This reflection on the themes of Solo: A Star Wars Story tries to avoid spoilers, but as always feel free to wait until you've seen the movie if you want to know nothing about it when watching. "Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?" "It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs." With those lines, Han Solo and ultimately George Lucas stirred up a controversy still brewing 40 years later. Han's boast sounds impressive, but when you find out a parsec is a unit of distance, not … [Read more...] about Science in Review: Just Gotta Get Right Outta Here
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Science in Review: Decision-Making A Long Time Ago and in a Future Not Far Away
I introduced my reflections on the AI and Christianity essay series by J. Nathan Matias et al with a quote from Star Wars, so it is fitting (if thoroughly unplanned) to return to a galaxy far, far away to conclude my thoughts on the topic. The following will have some spoilers for The Last Jedi, but after I saw it I realized its themes were too relevant to pass up. While there is no AI per se in the film, the story is all about decisions, who gets to make them, and how they get made. In that sense, it overlaps strongly … [Read more...] about Science in Review: Decision-Making A Long Time Ago and in a Future Not Far Away
Science Reader Question: “I Could Show You the Ways of The Force.”
DJ asks: Why and when should we start mentoring and investing in those younger or at a less advanced place than we are academically? As we've discussed previously, it's really never too early to provide mentoring of one sort or another. Situations where we are complete novices, without anything to offer anyone else, are rare. We might be reluctant to help others at times, out of fear or for other reasons; at other times, we might want someone more easily controlled than a mentee. Still, mentoring opportunities of … [Read more...] about Science Reader Question: “I Could Show You the Ways of The Force.”
Science Corner: “Nobody Worries about Upsetting a Droid”
DJ asks: Why and when should we start mentoring and investing in those younger or at a less advanced place than we are academically? As a biologist, I'm always a little puzzled by public perception of clones. Going by the stories we tell, we think human clones would somehow be biologically inferior, second class, easily controlled or perhaps even nearly programmable. We think about photocopies of photocopies and imagine a similar process of degradation. Meanwhile, if duplicating DNA were really that error prone, … [Read more...] about Science Corner: “Nobody Worries about Upsetting a Droid”
Science Corner: “Fear is the path to the dark side.”
DJ asks: Why and when should we start mentoring and investing in those younger or at a less advanced place than we are academically? … [Read more...] about Science Corner: “Fear is the path to the dark side.”