“many have blamed subways and buses for coronavirus outbreaks, but a growing body of research suggests otherwise.” The piece noted that epidemiologists use the term “cluster” to describe major coronavirus…
Ted Chiang’s very short story, “The Great Silence” adds another set of questions to these speculations. Why, he asks, are we so interested in finding intelligence in the stars and…
I think science and religion could more peacefully coexist if we could agree that they are trying to answer different questions; science is investigating the question, “how does the universe…
This episode of The End of the World podcast had me thinking a lot about a book I just finished, Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Sharman Apt Russell, the boundless…
It’s always a meritocracy until a man doesn’t get the job.Instead the system is rigged for mediocrity …Japanese media reports said today (Aug. 2) that the university had since 2011…
From fireside folk tales to Netflix dramas, narratives are essential to every society – and evolutionary theorists are now trying to figure out why, writes David Robson. {read}
Biomimicry design, explained with 99% Invisible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMtXqTmfta0
Are we prepared for a future where robots are the most sought after employees? In her debut novel Autonomous, Annalee Newitz imagines a future where humans take designer drugs to try and…
Heiress, divorcée … mother of forensic science? Frances Glessner Lee was not your average 19th-century woman. Using the skills that high-society ladies were expected to have—like sewing, crafting, and knitting—Frances…
Thus one approach to designing moral machines is to sidestep the tricky problem of robots’ inner lives, and deal instead with a view of morality that seems far more definite,…