Archive for the 'Clip' Category

Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe – The New York Times

May 3, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/health/covid-herd-immunity-vaccine.html

How a More Resilient America Beat a Midcentury Pandemic – WSJ

May 2, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-more-resilient-america-beat-a-midcentury-pandemic-11619794711

Yuval Noah Harari on Why Technology Favors Tyranny – The Atlantic

April 29, 2021

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/yuval-noah-harari-technology-tyranny/568330/

QT:{{”

For starters, we need to place a much higher priority on understanding how the human mind works—particularly how our own wisdom and compassion can be cultivated. If we invest too much in AI and too little in developing the human mind, the very sophisticated artificial intelligence of computers might serve only to empower the natural stupidity of humans, and to nurture our worst (but also, perhaps, most powerful) impulses, among them greed and hatred. To avoid such an outcome, for every dollar and every minute we invest in improving AI, we would be wise to invest a dollar and a minute in exploring and developing human consciousness.

More practically, and more immediately, if we want to prevent the concentration of all wealth and power in the hands of a small elite, we must regulate the ownership of data. In ancient times, land was the most important asset, so politics was a struggle to control land. In the modern era, machines and factories became more important than land, so political struggles focused on controlling these vital means of production. In the 21st century, data will eclipse both land and machinery as the most important asset, so politics will be a struggle to control data’s flow.

Unfortunately, we don’t have much experience in regulating the ownership of data, which is inherently a far more difficult task than regulating land or machines. Data are everywhere and nowhere at the same time, they can move at the speed of light, and you can create as many copies of them as you want. Do the data collected about my DNA, my brain, and my life belong to me, or to the government, or to a corporation, or to the human collective?
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Gas shortages predicted this summer – CNN

April 29, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/27/business/summer-gasoline-shortage/index.html

Biden pursues giant boost for science spending

April 28, 2021

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00897-0

Covid-19 vaccines have alerted the world to the power of RNA therapies | The Economist

April 27, 2021

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/03/27/covid-19-vaccines-have-alerted-the-world-to-the-power-of-rna-therapies

How to Buy a Castle for $60—Some Strings Attached – WSJ

April 26, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-buy-a-castle-for-60some-strings-attached-11618406822?mod=e2tw

Time to End Outdoor Mask Edicts – WSJ

April 25, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/time-to-end-outdoor-mask-edicts-11619383852?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

Thomas Brock, Whose Discovery Paved the Way for PCR Tests, Dies at 94 – The New York Times

April 24, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/science/thomas-brock-dead.html

How Covid Upended a Century of Patterns in U.S. Deaths – The New York Times

April 24, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/23/us/covid-19-death-toll.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes