Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• Why Mass Hysteria is Thriving in the 21st Century

  Robert Bartholomew Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland

  Robert Bartholomew discusses his investigation into `Havana Syndrome' and the bad science behind it. He describes it as a myth that is a product of shoddy science, poor journalism and bad government. He will also examine the history of mass psychogenic illness (aka, 'mass hysteria) from the strange case of the meowing nuns during the latter Middle Ages to more recent outbreaks involving hiccupping schoolgirls in Massachusetts to recent claims that Lucky Charms cereal is making people sick. Yes - mass psychogenic illness is alive and well, yet many people including medical professionals do not have an accurate understanding of the concept and incorrectly equate it with mental illness or psychological weakness.

• How long will John McWhorter last at the New York Times?

  Remember, the editor of the Times editorial pages, James Bennett, was forced out last June for publishing a wrong opinion. In this case, it was an op-ed by Republican Senator Tom Cotton making the case that the military can and should be used to quell violent domestic disturbances, such as riots.
  ...
  He (McWhorter) is not a political conservative, but he is an unapologetic scourge of all things woke. Three examples:

  1. McWhorter has taken dead aim at Ibram X. Kendi and African American studies departments
  2. McWhorter has been scathing in his criticism of the New York Times's `1619 Project'
  3. He's said that there is nothing racist about the mass movement to ban critical race theory in schools
  Also see, Why won't Ibram X. Kendi debate John McWhorter?
• How Wikipedia influences judicial behavior

  Researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Maynooth University, Ireland came up with a friendly stress test: creating new legal Wikipedia articles to examine how they affect the legal decisions of judges.
  ...
  It turned out the influx of articles tipped the scales: getting a Wikipedia article increased a case's citations by more than 20%. The increase was statistically significant and the effect was particularly strong for cases that supported the argument the citing judge was making in their decision (but not the converse). Unsurprisingly, the increase was bigger for citations by lower courts - the High Court - and mostly absent for citations by appellate courts - the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. The researchers suspect that this is showing that Wikipedia is used more by judges or clerks who have a heavier workload, for whom the convenience of Wikipedia offers a greater attraction.

• The best way to brush your teeth

  These bacteria and other microorganisms grow inside everyone's mouth, and form a claggy biofilm commonly known as dental plaque. It is made up of around 700 different species of bacteria, the second-greatest diversity in the human body after the gut, as well as a host of fungi and viruses. "They are living in the sticky film stuck to the teeth and also to the soft tissues," says Hirschfeld. "This sticky film can't be easily rinsed off - it really needs to be manually cleaned."

  The most important place to remove it from is not in fact the teeth, but the gumline. This is where microbes are best able to infiltrate the gum tissue and cause inflammation, and eventually conditions such as periodontitis. In fact, "brushing your teeth" is something of a misnomer. "Think of brushing your gumline, rather than the teeth themselves," says Hirschfeld. "The teeth will then be brushed automatically."

• The Model Is The Message

  The debate over whether LaMDA is sentient or not overlooks important issues that will frame debates about intelligence, sentience, language and human-AI interaction in the coming years.

  Like most other observers, we do not conclude that LaMDA is conscious in the ways that Lemoine believes it to be. His inference is clearly based in motivated anthropomorphic projection. At the same time, it is also possible that these kinds of artificial intelligence (AI) are "intelligent" - and even "conscious" in some way - depending on how those terms are defined.
  ...
  Perhaps the real lesson for philosophy of AI is that reality has outpaced the available language to parse what is already at hand.

• Is Productivity Growth Becoming Irrelevant?

  Some economists see low business investment, poor skills, outdated infrastructure, or excessive regulation holding back potential growth nowadays. But there may be a deeper explanation: As we get richer, measured productivity may inevitably slow, and measured per capita GDP may tell us ever less about trends in human welfare.

  The growth of "zero-sum" activities may, however, be even more important. Look around the economy, and it's striking how much high-talent manpower is devoted to activities that cannot possibly increase human welfare, but entail competition for the available economic pie. Such activities have become ubiquitous: legal services, policing, and prisons; cybercrime and the army of experts defending organizations against it; financial regulators trying to stop mis-selling and the growing ranks of compliance officers employed in response; the huge resources devoted to US election campaigns; real-estate services that facilitate the exchange of already-existing assets; and much financial trading.

• The New Numbers on Music Consumption Are Very Ugly

  And it's not just the dominance of old songs-the whole creative culture is losing its ability to innovate. But why?

  The latest report shows that the consumption of old music grew another 14% during the first half of 2022, while demand for new music declined an additional 1.4%. These old tunes now represent a staggering 72% of the market.