Mon 3 Aug 2009
“Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.”
A talk by Peter W. Singer, senior fellow, Brookings Institution.
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009
“Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking.”
A talk by Charles Seife, physics journalist.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
“Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn.”
Louisa Gilder, science writer.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
“The Evolution of God.”
A talk by Robert Wright, journalist and founder, Bloggingheads.tv.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Center for Science Writings Director John Horgan at John.Horgan@stevens.edu. The CSW is part of the College of Arts & Letters.
Wired for War
The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
A talk by Peter W. Singer, senior fellow, Brookings Institution.
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009, 4-5:30. Babbio Center, Room 122.
A consultant for the Pentagon and CIA and author of previous books on mercenaries and child warriors, Singer is an authority on the transformation of modern warfare. In this talk, he will present highlights from his lively but disturbing book “Wired for War,” which reports on how the U.S. is using increasingly sophisticated robots, drones, and other futuristic weapons to fights its wars. The Terminator may soon no longer be science fiction.
Sun in a Bottle
The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking
A talk by Charles Seife, physics journalist.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 4-5:30. Babbio Center, Room 122.
A professor of journalism at New York University and author of three previous books on physics, Charles Seife will discuss the elusive quest for fusion energy, the topic of his latest book. For more than 50 years, physicists have sought to harness nuclear fusion, which makes the sun shine and hydrogen bombs explode. True believers keep promising that fusion will solve our energy needs, while skeptics say it’s time to pull the plug on this frustrating research program.
Age of Entanglement
When Quantum Physics Was Reborn
Louisa Gilder, science writer.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 4-5:30. Babbio Center, Room 122.
In this talk, the journalist Louisa Gilder will discuss the origins and continued exploration of the most powerful and baffling of all scientific theories, quantum mechanics. The New York Times praises Gilder’s Age of Entanglement as “a sparkling, original book,” which “beautifully evokes [the experimentalists’] world,” and Nature hails it as a “welcome addition to the popular history of twentieth-century physics.”
The Evolution of God
A talk by Robert Wright, journalist and founder, Bloggingheads.tv.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 4-5:30. Babbio Center, Room 122.
In his new book “The Evolution of God,” the bestselling journalist Robert Wright, renowned for his popular works on evolutionary psychology, presents a radical interpretation of the evolution of religion and of our concepts of God. A front-page review in the New York Times calls Wright’s book “brilliant,” “provocative and controversial.” This talk, in which Wright airs the themes of his book, will be one of several “Darwin Day” events at Stevens to honor the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On the Origin of Species.”
August 12th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
“… Singer … reports on how the U.S. is using increasingly sophisticated robots, drones, and other futuristic weapons to fight its wars. The Terminator may soon no longer be science fiction.”
I think it’s sensible to use technology to spare lives in very dangerous cases, like bomb disposal robots and for “manning” checkpoints which are repeated targets for suicide bombers or car bombs. Where human lives are at stake, especially in wars against snipers and insurgency by terrorists, by using technology to reduce the impact of the terrorists without costing human lives, the terrorists will be starved of success and demoralized.
There are impressive videos of the Honda ASIMO robot running around:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1210345008392050115
August 28th, 2009 at 9:13 am
The New York Times yesterday had an interesting article on a war that is apparently already being intently waged with a lot at stake and the good guys are losing (or at least not winning which can turn into disastrous defeat at any time.)
I refer to the Conficker computer virus. It seems that whoever is behind this has enormous resources and the ability to proactively defeat the anti-viral programs being fielded against it.
The scale at which this virus operates is frightening, in terms of numbers of pc’s infected. The cleverness of it all is worrying.
Ultimately, the impact of a really destructive order sent to all the Conficker enslaved machines (or already embedded in them awaiting the appointed time) could be catastrophic.
It makes me want to sleep with my pc unplugged and stashed under my bed at night, to prevent it from turning itself on and doing mischief during the dark hours while the world slumbers.
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I think it’s sensible to use technology to spare lives in very dangerous cases, like bomb disposal robots and for “manning” checkpoints which are repeated targets for suicide bombers or car bombs. Where human lives are at stake, especially in wars against snipers and insurgency by terrorists, by using technology to reduce the impact of the terrorists without costing human lives, the terrorists will be starved of success and demoralized.
There are impressive videos of the Honda ASIMO robot running around: