Category: Science

Philosophy, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

Time is an object

Fernando Kaskais

Red-eyed tree frog, near Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica. Photo by Ben Roberts/Panos Pictures Not a backdrop, an illusion or an emergent phenomenon, time has a physical size that can be measured in laboratories Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist at Arizona State University, where she is deputy director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science and professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. She is also external professor at the Santa Fe Institute and a fellow at the Berggruen Institute. Lee Cronin is Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and … Continue reading Time is an object

AI, Future, Planet, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

From Biosphere To Technosphere

Fernando Kaskais

Jonathan Zawada for Noema Magazine Technology emerges from the lineage of life on Earth. BY NATHAN GARDELS It takes the expansive perspective of an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist who ponders the origins and unfolding of the universe to place today’s parochial debates over intelligent technology in the context of planetary evolution. In Noema, Sara Walker bends the modern mind to link the coming future to the primordial past. “The technologies we are and that we produce are part of the same ancient strand of information propagating through and structuring matter on our planet,” she writes. “This structure of information across time emerged with … Continue reading From Biosphere To Technosphere

Big Pharma, Health, History, ScienceLeave a comment

The war on cancer

Fernando Kaskais

A 1938 poster from the Women’s Field Army of the American Society for the Control of Cancer. Courtesy the Library of Congress Is it time to abandon the century-old idea that cancer is best met with a ‘fight’ from patients and their doctors alike? Elaine Schattner is a writer, cancer survivor, and former oncologist. She is the author of From Whispers to Shouts: The Ways We Talk About Cancer (2023). She is a clinical associate professor of medicine at Weill Medical College in New York City. The likening of cancer to a hostile enemy goes back more than a century. ‘To have a … Continue reading The war on cancer

AI, Brain, Psychology, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Our Search for Meaning: Oliver Sacks on ChatGPT, 30 Years Before ChatGPT

Fernando Kaskais

“We read excitedly of the latest chemical, computational, or quantum theory of mind, and then ask, ‘Is that all there is to it?’” BY MARIA POPOVA “The mind is its own place,” wrote Milton, “and in it self can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” But in an age when machines can simulate, with the sheer force of computation, mind-things like poems, is the mind still a sovereign place? What heavenly and hellish creations can it alone make that no algorithm can reproduce or mimic? I read in Milton’s words the intimation that the mind makes meaning, and … Continue reading Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Our Search for Meaning: Oliver Sacks on ChatGPT, 30 Years Before ChatGPT

Brain, Living, Psychology, ScienceLeave a comment

Faulty Memory Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Fernando Kaskais

Forgetting and misremembering are the building blocks of creativity and imagination. BY CODY KOMMERS In 1942, the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges published a short story called “Funes the Memorious.” The unnamed narrator recounts a story from his memory, which centers on a Uruguayan man named Ireneo Funes. The narrator learns Funes has fallen off his horse, hitting his head and leaving him housebound. Not long after, Funes contacts the narrator, asking to borrow some of his books in Latin, which is the narrator’s specialty. He gives Funes a selection of his most difficult Latin texts, ones that he has … Continue reading Faulty Memory Is a Feature, Not a Bug

AI, Future, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

AI Is Life 

Fernando Kaskais

Sanchit Sawaria for Noema Magazine Technology is not artificially replacing life — it is life. BY SARA WALKER Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist. She is the deputy director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science and a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University; external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute; and a fellow at the Berggruen Institute. Toward the end of August 1924, the orbits of Mars and Earth carried the two sister planets closer to each other than they had been in around a century. Enthusiasm for the … Continue reading AI Is Life 

Brain, Living, Media&Culture, Psychology, ScienceLeave a comment

Smithsonian scientist: I found the 8th wonder of the world in a coffee shop

Fernando Kaskais

How humans came to feel comfortable among strangers, like those in a café, is an under-explored mystery. KEY TAKEAWAYS By Mark Moffett I first realized this some years ago while walking by the other patrons at my neighborhood café, variously chatting, staring raptly at their laptops, or sitting in a morning daze with a cappuccino, as I made my way to the counter where the barista, the only person I knew, gave me a smile.  I had just returned from Africa, where I’d spent two weeks absorbed in the social interactions of animals such as lions, spotted hyenas, and meerkats.  … Continue reading Smithsonian scientist: I found the 8th wonder of the world in a coffee shop

Future, Science, Space, TechnologyLeave a comment

The Race to Colonize Mars Perpetuates a Dangerous Religion

Fernando Kaskais

We can learn about the universe without conquering it. BY BRIAN GALLAGHER My alarm rang me awake at 6:25 AM, and I drowsily yet eagerly tapped my way to YouTube, blinking my bleary eyes to see clearly. There was SpaceX’s livestream of its latest spectacle: the orbital flight test of its gargantuan new spacecraft and rocket, Starship, designed to take dozens humans or heavy cargo to the moon, Mars, and the rest of the solar system. Millions had tuned in to watch it, excited by the uncertainty of what would happen.  I dropped in with the launch countdown at … three … Continue reading The Race to Colonize Mars Perpetuates a Dangerous Religion

AI, Animals, Future, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

What AI Means For Animals

Fernando Kaskais

Noah Campeau for Noema Magazine There is an urgent need to expand AI ethics so that it considers nonhuman life. BY PETER SINGER AND TSE YIP FAI Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, was the 2021 recipient of the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. His books include “Animal Liberation,” “Practical Ethics” and “The Life You Can Save.” Tse Yip Fai has been the China strategy consultant for Mercy For Animals and is currently a research assistant for Singer’s project on the ethics of artificial intelligence concerning nonhuman animals. The ethics of artificial intelligence has attracted considerable attention, and for … Continue reading What AI Means For Animals

Europe, History, Media&Culture, ScienceLeave a comment

Machina mundi

Fernando Kaskais

Abbot Richard Wallingford measuring a bronze disc as part of his scientific studies. E IV, f 201. Courtesy The British Library How medieval thinkers foreshadowed modern physics in investigating the character of machines, devices and forces By Henrik Lagerlund, is professor of the history of philosophy at Stockholm University in Sweden, and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy in Canada. He is series editor of Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind (2002-); editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy (2010); and co-editor of Causal Powers in Science: Blending Historical and Conceptual Perspectives (2021). He is also the author of Skepticism in Philosophy: A Comprehensive, … Continue reading Machina mundi