Tag Archives: Opinion

Previews: The Humanist Magazine – Autumn 2023

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(September 14, 2023) – The new issue features OpenAI’s now famous ChatGPT bot was used by the Humanist to generate this article as an experiment to discover what today’s AI knows and will tell about the dangers posed by AI technology.

The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence

From Misinformation to Autonomous Weapons

IN RECENT YEARS, the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence have brought forth a myriad of benefits and possibilities. Be it healthcare or transportation, AI has shown its potential to revolutionize industries and improve the quality of human life. However, this transformative power comes hand in hand with a range of dangers that must be understood and addressed. This article delves into both the narrower personal risks and the broader socio-political concerns associated with AI.

Artificial Intelligence Unveiled: Navigating the Hazards in Our Everyday Lives

Imagine a world where your conversations with AI-powered machines could lead you astray, your job might vanish overnight, and your personal data might end up in the wrong hands. Welcome to the realm of artificial intelligence, a place where the marvels of technology coexist with a web of dangers that can reshape our lives in unexpected ways. There are personal concerns that ordinary people face as they navigate this AI-infused landscape.

Opinion: The Middle East’s Future, Managing Wealth, London Bus Driver Health

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 18, 2023) Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, the future of the Middle East, Wall Street’s race to wealth management (10:00), and how London’s bus drivers revolutionised health (17:40).

Culture & Opinion: Noema Magazine – Fall 2023 Issue

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Noema Magazine (Fall 2023) – The new issue features Climate Lessons From A Lost Land; The Rediscovery Of Circadian Rhythms; Finding Hope In The Dark Power Of Fungus, ….

Climate Lessons From A Lost Land

The story of the “Atlantis of the North Sea” is one about our impermanence and ultimate futility against the elements. But within it also lies a warning of our potential future in an age of climate change.

BY TRISTAN SØBYE RAPP

Finding Hope In The Dark Power Of Fungus

Fungi can take on the mess and the junk, the waste and the abandoned, break it all down and transform toxin into life.

Taehyoung Jeon

Jesse Stone for Noema Magazine

Opinion: AI Disrupting 2024 Elections, A Rise In Scare Tactics, Owning An Airline

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 11, 2023) Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, how much will artificial intelligence affect the elections of 2024? Also, the ways cynical leaders are using scaremongering tactics both to win and to abuse power (9:35) and why everyone wants to own an airline these days (17:00).

Opinion: No Fix For China’s Economy, Firms Fighting Disrupters, Palestine Wine

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 28, 2023) Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, why China’s economy won’t be fixed, America’s corporate giants are fighting back against disrupters (10:15) and the challenge of making wine in Palestine (21:50).

Opinion: Germany Falters In EU, China’s Bitter Youth, Language Lessens With AI

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 21, 2023) Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week,  is Germany once again the sick man of Europe? Also, China’s disillusioned youth  (10:50) and why AI could make it less necessary to learn foreign languages (17:35).

Opinion: China’s Youth Has Sacrificed Freedoms, Now Learn To “Eat Bitterness”

For generations, the Chinese Communist Party has held on to power partly through an implicit bargain with its citizenry: Sacrifice your freedoms, and in exchange, we’ll guarantee ever-rising living standards.
That deal has not held up for today’s youths.
Opinion | Ignatius, Summers, Rampell, more discuss China's economy in  turmoil - The Washington Post

Until quite recently, China’s young people seemed poised to take on the world — and many of them appeared to believe they would. They’ve shown a streak of hyper-nationalism, stoked by the country’s leadership and reinforced by China’s growing economic and geopolitical strength.

China’s Gen Z came of age, after all, in the wake of the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization and amid a rapid rise in incomes.

President Xi Jinping has said young people must learn to “eat bitterness” (an idiom that roughly means to toughen up by enduring hardship). Today’s youths, leaders say, are not too good for manual labor or moving to the countryside — experiences Xi and his generation once had to endure.

China’s resilience after the financial crisis, particularly relative to the sluggish recovery across most of the West, suggested China and its citizens had nowhere to go but up. Political dysfunction in many of those same Western democracies, expertly exploited by Chinese propaganda, reinforced this perception.

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Opinion: The Biden China Strategy, Saudi Arabia’s Sports Push, Green EV’s?

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 14, 2023) Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, why Biden’s China strategy isn’t working, Saudi Arabia’s plan to dominate global sport (10:20) and how green is your electric vehicle, really? (17:55).

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine — SEPT 2023

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Harper’s Magazine – September 2023: This issue features Justin E. H. Smith’s Elegy for Gen X; Zadie Smith and the Gen X novel; The Rise and Fall of an Iranian Exile and John Jeremiah Sullivan plumbs the Depths…

My Generation

Anthem for a forgotten cohort

by Justin E. H. Smith

Man Called Fran

Plumbing, the depths

by John Jeremiah Sullivan

Waiting for the Lights

The life of an Iranian exile

by Amir Ahmadi Arian

War Analysis: How Ukraine Sank The Moskva – Russia’s Flagship Missile Cruiser

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (1843 magazine August 7, 2023): A special edition of Editor’s Picks from The Economist’s summer double issue. This week, we take a deep dive into how Ukraine’s virtually non-existent navy sank the Moskva, Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea.

How Ukraine’s virtually non-existent navy sank Russia’s flagship

The Moskva was the most advanced vessel in the Black Sea. But the Ukrainians had a secret weapon, reports Wendell Steavenson with Marta Rodionova