The first monkeys have been cloned in a historic breakthrough — could humans be next?
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Category: innovation – Page 187
“Rather than killing creativity, perhaps big data is fostering a new golden age of creativity.”
In a scientific first, researchers have turned skin cells from mice into stem cells by activating a specific gene in the cells using CRISPR technology. The innovative approach offers a potentially simpler technique to produce the valuable cell type and provides important insights into the cellular r…
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Former world chess champion and human rights activist Garry Kasparov discusses artificial intelligence and the political and social implications of it.
Drawing on his recent book “Deep Thinking,” Kasparov outlines what he considers the potential of new technologies built on “machine learning.” Kasparov explains why free societies must prioritize technological progress and embrace the challenges associated with innovation. Finally, Kasparov considers the new artificial intelligence chess program, AlphaZero—what we can learn from it about chess, as well as the relationship between humans and machines.
Conversations with Bill Kristol.
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What will 2018 bring? No one knows for sure. But as we did for 2017, we asked top scientists and thought leaders in innovation what they expect to see in the new year. Here, lightly edited, are their predictions.
What scientific discoveries will 2018 bring? We asked leaders in science, technology, and innovation what they think we can expect to see in the new year.
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Russian tech tycoon turned-ET wayfarer Yuri Milner says he intends to beat NASA to a mission to the Saturn moon Enceladus looking for alien lifeforms.
“The one overarching question we are asking at our foundation is: ‘Are we alone in the universe?’” said Milner, who has swore over $200 million to the Breakthrough Initiative, an association he established in 2015 that observes space, and grows new methods for infinite travel.
Talking at a Seattle gathering, ‘A New Space Age’, Milner said his science group agrees there are three potential areas for additional earthly lifeforms in our close planetary system: under the surface of Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, and “the most encouraging competitor,” Enceladus.
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The recent explosion of interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning has led to writing many books about these subjects. These 7 Best Sellers Books ranked by Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Books category as of Dec 30, 2017.
Through a series of recent breakthroughs, deep learning has boosted the entire field of machine learning. Now, even programmers who know close to nothing about this technology can use simple, efficient tools to implement programs capable of learning from data. This practical book shows you how.
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[This article is drawn from Ch. 8: “Pedagogical Love: An Evolutionary Force” in Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures.]
“There is nothing more important in this world than radical love” as Paolo Freire told Joe Kincheloe over dinner.
- Joe Kincheloe. Reading, Writing and Cognition. 2006.
And yet, we live in a world of high-stakes testing, league tables for primary schools as well as universities, funding cuts, teacher shortages, mass shootings in schools, and rising rates of depression and suicide among young people.
The most important value missing from education today is pedagogical love.
In “Pedagogical Love: An Evolutionary Force” (Ch. 8 of Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures) I explain why love should be at centre-stage in education. I introduce contemporary educational approaches that support a caring pedagogy, and some experiences and examples from my own and others’ practice, ending with some personal reflections on the theme.
Why do we want to educate with and for love? We live in a cynical global world with a dominant culture that does not value care and empathy. We live under the blanket of a dominant worldview that promotes values that are clearly damaging to human and environmental wellbeing. In many ways our world, with its dominance of economic values over practically all other concerns, is a world of callous values. And recently we’ve embarked on a flight from truth.
In the search for truth, the only passion that must not be discarded is love. Truth [must] become the object of increasing love and care and devotion.
- Rudolf Steiner. Metamorphoses of the Soul, Vol. I. 1909.
What a contrast Steiner’s early 20th century statement is to the lack of a love for truth that abounds in fake news in our post-Truth world. Canadian holistic educator, John Miller points to the subjugation of words like love in contemporary educational literature in the following quote:
The word ‘love’ is rarely mentioned in educational circles. The word seems out of place in a world of outcomes, accountability, and standardised tests.
- John Miller. Education and the Soul. 2000.
British educational researcher, Maggie MacLure speaks about the obsession with quantitative language in education in the UK: “objectives, outcomes, standards, high-stakes testing, competition, performance and accountability.” She argues that the resistance to the complexity and diversity of qualitative research that is found in the evidence-based agendas of the audit culture is linked to “deep-seated fears and anxieties about language and desire to control it.” In this context it is not hard to imagine that words like love might create what MacLure calls ontological panic among the educational audit-police.
In spite of these challenges several educational theorists and practitioners emphasise the importance of love—and the role of the heart—in educational settings. If young people are to thrive in educational settings, new spaces need to be opened up for softer terms, such as love, nurture, respect, reverence, awe, wonder, wellbeing, vulnerability, care, tenderness, openness, trust.
Awe, wonder, reverence, and epiphany are drawn forth not by a quest for control, domination, or certainty, but by an appreciative and open-ended engagement with the questions.
- Tobin Hart. Teaching for Wisdom. 2001.
Arthur Zajonc has developed an educational and contemplative process that he calls an “epistemology of love.” Mexican holistic education philosopher, Ramon Gallegos Nava, refers to holistic education as a “pedagogy of universal love.” Other important contributions to bringing pedagogical love into education include Nel Noddings extensive writings on “an ethics of care”, Parker Palmer’s “heart of a teacher” and Tobin Hart’s deep empathy.”
The caring teacher strives first to establish and maintain caring relations, and these relations exhibit an integrity that provides a foundation for everything teacher and student do together.
- Nel Noddings. Caring in Education. 2005.