Suggested Readings

A few recommendations by Figs in Winter for your reading pleasure

Image from Scientific American.

Studying smarter with AI? Artificial intelligence is becoming an ubiquitous companion in our lives and institutions. As we strive for greater convenience and efficiency, we’re increasingly outsourcing our intellectual activities in judging, reasoning, and decision-making to what Bruno Liebrucks called ‘automated thinking’. In former times, it was believed that the divine intellect alone could comprehend a large totality at one glance. But nowadays, any AI user can feel like a voluntaristic deity, capable of commanding entire worlds of data at will. AI is especially appealing when thinking is hard work – as it is in education, and particularly at university. In subjects involving large amounts of text, using AI seems to offer a convenient shortcut. But this is only a seductive semblance. Cutting through this illusion requires a quite developed insight into the point of studying at all. … (Philosophy Now)

The science of spiritual narcissism. A purported benefit of mind-body spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation and energy healing is that they will help “quiet the ego,” providing an effective antidote to the exalted self. Indeed, such practices do have the potential for such an awakening, allowing us to get more in touch with reality as it is right here and now, including the qualities we don’t like about ourselves. Spiritual practices also have the potential to help us cultivate compassion, concern and unconditional positive regard toward others—things that can truly evolve our consciousness as a species. However, this is all much easier said than done. As has been observed by many spiritual leaders, spiritual practitioners and psychologists over the years, the ego has an incessant need to be seen in a positive light, and will eagerly hijack whatever flow of consciousness it can use for its own enhancement. … (Scientific American)

Science under siege: the wellness and health freedom empire. Propped up by his flawed claim of a linkage between mercury and vaccines, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. founded the World Mercury Project, which in 2018 expanded to become today’s Children’s Health Defense, one of the most influential antivaccine organizations there is (Weir 2021). RFK Jr. previously served as chairman and chief litigation counsel. He also promotes conspiracies and scientifically unproven theories regarding other environmental causes of chronic illnesses, including Wi-Fi and 5G radiation as causes of cancer, antidepressants, and school shootings. … (Skeptical Inquirer)

AI models that lie, cheat and plot murder: how dangerous are LLMs really? Are AIs capable of murder? That’s a question some artificial intelligence (AI) experts have been considering in the wake of a report published in June by the AI company Anthropic. In tests of 16 large language models (LLMs) — the brains behind chatbots — a team of researchers found that some of the most popular of these AIs issued apparently homicidal instructions in a virtual scenario. The AIs took steps that would lead to the death of a fictional executive who had planned to replace them. … (Nature)

I wish we could ignore Bill Gates on the climate crisis. But he’s a billionaire, so we can’t. Let’s begin with the fundamental problem: Bill Gates is a politics denier. Though he came to it late, he now accepts the realities of climate science. But he lives in flat, embarrassing denial about political realities. His latest essay on climate, published last week, treats the issue as if it existed in a political vacuum. He writes as if there were no such thing as political power, and no such thing as billionaires. … (Guardian)