Blog
- December 4, 2015
Humane Artificial Intelligence?
An oxymoron or the holy grail of AI design? The tendency to anthropomorphise things we create is deeply embedded in human nature. However, to create robots which resemble and emphatise with us, we need to first define ‘human’. And that in itself is quite a tricky subject, it seems. For starters, if we want humane AI, […]
- December 2, 2015
The Myth of Distinct Male and Female Brains
Like the article says, one of the biggest hurdles to gender equality is crumbling. Based on rigorous analysis of core features seen in the brain scans of more than 1,400 female and male subjects, a new study found that there is essentially no difference between the brains of the two sexes. most [brains] are unique mixes […]
- December 1, 2015
Twitter and Megan Phelps-Roper
This is such an incredible story of how Megan Phelps-Roper, a former prized daughter of the loathsome Westboro Baptist Church, came to see the absurdity of her beliefs, lost her faith, left the church and her family, and completely changed the course of her life. The trigger behind this conversion? Twitter. As Phelps-Roper continued to tweet, she […]
- November 30, 2015
The Ethics of Killing Baby Hitler
The New York Times’ question to its reader: would you kill baby Hitler if you could? I am on the ‘no’ camp because I reckon Hitler is merely a product of his time, what with Germany going through its worst ever economic slump. If not Hitler, it will be someone else. Nonetheless, still an interesting ethical […]
- November 29, 2015
Why We Can’t Solve Big Problems
A question that I have been mulling over: why are the biggest innovations in the past decade so pathetically meaningless? Is Facebook or Snapchat the best we can do? Peter Thiel says it best: “We wanted flying cars—instead we got 140 characters.” We are living in the best of times for innovation, at least theoretically: no […]
- November 27, 2015
Thresholds of Violence
An interesting way to look at how school shootings catch on. Malcolm Gladwell, in his signature lead-with-facts-and-then-surprise-with-counter-intuitive-theory style tells the story of how people have different thresholds for carrying out certain actions. Social processes are driven by our thresholds, i.e. the number of people who need to be doing some activity before others agree to join them. […]
- November 26, 2015
Why Self-driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? In actual fact, it makes perfect sense. It is a classic case of choosing between two evils: should a self driving car drive into a group of school kids or ram into a wall (potentially killing the driver)? Would you buy a car that could potentially kill you? This reminds me […]
- November 24, 2015
Reading the World
Hello there my loyal reader (aka me), I have decided to resuscitate this personal project to write one blog post a day about something I learned/read/thought about. I ought to be very ashamed of myself for not keeping up with this, especially since I really enjoyed doing it and still go back to read the […]
- November 10, 2015
Toastmasters speech #7: It’s all in the stars
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a giant star is going through the final stages of its life. It has been shining for 10 billion years, but now, it is running out of gas, and is slowly dying. The core of the star collapses under its own gravity. The force of […]
- August 17, 2015
Specialisation is for Insects
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook […]
- August 10, 2015
Toastmasters speech #6: Lost in Translation
Language. The oldest and most lasting form of human communication. The thing that sets us apart from other creatures roaming the face of Earth. Dear mister toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen, I love languages and today I would like to share with you why I love them. Thanks to my incredible fortune of being born in […]
- August 2, 2015
Toastmasters speech #5: Falling in Trust
Dear mister toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start my speech by asking you a question. If I call you one day and asked for your credit card number to make a flight ticket purchase because I’ve just lost mine. And I promised that, of course, I would reimburse you the 2000 dollars. […]