Looking down from the height of our seven hundredth blog (count ’em-seven hundred!”), we couldn’t help a little mellow reflection on a constant theme of these posts-Artificial Intelligence, quantum Computers, robots and all that sort of thing. It also reflects many of the comments and suggestions we receive from you, gentle readers.

The theme is nothing new-these things are amazing. Powerful indeed. And that makes them scary. it’s been the theme of science fiction films, books, TV shows and endless learned discussions in ever-so-slightly unreadable books since at least 1950. They can even beat us at chess, goddammit, so what chance have we got? Well did we sympathise with the crying boy on the Brighton train the other week, who screamed to his mother that he was “frightened of the robot.” (None was visible on that train, or any other that day)

It was that wisest of Science Fiction writers, Arthur C Clarke who gave us the re-assurance we craved-with this explanation. The earliest toolmakers, entirely apelike beings had no intention of changing themselves or the world when they started bashing flints. They just wanted to get their dinner better. But as you use tools more and more, you need teeth less and less. So gradually the shape of their faces changed. Hunting got better because tools made it more effective, leading to bigger brains, and legs adapted for running, not climbing. And so on. Feedback loops were set up whereby cleverer creatures started improving their tools. By the time you got to something humanlike ,say Homo erectus, the toolmakers dared not drop their implements , because they had lost the big teeth and strong arms which might have let them survive without those tools. The tools and the creatures had formed a single symbiotic unit with its own niche.

It is likely that humans and machines will co evolve, maybe even fuse together, as Clarke predicted. In a few generations we may not look, feel or move in quite the same ways as we do now. Especially those who will choose to live on other planets like Mars. But the same chain of progress started so long ago in Africa will be carried forward. Our legacy will be secure.

#arthus c clarke #artificial intelligence #quantum computing #robots #human evolution

“Private sector good, public sector bad” was the endless mantra chanted by those who fomented, and then imposed, the Thatcher-Reagan revolution of the 1980s. Everything, from water companies to forensic science was to be sold off to wheeler-dealer buccaneering venture capitalists, whose grace would confer the blessings of efficiency and freedom on moribund institutions. Or so it was alleged; they never talked of privatising their armed forces, for some reason.

Forty years on the bill for these follies is starting to come in. Take water privatisation in England as an example. Since 1989 the new private owners have extracted £72 billion in profits, while the industry suffers a dreadful reputation on pollution, failure to control leaks, shortages, and inability to invest (we haven’t had a single new reservoir in thirty years) Writing in the Conversation Kate Bayliss makes a powerful case for public ownership of a common public good. [1]

“Our people are in cars-if you’re on public transport after the age of twenty five, you’re a failure” Maybe Mrs Thatcher didn’t say those exact words all together in that order, but they authentically captured the spirit of the 1980’s and her philosophy, disguising a new hierarchy of wealth under a cloak of liberty. Maybe cars do bring a bit more mobility, and help with the shopping. They also bring the opportunity for excess of narcissism, rage, accidents and pollution. Is their age passing too? John Vidal makes a powerful case in the Guardian [2]

We won’t indulge here in rather hackneyed cliches about shifting tectonic plates, paradigms and new orders. But we will observe that saying of James Russell Lowell “Time makes ancient good uncouth.” The trick is to learn to let go gracefully, and look for new ways of doing old things.

[1] https://theconversation.com/why-clean-affordable-water-should-not-be-in-the-hands-of-private-companies-targeting-profit-new-research-188258?utm_m

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/commentisfree

#water #privatisation #public ownership #transport #pollution

stories that caught our eye

Stand up for your beliefs Ever since its discovery more than 20 years ago the fossils of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, have been fought over by rival teams of scientists. How close were they to the hominin line? And now-could it stand upright? Whether it’s at seven million, three million or just a few thousand years ago, every hominid fossil is the potential cause of disputes which seem to generate far more heat than light. Frankly, we would welcome a lot more digging and a lot less publishing. Nature Briefings details the latest saga. Did this ancient hominin walk upright?

