A recent article at New Scientist treats panpsychism as a serious idea in science. It’s not just New Scientist. In recent years, Scientific American has been sympathetic to panpsychism as well. At one time, a science magazine’s typical contributors would merely ridicule the conscious universe. Why the thaw toward panpsychism over the past few years?

This online event will explore the role of science and scientism in some of the most important questions facing our society today. As part of the event, Robert Marks, Director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence, will present a critical look at the threats and merits of artificial intelligence in his presentation entitled “AI: Menace or Savior?”

It is widely recognized that medical professionals and journalists in China are being silenced if they publish any information about COVID-19 that contradicts the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative. But now mainland Chinese scientists must ensure that their research publications also toe the CCP party line.

Reinforcement learning has mastered winning arcade games and the board game GO. More recently, DeepMind’s AlphaStar has mastered the more difficult video game StarCraft. Can we now safely extrapolate that AI will someday provide command strategy on the battlefield? Such a forecast is tempting. But command requires creativity and AI has yet to demonstrate creativity as defined by the Lovelace test.

Still locked down? It’s been a while since my last short film review column so I decided to revisit DUST, a wonderful community of short, free sci-fi films. Who would have thought that I would find them so vibrant and eclectic? Hence the list of five of my favorites.