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laurahelmuth

@laurahelmuth@mastodon.social

Editor in Chief of Scientific American. Birder. Previously at Washington Post, National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian & Science.

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laurahelmuth , to random
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It's the year 2024 and West Virginia just signed a law that will allow the teaching of religious alternatives to science (meaning creationism) in public schools. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-law-allowing-religion-into-science-classrooms-is-dangerous-for-everyone/

laurahelmuth , to random
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So much ice is melting from the poles that the water is redistributing Earth's mass and slowing its rotation https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/global-warming-is-slowing-the-earths-rotation/

laurahelmuth , to random
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Florida and Texas keep finding new ways to compete for the Most Horrible State title. Florida may ban local heat protection rules for outdoor workers https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/florida-considers-banning-local-heat-protections-for-workers/

laurahelmuth , to random
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There have been three major waves of opposition to transgender health care in the past century, including today's. Each wave has used pseudoscience to justify its hostility to trans people, including today's. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pseudoscience-has-long-been-used-to-oppress-transgender-people/

laurahelmuth , to random
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My compliments to the headline chefs https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00217-2

laurahelmuth , to random
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A recent AI survey "emphasizes baseless speculation about human extinction ... Such vague, hyped-up notions are dangerous because they draw attention away from mundane but much more urgent issues that are happening right now” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-survey-exaggerates-apocalyptic-risks/ by @stokel

feliz ,
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@laurahelmuth @stokel

The alarmism around AI is just a marketing spin.

As @pluralistic wrote: that's "mystical nonsense about spontaneous consciousness arising from applied statistics".

Real problems we face with AI are:

Ghost labor, erosion of the rights of artists, costs of automation, the climate impact of data-centers and the human impact of biased, opaque, incompetent and unfit algorithmic systems.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/27/10-types-of-people/

targetdrone ,
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@feliz @laurahelmuth @stokel @pluralistic And don't forget polluting the worldwide pool of information with machine generated hallucinations that are indistinguishable from factual data provided by subject matter experts.

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