Social brains
Alun Anderson describes Robin Dunbar as the “key thinker behind the social brain hypothesis” (19 July, p 48). But Dunbar was actually a latecomer to the idea, which I and others developed in the 1970s.
My 1976 essay “The social function of intellect” was the first of numerous publications on the evolution of brain size, social life and theory of mind, culminating in a book, The Inner Eye: Social intelligence in evolution, and a Channel 4 UK television series in 1986.
Dunbar’s first paper on the topic came in 1992, although I’m happy to acknowledge that since then, he has done more than anyone to provide empirical backing for the hypothesis. But it’s wrong to give Dunbar all the credit.
Considering his particular interest in how primates manipulate their own and others’ reputations to their own advantage, I hope Dunbar sees the irony.
Cambridge, UK
Intelligent life
The artificial intelligences we create will lead to an autonomous system that develops technologies “to shape the future of life according to its preferences”, writes Nick Bostrom (5 July, p 26).
To have preferences implies consciousness, not a simple weighing of data, however complex and adaptable the rules for weighing.
The superintelligence may well be able to rewrite its software, redesign its hardware, command the manufacture of more machines, and generally overwrite whatever goals and constraints we originally gave it.
But without consciousness, and the motivation of felt desire, fear and ambition, I think the outcomes will be unpredictable because they will be arbitrary, not because the superintelligence gives us new physics and takes over the world.
Dursley, Gloucestershire, UK
Intelligent life
Nathaniel Hellerstein claims that “by definition we cannot think up programs superior to our own best thinking” (26 July, p 31).
But surely our very existence demonstrates that intelligence does not have to be brought into being by a superior intelligence.
Of course some believe this is what happened, but if so, how did that being come into existence?
Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK
GM's bitter taste
In discussing genetically modified food, Susan Watts omits two issues that influence public attitudes (26 July, p 26).
In the late 1990s, I attended two large public debates on GM. No one was against the technology itself, as anti-nature, or anti-God. The issues were about who controlled the technology and what risks to the environment such crops might have. I have seen no evidence to suggest that these factors are no longer significant.
Monsanto was not cast as the wicked ogre because of its GM technology but because it tried to control so much. At the time there was little evidence that GM crops gave higher yields, so the benefits accrued to the multinationals rather than farmers or consumers.
GM microbes kept in vats in laboratories to produce flavourings or even human insulin were not a concern. Crops where genes could spread into the environment were.
The world will need more food. But producing more will be no good unless people eat it willingly. I agree with Watts: let’s increase open dialogue between scientists, business and the public on GM.
Edinburgh, UK
Element of doubt
It’s no surprise that the periodic table is not holding up (12 July, p 38). There are over 3100 nuclides, but the table only displays 100 or so. It can only be an approximation of something greater.
Perhaps it needs further axes to contain its properties, for example, a Z-axis so that each element gets a column of nuclides. A fourth axis could show how elements change their properties at different pressures. You can’t just reposition hydrogen, as your story suggests, if it changes to a metal under pressure, without considering every other nuclide under the same conditions.
We could also consider shape. The linear array as it is might be better served by considering curves, spirals or more exotic shapes. To quote Wyszkowski’s Second Law: “Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough.”
Belfast, UK
Life unearthed
Lisa Grossman writes that a probe that can drill through kilometres of ice is of interest because vapour plumes on Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa suggest there is liquid water underneath (26 July, p 10).
If this unknown ocean contains any biology, won’t some of the microorganisms come to the surface with the plumes? It seems sensible to create probes to sense and sample the surface of Europa first for biological remnants.
It certainly won’t be easy, but it sounds a whole lot easier than drilling into the ice, and if we find anything it could still be the biggest find of the millennium.
Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK
Life unearthed
鈥� Europa’s soaring water plumes are indeed a tempting destination for alien hunters. Earlier this year, we discussed plans to fly spacecraft through the vapour to sample it for signs of life (4 January, p 8).
Library cuts
Aviva Rutkin writes that libraries in the US are becoming workshops (19 July, p 22). She credits the famous library of Alexandria as the home of the world’s first steam engine, although I think that was built in the adjoining university.
The library was notable in another way, though, in that entrants as well as being male, were required to be circumcised. Pythagoras, famous as he was, had to have the operation in order to be admitted.
Given that circumcision was anathema to Greek culture at the time, it says a lot for the library. I don’t think such a requirement would be popular today.
Sydney, Australia
Hungary for bread
With regard to your article probing the gluten-free debate (12 July, p 28), when I was a child in Hungary we were taught that Hungarian wheat made the very best bread because it was gluten rich. Gluten was supposed to be good for you.
Witney, Oxfordshire, UK
Shocking discovery?
The suggestion that people would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit idly seems to confirm notably cynical observations (12 July, p 12).
For example, it was Bertrand Russell who once quipped, “Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.”
London, UK
For the record
鈥� Don’t ditch the panda, as our headline suggested (19 July, p 38). Even if one were to interpret the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) list for mammals as a plea to reduce conservation efforts for some flagship species, which was never its intention, it would still not be a problem for the panda, since it is number 19 on the list.