A round up of recent technology news that intersects with my interests:
There are calls for papers on source code criticism and fiction and technology
Eric Schwitzgebel has an important piece on his blog about creating AIs and giving them or not giving them the rights of persons. Here is a taste:
That’s the dilemma: If we create robots of disputable status — robots that might or might not be deserving of rights similar to our own — then we risk moral catastrophe either way we go. Either deny those robots full rights and risk perpetrating Holocausts’ worth of moral wrongs against them, or give those robots full rights and risk sacrificing human interests or even human existence for the sake of mere non-conscious machines.The answer to this dilemma is, in a way, simple: Don’t create machines of disputable moral status! Either create only AI systems that we know in advance don’t deserve such human-like rights, or go all the way and create AI systems that all reasonable people can agree do deserve such rights. (In earlier work, Mara Garza and I have called this the “Design Policy of the Excluded Middle“.)
But realistically, if the technological opportunity is there, would humanity resist? Would governments and corporations universally agree that across this line we will not tread, because it’s reasonably disputable whether a machine of this sort would deserve human-like rights? That seems optimistic.
Safiya Noble is one of the recipients of a MacArthur genius award
There is an online exhibit called “Not Your Family WhatsApp”
Judge decides AI cannot be an inventor
Mike Bird asks, How much social media is too much?
There is a short story published in the magazine Fireside that may be of interest: “Alexa, Play Solidarity Forever” by Audrey R. Hollis.
Is Instagram harmful to your wellbeing? Instagram released its research on teens for all to see. Facebook was not entirely up front about the matter.
The Beatitudes Revisited: Template for a Good Life
Google Lens will move the internet search beyond words
AI Revolution and Competition With China
The Dangers Posed by Autonomous Weapons
What happens when we apply a Computer Coding debate to Christian Doctrine?
Mark Miller, Hokkaido University – Warping Effects of Social Media
Would Plato Tweet? (also see this musical playlist, Plato and Poitier)
Users to be held liable for comments under their Facebook posts. This subject will remain in the news for some time.
There is an article about Steve Jobs in The Christian Century
AI, Jobs and ‘Rule of the Robots’
Pandemic reflections on education and technology
How computationally complex is a single neuron?
Will it ever be possible to upload information to our brains?
The Amazon Astro is here, accompanied by warnings it is dangerous and stupid. There are two main kinds of reaction to it. Which is yours?
News about Tesla seeking to expand into full-fledged self-driving (its current version being misleadingly labeled as “self-driving,” which has proven dangerous, indeed fatal)
Review of Religion and the Technological Future
Film Review: “I’m Your Man” Is a Smart, Bittersweet Meditation on Desire
Now a reality: airborne microchips
Ian Paul thinks we need to stick to using printed Bibles. I’m not convinced by his arguments. What do you think?
There are open access articles on science and theology in the latest issue of Zygon, including “Living God Pandeism: Evidential Support” by William C. Lane.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/digitalwisdom/2021/09/hope-and-longing-in-las-vegas/
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In