At last, a politician who makes hard decisions
I would like to thank you for your decision to give space to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the London Ultra Low Emission Zone. Though everyone claims to be in favour of ending harmful emissions, when it comes to the point of actually doing something, enthusiasm rapidly fades and self-interest takes over. Khan is facing increasingly vicious opposition to his objectives and what he is attempting needs great courage. It is heartening and greatly encouraging that 快猫短视频 has given him this support (17 June, p 21).
Putting synaesthesia to practical use
Your article about synaesthesia didn’t really get into everyday uses for it. I have one: all those PINs and passwords we are expected to remember without writing them down. I write the names of the colours associated with the letters and numbers. It works perfectly for me and is a code that would be hard to break. Also missing from the article are other printed or written marks like brackets and punctuation marks. These are all colourless to me, but perhaps not to everyone. By the way, A is definitely not red and K is dark navy blue, nobody’s favourite (10 June, p 40).
AI could relieve us of so much pointless work
In response to the idea that artificial intelligence may take our jobs, leaving people unable to earn money by working, surely this is the only purpose of AI? The fact that our society is based on the principal that people work for money to buy things and pay taxes is, in my opinion, the real tragedy of the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries (Letters, 20 May).
Bearing in mind most people’s jobs basically entail causing environmental destruction rather than doing something genuinely useful 鈥� make-work if you will 鈥� and most of the things people buy are superfluous rubbish, reforming society around a new paradigm where people have all they need (not necessarily all they want) and spend their time doing meaningful work, but only if they want to, can only be a good thing.
We certainly have the capability to enact it, if not the will.
Benign machine leader might be our only hope
Stephen Etzel is right that “AI will never be able to successfully handle the inherently irrational aspects of human politics” 鈥� but only as currently practised in democracies, dictatorships or other forms of government (Letters, 10 June).
However, none of these systems is perfect, nor do they necessarily meet the needs and wishes of the majority. For instance, many nations agree that global warming is happening and that emissions need to be reduced. Yet those same nations simultaneously strive for largely fossil fuel-propelled economic growth.
It seems very unlikely that this can be resolved other than by a properly informed benign dictator. An AI could act as that dictator. Of course, a mechanism would be needed to stop it being turned off when taking unpopular (but necessary) decisions.
Net-zero plans need to front-load their action (1)
Passing 1.5掳C of warming will be politically significant, but, as you indicate, it isn’t a magic threshold below which everything is fine and beyond which we are doomed (10 June, p 32).
I do worry, though, about the lack of urgency in the UK government strategy for reaching net zero by 2050, which is rear-loaded, depending heavily on future technological advances to create a carbon-free system.
Even if these advances occur as hoped, during the time it takes for this to happen, we will keep on pushing up atmospheric carbon levels and contributing to more warming. We need governments of the UK and other big economies to implement policies that can have an immediate impact, such as improved home insulation and facilitating low-carbon travel.
Net-zero plans need to front-load their action (2)
I worry that passing the 1.5掳C threshold will be bad news for an ageing population, with high temperatures and humidity leading to an increased risk of heat strokes and cardiovascular and renal side effects, with a significant chance of death.
So wonderful to see maths brought to life
I have just read your article on the maths of efficient packing. I work in the maritime industry, and it is great to see “maths in real life” like this that connects the subject with people’s own experiences (10 June, p 44).
We use exactly this kind of maths when we look at packing containers on ships, thinking about where they have to go to ensure they are easy to unload at the right time. It is also relevant to how we pack things into the containers themselves.
More of this, please. If people can see maths is relevant, but with deeper and wider implications, it can only be a good thing.
Are we really just alien biocomputers?
The article on the power of biological computers as self-replicating, low-energy systems, capable of computation and problem solving, brought to mind von Neumann probes (10 June, p 36).
These are theoretically devised by an extraterrestrial civilisation to colonise the universe with self-replicating machines, usually thought of as being mechanical, not biological, and the most likely sign of advanced aliens.
However, the Fermi paradox raises the question of why, if this is so, we haven’t found any such probes. This paradox may now have been solved. What better way to colonise the universe than by seeding planets with biological machines. Perhaps we are the von Neumann probes.
Thanks to cartoonist Tom for his great ideas
I loved Tom Gauld’s depiction of two scientists who discover they are in a cartoon 鈥� a great idea, brilliantly drawn. Thanks to Tom for this and his many other tremendous creations (3 June, p 55).
For the record
The universe is 13.8 billion years old (17 June, p 29)