, 2 min read
Science and Technology links (February 9th, 2019)
- Though deep learning has proven remarkably capable in many tasks like image classification, it is possible that the problems they are solving remarquably well are just simpler than we think:
At its core our work shows that [neural networks] use the many weak statistical regularities present in natural images for classification and don’t make the jump towards object-level integration of image parts like humans.
This challenges the view that deep learning is going to bring us much closer to human-level intelligence in the near future.
- Though we age, it is unclear how our bodies keep track of the time (assuming they do). Researchers claim that our blood cells could act as time keepers. When you transplant organs from a donor, they typically behave according to the age of the recipient. However, blood cells are an exception: they keep the same age as the donor. What would happen if we were to replace all blood cells in your body with younger or older ones?
- A tenth of all coal is used to make steel. This suggests that it might be harder than people expect to close coal mines and do away with fossil fuels entirely in the short or medium term.
- Elite powerlifters have suprising low testosterone (male homone) levels. This puts a dent in the theory that strong men have high testosterone levels.
- Chimpanzees learn to crack nuts faster than human beings. This challenges the model that human beings are cognitively superior.
- It seems that the male brain ages more rapidly than the female brain.
- Grant argues that vitamin D supplements reduce cancer rates, but that medicine is slow to accept it.
- Women prefer more masculine looking men in richer countries. I do not have any intuition as to why this might be.
- Geographers claim that the arrival of Europeans to America, and the subsequent reduction of population (due mostly to diseases) lead to a global cooling of worldwide temperatures. It seems highly speculative to me that there was any measurable effect.
- The New York Times has a piece of a billionnaire called Brutoco who says that “he spends much of his time flying around the world lecturing on climate change” and lives in a gorgeous villa surrounded by a golf course. There is no talk of his personal carbon footprint.