Weekend Thoughts - 2.25.17

Image by Andrea Kirkby, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Possibly the biggest news of the week originated 40 light years away: NASA announced the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting closely around an ultra-cool star that has been named TRAPPIST-1 (the clever domain name trappist.one was created specifically for this star system). Although the discovery of TRAPPIST-1 was announced last year, at that time only three planets had been located. Three of the seven planets are found within the star's habitable zone, which means that there could be oceans on those planets' surfaces. However, the scientists do not have concrete evidence of that at this time. Thus, the search for life outside our own solar system continues...

2. I found this history of bar stools to be an interesting read. I've never thought too much about it, aside from being annoyed when attempting to order a drink at the bar and finding myself surrounded by other people, sitting on the stools and taking up the space I need to place my order. I never considered the possibility of a stool-less bar, but as someone who almost never opts to sit directly in front of the bar on one, the idea is definitely appealing.

3. If you've ever wondered what a "brain scan" of an AI brain would look like, wonder no further! The images that the artificial intelligence are truly stunning in their similarity to the way flesh brains look, and slightly psychedelic as well.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.18.17

Image by Lisa Norwood, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. As automation and artificial intelligence continue to replace human workers in various industries, we can expect robots to be doing more and more of the jobs that we have always had people do. Now that news-writing bots are already part of journalism, it's possible that Think Wilder may eventually replace me with a bot. You'll know the switch has happened when articles come out faster, contain more accurate information, and have a better personality. Stay tuned!

2. So what are we going to do as a society to transition into a world where the robots perform so many tasks that large swaths of the country are unemployed? Bill Gates thinks that we should force companies using robots to pay a robot tax, which would slow down the process while still allowing for innovation. It's an interesting concept, and not one that I had come across previously. My first reaction was "Why would we want to slow down innovation in the first place?", but as I thought about it, I realized that we don't have anything in place to deal with the near-sudden widespread unemployment that automation is going to cause. I'm not sure that this is the best way to tackle the problem, but it's a proposition worth considering, and one that may not have been made by anyone other than Gates at this time.

3. Leaving and re-entering the country just got a lot more complicated. Customs Border Patrol has begun asking U.S. citizens re-entering America to hand over their devices and in some cases, passwords to their social media accounts. If you're planning to leave the country (and come back) anytime soon, especially if you are visiting China or Russia during your trip, it would be well worth your while to read through the article linked above for advice on how to get past Customs without giving up your most sensitive information.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.11.17

Image by Tom Conger, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spent $1 billion in 2013 on "behavioral detection" training for its agents to more effectively spot potential terrorists by keeping an eye out for a list of "tells" that included things like "a bobbing Adam's apple", "arriving late", "trembling", "yawning", and "being in disguise". The ACLU sued the agency to force it to reveal its internal documents on the program, and even the Government Accounting Office claimed that it was psuedoscience. This week, the ACLU's lawsuit has resulted in a ton of documents confirming that the TSA intentionally racially profiles and otherwise harasses people while using "behavioral detection" as an excuse for doing so. This, combined with the fact that the acting director of the TSA was reassigned in 2015 after agents failed to detect explosives and weapons 95% of the time begs the question—are we really benefitting enough from this security theater that we should allow the agency to continue, or would we be better off shutting them down altogether?

2. Wikipedia has decided to ban the Daily Mail as a source for the encyclopedia's articles in all but "exceptional circumstances" due to the publication's repeated unreliability. Wikipedia's editors cite "Daily Mail's reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication" as reasons for not allowing its articles to be used as sources for the site's articles. As someone who reads the Daily Mail fairly regularly to find examples of how mainstream media covers the topic of psychedelics inaccurately, I can definitely agree that most of the articles I read seem are more on the side of "tabloid" than "legitimate news". In my opinion, Wikipedia is making the right move here.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.4.17

Image by Dan Cederholm, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. A new (well, old) 540 million year-old fossil of the earliest-known human ancestor has been found. The animal has been dubbed "Saccorhytus", and it seems to have eaten and shat through the same orifice on its body. My, how far we have come.

2. Another discovery from this week was a lost continent hidden underneath the ocean, directly below the tiny island Mauritius. It's a bit crazy to think that it was hanging out down there this whole time without us knowing about it.

3. Across the country, police are obtaining location services data without the need for a warrant and using it to surreptitiously track and catch suspects. This data is falling into the hands of officers because of the "third-party doctrine", which states that any data a user provides to a third party is susceptible to police usage. Many suspects have argued in court that this process overrides their Fourth Amendment rights, and the cases' results have varied. It is worth considering whether or not to strengthen the privacy laws on the books so as to further protect citizens from the snooping eyes of the government.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 1.28.17

Image by William Chew, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. The Great Firewall has been strengthened this week because unapproved VPNs will now be illegal to use in China. That means that the Chinese will be unable to access popular websites like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and many others while inside the country's borders. The new law is in effect now and the government plans to leave it in place until at least March 31st, 2018. China certainly isn't the only country that censors Internet access—Egypt, Russia, Cuba, Bahrain, Turkey, Vietnam also limit Internet communications, against the advice from the United Nations Human Rights Control, which argued against the state-sponsored disruption of Internet access and described online privacy as an essential facet of freedom of expression.

2. An artist tied one knot every day of 2016, and it makes for some beautiful art.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.