Is it possible that lakes and forests might have rights before robots?Voters in Toledo have granted “irrevocable rights for the Lake Erie Ecosystem to exist, flourish and naturally evolve” which, according to this story, would give it legal standing to file lawsuits to protect itself from polluters (through the mouthpiece Read more…
It’s a fair bet that we’ll see more drone package deliveries in 2020, though it’s far less clear how it’ll affect privacy, liability, and noise. Alphabet’s Wing prompted a recent story in the Los Angeles Times outlining what it dubbed such “thorny questions” when it became the first company in Read more…
As many large companies prepare next year’s sustainability reports, it’s important to note that nobody cares. Well, very few people care, and they fall into three little buckets: First, specialized interest (or pressure) groups await the reports so they can check on how badly companies are falling short on whatever Read more…
The belief that development of a sentient or self-aware AI is simply a matter of enough data, connections, and processing speed is based on the premise that human consciousness is the product of material objects and processes, too. Francis Crick, the less overtly racist half of the duo who discovered Read more…
The Hong Kong government’s new ad campaign is unconvincing in what it says, and outright frightening because of what it omits. Full-page ads have appeared in newspapers around the world, apparently intended to reassure people — investors, mostly those outside of Hong Kong — that everything will be fine. There Read more…
There’s pushback to the rollout of 5G infrastructure across America because it seems too fast, ugly, and potentially dangerous, according to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal. They’re all legit issues. That rollout has been put on steroids, thanks to the FCC’s requirement that local governments approve new 5G Read more…
How is it that nobody at Microsoft has seen a movie in which AI super brains turn out to be a bad idea? Read the essay at A Cross of Silicon
Is monetizing the data, er, scraped from the rear ends of little pre-consumers really a must-have tech innovation? Read the essay at A Cross of Silicon
I want to believe that all of us will be itinerant, wandering poets in a future where all the work gets done by obedient robots…but there’s every reason to believe it’ll be somewhat less perfect. Read the essay at A Cross of Silicon
Humans are imperfect and emotionally unstable. So should we trust one another because of those shortcomings vs. the presumed perfection of technology? Read the essay at A Cross of Silicon