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"The Real Problems with Artificial Intelligence"

January 17, 2019

Sabine Hossenfelder:

So we have AI fragility plus the trend of increasingly complex hard- and software to become unique. Now extrapolate this some decades into the future. We will have a few large companies, governments, and maybe some billionaires who will be able to afford their own AI. Those AIs will be delicate and need constant attention by a crew of dedicated humans. 

Posted at 05:32 AM in Science | | Comments (0)

"This Reporter Took a Deep Look Into the Science of Smoking Pot. What He Found Is Scary."

January 14, 2019

This appears online at Mother Jones(!)--no, make that "!!" It's a review of a recent book by Alex Berenson, former investigative reporter for the New York Times(!), Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. The review summarizes what Berenson found: a lot of research about marijuana's possible harm that was ". . . hardly Reagan-esque, drug warrior hysteria."

But what about reverse causality--some people with mental health issues use marijuana to self-medicate? There is research that at least purports to address that and it still concludes there is evidence of serious health risk.

But what about all the high school and college kids who smoked pot in the '60s and '70s seemingly without ill effects except for the now cliché hunger for munchies and a bit of sleepiness? To me, the most arresting paragraph of the piece is this:

Before talking to Berenson, I didn’t realize it was possible to smoke your way to the ER. I smoked plenty of weed in high school and so did all my friends, and none of us jumped off a balcony or killed anyone—we could barely get off the couch. But the marijuana sold today is not what we smoked, which at 1 percent to 2 percent THC was the equivalent of smoking oregano. Today’s weed is insanely more potent, as are products like “wax” and “shatter”—forms of butane hash oil designed to be vaped or dabbed that come pretty close to 100 percent THC. And these high-potency products usually contain very little CBD oil, the ingredient in cannabis that’s supposed to account for many of its supposed health benefits.

Very much related: another review of Berenson's book by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker (!!!): "Is Marijuana As Safe As We Think?" (Summary: maybe not, but a whole lot more research should be done.)

(Links via Powerline.)

As I write, the reviews of the book on Amazon are 60% five-star and 37% one-star. I read all the one-star reviews and except for two they are hundreds of miles away from being serious attempts to refute the book's argument. The two semi-serious reviews both accuse the author of cherry-picking the research while providing absolutely zero references to support that accusation. 

Posted at 05:52 AM in Books, Current Affairs, Health, Science | | Comments (1)

"The Invisible Helping Hand: How a network of food banks learned to feed more people by embracing the free market."

January 14, 2019

Economics that even Liberals can love:

It soon became clear to the Booth team that the main barrier to improving Second Harvest’s distribution system wasn’t devising an efficient market. The bigger challenge was making it seem fair to skeptics like Arnold. The only way the invisible hand was going to work its magic for Second Harvest was if Arnold could see what was in it for him and for the people his charity served.

Posted at 05:02 AM in Current Affairs, Economics | | Comments (0)

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