Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Tagsociety

remote-work-at-home-hybrid-work-telecommuting-teleconference-work-from-anywhere-remote-office-laptop-computer-woman-businesswoman-flex-work-distributed-work-webcam-conference-call-coworkers-teamwork-stockpack-adobe-stock
remote work at home hybrid work telecommuting teleconference work from anywhere remote office laptop computer woman businesswoman flex work distributed work webcam conference call coworkers teamwork
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 18, 2024
Tagged
, , , , ,

Remote Work: Liberation or a Major Step Back?

Feeling disconnected or undervalued can lead to quiet quitting, data shows
Peter Biles
April 18, 2024
3

Articles and studies abound on the viability of remote work, particularly following the mass transformation of the white-collar workplace after 2020. While millennials and Gen-Z workers, fresh out of college, fled metro areas and moved online, whole office spaces found themselves empty. Office real estate workers continue to struggle leasing out their spaces to businesses, since so many employers now have a remote or hybrid work schedule. It is difficult to reach a conclusive stance on the pros and cons of remote work by reading the dozens of articles on the topic. Opinions vary so widely. Some praise the new shift towards remote work as a revolutionary step in the workforce. Others note that remote work is actually a step Read More ›

silhouette-of-woman-sitting-on-the-bed-beside-the-windows-with-sunlight-in-the-morning-stockpack-adobe-stock
silhouette of woman sitting on the bed beside the windows with sunlight in the morning
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
March 20, 2024
Categorized
Social Factors
Tagged
, , , , , , ,

U.S. Drops in Happiness Poll

A year ago the U.S. was 15th in the world. Now it's 23rd. What happened?
Peter Biles
March 20, 2024
2
Social Factors
Increases in loneliness tell part of the story, also overall decline in social cohesion and for Gen Z, meteoric increases in internet and social media use. Read More ›
robot-humanoid-use-laptop-and-sit-at-table-for-big-data-analytic-using-ai-thinking-brain-artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning-process-for-the-4th-fourth-industrial-revolution-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock
Robot humanoid use laptop and sit at table for big data analytic using AI thinking brain , artificial intelligence and machine learning process for the 4th fourth industrial revolution . 3D rendering.
Type
post
Author
News
Date
May 11, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
Tagged
, , , , , , ,

Artificial General Intelligence is the Answer, says OpenAI CEO

The tech optimism talk just got a little vague
News
May 11, 2023
2
Artificial Intelligence

The tech optimism talk just got a little more bizarre from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman is confident that artificial intelligence is going to better our world in countless ways; sometimes, however, he doesn’t specify just how that’s going to happen. Other days it seems like he’s actually on the doomsday train. Which is it? Is AI going to save us and pilot us into a transhumanist eternity or will it enslave us forever and diminish everything that makes us human? Maybe it’s both at this point! Maggie Harrison writes in a new blog at Futurism, It’s true that AGI could, in theory, give humans a helping hand in curing some of our ills. But such an AGI, and AGI Read More ›

alone in a big city cosmos
Back view of businessman suit standing at office looking at night city through panoramic window. Generative AI
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
April 15, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
Tagged
, , , , , , , , ,

Her, Part One

The 2013 dystopian film proposes an intriguing "what if"
Gary Varner
April 15, 2023
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

When I was reviewing the Orville, Season Three, I spent a lot of time complaining about the robot-love subplot which consumed far too much of the series. I will probably always find the idea of such a relationship ridiculous, but that doesn’t mean the concept can’t be explored in a thoughtful way. One such thoughtful exploration is the movie Her, where a man falls in love with his AI operating system. Unlike the Orville, which demands that the viewer take the relationship seriously, almost going so far as to call the viewer a bigot if they don’t get on board with the fantasy, Her leaves everything open-ended, treating the whole idea of a man and robot falling in love as Read More ›

world of cyber
Cyber ​​relationships on the Internet. Connected people. People and microchips. Cybernetic society. Alone in the net.
Type
post
Author
News
Date
March 2, 2023
Categorized
Technology
Tagged
, , , , , , , ,

The Technological Society We Live In

In today's world, we think we can solve everything through technique. How's that going for us?
News
March 2, 2023
2
Technology

In a blog post this week from Salvo, Joshua Pauling cites the influential thinker Jacques Ellul on the development of a “technological society” in Western culture. Pauling writes, Even in the mid-20th century, Ellul, a French philosopher and theologian, saw technique and efficiency coming to consume every aspect of life and society. As he defined it in The Technological Society (originally entitled La Technique in French), technique is the “totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency in every field of human activity” (xxv). Just as the factories of the industrial world were optimized according to new standards of efficiency, now everything is measured, recorded, analyzed through a lens of efficiency, and then submitted to a technique to maximize outcomes according to Read More ›

Boy running through flying books
boy standing on the opened book and looking at other books floating in the air, digital art style, illustration painting
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 14, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture
Tagged
, , , , , , , ,

Art, Propaganda, and the Role of the Novelist

Bestselling author Dean Koontz talks fiction, human exceptionalism, and transhumanism with Wesley J. Smith in new podcast episode (Part I)
Peter Biles
September 14, 2022
4
Arts & Culture

Dean Koontz is a renowned novelist, known for books such as Devoted, The Big Dark Sky, and Odd Thomas. His books have topped the charts as New York Times bestsellers, and at age 77, he doesn’t plan on quitting the craft of fiction any time soon. He is also a longtime proponent of intelligent design and human exceptionalism, both of which find their footing in his many writings. On September 12th, Koontz was featured on the Humanize Podcast, where he and Wesley J. Smith, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Human Exceptionalism, discussed Koontz’s career as a writer as well as some of the central themes that pervade Koontz’s work. For Part I of this two-part discussion on the Read More ›

People running away from an invisible hand
Type
podcast
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
October 5, 2018
Tagged
, , , , , , , ,

Does Technology Favor Tyranny?

Part One: Deconstructing Yuval Harari’s Silly Forecast of AI’s Future Impact
Robert J. Marks
October 5, 2018
1

Will infotech and biotech erode human agency, subvert human desires, and render free-market economics obsolete?  At first glance, there looks to be a wide gap between the future of AI and the destruction of democracy. Some futurists claim to have jumped that chasm. In a cheery little column published by the Atlantic, Yuval Noah Harari posits AI will ultimately destroy Read More ›