Hot Issues – Page 6

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Big Problems, Economy, Employment, Hot Issues, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robots won’t just take our jobs – they’ll make the rich even richer

March 15, 2017

Should robots pay taxes?

It may sound strange, but a number of prominent people have been asking this question lately. As fears about the impact of automation grow, calls for a “robot tax” are gaining momentum. Earlier this month, the European parliament considered one for the EU. Benoît Hamon, the French Socialist party presidential candidate who is often described as his country’s Bernie Sanders, has put a robot tax in his platform. Even Bill Gates recently endorsed the idea.

Continue reading… “Robots won’t just take our jobs – they’ll make the rich even richer”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Hot Issues, Human Behavior, Intelligence, Legal Issues, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Do Robots and AI Deserve Rights?

March 9, 2017

When it comes to robot-human relations, the conversation typically centers on the welfare of the sentient. Science fiction paints us as petrified by our own creations; fears of a bot planet have influenced everything from Asimov’s “Laws of Robotics” to HAL 9000’s homicidal impulses to Skynet’s global genocide.

These human-centric anxieties are understandable. However, as our assorted bots and bits gain skills and personalities, should they be afforded some form of protection from us? It’s a question people are starting to seriously ponder.

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Computer Security, Crime, Hackers, Hacking, Hot Issues, Internet, Internet of Things, Science & Technology News, security

Welcome to the Internet of Dangerous Things

March 6, 2017

Bruce Schneier: Last year, on October 21, your digital video recorder — or at least a DVR like yours — knocked Twitter off the internet. Someone used your DVR, along with millions of insecure webcams, routers, and other connected devices, to launch an attack that started a chain reaction, resulting in Twitter, Reddit, Netflix, and many sites going off the internet. You probably didn’t realize that your DVR had that kind of power. But it does.

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Big Problems, Biotech, Healthcare, Hot Issues, Medicine, Science & Technology News

The 12 most dangerous superbugs, ranked by the WHO

March 3, 2017

The World Health Organization says we need to step up the fight against a dozen bacteria that are growing resistant to all the antibiotics we have to treat them.

One of the scariest features of the antibiotic resistance crisis — which has been accelerated by how we overuse these drugs — is that pharmaceutical companies aren’t developing new antibiotics quickly enough. They also often place profits ahead public health when choosing which drugs to develop.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Big Problems, Business, City Planning, Current Events, Economy, Employment, Engineering, Future, Hot Issues, Latest News, Latest Trend, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News, Technological Unemployment

Robots will replace over 250,000 government jobs — and that’s just the beginning

February 24, 2017

Automation could replace 250,000 jobs in government over the next 10 to 15 years — with potentially one million more under threat. The UK’s public sector workforce stood at around 5.3 million in the middle of last year, and has been falling since 2009, when it stood at 6.4 million. But that could be slashed significantly if the public sector adopts a policy of automating predictable jobs, according to a report from thinktank Reform.

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Big Problems, brain hacking, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Future, Hot Issues, Human Behavior, Ideas, Latest News, Legal Issues, Memory, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

Technology is now forcing us to confront the ethics of bringing people back from the dead

February 22, 2017

Imagine you have a close friend you frequently communicate with via text. One day, they suddenly die. You reel, you cry, you attend their funeral. Then you decide to pick up your phone and send them a message, just like old times. “I miss you,” you type. A little response bubble appears at the bottom of the screen. “I miss you too,” comes the reply. You keep texting back and forth. It’s just like they never left.

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Analysis, Children, Corporate Manipulation, Culture, Current Events, Dating, Economy, Employment, Future, Hot Issues, Ideas, Latest News, Latest Trend, Parenting, Science & Technology News, women

How Japan can solve its huge sex problem

February 21, 2017

It’s the kind of stat you might casually tell a friend at a bar: For the last six years, Japan has sold more adult diapers than baby diapers. But Japan’s fertility problems are far more grave than toilet-related trivia. Over the last decade, Japan has seen its elderly population swell, new family-planning stall, and its economy shrink because of persistently low spending. Economists are now calling the situation a “demographic time bomb,” and some Japanese researchers have even created a doomsday clock that ticks off the seconds until Japan’s population extinction.

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Alternative Transportation, Automobiles, Big Problems, Ecological Products, Electric Automobile, Electric Vehicles, Future, Green Friendly, Hot Issues, Latest News, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News, Solar Energy, Solar Power, Transportation, Travel

Electric cars and cheap solar ‘could halt fossil fuel growth by 2020’

February 16, 2017

Falling costs of electric vehicles and solar panels could halt worldwide growth in demand for oil and coal by 2020, a new report has suggested. A scenario that takes into account the latest cost reduction projections for the green technologies, and countries’ pledges to cut emissions, finds that solar power and electric vehicles are “game changers” that could leave fossil fuels stranded.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Current Events, Economy, Education, Employment, Future, Hot Issues, Latest News, People Making a Difference, Programming, Science & Technology News, Software Development, Technological Unemployment

The future of American jobs lies in the tech industry

February 15, 2017

When Donald Trump won the election, many in Silicon Valley were flummoxed: “How could a bigoted billionaire with no government experience and a twitchy Twitter trigger finger win the U.S. presidential election?” they asked themselves.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Crazy Stuff, Hot Issues, Science & Technology News

AI software learns to make AI software

February 14, 2017

Progress in artificial intelligence causes some people to worry that software will take jobs such as driving trucks away from humans. Now leading researchers are finding that they can make software that can learn to do one of the trickiest parts of their own jobs—the task of designing machine-learning software.

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City Planning, Ecological Products, Employment, Energy, Engineering, Future, Green Friendly, Hot Issues, Latest News, Science & Technology News

Solar employs more workers than coal, oil and natural gas combined

February 14, 2017

U.S. solar employs more workers than any other energy industry, including coal, oil and natural gas combined, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s second annual U.S. Energy and Employment Report. 6.4 million Americans now work in the traditional energy and the energy efficiency sector, which added more than 300,000 net new jobs in 2016, or 14 percent of the nation’s job growth.

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Americans reject the ‘homeschool myth’ — experts say it might be better than public or charter schools

February 7, 2017

During Betsy DeVos’ recent three-hour confirmation hearing to become President Donald Trump’s education secretary, charter schools came up no fewer than 60 times. Homeschooling was mentioned once. Charter schools have become a significant part of the US public-education system and now educate 2.5 million kids. But homeschooling has quietly experienced a surge in recent years too. Brian Ray, a homeschooling researcher at the National Home Education Research Institute, estimates the number of kids taught at home is growing by as much as 8% a year since the total hovered around 2 million in 2010, according to US Census figures.

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