Tag Archive
Welcome, Job-Destroying Robots
Let me first emphasize that I’m not talking about the deeper question of superintelligence and what happens when robots can do anything a human can do. This is about the (relatively) more immediate question: What happens when robots can perform any unskilled labor much more cheaply than humans? My answer is that we’ll need a good social safety... »
Popping the Filter Bubble
In his provocative TED talk and bestselling book, the progressive internet activist Eli Pariser tells the story of how one day he noticed that the Facebook posts from his politically conservative friends began disappearing from his newsfeed. Pariser traces this phenomenon back to Facebook’s recommendation algorithms, which looked at the links he clicked, effectively... »
Lies, Damned Lies, Rape, and Statistics
The vicious gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in Delhi last month is tragically just one of many attacks on women that occur every day in India. In 2011 alone, there were more than 24,000 reported rapes in the country, with likely many times that number going unreported. This horrific incident has... »
The Polarization of Political Parties
Washington has never been more partisan, right? Or is that common lament simply a trick of nostalgia? A look at the numbers reveals that the problem is not, it turns out, all in our heads: over the last four decades, Congressional polarization has steadily increased. “Not only have the Democratic and Republican parties drifted apart,... »
Politicians Never “Lie”
With even a casually critical reading of the news, it becomes painfully clear that politicians are by and large a bunch of lying liars. They all lie, across the political spectrum, regularly traversing the lie taxonomy, from exaggerations, misleading statements, and lies by omission, to outright fabrications and even occasionally going for the Big Lie... »
