Since I consider myself a bit of an amateur philosopher1 (even if of above average intelligence—that is, above the average intelligence of the average amateur philosopher), today I’d like to introduce you to a hearty helping of good, sound, amateur philosophy. For now, we shall cover just the basics, dear Watson: an everyday scenario that […]
This week, the traffic lights in the city of San Diego (California) will begin to take action—affirmative action. “In the past,” explains traffic commissioner Melissa Pruett, “too many of our traffic lights were not sensitive to bicycles waiting at an intersection. As cyclists are legally required to wait at stop lights, these maladjusted lights gave […]
The International Society for Democracy in the English Language (ISDIEL) recently called for mattress and bed frame makers to abandon the old sizing based on monarchical and aristocratic traditions. Instead of ‘King’, ‘Queen’, ‘Full’, and ‘Single’ or ‘Twin’, ISDIEL proposes standard sizes called ‘1N’, ‘2S’, ‘3W’, and ‘4H’.1 “Not only is the American practice of […]
While Alan Turing’s famous test was passed for the first time on June 7th, by a computer that convinced one-third of the human judges that it was a thirteen-year-old boy from Ukraine, nobody is taking this seriously as an example of real artificial intelligence.1 At best, the software was a somewhat successful imitation. Less widely […]
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