An ancient human relative, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, might have walked on two legs seven million years ago. S. tchadensis could be the earliest known member of the hominin lineage, the evolutionary branch that includes the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees and ends with modern humans. The theory is based on a battered fossil leg bone that was discovered in Chad more than 20 years ago. But some scientists are not convinced that the femur’s traits prove the creature stood tall.Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper

Is this man really an expert? News controversies have been marred by each side dragging on some important-sounding bloke who claims to be an “expert.” Economics, science, health, climate change…think of another. Some no doubt, are experts. But not all, and it’s important to try to ask if someone really knows, or is just bluffing it. Fortunately Thora Tenbrink is here from the Conversation to guide us

https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-tell-if-someone-is-an-expert-or-just-confident-from-an-actual-expert-188244?utm_m

They’re just playing Why is a boisterous bunch of young orcas bumping boats the Atlantic? Most experts think it’s just for fun: they’re big enough to sink these yachts if they really wanted to. Even so it must be terrifying when something goes bang on your hull in the middle of the night! A conservation success, but best sustained if we can manage the seas for people and animals, we think. Here’s the Times

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bb6a3bf0-2481-11ed-bb7e-0eb11fc7ccd4?shareToken=b

A fascination with with strong men The American right’s weakness for burly macho dictators is nothing new, as this intriguing piece from The Atlantic shows. Just as Leftists idolised Stalin and Mao, so Rightists have done the same with an amazing collection of fad-heroes-some of them very, very queasy indeed. What is the psychological thread linking all this hero-worship, we wonder?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/editorpicks/behind-the-american-right-s-fascination-with-viktor-orb%C3%A1n/ar-AA11a7sF?ocid=ms

Local Protest, National Hope And finally… the inhabitants of England’s Sussex Coast have always been regarded as quiet, placid acceptors of the good fortune that life has bestowed on them. Until now, when appalled by the tonnes of sewage flooding into their previously limpid seas, they have formed angry protest groups to march and shout against water companies and the Government which has given those such an easy ride. And now this is national news No, this is not Anglocentric-if they can do it in Hastings, why can’t you in your country?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-62688370

#killer whale #viktor orban #paleoanthropology #sewage #pollution

Mention the word “cocktail” and you somehow conjure up an image of louche bourgeoise sophistication. Of plush Manhattan hotels, tropical islands and well-paid adventurers like Messrs James Bond and Jay Gatsby. It used to irritate Lefty Lecturers at certain famous London Colleges when we refused to attend their extra classes on the grounds that “it was Friday Night Cocktails”, that’s for sure.

People have been drinking alcohol for thousands of years. So who came up with the idea of mixing spirits, fruits, strange little bottles of mixers, and lashings of ice? Ancient Sumerians? Bored pirates in the Caribbean? This week, we’ve done a little research which we hope will not only make interesting reading, it may spark you, gentle readers, to try to make some of the strange precursors which our links will mention. Good luck, and happy mixing.

Wayne Curtis, The Atlantic Traces origins to a curious drink called a Rum Shrub in Georgian London. But, as with so many British ideas, the Americans nicked it and transformed it into something far, far more adaptable to the masses. Key player: a chap called “Professor” Jerry Thomas in 1862, when more serious Americans were slaughtering each other in the Battle of Chancellorsville.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/who-invented-the-cocktail/308105/

Wikipedia Another great institution. Traces first appearance of word cocktail to 1803. A Mrs Julius S Walsh of St Louis, Missouri in 1917. Cocktails were big in Prohibition, because you could disguise all that illegal hooch behind fruit juice. They have enjoyed a revival since 2000, as recipes have been swapped on the internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail

The Spruce Eats has a lovely section tracing the origins of our favourite drink through its etymology. Nice bright breezy website, which we have used before for recipes on this page.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-a-cocktail-760163

We don’t want to burden you down with excessive reading lists, so that’s it for one night. Have a great weekend.

