Big Ideas Forum

Discussion of the book “Dragnet Nation” by Julia Angwin. [Read More]

How would you like…  a robot doing major surgery on you? a computer diagnosing you via a smart phone? replacement organs grown in a lab or bones made by 3D-printing? designer babies? death being optional? [Read More]

The Reaper and the Predator became household names when drones became the latest military technology. They were originally called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and come as remotely controlled or entirely autonomous flying vehicles. This opened new ethical aspects of warfare. [Read More]

Introduction [Read More]

Understanding how the brain works have already led to significant improvement in “neurological health” such as “pacemaker implants” to control Parkinson’s disease. But with this understanding comes the ability to manipulate the brain, perhaps upload memory from a hard drive or to download memory from the brain to an external device–as suggested the Matrix movie. Transfer of thoughts between Man and Machine have already been demonstrated, and with the accelerating miniaturization of chips, the implant of chips in the brain that communicated with the Internet is on the horizon. [Read More]

Our cars are almost entirely computer controlled. Our TVs and phones are “smart”. But are they intelligent? Are IBM’s Deep Blue and Watson intelligent? What does it actually mean to be intelligent? How can we tell? [Read More]