We’re still a long way from real “artificial intelligence” – developing computers that can replicate the cognitive processes of the human brain. Yet, argues Colin Allen, with robots ever more able to complete certain tasks without real-time human input, it’s time to start considering how to program them not to act immorally.
Tag: 12.25.11
Study: City Birds Change Their Songs, Adapt To Sounds Around Them
“Animals are adjusting their communication. They’re changing the way they speak. Their accents might be changing, but to what degree is this changing the number of young they have and how well they survive?”
A New Wave Of Independent Black Cinema?
“Traditionally films made for, and often by, African-Americans have fallen within a very narrow definition of our experience.” (Think of ’70s blaxploitation or ’90s “hood” films.) Now a group of young filmmakers is telling new stories – about mixed-race families, gays and lesbians, immigrants from Africa and the like.
What Early Monks Knew About Distraction And Writer’s Block
“You close the door, boot up your laptop, open the right file and … five minutes later catch yourself thinking about dinner. By 10 a.m., you’re staring at the wall, even squinting at it between your fingertips. Is this day 50 hours long? … Pick up an early medieval monastic text, however, and you will find extensive discussion of all the symptoms listed above, as well as a diagnosis.”
How We Write – The History Of Word Processing
“The study of word processing may sound like a peculiarly tech-minded task for an English professor, but literary scholars have become increasingly interested in studying how the tools of writing both shape literature and are reflected in it, whether it’s the quill pen of the Romantic poets or the early round typewriter, known as a writing ball, that Friedrich Nietzsche used to compose some aphoristic fragments.”
New Millennium Has Been A Bust For Protest Songs
“Much of the music that has topped the Billboard charts in the new millennium — Britney, Lil Wayne, Lady Gaga — might suggest that America has been one big party since 2001, despite the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, two major wars, a wobbly economy and a bitterly divided government.”
Write A Good Play, Sure. But Do We Even Know What A Good Play Is Anymore?
“The sketchiness of tradition today can’t be attributed to the assault of radical experimentation. Instead, it’s a consequence of the receding importance of theater in our general culture, the dominance of film and TV, and the disruption of the natural relationship between artists and local audiences through a skewed emphasis on commercial marketability.”