#jerry thomas #rum shrub #prohibition #james bond

At first it sounds odd, doesn’t it? Counter intuitive. Perhaps because the message relentlessly drummed in by right wing newspapers, think tanks and well-paid academics has been “lower taxes means more growth”. Yes things like police forces and health systems are all very nice, but we have to keep them to a minimum, because the taxes to pay for them are a drag on economic activity…. blah blah blah. Ask any economics expert at the bar of the Dog and Duck and they will give you the spiel. “Common sense, innit, mate?”

But it is common sense to infer that the sun goes round the earth. It took some real thought and investigation to show otherwise. Likewise the existence of atoms, electricity……..we could go on. Now another thoughtful study has been done which shows taxes may actually be good for economic growth. For one thing they pay for roads and legal systems, always a good idea if you want a predictable economic environment. History backs this up: relentless cuts to the Royal Navy before the revolutionary war of 1776 led to defeat when they came. Tax cuts in England benefitted Americans and Frenchmen!

In this light we ask you to at least consider, with an open mind, this article by Paul Whiteley for The Conversation. It might just change the way you think.

https://theconversation.com/cost-of-living-crisis-the-uk-needs-to-raise-taxes-not-cut-them-heres-why-188938?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20fr

#tax #gdp #economics

We don’t cover enough from South America, to our shame, so its nice to come across an intriguing little story from Peru that is at once intriguing and instructive for learners of genetics of all ages. [1] [2] .

The basics are clear enough: a team of researchers from the University of Pisa have dug up a mummy which sheds all sorts of light on the cultural practices of the ancient inhabitants of Cusco, Peru. As well as what diseases they endured, which were many and painful. But for our purposes, they seem also to have recovered a range of antibiotic resistant genes in the gut of the mummy. So what is going on? Because it also illustrates some key points on genetics, evolution and the central doctrines of biology.

1 The genes in question are clearly from bacteria which were living in the victim’s gut, although you’d have to read the articles carefully to extract this key fact

2 What were they resistant to?

3 How did they get there? This is not a problem for classic genetic theory, as random mutations are thrown up all the time, but it might be for archaeologists.

4 Because the theory also states that mutations are preserved if and only if they are selected. The Ur-Tiger was a mutation with stripes-all its brother and sister kitties were plain. But because the stripes let it hide better, it prospered and left more genes in the next generations, including the mutation.

5 Whereby, ergo, whatever you call it-was something selecting for antibiotic resistance in Peru all those years ago? We’d love to know what. Did they have some kind of bug-killing drug, that hasn’t been found yet?

Antibiotic resistance plagued us then, as it does now. Time to pressure your leaders to do something about it, instead of wasting all our time in useless ego-driven conflicts about lines on maps.

[1] https://news.binodon24live.com/ancient-peruvian-mummy-surprises-researchers-with-antibiotic-resistant-genes/?

[2] https://www.1stauditor.com/archeology/researchers-are-surprised-by-antibiotic-resistant-genes-in-an-ancient-peruvian-mummy/

#genetics #peru #incas #mummy #disease

stories we liked this week

Everything but the Gull At a time of assiduous attempts at wildlife conservation, the poor old Herring gull (Larus argentatus) and its smaller relatives still come in for regular bashings. Yet these beautiful birds are an integral and delightful part of our seasides. At last the Conversation makes a case for the defence of these cheeky marauders

https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-have-more-sympathy-for-seagulls-and-how-to-stop-them-stealing-your-chips-186979?utm_

Clearing up the unclearable Long ago, non stick frying pans seemed like a technological marvel. Yet many contained PFAs, those almost-impossible-to destroy chemicals which can cause such environmental and health damage, Now a new technique seems to grapple at last with the problem of breaking them down in a feasible way. (memo to the Christian Right-sometimes thought is more effective than prayer-care to give it a try?) Here’s NBC:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/new-way-destroy-pfas-forever-chemicals-rcna43528

Farewell Wolfgang Petersen Some say Das Boot, as well as being one of the best, was actually the most authentic war film ever. For us, it captured perfectly the sense of being trapped in a closed society where even to laugh at the wrong joke results in instant arrest and death. Bet they won’t being showing it in Russia any time soon!

