The digital magazine Aeon published a thought-provoking proposal this spring from a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside and an assistant professor of philosophy at Boston’s Northeastern University: Universities across the world are conducting major research on artificial intelligence (AI), as are organizations such as the Allen Institute, and tech companies including Google and Facebook. A likely result…
Tag: Philosophy
Edmond Halley’s magnificent prediction
Born on today’s date in the year 1656, English astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley was the first to predict the return of a comet. Today, Halley’s Comet – the most famous of all comets – bears his name. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/today-in-science-edmond-halley-nov-8-1656…
Google Clips AI-Powered Camera Has Been Discontinued
In addition to Daydream, Google is discontinuing its AI-powered Google Clips, a small camera designed to leverage modern technology in order to automatically capture and preserve life’s most memorable moments. “The product page for the device is still featured on the Google Store website, but it now redirects users to other available devices,” reports SlashGear. From the report: Put simply, Google…
Richard Stallman Addresses ‘Speculation and Rumor’ About His Appearance at Microsoft
This week Richard Stallman responded to “a certain amount of speculation and rumor” about his recent talk at Microsoft, addressing dark suggestions that, for example, Microsoft might’ve hoped to seduce Stallman away from the free software cause. “I resisted Steve Jobs’s snow job in 1989 or 1990; I am no easy mark for those who want me to change my views…….
Jack Ma Steps Down On 20th Birthday of Alibaba
Jack Ma has stepped down from the position of chairman at the company he co-founded exactly 20 years ago. Ma announced his retirement plans last year, saying at the time he wanted to spend more time focusing on education. ZDNet reports: Ma bid farewell to Alibaba, sporting a rock star wig and guitar at an employee event Tuesday, according to Reuters….
Was 2007 the ‘Golden Age of Open Source’?
Just a few months ago, the editor of the recently-departed Linux Journal wrote that in many ways the golden age of Linux and FOSS was 2007. “Linux was now mainstream in corporate IT, and it was much rarer to meet much resistance when you wanted to set up Linux servers, unless your company was a 100% Windows shop… FOSS companies were…
The World’s Smartest Chimp Has Died
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times, written by philosophy professor Lori Gruen: Sarah, who could have been deemed the world’s smartest chimp, was brought to the United States from Africa as an infant to work with David and Ann Premack in a series of experiments designed to find out what chimpanzees might think. In order to…
Breakthrough Listen’s new search for alien lasers
For the last few decades, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has focused on detecting radio signals. But a new collaboration between Breakthrough Listen and VERITAS will focus on looking for laser-like flashes of light. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/breakthrough-listen-seti-optical-beacons-technosignatures…
Interview With PINE64 On the Upcoming Release of the PineBook Pro
intensivevocoder writes: One of the consequences of the explosive popularity of the Raspberry Pi is the flourishing of competing ecosystems of single-board computers (SBCs). Aside from the accessibility a $35 price tag offers, the foremost benefit of the Raspberry Pi is the community — the proliferation of projects and integrations that center around the Raspberry Pi, and the ease-of-use that creates,…
Waterfall illusion: Still objects seem to move
Check out this optical illusion and find out what it says about your brain. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/waterfall-optical-illusion-brain…