texas students, Christ Church was full of Austinites trying to understand what the rapid growth of AI technologies means for their future.
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Random Thoughts on Recent AI Headlines
There is usually a story under those layers of hype but not always the one you thoughtWhen Thomas Sowell was writing his syndicated column on economics, I always looked forward to his sporadically appearing “Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene.” Reminding readers that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I offer my own “Random Thoughts on Recent AI Headlines.”
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Tech Fail: Man Told He’s Dying via Video Link
The family, who thought that the robotic video cart was just “making a routine visit,” was outragedThe response statement from Kaiser Permanente, acknowledging failure, recognizes the problem, but only in part
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STEM Education 8: Help Create Creativity
Creativity diminishes with age, in part because we dig ourselves into ruts that limit our field of view.An aging STEM nerd digs more and deeper ruts and creative thinking becomes more and more difficult. For this reason, I remain tolerant of graduate students with new and seemingly wacky ideas.
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Will AI shatter human exceptionalism?
Proving that humans are just another animal might help save the planet, writer saysThe advantage of adding talk of evolution to transhumanism is that it turns a perennial tale of immortality just out of reach into a chronicle of inevitable ascent, like the fabled “Ascent of Man.”
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Why Are Robots Part of Religion in Japan?
Declining population is only one factor. Ancient cultural beliefs are another.
Universal Basic Income? Fear of AI Fuels Bad Economics
If new technology led to mass permanent unemployment, history would be an endless saga of expanding joblessnessAlthough the coming shift will be abrupt, new technologies enable us to focus, as economists would put it, on our comparative advantage over machines.
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AI Dangers That Are Not Just Fake News
Total surveillance should worry us more than an AI news writing machineThose who control a new communications technology typically have a great advantage over those who don’t—whether that technology is an alphabet, an abacus, a printing press, a telegraph, a telephone, or a software communications program.
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STEM Education 7: Sell the Sizzle
The mathematics underlying our world is fascinating and full of surprisesIn my experience, true STEM nerds are always pursuing some type of sizzle even in their spare time. Generally, the higher the academic degree, the greater the freedom STEM nerds have to pursue their sizzle of choice.
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Who’s Afraid of AI that Can Write the News?
AI now automates formula news in business and sports. How far can it go?Software programs will not have more or better ideas than the people who designed them. As the audience for news, we must decide whether that level of information is all we need to know.
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Scientism is not a cure for stupidity
But never mind, quite a few science savants have rushed in fearlesslyA science writer tackled a big issue recently: stupidity. Who does he ask? Why, scientists of course. Surprisingly enough, it’s a question few scientists have grappled with, perhaps out of a desire not to wade into a subject that could so easily offend. After all, the field of intelligence studies is rife with controversy. Ross Pomeroy “What is Stupidity?” at Real Clear Science But never mind, quite a few science savants, unafraid to offend, have rushed in: Evolutionary biologist David Krakauer, President of the Santa Fe Institute,told Nautilus, “Stupidity is using a rule where adding more data doesn’t improve your chances of getting [a problem] right. In fact, it makes it more likely you’ll get it wrong.” I won’t contradict Read More ›
Autonomous AI in War: Trial by Ordeal
The more complicated a system becomes, the more difficult it is to analyze all of its actions.There are plenty of roads on which to test and tune the self-driving cars, but there are not a lot of wars available in which to test and tune autonomous AI weapons. If we seek military superiority to deter aggression, imaginative and creative minds are needed to assess all possibilities.
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Will we surrender our free will to screens?
We may be surrendering while we aren’t paying attentionIf “the machines” ever do take over, it will be because we have stopped thinking, not because they have started to.
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Amazon pulls out of the New York City deal
Is this a message about the new economy in America?Jay Richards thinks that crony capitalism is a long-term problem but that, in this case, New York legislators showed “staggering economic illiteracy and a disregard for their constituents”
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STEM Education 4: Do STEM Nerds Need to Learn Latin?
Okay, not Latin. But some arts subjects do enhance a STEM careerWell-roundedness is appropriate in applied STEM curricula to the extent that it rounds out the skills necessary for success as a STEM professional.
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