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/19/wolfgang-petersen-obituary

US Climate Landmark The shameful events in Wyoming this week should not mask the fact that America is still a progressive country, where education can still make a mark. We suppose “it’s the duality thing” as Private Joker remarked in Full Metal Jacket. Anyway, the light side have now produced this amazing climate bill. One day Joe Biden will be remembered, while the cowboys of Wyoming will be as forgotten as the Native Americans whose lands their ancestors stole. Nature, Scientists welcome US Landmark Climate bill

Several US government agencies will see a significant influx of cash from a massive climate and tax bill that President Joe Biden has signed. The legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, pledges US$369 billion in climate investments over the next decade and could cut US greenhouse-gas emissions by about 30–40% below 2005 levels by 2030. Scientists worldwide have welcomed the bill, but warn that more work is needed to counter global warming.Nature | 5 min read

Have you ever seen the rain? or smelled it. Come to think of it, what is that delightful smell you get after a heavy downpour has washed a drought from the meadows? How stuff works, that most excellent of sites, has an idea of what it might be

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/question479.htm

we thank Mr Gary Herbert for this story

And finally… not every old band has stood the test of time. But we think Creedence Clearwater Revival have. From Bad Moon Rising, with its spookily accurate predictions of ecological disaster, through Run Through the Jungle, Proud Mary, Up Around the Bend and Fortunate Son, ol’ Fogerty and his boys stand comparison with any of the greats. Here’s a link to Have you ever seen the rain, which we hope will provide a musical treat at the end of a busy week.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=creedence+clearwater+have+you+ever+seen+rain&view=detail&mid=C381E5B28740251F490CC381E5B28740251

#gulls #climate change #russia #second world war #pfa

If any city was the capital of the world, well New York was from 1916 to 2016. No city has captured that vibe of freedom, energy, sophistication, wealth, exuberance-and sleaze, fake and violence as well as the cluster of boroughs on the Hudson River. None in the last one hundred years has inspired so many unforgettable songs, books, films and moments, from the Wall Street Crash to the triumphant return of the Apollo 11 astronauts in a blizzard of tape on Broadway. It hasn’t really happened until it’s happened in New York, they say. And until very recently, this was true.

Anyone who has sat in the bar of one of the bigger Manhattan hotels knows they are drinking in the fons et origio of the cocktail, and all it represents. Most of us have indeed taken away happy memories of such nights, although the company is not always quite as congenial as an English Village Pub. But, whatever happens now to New York, let’s pay a tribute by looking at seven of the very best cocktails from that glorious city, and happy times spent therein.

Our guide this week is a lovely site called secret NYC. (we looked this up: it means New York City-geddit?) There’s a lovely menu of places to go and things to see. But, gentle readers_ this is a cocktail column, so put on your best Brooks Brothers shirt, download Rhapsody in Blue and try to mix and drink a selection of the following, with reference to the site for precise mixicological details[1]

The Manhattan we guessed this might be on there. So did you, probably.

The Brooklyn well with a name like that it’s not going to be from Droitwich Spa, is it? Another whisky based one

New York Lemonade Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds. There seem to be plenty of things like vodka and Gran Marnier to give it that oomph so beloved of us cocktail drinkers

Staten Island Ferry We sailed on this ship many decades ago. The washroom cubicles had no doors. Oh well.

New York Sour a fruity sophistication for the jaded imbiber

Queens Cocktail Isn’t that where all those Goodfellas and Wiseguys were supposed to hang out? Better drink this one with respect, OK?

[1]https://secretnyc.co/7-new-york-inspired-cocktails-make/#:~:text=%207%20New%20York-inspired%20Cocktails%20And%20How%20To,and%20pour%20over%20ice%20in

#new york #cocktails

Liz Cheney‘s loss in the Republican Primary in Wyoming should disturb progressives everywhere. [1].It wasn’t as if she’s a Commie Liberal Woke LGBT Democrat or anything like that. Her record was almost impeccably right wing, and she is a scion of dynasty deeply embedded in the ecology of the American Right. Yet the voters dumped her for a candidate who openly and cheerfully espouses the cause and asseverations of Donald Trump. Yet again we ask: Why did reason, that most important of human qualities, fail?

