Editor's pick: Awe can be a tool for manipulation as well as connectedness
Jo Marchant describes people who have experienced awe as being more ethical, more generous and feeling more connected (29 July, p 32). Awe is another word for, or take on, the oceanic feeling of being one with the universe that has long been recognised as neurologically created in the brain. Unfortunately, it has become entangled with religion, as Marchant notes. It is now part of the false notion that religion is an intrinsic part of being human.
Awe is neither indisputably a good thing, nor is it an essential part of life. On the contrary, awe reduces people's cognitive independence and makes them vulnerable.
It is often interpreted and manipulated in culturally specific circumstances. We may find the decorated caves of the Upper Palaeolithic awesome. If the people who first saw them were awestruck – as I suspect some were – we must realise that they interpreted that sensation in terms of their own beliefs and, importantly, social relations.
Always, we must ask: who benefits from the awe created by, say, the architecture of a cathedral?
To omit the social context and manipulation of mental states is to miss a significant point.
Editor's pick: Awe can be a tool for manipulation as well as connectedness
Thanks for an excellent article on awe. The , which I helped to found, works to educate people about human predators and their methods of seduction and recruitment. Your article focuses on the potential benefits of awe, but the induction of awe – or a peak experience – is often an aspect of cult recruitment. Leni Riefenstahl's films Triumph of the Will and Olympia exemplify the deliberate use of awe to bind followers to a group's beliefs. In colonial Africa, the British used firework displays.
Time to look again for a Barnard's star exoplanet
Didier Queloz gets credit as the first discoverer of an exoplanet (8 July, p 40). But when I was an astronomy student around 1970, it was widely accepted that Barnard's star was orbited by a large planet. This faint star is just 6 light years from our sun and its “proper motion” – the angular velocity as seen from Earth – is the largest known.
In the 1960s, the astronomer claimed, after analysing a long series of photographic plates, to have detected fluctuations in the proper motion. He calculated that these were due to at least one large planet. During the 1970s, however, doubt was cast on this claim, as other astronomers using more accurate techniques failed to replicate the results. So the mantle of being first to discover an exoplanet has passed from van de Kamp to Queloz.
With the current sensitive space and ground-based telescopes, it would be interesting to know if Barnard's star might have smaller planets orbiting it after all. I don't know whether it has been a candidate for such observations.
First class post
I was promised moral depravity. Which way to the moral depravity?
Lorelei Armstrong that atheism seems not to lead to moral depravity, despite measured prejudices (19 August, p 22)
Do we have to retrain this neural network again?
Liesbeth Venema discusses the hope that neural networks using memristor technology may be the answer to artificial intelligence (5 August, p 33). They learn from experience, not from a downloaded program.
The learned experience of a neural network that is simulated on conventional hardware can be copied and backed up. Would the same be true for this new variety? If not, every new AI would have to learn from scratch. This would be very frustrating if one had a neural network computer for many years and had to replace it.
Do we have to retrain this neural network again?
Venema's account of memristors that mimic the features of the human synapse is brilliant. It suggests I might see a real, learning, working artificial brain within my lifetime.
I do wonder about the role of the pleasure of knowing you're right in promoting useful learning. We know a chair is a chair because somewhere deep in our emotional brain we get a little hit of something – such as the neurotransmitter dopamine – that reinforces our self-belief that we know what we're seeing or experiencing is correct. Is there an equivalent of “pleasure” to reinforce learning in a machine?
I sense this kind of caring about “rightness” would open the way to embed Asimov's first law of robotics (no harm to humans). Attempting to violate it would bring shutdown.
Trust robots no more than their makers
Ron Arkin asks whether we should give robots autonomy, including the right to kill (8 July, p 32). But all robots are designed and programmed by fallible, emotion-laden, irrational and, in some cases, deluded and arrogant humans. Some scientists seem to think they are more rational and objective than the rest of us when, from historical experience so far, they have no claim to be.
Come to think of it, from experience, I wouldn't trust most men to judge what is right or wrong on the world's behalf.
We can sit out a war of robot against robot
Reading chess grand master Garry Kasparov's thoughts on artificial intelligence, I suddenly realised that we don't have to fear the prospect of superintelligent machines deciding to do without us (3 June, p 42). If they are disposed to get rid of the competition, then they will go to war with each other, and eliminate themselves. In battle, you always destroy the most potent threat first.
How software enforces hardware waste
Matt Reynolds deplores the waste caused by suppliers wanting their products to be replaced not repaired (29 July, p 20). I agree, but there is another problem.
Manufacturers rarely provide updates to a smartphone's operating system and new applications are written for the latest version. Four years ago, I bought the top-of-the-line Android smartphone. It works, but won't run various new apps, including one from my bank.
Legislation is required to oblige manufacturers to supply system updates for a reasonable length of time. After all, a smartphone is a tool, not a fashion accessory.
Send rubbish back where it came from, please
Bob Holmes mentions “extended producer responsibility” for waste (22 July, p 39). The conclusion of this is returning packaging to the producer – for example using reverse vending machines. These would read barcodes on packaging and give the consumer points or money. If a producer has to pay to deal with returned packaging, it makes economic sense to design it to be easily recyclable.
Send rubbish back where it came from, please
You say that about 10 per cent of glass disposed of in the US goes to energy recovery. This old scientist can't see how you can recover energy from glass.
The editor writes:
• The waste incineration figures include glass that goes through to landfill in the ash. It is also worth noting that the recycling figures include food that is composted.
Do not say that chemical bonds are energy-rich
David Hambling says: “In molecular nitrogen, two atoms are connected by a triple bond that releases a load of energy when broken” (29 July, p 36). But you need to put in energy to break bonds. This is why nitrogen is such a stable and inert molecule.
I spent my whole teaching career telling chemistry students this. Energy is released on forming new bonds. One should not say that bonds are energy-rich. Rather, the products of a reaction have yet stronger bonds.
Being precise about common ancestry
You say that people in Lebanon today still share 90 per cent of their DNA with that found in ancient Canaanite skeletons (5 August, p 7). Since we share a higher proportion of our DNA with chimpanzees, this seems far too low. Would it be accurate to say that modern Lebanese derive 90 per cent of their human ancestry from Canaanites?
The editor writes:
• It would. Humans are roughly 98 per cent identical with chimps, and 99.9 per cent to one another. The 0.1 per cent differences between pairs of humans allow us to identify the genetic ancestry of any segment of the genome.
What caused Fukushima reactor failures
You say that a tsunami damaged emergency generators that would have provided power to keep the nuclear reactors at Fukushima in Japan cool (29 July, p 4). But the earthquake that caused the tsunami also caused the cooling systems to fail. Japan hasn't fully reactivated its reactors because it is an earthquake-prone country.
Would fetuses follow faces in artificial wombs?
Fetuses are more likely to follow a pattern of dots that resembles a face (17 June, p 12). With the creation of artificial wombs in progress, I wonder whether a fetus grown in one will do the same. You quote researcher Marco Del Giudice proposing that some infant skills develop before birth. How might this differ in fetuses grown in artificial wombs? A fetus hears the sound of its mother's heartbeat. Will one in an artificial womb learn to recognise the sounds of machinery instead?
For the record
• Deadly serious: nine per cent of people admitted to a UK hospital with a heart that has stopped are discharged alive (12 August, p 37).