Blog Archives

Key word – claim

Key word – claim

Claim is a difficult word. Dictionaries offer Meaning One –  claims are assertions that something is true, that something is a fact, but there is no proof or evidence. We just have to take the claim at face value and as being ‘right’, or not. Dictionaries also offer Meaning Two. A claim is a statement or action […] … learn more→

Your face for sale: anyone can legally gather and market your facial data without explicit consent

Your face for sale: anyone can legally gather and market your facial data without explicit consent

The morning started with a message from a friend: “I used your photos to train my local version of Midjourney. I hope you don’t mind”, followed up with generated pictures of me wearing a flirty steampunk costume. I did in fact mind. I felt violated. Wouldn’t you? I bet Taylor Swift did when deepfakes of her […] … learn more→

What if reality does not exist and is a creation of the mind?

What if reality does not exist and is a creation of the mind?

Have we invented reality? Is it just the fruit of the human brain? There is a current, based on quantum physics, that insists on removing reality from reality. The proposal is this: If a tree dies, to give an example, it will be dead no matter who observes it, and we can have empirical proof that it […] … learn more→

How far are we, scientifically, from reading thoughts

How far are we, scientifically, from reading thoughts

On January 29, Elon Musk published in X the success of the first surgical intervention implanting a device developed by his start-up Neuralink in a human . The name of the device: Telepathy (Telepathy). In the scientific community we were attentive to what Elon Musk’s team had achieved since in September 2023 the competent body, the United States Food and […] … learn more→

Why is free time still so elusive?

Why is free time still so elusive?

There have been massive gains in productivity over the past century. So why are people still working so hard for so long? Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the U.S. The standard American workweek, meanwhile, has remained unchanged, at about 40 hours. This paradox is especially notable in the U.S., where […] … learn more→

Why John Dewey’s vision for education and democracy still resonates today

Why John Dewey’s vision for education and democracy still resonates today

John Dewey was one of the most important educational philosophers of the 20th century. His work has been cited in scholarly publications over 400,000 times. Dewey’s writings continue to influence discussions on a variety of subjects, including democratic education, which was the focus of Dewey’s famous 1916 book on the subject. In the following Q&A, Nicholas Tampio, a political […] … learn more→

In the face of technological saturation, intermittent digital fasting

In the face of technological saturation, intermittent digital fasting

Technology yes or technology no? That is the big question. In our daily lives, and often through mobile devices themselves, we receive a barrage of messages that contribute to a polarized view of technology . On the one hand, some studies warn about its negative effects such as depression , anxiety , stress , emotional exhaustion , sedentary lifestyle or poorer quality of sleep . But at the same time there are others who […] … learn more→

AI is our ‘Promethean fire’: using it wisely means knowing its true nature – and our own minds

AI is our ‘Promethean fire’: using it wisely means knowing its true nature – and our own minds

Future historians may well regard 2023 as a landmark in the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). But whether that future will prove utopian, apocalyptic or somewhere in between is anyone’s guess. In February, ChatGPT set the record as the fastest app to reach 100 million users. It was followed by similar “large language” AI models from Google, Amazon, Meta and other […] … learn more→

Dreaming may have evolved as a strategy for co-operative survival

Dreaming may have evolved as a strategy for co-operative survival

Have you ever woken from a dream, emotionally laden with anxiety, fear or a sense of unpreparedness? Typically, these kinds of dreams are associated with content like losing one’s voice, teeth falling out or being chased by a threatening being. But one question I’ve always been interested in is whether or not these kinds of dreams are […] … learn more→