Computers
Deep Blue played chess like a human
David Auerbach | Nautilus | 30 October 2014
When IBM’s Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov over six games in 1997, it unnerved the champion by showing moments of apparent randomness in its play. He came to think that he was facing “a machine that could experience human intuition”. In fact, there was a coding bug that sometimes caused Deep Blue to discard what it knew to be the best move. The bug was fixed after game four, but by then “Kasparov’s spirit had been broken”.
Quantum physics
Life is quantum
Johnjoe McFadden | Aeon | 29 October 2014
The more we understand about biology at the molecular level, the more we see the principles of quantum mechanics at work in the living universe. Quantum tunnelling and quantum entanglement underpin phenomena such as photosynthesis, smell, avian navigation, enzymes, even evolution itself. “Life navigates a narrow stream between the classical and quantum worlds: the quantum edge.”
Deep Blue played chess like a human
David Auerbach | Nautilus | 30 October 2014
When IBM’s Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov over six games in 1997, it unnerved the champion by showing moments of apparent randomness in its play. He came to think that he was facing “a machine that could experience human intuition”. In fact, there was a coding bug that sometimes caused Deep Blue to discard what it knew to be the best move. The bug was fixed after game four, but by then “Kasparov’s spirit had been broken”.
Quantum physicsLife is quantum
Johnjoe McFadden | Aeon | 29 October 2014
The more we understand about biology at the molecular level, the more we see the principles of quantum mechanics at work in the living universe. Quantum tunnelling and quantum entanglement underpin phenomena such as photosynthesis, smell, avian navigation, enzymes, even evolution itself. “Life navigates a narrow stream between the classical and quantum worlds: the quantum edge.”
Artificial intelligence
Three breakthroughs in artificial intelligence
Kevin Kelly | Wired | 27 October 2014
Artificial intelligence will change our lives and most of us won’t even notice. It will live in the cloud, as internet infrastructure, offering “cheap, reliable, industrial-grade digital smartness, running behind everything, and almost invisible except when it blinks off”. Like Amazon Web Services, for example. “The business plans of the next 10,000 start-ups are easy to forecast: Take X and add AI. This is a big deal, and now it’s here.”
Three breakthroughs in artificial intelligence
Kevin Kelly | Wired | 27 October 2014
Artificial intelligence will change our lives and most of us won’t even notice. It will live in the cloud, as internet infrastructure, offering “cheap, reliable, industrial-grade digital smartness, running behind everything, and almost invisible except when it blinks off”. Like Amazon Web Services, for example. “The business plans of the next 10,000 start-ups are easy to forecast: Take X and add AI. This is a big deal, and now it’s here.”
Aliens
What different religions say about aliens
Chris Wright & David Weintraub | Boston Globe | 26 October 2014
A cut-out-and-keep reference guide, in case a spaceship arrives and you are wondering what to believe. Catholics are “divided” as to whether aliens will have original sin. Judaism is not for Klingons. Islam holds that intelligent beings exist on other worlds and are accountable to Allah. Hindus would need to know where the aliens fitted into the hierarchy of living beings, which has plants at the bottom and gods at the top.
What different religions say about aliens
Chris Wright & David Weintraub | Boston Globe | 26 October 2014
A cut-out-and-keep reference guide, in case a spaceship arrives and you are wondering what to believe. Catholics are “divided” as to whether aliens will have original sin. Judaism is not for Klingons. Islam holds that intelligent beings exist on other worlds and are accountable to Allah. Hindus would need to know where the aliens fitted into the hierarchy of living beings, which has plants at the bottom and gods at the top.
Culture
Interview: Jared Diamond
Oliver Burkeman | Guardian | 24 October 2014
Conversation with the author of Guns, Germs and Steel and other non-fiction blockbusters, about power and culture. Humans dominate other animal species mainly because they alone have sophisticated language. But how do some groups of humans come to dominate others? Geography has a lot to do with it. If you want to build a winning society, it helps to start with the right natural endowments, as Western Europe did.
Interview: Jared Diamond
Oliver Burkeman | Guardian | 24 October 2014
Conversation with the author of Guns, Germs and Steel and other non-fiction blockbusters, about power and culture. Humans dominate other animal species mainly because they alone have sophisticated language. But how do some groups of humans come to dominate others? Geography has a lot to do with it. If you want to build a winning society, it helps to start with the right natural endowments, as Western Europe did.
Disease
Ebola: Failures of imagination
Jody Lanard and Peter Sandman | Risk = Hazard + Outrage | 24 October 2014
Americans may be over-reacting to the dangers posed by a few cases of Ebola at home ‒ but they are certainly under-reacting to the prospect of an Ebola pandemic across the developing world. If Ebola arrives in Chicago or London it can probably be contained. But what if it lands in Mumbai or Karachi? Why aren’t we talking more about this? There is a risk of panic; but the greater risk is a lack of preparedness.
Ebola: Failures of imagination
Jody Lanard and Peter Sandman | Risk = Hazard + Outrage | 24 October 2014
Americans may be over-reacting to the dangers posed by a few cases of Ebola at home ‒ but they are certainly under-reacting to the prospect of an Ebola pandemic across the developing world. If Ebola arrives in Chicago or London it can probably be contained. But what if it lands in Mumbai or Karachi? Why aren’t we talking more about this? There is a risk of panic; but the greater risk is a lack of preparedness.
Ethics
Growing old disgracefully
Henry Marsh | New Statesman | 23 October 2014
Brain surgeon reviews Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, about death and medicine. “My juniors ring me at night about emergency cases. A decision is needed on whether to operate and possibly save the patient’s life – though if the patient survives he will be left profoundly disabled. If I tell them to operate I get back to sleep, but if I tell them to let the patient die I lie awake for a long time. It is so much easier to treat than not to treat.”
Growing old disgracefully
Henry Marsh | New Statesman | 23 October 2014
Brain surgeon reviews Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, about death and medicine. “My juniors ring me at night about emergency cases. A decision is needed on whether to operate and possibly save the patient’s life – though if the patient survives he will be left profoundly disabled. If I tell them to operate I get back to sleep, but if I tell them to let the patient die I lie awake for a long time. It is so much easier to treat than not to treat.”
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