Showing 1 - 6 of 6
The world really needs a techno-realist manifesto
News, Nicholas Agar & Stuart Whatley, Published on 04/12/2024
» 'It's actually going to be easy to cure ageing and cancer," insists David Sinclair, a researcher on ageing at Harvard University. Similarly, Elon Musk continues to claim that he will soon land humans on Mars and deploy robotaxis en masse. Major corporations have set carbon-neutrality targets based on highly optimistic forecasts about the potential of carbon-removal technologies. And, of course, many commentators now insist that "AI changes everything".
How Sino-American rivalry reshapes world order
Oped, William R Rhodes & Stuart PM Mackintosh, Published on 12/06/2024
» Tensions between the United States and China continue to flare, even as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and several other senior US officials visit the country for talks. The two sides may disagree on most things, but maintaining dialogue is an essential part of geopolitics. The breakdown in communication last year, following visits to Taiwan by prominent American politicians and the US downing of a Chinese spy balloon, was dangerous and destabilising, because when adversaries do not engage, misperceptions -- and the risk of a clash -- mount.
The world's banks and the green leap forward
Oped, Stuart PM Mackintosh, Published on 01/02/2022
» Many of us had hoped, perhaps naively, that global leaders gathering at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last autumn would significantly accelerate international and national efforts to slash greenhouse-gas emissions. It was not to be. Governments made some progress on methane emissions, deforestation, and the transition to electric vehicles. But other necessary action -- above all, much more ambitious national pledges and plans -- was postponed for another year.
Shell Is the Greenest Big Oil Company. Look What That Got It.
Business, James Mackintosh, Published on 02/11/2021
» Royal Dutch Shell PLC shows much that is wrong with environmental, social and governance investing.
How a robot's gaze can affect the human brain
Life, Stuart McDill of Reuters, Published on 08/09/2021
» It has long been known that making eye contact with a robot can be an unsettling experience. Scientists even have a name for the queasy feeling: the "uncanny valley".
The threats to recovery are many
News, William R Rhodes & Stuart PM Mackintosh, Published on 08/03/2021
» Over the past year, rich-country governments and central banks have provided unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus to help mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Getting back to economic normalcy -- whatever modified form that takes in 2021 and 2022 -- will require advanced economies to start weaning themselves off official support before too long, and thereby avoid dangerous new complications.