Editor's pick: Where we might find consciousness
Bob Holmes observes that signs of consciousness have been found in animals from at least three different phyla, suggesting it evolved more than once (13 May, p 28). This makes me wonder whether we should be watching harder for signs of machine intelligence. If it happened so many times in the animal kingdom, unless you ascribe a religious reason, surely it will happen in computers? If it arises, we may need to set up “Turing Police” to keep an eye out – to stop them being mistreated as much as to stop them mistreating us.
Editor's pick: Where we might find consciousness
Your article on consciousness quotes a scientist who dismisses emotional responses in amphibians and fish because they don't show elevated body temperature and heart rate. But they are cold-blooded, so this is not a suitable measure. In any case, at least fish show the same adrenalin-cortisol response as mammals, so they can experience stress, fear and excitement. They also have several “signs of consciousness”: a need for sleep, sensitivity to anaesthetics, focused attention, and learning. There is a convenient history in science of assuming “lesser life forms” don't feel stress and fear.
I wonder whether a mobile lifestyle is associated with consciousness? It increases opportunities for finding patchy food, more complex social interactions and parallel development of visual, hearing, smell and other senses; all these need greater cognition and mind maps of the environment, including other animals.
Editor's pick: Where we might find consciousness
What seems remarkable about the evolution of our minds is that an originally unconscious universe is asking questions about its existence.
Why are there so few conservative academics?
Alex Berezow suggests that an “absence of intellectual diversity has contributed to a toxic and intolerant American university culture” (6 May, p 25). The only evidence cited in support is the declining number of conservatives in academia. Uncritically repeating this common claim isn't helpful for understanding partisan attitudes.
Other causes could be responsible for there being fewer conservative academics: fewer conservatives in society, different preferences for academic careers among conservatives and liberals, issues with definition or measurement, or even something inherent to conservatism. Without proper study it is impossible to determine what's driving the changing political mix of campuses – intolerance or something else.
The claim that academic culture is intolerant is often used to attack the generation of “millennial” students and to discredit their moral or political leanings.
Rather than feeding this intergenerational conflict, 91av could contribute to debate by presenting evidence and calling for more research.
First class post
That would explain why game theorists have so few friends
draws a conclusion from the finding that we should charge our friends to borrow things (3 June, p 7)
A numbat where there shouldn't be one
As a Tasmanian, it seems to me that the jury is still out on the survival of our “tiger” (6 May, p 40). With 40 per cent of Tasmania protected in reserves, much of it is very wild country.
But Cape York in the far north of Australia is a very different place. I don't know about the Tasmanian tiger, but I can say I saw a there, even though textbooks confine these marsupial “banded anteaters” to the south-west of Western Australia.
I got separated from my friends on an expedition to the Jardine swamp area of Cape York in the mid-1980s. I was left at a track junction to wait. A numbat trotted past not more than 2 metres away. I was naturally thrilled, and as a keen field naturalist I knew what it was: but I didn't know it wasn't supposed to be there.
Elections are to get rid of politicians, not pick them
Campbell Wallace suggests the ancient Greek system of selecting officials by lot as an alternative to elections (Letters, 20 May). It is true that elections often lead to unsatisfactory outcomes. I'm sure that, like me, many have voted for politicians who have betrayed us or let us down once in office.
Because we cannot accurately predict how a politician will behave once in power, the true purpose of elections is to peacefully remove leaders who have failed us.
Never mind the snow, obey thermodynamics
You mention the idea of using artificial snow to replenish a glacier (6 May, p 7). It's a terrible idea. How much energy will it require to freeze and deploy the snow? How much extra carbon dioxide will that pump into the atmosphere? The plan seems to me to be akin to trying to cool a room down by opening the refrigerator door.
This letter does not in fact describe itself
Brian Smith asks whether the word “heterological” is self-descriptive and thus autological, or heterological and non-self descriptive (Feedback, 22 April). The question was discussed by the German mathematician Kurt Grelling in 1908 and is known as the .
As Feedback notes (20 May) it is one of a class of self-referential paradoxes. Probably the oldest of these is the statement of Epimenides the Cretan that “all Cretans are liars”. A more direct example is the sentence “this sentence is false”, which is the centrepiece of Kurt Gödel's proof of the inconsistency of complete logical systems – and thus an inspiration for Alan Turing's definition of computing.
My answer to the question about the word “heterological” is simple: it is neither autological or heterological but paradoxical.
We can't know if we are in the Anthropocene
Owen Gaffney says the age of the Anthropocene is now, with humanity now being a prime driver of change in Earth's system (22 April, p 24). We were discussing this on a distance-learning course on the geology of Yorkshire and northern England.
From that point of view, if there is an Anthropocene epoch, where do we put the “golden spike” – the place where the base of the time period can be clearly seen? Our consensus was that it is too early to define a new epoch.
Will concrete be identifiable in 10 million years? What is the breakdown period for tyres? How much radioactivity will remain from our nuclear activities?
Might it be better to consider this as a cultural time period, rather like the Neolithic, which is not constrained by a specific starting point but encompasses the relevant human activity? We considered a name for this period of human culture and came up with the Anthrotechnic.
Exceeding your allotted number of heartbeats
Bryn Glover notes that he is way over his allotted number of heartbeats, given that every mammal can expect to expire after about 1.5 billion (Letters, 20 May). You respond that life expectancy in the past was only about 40 years.
Life expectancy is a confusing statistic (Letters, 10 November 2007). The low figure is largely the consequence of infant and child mortality. Some who survived childhood could expect to live to a ripe old age.
To give an extreme example, sea turtles live for around a century. But a turtle hatchling has only about a 1 in 1000 chance of reaching adulthood: so its life expectancy is a month or two.
Is beauty in the eyes of the spider beholder?
Adrian Barnett's review of Richard O. Prum's The Evolution of Beauty suggests an interesting and persuasive argument that sexual selection leads to a sense of beauty (6 May, p 44). Many species of jumping spiders weighing just a microgram or so have elaborate and colourful sexual displays. Are they on the way to evolving a sense of beauty? Maybe not.
Automated automobiles will break the law
Bob Cory suggests that nobody will write code that breaks the law for a self-driving car (Letters, 20 May). I disagree. Given the prevalence of computer hacking, the Volkswagen emissions scandal and the hobby of tweaking engine management systems, it seems that the question is not whether self-driving cars will break the law, but when.
A feast for the emotions in New Guinea
Julian Ash discusses attitudes to cannibalism (Letters, 15 April). Thirty years ago, a close friend was invited to a traditional feast in New Guinea. He reported that he'd asked the head man what the meat was and that the answer as “long pig”. Further enquiry revealed that a pit was dug and lined with hot coals: the long pig was covered up for 24 hours. Several beers later it was revealed that long pig was human.
This is perfectly rational behaviour, isn't it?
While reading Elizabeth Landau's article on hoarding (29 April, p 34), I started to wonder whether the large amount of stuff in our home counted. Finding that the most commonly hoarded items were magazines, I started to panic, thinking of our collection of 91av going back more than 40 years. My wife assured me, though, that I don't need treatment for my condition, because keeping copies of 91av forever is perfectly rational and doesn't count as hoarding. I have been a home subscriber since 1975.