“Artificial Intelligence” is neither artificial nor intelligent

by Joseph Shieber Discussions of artificial intelligence are hard to avoid. A recent Pew study, for example, found that 90% of Americans have heard at least something about artificial intelligence – which is astounding, when you consider that only about 70% of Americans likely know who the current Vice President is. Despite this growing awareness…

How did a 2000 year old Indian philosophical tradition anticipate a 21st century neuroscientific puzzle?

by Joseph Shieber Suppose that you’re sitting at a pristine, white desk and are presented with the following scene (graciously rendered by Google Bard from a description by me): How would you describe what you see? Maybe something like, On the desk in front of me there’s a medium-sized, shiny green sphere in front of…

Is There A Prescription For Accelerating Science?

by Joseph Shieber In a recent talk at the Santa Fe Institute, the software engineer and tech startup founder Jason Crawford, who has in the last few years devoted his time to the Roots of Progress nonprofit, offered suggestions for developing institutions capable of fostering the acceleration of scientific progress. Crawford framed the discussion around three…

Might the “Neuromyth” of Learning Style Contain a Kernel of Truth?

by Joseph Shieber If you spend enough time around cognitive psychologists, you’re likely to hear at least one of them complain about the notion of individual “learning styles.” Indeed, psychologists consider the concept of learning style — the idea that some students are visual learners, say, as opposed to auditory learners — to be one…

Boost the Public Understanding of Science By Raising the Status of Understanding Science

by Joseph Shieber A recent study in Public Understanding of Science found that … Republicans and evangelical-identifying individuals perceive more social threat from scientists. Viewing scientists as a group posing a social threat was associated with having less accurate science beliefs, support for excluding scientists from policymaking, and support for retributive actions toward scientists ……

The “Crisis of the Intellectuals” and the Poverty of Public Discourse

by Joseph Shieber One of the strange juxtapositions appearing in the past few weeks was the publication of Ibram X. Kendi’s essay, “The Crisis of the Intellectuals” in The Atlantic, followed – a day or so later – by Marty Baron’s essay, “We want objective judges and doctors. Why not journalists too?” in the Washington Post.…

In Science, “the Fate of What We Say and Make is in Later Users’ Hands”

by Joseph Shieber 1. There’s something ironic about the fact that the received wisdom about science is that science teaches us not to trust received wisdom. Or, to paraphrase a recent blog post that seems oblivious to this irony: “Scientific expert opines, ‘Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.’” I should be fair…

A Balancing Act: Wealth Creation and Equality

by Joseph Shieber In his (1930) essay “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” John Maynard Keynes suggests that the stage has been set to alleviate the threat of material uncertainty for large portions of the world population. “The course of affairs will simply be,” Keynes writes, “that there will be ever larger and larger classes and…