Artificial intelligence is everywhere but it is considered in a wholly ahistorical way. To understand the impact AI will have on our lives, it is vital to appreciate the context in which the field was established. After all, statistics and state control have evolved hand in hand for hundreds of years.
Consider computing. Its origins have been traced not only to analytic philosophy, pure mathematics and Alan Turing, but perhaps surprisingly, to the history of public administration. In “The Government Machine: A Revolutionary History of the Computer” from 2003, Jon Agar of University College London charts the development of the British civil service as it ballooned from 16,000 employees in 1797 to 460,000 by 1999. He noticed an uncanny similarity between the functionality of a human bureaucracy and that of the digital electronic computer. (He confessed that he could not tell whether this observation was trivial or profound.)
Within five minutes of entering the Flowbuilt factory, north of Bellingham, Washington, I’m barefoot and standing on what looks like a copy machine. The blue light of a laser beam glides over my toes, and I take a couple steps across a spongy pad that measures pressure. Seconds later, I’m staring at a 3D rendering of my feet, with their bone spurs, flat arches, and busted knuckles, on the screen of a computer program called FitStation.
Right now, the FitStation setup—which is in 26 running stores across the country—can use that rendering to recommend existing shoes for me, as well as 3D-print custom $150 Superfeet insoles. In the future, once you’ve had your feet scanned, you’ll be able to load your data into the program and get your own version of the Brooks Genesys, which will be the first and (so far) only customized running shoe available in the United States. FitStation takes your foot shape, gait, and stance into account to shape the insole and determine the midsole’s stiffness. And Brooks is exploring options for making the shoes right here at Flowbuilt.
All year long as Earth revolves around the sun, it passes through streams of cosmic debris. The resulting meteor showers can light up night skies from dusk to dawn, and if you’re lucky you might be able to catch a glimpse.
The next shower you might be able to see is known as the Eta Aquariids. Active between April 19 and May 28, the show peaks around Sunday night into Monday morning, or May 5-6. The moon will be close to new, which could make for good viewing in places with clear skies.
The Eta Aquariids are one of two meteor showers from Halley’s comet. Its sister shower, the Orionids, will peak in October. Specks from the Eta Aquariids streak through the sky at about 148,000 miles per hour, making it one of the fastest meteor showers. Its display is better seen from the Southern Hemisphere where people normally enjoy between 20 and 30 meteors per hour during its peak. The Northern Hemisphere tends to see about half as many.
.
A photo of Halley’s comet during its closest approach to the inner solar system in 1986.CreditCreditNASA
Up to 1 million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with alarming implications for human survival, according to a United Nations report released Monday.
The report’s findings underscore the conclusions of previous scientific studies that say human activity is wreaking havoc on the wild kingdom, threatening the existence of living things ranging from giant whales to small flowers and insects that are almost impossible to see with the naked eye.
But the global report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services goes a step further than previous studies by linking the loss of species to humans and analyzing its effect on food and water security, farming and economies.
.
Moe Flannery of the California Academy of Sciences inspected a dead gray whale in Tiburon, Calif., last month, one of seven whales that have washed up on the shores of the San Francisco Bay and along the coast in recent weeks. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
You’ve got great social skills. You speak clearly and listen well. Everyone loves your engaging personality.
Even if you’re a dazzling raconteur, there’s one situation that’s especially tough to navigate: connecting with someone with dementia.
Different rules apply when you’re chatting with an individual who shows signs of dementia. If you’re unfamiliar with the disease, you may fall into traps that make matters worse.
Prepare to encounter speakers who repeat themselves (asking the same question every few minutes) and make illogical statements or faulty observations. Their emotions can swing wildly from moment to moment, leaving you wondering what could’ve triggered an angry outburst or crying spell.
If you’re a stickler for accuracy, it’s tempting to correct someone who misspeaks.
While working on his doctoral thesis at Harvard over the last few years, Omer Gottesman spent a lot of time at his desk crumpling sheets of paper, especially when he was stuck. He’d crumple a sheet, uncrumple it, stare into its depths, and think, “There must be something that would make all this mess look a little less messy.”
Crumple, uncrumple, crumple. Sheet after sheet landed in the recycling bin, each one blank but for its chaotically creased geography. In time, a semblance of order emerged.
Crumpled wads of paper are no doubt as old and commonplace as paper itself — “graves for failed theories,” Mr. Gottesman, a physicist, has called them. But for him, the crumpled paper itself was the research.
.
Paper is an ideal model for studying other crumpling challenges, such as how DNA packs into a cell, or how best to cram a giant solar sail into a small satellite.
According to the experts, sociopaths experience “shallow” emotions.This means that virtually all of their emotions are fleeting, if they have them at all. Therefore, they feel a corrupted form of pleasure, and they can find things humorous in a brief, shallow sort of way. But they are unable to feel pure joy, because they are unable to feel real emotional pain. One cannot appreciate joy unless one has felt pain. Sociopaths can’t find pleasure in the small things in life that make us normal people happy, such as watching a sunset or petting an animal or hugging another person. They only get a temporary, meaningless thrill out of things like sex or food or duping and manipulating others. That’s why they are empty, and that’s why they are so, so bored all of the time and tend to deal with their boredom by becoming addicted to alcohol or drugs (along with pursuing sexual “relationships” with multiple targets at the same time).
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
AI thinks like a corporation
Custom Shoe Factory
.
James' World 2 