One of the ways we preserve an illusion of normality is by avoiding looking at changes. You want to deny global climate change? It helps if you avoid looking at maps.
You know I’m a bit sour on the whole artificial intelligence thing. It’s not that I think natural intelligences are anything more than natural constructions, or that I think building a machine that thinks is impossible — it’s that most of the stories from AI researchers sound like jokes. Jon Ronson takes a tour of the state of the art in chatbots, which is entertaining and revealing.
Goodall explains what she thinks is wrong with too much science — a deficiency of empathy — in this video for the Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers.
I’ve only ever used beams of light to illuminate objects, magnify images, stimulate molecules, uncage dyes and ions, ablate cells, stop bleeding, and push organelles around — but I’ve never built a Rube Goldberg machine with them.
(via Colossal)
Seth Andrews did a fine job of dismantling creationist Josh Feuerstein’s claims in a video I posted a while back. Now an apologist for Feuerstein has sent me (and Andrews) an email. This one is from Ed Neeland, a creationist chemistry professor at the University of British Columbia.
97% of climate scientists agree that anthropogenic climate change is occurring, and to highlight that fact, Skeptical Science has launched a media event in which they reveal a comment by a scientist every hour for 97 Hours. Check in to the website to see what’s new every hour, or follow the #97hours hashtag on twitter.
