Editor's pick: We are still aware of some doubts on consciousness (1)
Michael Graziano says we might be able to begin to develop artificial visual consciousness with existing technology, but that it will take a lot longer to build a machine with a stream of consciousness (21 September, p 34). I have a sneaking suspicion that we will develop an artificial human-like brain before we crack consciousness. We could then task it with cracking the problem for us, and hope we understand the answer.
Editor's pick: We are still aware of some doubts on consciousness (2)
The idea of an “attention schema” as a “self-reflecting mirror” that is the brain’s representation of how the brain represents things, so that consciousness isn’t so much an illusion as a self-caricature, is beguiling and probably correct. But Graziano is mistaken in suggesting that he knows how to solve “the hard problem” of consciousness. The objective existence of a dynamic self-caricature is one thing; the subjective experience of that caricature is quite another.
The integrated information theory that Graziano mentions is honest about the divide. What his team has actually done is bring the hard problem into sharper focus.
Editor's pick: We are still aware of some doubts on consciousness (3)
I welcome Graziano’s statement at the beginning of his article that “instead of trying to grapple with the hard problem” of consciousness, he takes “a more down-to-earth approach”. But he then discusses an attention schema and sensory and verbal capabilities. All he is really entitled to claim is that a machine having these would be attentive, not that it would be conscious.
Editor's pick: We are still aware of some doubts on consciousness (4)
Graziano’s article on consciousness was enlightening, especially the proposal to build a machine that reflects the author’s consciousness model and see whether it displays conscious behaviour. My question is: how would you know whether it was or wasn’t conscious?
We have difficulty determining whether a human in a coma or with locked-in syndrome is conscious. We do have personal experience of what it is like to be a conscious human, but we have no idea . How could we tell what a machine was experiencing? And if we did think it was conscious, would it be moral to switch it off?
Don't expect more than we are prepared to give
Brazil is burning its forests to make room for farms (28 September, p 12). Canada and the UK have already cleared vast tracts of forest for the same purpose, which is why the situation in Brazil is so critical globally. Instead of vilifying developing nations, we should either pay them to maintain their existing ecosystems or rewild our own lands. Expecting more than we are prepared to give doesn’t improve the global situation.
Pint-sized data firms may be perfect ransom victims
Chris Stokel-Walker's overview of the increasing threat of ransomware missed a major cause of the ramp-up in attacks (13 July, p 9). Small and medium firms, at least in the US, are outsourcing data operations to small outfits.
The likes of small medical or dental offices may forgo the major cloud storage companies due to the cost of their services. This has opened up a sub-market for smaller firms to offer cheaper off-site backup and storage.
Some of these service providers lack the skills, software or technical knowledge to ensure the security of their clients' data. They are perfect ransomware victims. Such companies may pay a ransom to hide their vulnerability. One, PM Consultants in Portland, Oregon, after an attack. Educating management is necessary, but we need a concomitant emphasis on “you get what you pay for”.
It isn't necessarily good just because it is green
You report on CityTrees 鈥� moss walls from Berlin-based firm Green City Solutions (24 August, p 6). Glasgow installed two on busy streets in 2017. I calculate that they removed less than 0.02 per cent of the city’s pollutants each year. They have now disappeared.
As Scully notes, researchers at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research found that eight moss walls installed in Amsterdam failed to reduce the concentration of pollutants. The makers of the trees don’t make any outlandish claims 鈥� so why have 50 been installed in European cities, costing about $60,000 each?
How well do wind tunnels simulate mountain air?
Chelsea Whyte reports that wind-tunnel experiments onbar-headed geese show their blood cools in low-oxygen conditions, simulating those they face crossing the Himalayas (14 September, p 14). Cooler blood can carry more oxygen.
Did the researchers recreate the low pressure and temperature that the birds would encounter 7000 metres up? At low pressure, it is harder for the wings to transfer heat to the passing air and cool the blood. That might be balanced in real life by the greater temperature gradient at altitude.
The editor writes:
The experiment didn’t mimic pressure or temperature at high altitudes, just oxygen levels. But if the birds’ blood running cold makes them more efficient at sea-level pressures, the effect is likely to be even stronger at altitude.
I am not so happy with Ola Rosling's cheery statistics
I agree with Ola Rosling that we should base our views on facts, but I see problems with the statistics he presents (7 September, p 46).
One graph shows the risk of dying in a plane crash as one per 10 billion passenger miles. No flights are 1 mile long and most of the risk is at take-off and landing. It would be better to give the risk per flight.
Another states that the fraction of Earth’s surface in protected reserves increased from 0.03 per cent in 1900 to 14.7 per cent in 2016. This says only that certain nations are trying to save some of their land.
Pristine forests and nature are clearly suffering as the Amazon, parts of Indonesia and elsewhere are burned to make way for farmland.
For the record 鈥� 19 October 2019
鈥� The photograph we used to illustrate our report on climate change increasing the risk of heavy rainfall and storm surges in coastal areas was of Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, UK, which has flooded but is around 90 metres above sea level and a from the coast (28 September, p 18).
Look on our works, ye mighty, and despair (1)
I was interested in the various responses to the question of how long any traces of human civilisation would last beyond our species’ sudden and catastrophic demise (Almost the Last Word, 14 September). If extraterrestrials were heading to Earth, wouldn’t they encounter our array of orbital satellites before getting anywhere near the surface? If so, then surely this raises a new question: how long would the evidence of our technological achievements, currently found in near-Earth orbit, last?
Look on our works, ye mighty, and despair (2)
Hillary Shaw suggests that aliens might find “fossil tunnels” in Earth’s crust and that some of this persists from 4.4 billion years ago. The geology that is that ancient isn’t intact crust, but three sub-millimetre zircon crystals found embedded in 3.3 billion-year-old sediments in the Jack Hills in Western Australia. So I doubt that tunnels would be preserved that far into the future. Geochemical traces of our air and water pollution might, however, survive within similarly tiny crystals.