What is the price of experiencing the magical experience of weightlessness in space? People with deep enough pockets will be able to snag a seat on Virgin Galactic’s 90-minute, four-passenger flights for a cool 450,000 USD per seat through their website. Additionally, you have to pay to go through the necessary training to be an astronaut. But if you want to connect with the Earth on a “solid, spiritual, fundamental level”, this is one of the few options you have to get a taste of the stars. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here
Merv
August 15, 2022
