By Stephen Milton BSc ARCS MBA + There is enormous interest in artificial intelligence as it progresses towards what some call superintelligence. As a scientist and a business owner, I have watched its rise closely and wrestled with implementing it across my own company. I make no claim to be an Continue Reading
The new arms race 2025
It has been suggested that global warming could be solved if we could invest between 1% and 3% of global GDP into fixing it.This is the same amount that is now being earmarked for ‘beggar my neighbour’ increases in defence spending across the globe . Why do we seem able Continue Reading
NSD Neuro-insensitivity Spectrum Disorder
Also known as Neurotypical Insensitivity Disorder (NID)Code: X00.0 (Pending inclusion in the DSM-Never) Diagnostic Criteria To meet criteria for NSD, an individual must exhibit at least three of the following core traits, persisting across multiple settings (e.g., workplace, social events, public transport): A. Sensory and Perceptual Insensitivity B. Cognitive Narrowness Continue Reading
Celebrating scientific innovation in 2022
Hastings Humanist discussion in Sept 2022. This year’s best science developments and what they promise I am a self-confessed technophile, and while I know that technology on its own, will not solve all our problems, I am also very aware that two of the greatest skills that we humans possess Continue Reading
When does AI become Sentient
I love this article from the Guardian because it so nicely shows a subtle way of testing for sentience, but it also probably provides an insight into the way in which we humans use short cuts from language development to develop what we call sentience. Alex Hern @alexhern Blake Lemoine, Continue Reading
COP26 and Immigration
Published in Guardian Letters 15/11/2021 In the early estimates of the effect of climate change it was suggested that over 200 million people would be displaced from their homes by a warming of between 1.5 degrees and 2.0 degrees. This now seems to be baked into our future, so what Continue Reading
What are the downsides of freedom?
Words can be really slippery and none more so than words like ‘Freedom’. We think of it as an unalloyed good, but the harder you look the harder it is to define. Generally First of all, there is no such thing as complete Freedom You cannot escape from gravity (on Continue Reading
Is Democracy under threat
On the 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and many saw this as the end of history. That Democracy was the winner and would inevitably become the default norm of all modern nations in the world. 4 years of Donald Trump have brought any such optimism up against a Continue Reading
What are we hoping to pass on to the next generation
Happy New Year and I hope you have all had a good (safe) Christmas: It is appropriate that we start the New Year thinking about the next generation. It would be easy to feel despondent when you think of all the problems that we are passing to the next generation. Continue Reading
Black Lives Matter – June 2020 campaign
Some people seem to have a problem understanding the global response to the George Floyd murder. Systemic racial prejudice exists in the UK and we should all work to eliminate it. The murder of George Floyd has triggered a global response not just because it was grotesque and disgusting to Continue Reading