How to tackle worries over coronavirus vaccines (1)
There are worries that anti-vaccine sentiment may hamper the use of inoculation to combat the coronavirus and get life back to near normal (14 November, p 8). However, no one has really mentioned the vaccination certificates that will undoubtedly be required for international travel to fully resume. Individuals will surely have to present this proof at foreign ports prior to being allowed to enter a country. This alone might improve the vaccine uptake.
How to tackle worries over coronavirus vaccines (2)
Do the UK’s vaccination plans 鈥� or those of any other country 鈥� take into consideration the millions of UK residents (or similar in other nations) who have already been infected by the virus and probably have some level of immunity?
The UK has bought enough of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for 20 million people. If we were tested for antibodies first, assuming they do last for a fair time, it may be possible to better use the limited supply by not vaccinating those who have already had covid-19.
The existence of 5 billion Earths would be scary (1)
You report research by NASA showing that there may be up to 5 billion Earth-like habitable planets in the galaxy (14 November, p 14).
On one level, this is terrifying. I say that because of how it relates to the Drake equation, which is used to calculate the possible number (N) of other advanced civilisations out there. Given we have never heard from any, N seems to be low.
NASA’s finding pins down a number of factors in that equation. This throws light on one in particular: the length of time for which such civilisations release detectable signals into space (L).
If the number of planets suitable for life is found to be high, but N appears to be small, then L is probably short. Looking around me, that seems horribly plausible.
The existence of 5 billion Earths would be scary (2)
Even if there are 5 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, it doesn’t mean life is there. Our moon may well have been necessary for life to arise on Earth 鈥� it would take an entire article to fully explain why, from spin dynamics to atmosphere stripping to tidal effects. We need to find an Earth-like planet that has a moon like ours to have a chance of finding life.
We could breed hunting instinct out of pet cats
Your article on the impact of predation by pet cats reminded me of conducted in a UK village in 1987 (31 October, p 42).
It showed a gamma distribution of prey numbers 鈥� that is to say, a large number killed few animals and a small number killed many. One cat was responsible for 10 per cent of animals killed in total. At the other end of the distribution, several cats brought back no prey in a year. This suggests it might be possible to breed pet cats with a lower tendency to kill wildlife.
How to untangle the morality mismatch (1)
Sylvia Terbeck’s article about how moral actions can differ from moral decisions reminded me of the work of Daniel Kahneman and others, who found some behaviour was largely determined by non-conscious processing that was fast and intuitive (31 October, p 23). Conscious processing was slower and gave a different, fabricated explanation for the actions taken.
Perhaps the difference between moral decisions and moral actions can be explained by the difference between conscious and non-conscious processing.
How to untangle the morality mismatch (2)
When it comes to the thought experiments about either diverting a runaway trolley so it kills one person or letting it continue so it kills five, I know exactly what I would do in those circumstances 鈥� panic.
How to untangle the morality mismatch (3)
The trolley problem, a test of our moral decisions, has another choice. If throwing a stranger in front of the trolley would stop it, so, too, would throwing yourself.
Machines may hollow out the middle tier
You wonder whether we should fear automation coming for our jobs (10 October, p 44). I think it may actually make the job market more unequal rather than shrink it outright.
There are some roles that we could automate, but in which it is cheaper to employ a human. Automation may remove middle-tier jobs in which a machine is cheaper, leaving a swathe of lower-paid roles plus some highly paid posts. For example, workers using IT-based navigation systems have already replaced many taxi drivers who have mental navigation skills. While computers can create art and carvings, humans will still clean the tools.
A dream's purpose may be very individual
As a psychotherapist with 25 years’ experience, I was intrigued by the idea that dreams could have a single purpose (7 November, p 34). I have seen that dreams are more than just noise. Context is all. The purpose and the meaning of one individual’s dream will be different to a similar dream from another person.
In space, nothing can feel the turn of your rudder
You portray an attractive vision of space travel powered by sails to capture solar winds (31 October, p 46). The seductive parallels with sailing ships on Earth distracts from the issue of steering such space vessels. A sailing ship can only work at the intersection of two fluids 鈥� in our case, air and water. In space, there is an equivalent to Earth’s wind, but no counterpart to water, which creates the ability to steer. Or am I missing something obvious?
When the machines start casting votes…
Vijaysree Venkatraman closes her review of books on the use of data in elections by saying “after all, it is still humans who cast the votes, not machines” (24 October, p 30). That isn’t always the case: the documentary How Ohio Pulled It Off (2008) showed the result of a software engineer’s analysis of voting machines used in the state in 2004. Some people who had voted Democrat noticed that, at the moment they pushed the “submit” button, the machine flipped their vote to Republican.