I was surprised to hear that a robot named Sophia was granted citizenship by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The announcement last week followed the Kingdom’s commitment of US$500 billion to build a new city – Neom powered by robotics and renewables. One of the most honourable concepts for a human being, to be a citizen and all that […] … learn more→

Legend has it that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg Castle on October 31 1517, sparking the Protestant Reformation. Regardless of whether the event itself actually happened, the target was clear: the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. As we commemorate the 500th anniversary of Luther’s protest, there is a comparable institution whose practices […] … learn more→

Some people are afraid that heavily armed artificially intelligent robotsmight take over the world, enslaving humanity – or perhaps exterminating us. These people, including tech-industry billionaire Elon Musk and eminent physicist Stephen Hawking, say artificial intelligence technology needs to be regulated to manage the risks. But Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg disagree, saying the technology is not nearly advanced enough for […] … learn more→

Artificial intelligence has been around as a concept for a long time but, in reality, the latest surge of technological development in AI is likely to see automation continue to escalate and accelerate. The machines we’re building today are so much more powerful than ever before in terms of their processing power and storage ability, […] … learn more→

A recent Stanford University Report revealed that students’ abilities to distinguish between questionable and valid online content needed work. In one example cited in the report, researchers set high school and university students a task to evaluate the credibility of information found on the MinimumWage.com site. Only 9% of high school students and 6% of university students could identify […] … learn more→

Antifa is a menace; the mere knowledge that these maniacs are near is more than enough to cause classes to be cancelled, as has happened numerous times on campuses throughout the country. Everywhere they show up, violence ensues…it’s so weird that it’s taken so long for Antifa to be considered as, possibly, a terrorist organization. […] … learn more→

It used to be controversial speakers were controversial, and that was it. Now controversial has been defined down to the most meager of offenses. As faculty, even to say something as “controversial” as “Trump doesn’t get a fair shake in the media” is enough to get you fired. Heck, even in chatting in forums, I […] … learn more→

It’s official: the people of Great Britain have lost faith. New research from the British Social Attitudes survey reveals that 71% of young people are not religious. Overall, 53% of the population in England and Wales are non-religious. It is the first time that following a religion has been a minority position. Only 18% of […] … learn more→

Australian police are using “poisoned watering holes” to investigate crime on the dark web. By taking over illegal marketplaces that traffic in child pornography or drugs, law enforcement are collecting information about criminals all over the world. Of course, crimes that occur on the internet often cross international borders, but this situation is creating troubling […] … learn more→

With even Vladimir Putin now warning of global catastrophe from the recent tensions in Korea, we are in arguably the worst period of nuclear brinkmanship since the end of the Cold War. It is partly thanks to a strand of thinking among the American right that a nuclear attack on Pyongyang would succeed where decades […] … learn more→