Guest Thinkers — October 6, 2010

Sen. Jim DeMint Doesn’t Think Gays and Loose Women Should be Teachers

Lindsay Beyerstein

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

That’s funny, because I don’t think that bigots should be senators.

[Photo: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons.]

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Starts With A Bang

Why JWST doesn’t have the same limits as Hubble

All telescopes are fundamentally limited in what they can see. JWST reveals more distant galaxies than Hubble, but still can’t see them all.

Starts With A Bang

Our best idea for the “origin of gold” doesn’t add up

In 2017, we detected gold being forged in a neutron star-neutron star merger. Now, in 2024, the amounts created simply don’t add up.

A photo capturing the memory of a woman standing in front of a body of water.

The Learning Curve

Why memory is more about your future than your past

Memories aren’t mental recordings, but pliable information we can use to better manage the present and conjure future possibilities.

Starts With A Bang

The entropy of a closed system doesn’t always increase

The second law of thermodynamics is an inviolable law of reality. Here’s what everyone should know about closed, open, and isolated systems.

a close up of a cell phone near a keyboard.

The Future

The biggest problem with GPT-4 is philosophical: What is truth? And do we trust AI to tell us?

The biggest lingering question about GPT-4 isn’t if it’s going to destroy jobs or take over the world. Instead, it is this: Do we trust AI programmers to tell society what is true?

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