From an early age, my life’s goal was to get at “the truth.” There were only two obvious career paths: Science, or investigative journalism. I went the first route, becoming an academic researcher. Proud of the path I chose, and always admiring the other one.
Everybody wonders what will happen with artificial intelligence (AI). Truly, it could go in any of several ways. This column lays out possible scenarios.Scenario-building is usually a group activity, however. So I invite your views on the driving forces and possible additional scenarios.
Surely you’ve noticed that many countries are subsidizing births – and others are banning abortions – even as tech lords lament the number of “useless people” in the world. You’ve noted the contradiction, and you’ve asked yourself, “What’s going on here?” Cool Hand Luke might say, “What we have here is a failure (of the two factions) to communicate.”
One of my institute’s projects is gaining too little traction with its target city. No surprise: The project is expensive, heavy on newer smart infrastructure, and this U.S. city is in the middle of a budgeting round. It’s evident to all, though, that the new infrastructure is critical to maintaining the city’s status as an innovative, ecological role model for other metros.
A guest on NPR’s Morning Edition (August 26) mis-characterized pioneering economist Adam Smith as a pure transactionalist. Smith’s metaphorical “invisible hand,” the guest asserted, suggested self-interest drives our every action. It’s a big deal – in fact, a revelation! – she continued, that Smith lived with his mother, and that Mom cooked Adam’s meals and washed his laundry for him, unpaid and with Adam oblivious to her role in his theory. The invisible hand, she concluded, ignored familial love as a motive for action.
"Knucklehead" and “Wimp” were the toss-up for titling today’s column.A few Democrat politicians are almost heroic as they respond to the current sh*tshow in Washington: Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Robert Reich, JB Pritzker, Melanie Stansbury, AOC, and even Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin, and occasionally Amy Klobuchar.
Let’s write a letter to Donald Trump. Trigger warning: Lots of sarcasm here.
Not-so-dear Don,
Donald Trump, alleged by many to be President of the United States, has demanded that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan resign immediately. Thanking the American public for our “attention to this matter,” Trump claims Tan is “conflicted” due to his investments in China.I dare suggest that Tan respond as follows:
Suppose we, meaning the human race, survive climate change, pandemics, and nuclear proliferation. What then? I’m talking about the long run.We’ve got a faction who think the Earth would have been better off had we not survived – as if the rest of the ecosystem wouldn’t suffer from the radioactivity or the infections that killed us off.
My June 28 column on the Middle East drew a comment concerning Palestinians ejected from their homes by the post-WWII influx of European Jewish refugees to what’s now Israel. Eighty years after the fact, descendants of those displaced still feel much anger.
The year is 2028. After Congress voted that he need not heed Supreme Court decisions, Donald J. Trump declared himself king.
A Facebook friend opined that Los Angeles protesters could “turn LA into another Portland.” I expand for you my rejoinder to his post:
