AI may be a gift to forces that seek to control us
Mhairi Aitken does well to argue against claims of sentient artificial intelligence independently bringing about humanity’s doom, but, like so much discussion around AI, there is no mention of the most dire threat (1 July, p 21).
Throughout history, censorious, authoritarian and surveillance-obsessed governments have always found their abilities limited by what percentage of a population they can employ to keep the rest under observation and control. With AI, this limitation is removed and totalitarians can expand their apparatus of control with nothing more than the addition of extra racks to a server farm.
Follow the money for the real story of civilisation
The role of money as an enabler to other emergent forces in the rise of civilisations is underplayed (1 July, p 32).
History shows that once in power, the rich get richer. Access to goods, services, information and even the environment is now monetised, controlled and manipulated by elites acting largely in their own interests.
While a few civilisations in history may have changed to avoid this, only a sudden cataclysm is likely to shift the current global politico-economic paradigms.
How to solve farming-conservation conflicts (1)
Graham Lawton makes some good points about food security clashes with conservation, but isn’t food waste the simplest target for a solution? In 2013, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers report said that over 30 per cent of food never reaches shops or markets (1 July, p 22).
How to solve farming-conservation conflicts (2)
Livestock farming 鈥� intensive or otherwise 鈥� is a very inefficient way to put calories on people’s plates and has a huge carbon footprint.
The farmers in the UK I know are incredibly hard-working and astute business people. How they farm is governed by the grant system. They would quickly react to changes in the, mostly perverse, incentives. This was shown when payments for sheep . The number of sheep quickly fell.
How to solve farming-conservation conflicts (3)
Each year, the UK imports around half its food and animal feed plus millions of tonnes of timber and finished timber products.
Not only is agriculture highly polluting of atmosphere, land and watercourses here, but we are also responsible for an equally polluting effect in the nations supplying our shortfall. In addition, animal farming and the provision of its feed supply are highly inefficient uses of land for food production.
If we are to feed the UK from our own resources, return a realistic area for rewilding and clean up the country, we need a mix of things. One is to cease animal farming, instead growing organic vegetable matter for human consumption.
It all went wrong with the pursuit of cheap food
Madeleine Cuff reports that over the past few decades, “pressure from supermarkets to provide plentiful food at low prices has pushed farmers to boost livestock numbers, use more fertilisers and pesticides” etc. These are the very attributes that make intensive farming, intensive. This may have been a welcome policy in terms of people’s wallets, but it has been anything but for biodiversity (24 June, p 36).
Coffee grounds are good for keeping slugs at bay
James Wong warns against using coffee grounds on gardens. For over 15 years, I have been putting a light dusting of coffee grounds around newly planted seedlings. This very effectively repels slugs and snails, presumably because the tiny granules get stuck to their bodies and they find it really uncomfortable. I haven’t noticed any deterioration in soil fertility, but I do regularly add compost or organic manure or both (17 June, p 44).
Why net zero is far from the solution to our issues
The real problem with the concept of net zero is that by taking as much carbon dioxide out of the air as we put in, we maintain the amount of this greenhouse gas present when net zero takes effect. Hence the CO2 level, while not increasing, remains high. That means continued warming, ice melt and sea level rise (Leader, 24 June).
During the last interglacial, 125,000 years ago, sea level rose due to natural warming. Over some 2000 years, by certain estimates, it rose perhaps about 15 metres above present levels. By retaining high amounts of CO2 in the air, we are headed for the same.
To counter this, we must go for negative emissions, to bring down the level of CO2 in the air. And we must do that soon, to stop CO2 rising to the levels we might expect to see by 2050. We have run out of time and must act now.
Yes, there will be a high cost, but there will be an even higher one for remedying the situation we will find ourselves in as sea level rise reaches and passes the 1 metre mark (above 1900 levels) on its way to higher rises.
Packing it in right can be the wrong solution
Packing in stuff to make best use of available space 鈥� the subject of your recent maths column 鈥� isn’t always the best approach when it comes to unpacking, as seen in the Falklands war (10 June, p 44).
The rapid loading of rations, ammunition, helicopters and other vehicles into all sorts of shipping over the Easter weekend in 1982 for the trip to the South Atlantic was a masterful logistics exercise. But it took a few days at Ascension Island to reorder the loads to allow the rapid unloading of items needed immediately on arrival. Royal Marines developed software for this.
Noisy room problem: just keep it down please
Jason Arunn Murugesu reports on why you can stay focused on conversations in a noisy room. This made me wonder why people, if you gather more than, say, 10 in a room, start raising their voices (17 June, p 13).
If everyone spoke at a normal level, no one would have to shout. So STOP SHOUTING! Please.