Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
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When it comes to errors in human judgment, we tend to focus on bias, but noise is also a cause of error. Bias is the average of errors committed by a group. You need to know the right answer to know what the bias is. Bias is systemic and predictable. Noise, on the other hand, is variable amongst a group of judgements. You can tell there’s noise even if you don’t know the right answer. It’s unpredictable and not easily explained.

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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
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Harlan Ellison is considered one of science fiction’s grand masters and I’ve heard praise for the title story in this collection, so I decided to give it a try.

“I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream” doesn’t have much of a plot. Basically, four men and one woman are being tortured by an artificial intelligence the whole time. The woman has sex with all the men even though they beat her and ignore her cries.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

For more good news, check out The Progress Network, and Future Crunch.

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds. The Guardian.
  • Millions of people a year are hospitalized by respiratory syncytial virus and tens of thousands die. After decades of failure, four vaccines are now in late-stage trials. Nature.
  • New FDA-approved eye drops could replace reading glasses for millions. CBS News.
  • Botswana lowers its mother-to-child HIV transmission rate to under 5%. VOA.
  • The world has experienced a 59% decline in deaths of children under five since 1990. Good Good Good.
  • As a Logic song topped the charts, helpline saw more calls and fewer suicides. STAT.
  • Vehicle emission declines decreased deaths, study finds. AP News.

For more good news, check out The Progress Network, and Future Crunch.

The Black Vampyre by Uriah Derick D’Arcy

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
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The Black Vampyre was written in response to Polidori’s Vampyre. The edition I read contained a fascinating introduction which provided context for the story and numerous footnotes which explain the now-obscure references in the story.

The Black Vampyre was written anonymously, attributed to one Uriah Derick D’Arcy (this is an anagram of Richard Varick Dey, who may have been the actual author). Like Polidori, the author quotes lines about vampires from Byron’s “The Giaour” which compared Greece being subject to the Ottoman Empire to slavery. D’Arcy takes up this theme, applying it to African slaves in America.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Between 2000 and 2020 the annual number of measles deaths fell by 94%, from 1,072,800 to 60,700, averting an estimated 31.7 million deaths. WHO (PDF).
  • New Canadian Cancer Statistics report reveals 50% decline in prostate cancer death rate since peak in 1995. Newswire.
  • After 35 years of conservation, the population of the endangered Burrowing Parrot in Chile has increased from 217 in 1986 to over 4000. Evolve to Ecology.
  • Coastal marine species carried out to sea on debris are not only surviving, they’re colonizing the high seas and making new communities on the floating plastic detritus that make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an accumulation of trash stuck in ocean currents that’s estimated to be about twice the size of Texas. NBC News.
  • After more than 15 years of fear and intimidation, Mosuli musicians in Iraq can finally play music in public again. New Lines.
  • There’s been a massive decrease in global deaths from disasters over the last hundred years. Our World in Data.
  • Thousands of farmworkers will see pay raises in 2022. The Counter.
  • Renewable energy has ‘another record year of growth’ says IEA. The Guardian.
  • Hackney man first to receive 3D-printed prosthetic eye. BBC.
  • Unique effort reopens girls’ schools in Afghan province. AP News.
  • 200 years ago, everyone lacked democratic rights. Now, billions of people have them. Our World in Data.

For more good news, check out The Progress Network, Future Crunch, and Reasons to be Cheerful.

Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
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The world is better today because of the Enlightenment, yet people attack reason, science, humanism, and progress when these things should be celebrated.

One of the bits of wisdom from the Scientific Revolution is that misfortune is no one’s fault. Bad things sometimes happen for no reason other than the universe is indifferent to human suffering. There’s no point looking around for someone to blame when an earthquake happens. Entropy ensures there’s more ways for things to go wrong than for things to go right.

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