Recently, Caliskan and colleagues published a paper in Science, that finds as a computer teaches itself English, it becomes prejudiced against black Americans and women.Basically, they used a common machine learning program to crawl through the internet, look at 840 billion words, and teach itself the definitions of those words. The program accomplishes this by looking for how often certain [...]

Of course, technology is important. Modern civilization wouldn’t be what it is without it. But what amplification implies is that especially in a world of incredible technologies, further progress requires change in people. Without improvements in our collective intention, discernment and self-control — without better heart, mind and will — we won’t use the fruits of our innovations to best [...]

There are several theories that say every story known to man can be reduced to one of just a handful of archetypes—a quest, overcoming the monster, rebirth, to name a few—but there’s no consensus on what those stories are. In this case, researchers picked six from a mix of popular lists based on what shapes the computer identified most. And [...]