- Why driverless cars will mostly be shared, not owned.
- A conversation between Henry Farrell and Tyler Cowen Henry is one of the most interesting people I read, and Tyler Cowen is an omnivorous thinker and writer.
- US nuclear weapons command and control systems no longer run on 8-inch floppy disks Phew! Rest easy, Earthlings.
- History of AI Research: Essential Papers and Developments Useful resource.
Ratmobiles
Now you really couldn’t make this up:
Researchers at the University of Richmond in the US taught a group of 17 rats how to drive little plastic cars, in exchange for bits of cereal.
Study lead Dr Kelly Lambert said the rats felt more relaxed during the task, a finding that could help with the development of non-pharmaceutical treatments for mental illness.
The rats were not required to take a driving test at the end of the study.
Linkblog
- BBC News site is now available on Tor
- How Facebook bought a (public) police force
- Social media has NOT destroyed a generation Or, at any rate, there’s no good empirical evidence that it has.
- Google boss on his company achieving ‘Quantum supremacy
- But IBM begs to disagree Silly argument IMHO.
Linkblog
- British public opinion(s) on autonomous vehicles
- The Odyssey in Limerick form Lovely.
- Trailer for Steve Bannon’s next film For a fuller explanation (and the Huawei connection) see here.
- Theranos could have been stopped Make that “should have been”.
Linkblog
- “Bicycle for the Mind” Fascinating exegesis of an early talk by Steve Jobs.
- The French Economist Who Helped Invent Elizabeth Warren’s Wealth Tax
- Is the UK about to get its own DARPA?
- Famous internal memos in computer companies
Facebook contradictions
Proud announcement from Facebook:
Today, we removed four separate networks of accounts, Pages and Groups for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram. Three of them originated in Iran and one in Russia, and they targeted a number of different regions of the world: the US, North Africa and Latin America. All of these operations created networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing. We have shared information about our findings with law enforcement, policymakers and industry partners.
We’re constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people.
To which Charles Arthur comments: “I thought manipulating people was basically the point.” Which it is. It’s just that apparently some kinds of manipulation are verboten. And of course, as Charles says, this is just the stuff they’re catching.
Linkblog
- The Audio Revolution Thoughtful ruminations on Marshal McLuhan, media and the power of headphones.
- “The dreaming of Dominic Cummings” James Meek’s lovely LRB essay on the fracturing of the UK into two separate states: Remainia and Leaveland.
- World economy is sleepwalking into a new financial crisis Sombre lecture by the former Governor of the Bank of England.
- How Airbnb Is Silently Changing Himalayan Villages
Quote of the Day
“Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire.”
Bernard Williams
Linkblog
- Sir Stephen Sedley on the UK Supreme Court ruling about lawless prorogation of Parliament Nobody, not even the Prime Minister, is above the law.
- We’re all in an abusive relationship with our smartphones Lovely essay by Maria Farrell
- Myths from a small island: the dangers of a buccaneering view of British history Lessons the UK is about to learn.
- “The dreaming of Dominic Cummings” James Meek’s LRB essay on the fracturing of the UK into two separate states: Romania and Leaveland.
@realDonaldTrump shows Twitter knows which side its bread is buttered
This morning’s Observer column:
When Donald Trump first appeared on Twitter, two thoughts came to mind. The first was that he was an absurd candidate for the presidency. The second was that he had a remarkable intuitive understanding of the possibilities of 140-character discourse. In a public lecture some time after his election, I rashly opined that “Trump is to Twitter as Michelangelo is to sculpture”.
As ice formed on the upper slopes of my (predominately liberal) audience, I realised that this was not a tactful observation. Michelangelo’s genius, one infuriated listener pointed out, was deployed in creating uplifting works of art, whereas Trump’s tweets merely plumbed the depths of human nastiness. Which was spot on. But it nevertheless remained true that Trump is surpassingly good at what he does, which is polluting the public sphere, infuriating his opponents and pandering to the inner demons of his supporters.
When he took office, many people assumed that he couldn’t go on like this: governing by tweet. Trump has begged to differ…