Automating Arguments and Gamifying Learning

Jen McCreight mentions someone who developed an automated “argument bot” that finds statements counter to mainstream climate science on Twitter and responds to them with mainstream evidence, and asks when someone will make the same thing for evolutionary biology.

I’ve long wondered when the day would come when we’ll program computers to argue about matters of importance, and check from time to time to see whether they’ve settled the matter.

Such bots, of course, require data and arguments to draw on, and so there will still be a need for statements of viewpoints and presentations of arguments. One such source that was drawn to my attention today was shared by James Kidder and focuses on extinction and the fossil record:

And perhaps also related, since it touches on the use of technology to inform and educate, is this article from Jason Jones about the “gamification” of homework