While in the western world the so-called “artificial intelligence” is presented mainly as a linguistic achievement (with the purpose of accumulating data from its “interlocutors”), in the far east its …
What does Marx say about gain-of-function research?
The title is provocative… Marx could not have known anything about gain-of-function research! He could not have known (or even imagined) the specific relationships between militarism, capitalist technology, and social …
The hidden side of the ecological transition
Machines that perform calculations with complex algorithms, based on large amounts of data and extract smart-looking answers, are not only fed by the fragmented knowledge of their creators, but also …
Big tricks (and expensive)
When it was announced, it was hailed as the greatest collaborative scientific undertaking in the history of humanity! The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor / ITER, based in southern France, was …
Mechanical, very mechanical: comments on artificial general intelligence
Will smart machines produce value? Despite the plethora of related analyses, the entire discussion (at least in mainstream media) around artificial intelligence seems to have reached a dead end, trapped …
the great leap: immunity as capital, morbidity as investment
The term “natural capital” was first used in 1973 by E.F. Schumacher in his book “Small Is Beautiful” and was further developed by Herman Daly, Robert Costanza and other founders …
Make me a summary
Amazon has long been notorious for its harsh anti-union practices and the working conditions that prevail in its warehouses. Its latest achievement? According to an internal company document that leaked, …
Salvation is beneficial…
Some of you might remember it as one of the two Japanese companies that manufactured photographic film. It is Fujifilm (the other one was Kodak). This imaging technology has been …
Green transition… towards dystopia
Dark years are coming. Not because “our future has much drought,” but because the drought now spreads to the past too – which is the source of every future. Freedom …
There are some spare change….
I see this is the job China is doing… If you want to monitor every transaction, you can only do this through a central bank digital currency… If you want …
YOU SHALL NOT pass…
FuelPass, PowerPass, and soon FoodPass. Citizens of western societies seem to gradually have to get used to the idea that from now on they will need to chase the next …
Robotic megastructures
So far, three-dimensional printers have been associated with the construction of small-sized objects; although such techniques are also being developed for house construction. Quite “ahead” in the field of robotics, …