That was 1998. Today, according to some measures, AI is booming once again. Programs such as voice and face recognition are embedded in cell phones, televisions, cars and countless other consumer products. Clever algorithms help me choose a Christmas present for my girlfriend, find my daughter’s building in Brooklyn and gather information for columns like this one. Venture-capital investments in AI to $40 billion, according to WIRED. A Price Waterhouse study estimates that by 2030 AI will boost global economic output by , “more than the current output of China and India...…That was 1998. Today, according to some measures, AI is booming once again. Programs such as voice and face recognition are embedded in cell phones, televisions, cars and countless other consumer products. Clever algorithms help me choose a Christmas present for my girlfriend, find my daughter’s building in Brooklyn and gather information for columns like this one. Venture-capital investments in AI to $40 billion, according to WIRED. A Price Waterhouse study estimates that by 2030 AI will boost global economic output by , “more than the current output of China and India...WW…

I’m a compulsive journal-scribbler. This habit, which goes back to my teens, has proved useful to my career. All my articles and books start as journal entries. But my motivation is not merely professional. If I don’t record my thoughts, I won’t remember them, and they won’t matter. So I fear. This feeling has grown as I’ve aged.Compounding my concern is the possibility—no, probability—that one day humanity and all its residues will vanish. Our works of science, mathematics, philosophy, art, music and, yes, journalism will slip back into the void whence they came. Everything we have thought...…I’m a compulsive journal-scribbler. This habit, which goes back to my teens, has proved useful to my career. All my articles and books start as journal entries. But my motivation is not merely professional. If I don’t record my thoughts, I won’t remember them, and they won’t matter. So I fear. This feeling has grown as I’ve aged.Compounding my concern is the possibility—no, probability—that one day humanity and all its residues will vanish. Our works of science, mathematics, philosophy, art, music and, yes, journalism will slip back into the void whence they came. Everything we have thought...WW…

Toward the end of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr., after agonizing about the Vietnam War in private, began denouncing it in public. Liberal politicians and media, including The New York Times, , telling him to stick to civil rights. In a 1967 speech , King rejected this criticism and explained how he arrived at his antiwar stance.He had realized, he said, that the U.S. “would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was...…Toward the end of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr., after agonizing about the Vietnam War in private, began denouncing it in public. Liberal politicians and media, including The New York Times, , telling him to stick to civil rights. In a 1967 speech , King rejected this criticism and explained how he arrived at his antiwar stance.He had realized, he said, that the U.S. “would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was...WW…

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.PreviousNextDiscover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.Support science journalism.Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.Already a subscriber? Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or to continue.Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.You may cancel at any time.…The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.PreviousNextDiscover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.Support science journalism.Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.Already a subscriber? Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or to continue.Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.You may cancel at any time.WW…

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.PreviousNextDiscover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.Support science journalism.Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.Already a subscriber? Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or to continue.Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.You may cancel at any time.…The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.PreviousNextDiscover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.Support science journalism.Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.Already a subscriber? Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or to continue.Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.You may cancel at any time.WW…

By | These are dark days for Notre Dame de Namur University — and the worst may be yet to come.The small, financially-challenged Belmont Catholic school is purposely shedding students, halting programs (intercollegiate athletic programs have been eliminated), laying off staff, ending new admissions and actively seeking transfer opportunities for its current freshmen and sophomores.Ten colleges, including six in the Bay Area (Menlo College is one of them), have agreed to consider and facilitate NDNU transfers as they come forward.Students who are on target to get their degrees in 2021 will...…By | These are dark days for Notre Dame de Namur University — and the worst may be yet to come.The small, financially-challenged Belmont Catholic school is purposely shedding students, halting programs (intercollegiate athletic programs have been eliminated), laying off staff, ending new admissions and actively seeking transfer opportunities for its current freshmen and sophomores.Ten colleges, including six in the Bay Area (Menlo College is one of them), have agreed to consider and facilitate NDNU transfers as they come forward.Students who are on target to get their degrees in 2021 will...WW…