Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week that I think are worth checking out.
Jina Moore, “Just give poor people money.” 17 Oct, Boston Globe.
"For decades, the assumption has been that poor people will make poor financial decisions. GiveDirectly, a pioneer in giving cash to impoverished families in East Africa, encounters the assumption so often that it keeps a disclaimer near the top of its 'about' page: 'No, people don’t just blow it on booze.'"
Di Minardi, “The grim fate that could be ‘worse than extinction’.” 16 Oct, BBC Future.
"Though global totalitarianism is still a niche topic of study, researchers in the field of existential risk are increasingly turning their attention to its most likely cause: artificial intelligence."
Rachael Brown, “Thinking critically about COVID-19: Some common mistakes.” 19 Oct, thephilscigirl (Blog).
"Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen a deluge of outright lies, conspiracy theories and pseudo-science from various peddlers of self-interest. As a philosopher, more vexing than these calculated examples of misinformation has been the sloppy reasoning evident in public discourse on the international crisis. Every day, the basic failures in critical thinking that I teach first year philosophy students to avoid are being made by politicians, government officials, commentators and the general public. Although these simple errors in reasoning can be employed to deliberately mislead, it is more frequently the well-intentioned that fall victim to their appeal."
Stuart Ritchie, “When will we have a Covid-19 vaccine?” 20 Oct, New Statesman.
"Despite the recent fall in confidence, the world is still on course for a vaccine sooner rather than later. Unlike so many other aspects of the scientific and policy response to Covid-19, vaccine development has gone extraordinarily well so far. The smart money isn’t on the fatalistic strategy of herd immunity -- a false promise in any case. The progress of vaccines shows science rising admirably to an almost unimaginably difficult task -- and should give us plenty of reasons for optimism."
David Runciman, “Boris Johnson is learning that in politics you cannot simply 'follow the science.'” 24 Oct, The Guardian.
"In the end, political decision-making has to rest on personal judgment – there is no scientific manual to tell leaders what to do. More to the point, scientists are not well suited to making those decisions. They want the facts to speak for themselves. That is wishful thinking: facts alone cannot tell us what to do."
Janan Ganesh, “Liberals can be cult members too.” 24 Oct, Financial Times.
"Fifteen years in and around politics have persuaded me of one thing. With exceptions, people’s ideological commitments are laughably weak. They infer their beliefs from their tribe, not the other way around. A leader who clearly delineates one group from its rival -- through rhetoric, through symbols -- can count on credulous adoration. They are providing millions with a sense of belonging that might once have come from religion or ethnicity."
Margalit Fox, “James Randi, Magician Who Debunked Paranormal Claims, Dies at 92.” 21 Oct, New York Times.
"James Randi, a MacArthur award-winning magician who turned his formidable savvy to investigating claims of spoon bending, mind reading, fortunetelling, ghost whispering, water dowsing, faith healing, U.F.O. spotting and sundry varieties of bamboozlement, bunco, chicanery, flimflam, flummery, humbuggery, mountebankery, pettifoggery and out-and-out quacksalvery, as he quite often saw fit to call them, died on Tuesday at his home in Plantation, Fla. He was 92."
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