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Autonomous weapons select and engage targets without human intervention. They might include, for example, armed quadcopters that can search for and eliminate people meeting certain pre-defined criteria. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is — practically if not legally — feasible within years, not decades, and theContinue reading “Artificially Intelligent Killer Robots”

A fascinating look at Bolt Threads, a company that has engineered synthetic spider silk for industrial production. Chic. Spider silk, like all silk, is a type of protein. The material is highly valued not only for its famed strength but also because natural spider silk comes in a variety of forms. Each spider spins about seven different types ofContinue reading “Spider Silk Clothing”

I’ve experienced similar positive benefits by making this one simple change. Studies show using your phone around someone else makes you seem less trustworthy and less empathetic. In addition, even having a phone in view hurts our relationships — whether you check it or not.

Perhaps the sugary, greasy Western diet — increasingly recognized as pro-inflammatory — is partly responsible. Maybe shifts in our intestinal microbial communities, driven by antibiotics and hygiene, have contributed. Whatever the eventual answer, just-so stories about what we evolved eating, and what that means, blind us to this bigger, and really much more worrisome, problem:Continue reading “The Myth of Gluten”