We think the cause of America’s problems is an ancient, unsolved race war. Progressives and the educated may despise the futility of racial identity. How can there be a master race when the very basis of our DNA can now be modified in a laboratory? Yet to most people on all sides of ethnic divides, their identities, and the hatreds thereby engendered, are precious. Religion is quickly drawn in as a marker, in ways that might surprise Christianity’s eponymous founder. Fans of Byzantium will recall the famous sixth-century controversy in which Greek City dwellers were Orthodox, whereas the Semitic country people were impeccably Monophysite [2]. It stands for the followers of most religions in most places.

Rightly or wrongly, certain groups of American whites are now terrified that there majoritarian, dominant identity is being lost. They too have adopted a religious marker, which investigators have called Christian Nationalism. As we think this phenomenon is important, we offer a little cluster of readings where you can learn more at your leisure.

Starting with The Conversation, Samuel Perry offers a good summary. He traces the violent origins of the movement back to incidents like the Waco siege of 1993, a time when when the American Right began to really dig in.

https://theconversation.com/after-trump-christian-nationalist-ideas-are-going-mainstream-despite-a-history-of-violence-188055

Sam has also co-authored a book with Andrew Whitehead which explores the whole trope more deeply, to some good reviews;

A Whitehead and S Perry Taking Back America for God OUP 2020

The link between notions of identity and masculinity has always intrigued. In our experience, racial jealousies are often closely linked to sexual ones. This book begins to explore this theme, and we wonder if more work along these lines might be fruitful.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a nation Liveright Publishing Corporation 2020

Coda– We do not think the voters of Wyoming are especially bad or stupid. But we do think that they are frightened. Frightened people do not absorb facts, nor think with reason. And that for most of history, reason and argument have belonged to a fraction of the population; we should remember how few we are. Until we recognise how people really are, and not how we would like them to be, our whole Enlightenment project looks uncertain indeed.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/16/wyoming-republican-primary-liz-cheney-donald-trump-harriet-hageman%5B

[2] Davis RHC A History of Medieval Europe Longman1988 see esp pp 90-95

#liz cheney #wyoming #christian right #ethnonationalism #monophysite #republican party #race war

LSS has been banging on about Artificial Intelligence recently- but what about its scary sibling: robotics? Fans of sci fi have explored an ambivalent relationship with robots since the 1950s. There have been benign ones like Robby in Forbidden Planet or R2D2 of Star Wars fame. And malevolent ones like the eponymous stars of the Terminator franchise. And always that nagging anxiety. “These things are cleverer than us. When could they take over?”

Advances in the field continue apace. Writing in the Mail, Shivali Best uncovers the latest offering from the Xiaomi Corporation of China. It’s called Cyber One, it’s 1.75m tall, it walks like a human and it’s fitted with an on board AI system. [1]. All the more impressive when you think it has beaten Tesla into the market place by a month. It’s quite clear that the great powers and their corporations will compete to offer ever more adapted, multifunctioning robots which will perform ever more complicated tasks in the years ahead. Watch this space for offerings from Russia, the EU, and India.

None of the above seem disposed to pay any heed to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics,[2] which were adduced as an attempt to brake the terrifying potential of this new technology. So are we doomed to hide in the ruins, hunted like rats by super-powerful Terminator-style cyborgs? Possible, but unlikely. However there seems another danger. Currently robots are restricted to roles like factory production, cutting lawns and walk-ons at trade shows. But their range of functions is growing. Soon they may be washing up, ironing and cleaning the house. Then doing the shopping, banking and minding the kids. Their sporting abilities will exceed those of any human competitor, and no doubt they’ll soon be playing the violin better too. What future for flesh-and blood humans in a world where there is absolutely nothing to do?

[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11112441/Xiaomi-unveils-104-000-humaoid-ROBOT-called-CyberOne.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

#AI #robotics #USA #China #EU #Russia #India #asimov