Science & the Big Questions

What If ET Is an AI?

After centuries searching for extraterrestrial life, we might find that first contact is not with organic creatures at all.

Aeon

Topics: Caleb Scharf Extraterrestrial Life Intelligence

Will Self-Taught Robots Be the End of Us?

Are we creating the instruments of our own destruction or exciting tools for our future survival?

World Science Festival

Topics: Consciousness Creativity Intelligence Robots

Culture and the Mind: A New Theory of Human Intelligence

What role might culture play in intelligence? And how does human culture differ from culture found in other animals?

Science Weekly, The Guardian

Topics: Animal Studies Cultural Evolution Human Uniqueness Intelligence Kevin Laland Language Social Learning

Inside The Future Of Artificial Intelligence

As developers design machines that teach themselves, questions remain over humans’ ability to effectively interact with artificially intelligent computers.

The State of Things, WUNC

Topics: Ethics Intelligence Kurt Gray Learning Morality Robots Technology

Daydreaming May, In Fact, Be a Sign of Greater Intelligence

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently published a study in the journal Neuropsychologia that suggested a strong correlation between a person’s tendency to daydream and the strength and efficiency of their brains.

Quartz

Topics: Creativity Intelligence

How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds

Research suggests that as the brain grows dependent on phone technology, the intellect weakens.

The Wall Street Journal

Topics: Cognition Empathy Intelligence Knowledge Technology Trust

New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of Deep Learning

A new idea called the “information bottleneck” is helping to explain the puzzling success of today’s artificial-intelligence algorithms — and might also explain how human brains learn.

Quanta Magazine

Topics: Intelligence Learning

Schools Are Missing What Matters About Learning

Curiosity is underemphasized in the classroom, but research shows that it is one of the strongest markers of academic success.

The Atlantic

Topics: Curiosity Education Intelligence Scott Barry Kaufman

The Next Big Leap in AI Could Come From Warehouse Robots

Kindred thinks the path to smarter software is by giving it a physical body.

The Verge

Topics: Embodied Cognition Intelligence Robots

What Makes a Genius?

Some minds are so exceptional they change the world. We don’t know exactly why these people soar above the rest of us, but science offers us clues.