The Community in Which It Is Raised
"Given this, we argue that brain stimulation for 'enhancement'—insofar as it involves a more controversial weighting of benefits vs. risks and costs—should be delayed until the child has reached a state of maturity. In this way, she can make an informed, personal decision about the proposed intervention. Brain stimulation for 'treatment,' by contrast, is permissible insofar it can be shown to be at least as safe and effective as currently approved treatments (which are themselves justified on a best interests standard)."
2. Instructions for "raising" a moral robot.
"A more moderate approach would be democratic robot learning, in which programmers hard-code a small number of fundamental norms into the robot and let it learn the remaining context-specific norms through its interactions with the community in which it is raised. Fundamental norms will have to include prevention of harm (especially to humans) but also politeness and respect, without which social interactions could not succeed. A host of specific norms will then translate abstract norms into concrete behavior (e.g., what it means to be polite in a particular context) and define conditions under which one fundamental norm can supersede another (e.g., it’s OK to drop politeness when one tries to save someone from harm)."
3. Guy charged for conspiring to fix the prices of posters on Amazon.
"According to the charge, Topkins and his co-conspirators agreed to fix the prices of certain posters sold in the United States through Amazon Marketplace. To implement their agreements, the defendant and his co-conspirators adopted specific pricing algorithms for the sale of certain posters with the goal of coordinating changes to their respective prices and wrote computer code that instructed algorithm-based software to set prices in conformity with this agreement."
4. On the development of scientific archives of brains, as distinct from just collecting brains for fun.
"I would like to make a point at the beginning, which may be pertinent to later discussion, that there is a difference between collecting brains and brain banking. Collecting brains for diagnostic purposes goes back a very long time, you can argue to the beginning of medical research. If one has brains for one’s own interest, preserving material for one’s own research, and research with immediate collaborators, that is collecting brains. On the other hand, brain banking is something completely different: preserving tissues with specific aims and distributing tissues to the scientific community without necessarily the locals being involved, but they usually are"
"Fifty years ago, three teen-agers in Philadelphia took an extraordinary step by refusing to take a step. Their sit-in began on Sunday, April 25, 1965, at Dewey's restaurant near Rittenhouse Square in Center City. According to an account provided several months later by Clark Polak, a gay-rights leader in Philadelphia, 'the action was a result of Dewey's refusal to serve a large number of homosexuals and persons wearing non-conformist clothing.'"
On Fusion: There is an emoji keyboard coming onto the market and our resident emoji expert tested it. Spoiler alert: the main problem is any dedicated emoji translator has already memorized other keyboard layouts!
Today's 1957 American English Usage Tip:
donate is 'chiefly US' (OED). It is a BACK-FORMATION from donation. Bestow, present, or simply give would be the Brit. choice.The Credits
1. frontiersin.org | @judystout1 2. brown.edu | @kevinroose 3. fbi.gov | @drivero 4. histmodbiomed.org | @mocost 5. historynewsnetwork.org | @archivenext
The Community in Which It Is Raised