At least human drivers are capable of empathy
As a cyclist who has ridden in many cities and countries over the decades, I have learned not to trust any driver. But I have to disagree with Matt Sparkes in his hope that AI-controlled vehicles might reduce danger on the road. Drivers instinctively recognise me as a fellow human. There is no way an AI pilot, however sophisticated, will ever recognise a cyclist or a pedestrian as anything other than a matched pattern with the tag “avoid”. An AI will simply follow instructions and make the least-worst decision(23 August, p 21). Unlike us, it can never identify with a human and ask: “If that were me, how would I feel?”
When you can't hear the bleeps anymore
I have just read your review of Clamor, a book about noise issues. It mentions the problem with medics not hearing the beeps from hospital machines after a while. I have a daughter with type 1 diabetes. She doesn’t hear the beeping related to blood glucose sensors coming from her phone anymore. After spending a few days vacationing with her, I didn’t, either(23 August, p 27). That’s pretty scary!
It is hard being allergic to cheese but not milk
I greatly appreciated your article on lesser-known food allergens. For some 70 years, I have experienced heart palpations and projectile vomiting when I eat cheese, but I don’t have an adverse reaction to milk or yogurt. As cheese doesn’t appear separately on the UK Food Standards Agency’s list of allergens that must be highlighted on food labels, my condition is often ignored or met with scepticism(30 August, p 10).
I check ingredients carefully and err on the side of caution, but I nearly got caught out a few years ago with a sandwich that contained “Grev茅”. No one could tell me what it was at the time, but I later found out it was a Swedish cow’s-milk cheese.
Right to free internet may cost more than thought
I understand Merten Reglitz’s argument that internet access should become a human right. However, spending the best part of half a trillion dollars on this wouldn’t automatically give people access to clean water, enough food, basic healthcare or the means to make a decent living to pay for these things, which they might consider a higher priority(23 August, p 20).
A right to free internet would probably have to include the right to a reasonably up-to-date device and access to free electricity to power it, not to mention training. That is going to cost at least an order of magnitude more.
A more effective idea might be some form of right to a universal basic income. There is a lot of evidence that the rest 鈥� including internet access 鈥� would follow.
An answer for those who equate natural with better
It is very refreshing to read Sophie Attwood’s comments around the (often unwarranted) assumption that “natural” materials are automatically better than “modified” or “synthetic” versions. My response to people telling me that something is “totally natural” in this context has always been: “So is arsenic, but it’s still going to kill you(30 August, p 19).”
Many types of infinity are lurking out there (1)
Your article on infinity deals with very large and very abstruse concepts of it. But what about smaller, everyday infinities?
The number pi is something we use often enough, but it can only be expressed accurately with an infinite series of digits. This doesn’t make it large 鈥� we all know that 4 is a larger number(9 August, p 28). What are the ultrafinitists going to do about this? Are they going to redefine pi with a fixed number of decimal places?
Many types of infinity are lurking out there (2)
Could it be that the number zero is another infinity? Does a perfect vacuum exist? Does absolute zero temperature really exist? It seems to me that both the physical and the mathematical worlds are bounded by at least two infinities.
A way to avoid being taken for granted
Regarding David Robson’s piece on how bosses tend to exploit their loyal employees: in my career in the National Health Service, I often worked with newly qualified therapists who didn’t feel they could say no to anything managers asked and were in danger of early burnout. I advised them to say: “Yes, I’d love to take that on(23 August, p 44). Instead of what?”
How to solve the rare-earth mineral problem
Almost all of the problems with the mining of minerals vital to renewable technologies like electric cars can be solved by newer technologies: zero-rare-earth magnets, zero-rare-earth electric motors, zero-lithium supercapacitors(23 August, p 36).
The only remaining requirement will be copper. It is even possible that a form of carbon could replace copper in many applications.
For the record
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede could be used to detect large dark matter objects, which are likely to be composed of many particles (23 August, p 8).