This week brings two radically different perspectives on how robots are changing the world. Marketplace quotes Jaan Tallinn, an Estonian programmer who helped develop Skype, on the dangers of self-replicating technology: "Once we have something that is no longer under control" says Tallinn, "once technological development is yanked out of our hands, it doesn't have to continue to be beneficial to humans."

Machines which we can't control, which sounds a lot like the grey goo problem, is just one of the topics that will be studied at Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, an organization co-founded by Tallinn to examine threats to the continuing existence of humanity.

Tallinn explains:

Humanity is seriously under-invested in them. For example, we're spending more money in lipstick research than we are in making sure that we survive this century as a species. Worrying about long-term issues is definitely something that very few people are doing. Therefore my time and my money can actually make a big difference in that area.

Continue Reading...

According to MarketPlace, reports Wall Street & Technology, "at least 300 traders are currently paying $237 each year to subscribe to financial astrologer Karen Starich’s newsletter, while a couple thousand more subscribe to Arch Crawford’s astrology-based financial forecasts."

On balance, of all the vagaries to factor into market moving decisions, we'll opt for Saturn squaring on Neptune compared to, say, greed-driven culture of risk any day.

Continue Reading...