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Science-and-Technology

Items related to technology and science

Why AI is a dangerous dream: Robotics expert Noel Sharkey: ‘It is often forgotten that the idea of mind or brain as computational is merely an assumption, not a truth. When I point this out to “believers” in the computational theory of mind, some of their arguments are almost religious. They say, “What else could there be? Do you think mind is supernatural?” But accepting mind as a physical entity does not tell us what kind of physical entity it is. It could be a physical system that cannot be recreated by a computer.’ (New Scientist )

Tue 08 Sep 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Knowing and finding: “The internet is a giant distributed information storage and retrieval system, and the most powerful tools are the meat-and-water units attached at the end by their fingertips. But ... there’s a difference between knowing a thing and knowing how it find it. Does the distinction matter? Well, yes. For obvious reasons, it helps to know how to make a fire, as opposed to knowing where you can get PDFs online of the Boy Scout Handbook. But knowing things lets you make connections in your head you can’t get with the web; the internet leads you from point A to point 85, and while it’s usually an interesting anabasis, all you remember at the end is how one damn thing leads to another, not connects to another. It’s as if we dump out a jigsaw puzzle on the table and compliment ourselves on seeing 500 pieces, instead of the picture they’re supposed to form.” (James Lileks )

Fri 20 Mar 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Science and the Obama Administration: “But the advances we have all enjoyed in health and power and material well-being do not mean that there is nothing more to life than health and power and material well-being. Politics must be concerned with those, but it must be concerned as well with other—sometimes higher—things: with moral as well as material progress, with equality and liberty as well as prosperity, with human flourishing in its fullness. Perhaps instead of asking about the proper place of science, we should ask about the proper place of politics in a society dominated by science.” (Adam Keiper, The New Atlantis )

Thu 05 Mar 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Triumph of Banality: Politics aside, there are some appropriate underlying concerns raised here: “Again, health care is expensive because Americans, with some good reason, have decided that the ancient tragic view—we all age and break down, and pay for the sins of our 20s and 30s in our 50s and 60s—can at last be replaced by the therapeutic promise of vigor and health into our 80s.” (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review )

Wed 04 Mar 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Faith is the defeat of probability by possibility: You don’t have to be religious to have a sense of awe at the sheer improbability of things: “The more science we learn, the more we understand how little we understand. The improbabilities keep multiplying, as does our cause for wonder.” (Jonathan Sacks, The Times (London) )

Mon 02 Mar 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Dangers of Overselling Evolution: Focusing on Darwin and his theory doesn’t further scientific progress: “I don’t think science has anything to fear from a free exchange of ideas between thoughtful proponents of different views. Moreover, there are a number of us in the scientific community who, while we appreciate Darwin’s contributions, think that the rhetorical approach of scientists such as Coyne unnecessarily polarizes public discussions and—even more seriously­—overstates both the evidence for Darwin’s theory of historical biology and the benefits of Darwin’s theory to the actual practice of experimental science.” (Philip S. Skell, in Forbes )

Wed 25 Feb 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Denis Alexander talks to Francis Collins: Senior Fellow Francis Collins, interviewed in 2008 on his journey to faith and other topics: “I was rather proud of the fact that as a scientist I wouldn’t draw a conclusion until I’d looked at the data and tried to draw the best conclusion I could, and I realised that outside of a few little babblings here and there I’d never really tried to understand what was the foundation upon which believers rest their faith.” (Faraday Institute. Also available in PDF format (46KB). )

Mon 23 Feb 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Blind Science vs. Blind Faith: Some Thoughts on Breaking the Deadlock: ‘In their conversation, the student happened to mention the resurrection of Christ. The professor’s response: The resurrection is inconsistent with the laws of physics. Now, in fact, the laws of physics lie at a considerable conceptual distance from phenomena such as human death and decay and their possible reversal. This particular professor in any case, would have little if any idea where to begin showing that resurrection conflicts with physics—or why it matters, if it does conflict. Indeed, who would? Very few, I would imagine. “Science” was vaguely invoked to end the discussion, just as in other contexts, “religion” is used for the same purpose.’ (Senior Fellow Dallas Willard, from a 1994 essay on dwillard.org )

Mon 23 Feb 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Gee, One Bold Storm coming up….: “Oh, yes Stephen. That’s all very well, but you try being a CEO in the real world of share prices and financial officers. Bullshit. Any CEO who hides behind his shareholders isn’t worthy of their job: I’ve met enough business leaders to know that the good ones lead, they don’t follow. Isn’t that kind of what ‘leader’ means? I seem to be straying. But it’s all relevant really and it all needs saying again and again. Managers, corporates, finance people, executives in tech companies – they all need to understand for the sake of their pride and happiness as much as their success, this simple rule: ‘That’ll do’ won’t do. ‘That’s good enough’ is never good enough.” Also, a psychological insight on the success of the iPhone. (Stephen Fry )

Wed 10 Dec 2008 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Real Digital Revolution: Social networking is changing the marketing landscape: “Brand advertising can’t stretch the truth anymore or try and gild the lily. Because if it does, we’re going to find out about it, find out that you’ve been lying to us all along about extras that don’t work and specials that aren’t special. And our reaction is not going to be pretty.” (Alan Wolk, AdWeek; h/t: Ryan Moede )

Wed 27 Aug 2008 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Return of Religion: “So who, in this subliminal contest, is the truly reasonable one? The atheists beg the question in their own favour, by assuming that science has all the answers. But science can have all the answers only if it has all the questions; and that assumption is false. There are questions addressed to reason which are not addressed to science, since they are not asking for a causal explanation.” (Senior Fellow Roger Scruton, Axess )

Wed 16 Jul 2008 from Mark Meador • Link & Comments

Where the Avatars Roam: “Libertarians hold to a theory of ‘spontaneous order’—that society should be the product of uncoordinated human choices instead of human design. Well, Second Life has plenty of spontaneity, and not much genuine order. This experiment suggests that a world that is only a market is not a utopia. It more closely resembles a seedy, derelict carnival—the triumph of amusement and distraction over meaning and purpose.” (Michael Gerson, The Washington Post )

Mon 09 Jul 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Addressing climate change: “As someone who lived under communism for most of my life I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st century is not communism or its various softer variants. Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism. This ideology preaches earth and nature and under the slogans of their protection – similarly to the old Marxists – wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning of the whole world.” (Czech President Václav Klaus, address to the U.S. Congress, March 2007 )

Thu 14 Jun 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Maes-Garreau Point: Speaking of “Not in our Time,” just ran across this provocative essay from Kevin Kelly on predictions of the future. 2040, anyone? “In other words we all carry around our own personal mini-singularity, which will happen when we die. It used to be that we could not imagine our existence after our death; now we cannot imagine the details of anyone’s existence after our death. Beyond this personal singularity, life is unknowable. We tend to place our imaginations and predictions before our own Maes-Garreau Point.” (Kevin Kelly, The Technium )

Tue 17 Apr 2007 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

Gore’s Faith Is Bad Science: “To which the prophet replies, with religious intensity, that all debate should be over. Those scientists with inconvenient views should be defunded and silenced. We should replace scientific inquiry with faith. We should have faith that climate change—‘global warming’—is caused primarily by human activity. And we should have faith that the effects will be catastrophic, with rising oceans flooding great cities and pleasant plains and forests broiled by a searing sun.” Worth a read. While Barone is not alone in suggesting that there is a religious component to climate change advocacy, his reading of the relationship of real faith and science is a bad caricature. (Michael Barone, Town Hall)

Mon 26 Mar 2007 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments