Last fall I was at the AI conference hosted by the CPG in Bangkok, sitting next to Erik Vermeulen of Tilburg University and Phillips Electronics, when a… Read more “The Paperclip Singularity”
Blog
Chanukah, Climate Change, and Star Wars
On the first day of Chanukah, my family and I went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The influence of Christian and Buddhist traditions on… Read more “Chanukah, Climate Change, and Star Wars”
Automating Education
Does teaching require teachers? When MOOCs were all the rage, so too was the idea that the teaching professoriate was living in its last days–surely some videos… Read more “Automating Education”
Ohio’s assault on science is a threat to our future
Some months ago I noted that our post-truth, anti-science assaults on public reason might be reasonably traced to the Challenger disaster (I think other near-contemporaneous events like… Read more “Ohio’s assault on science is a threat to our future”
A Public Option for Artificial Intelligence
Hard on the heels of my recent participation in the conference on “Governing the Future: Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, and Dataism” in Thailand, this morning I found myself… Read more “A Public Option for Artificial Intelligence”
Artificial intelligence, data, and the law
In mid-October, I had the privilege of being invited to a terrific conference on AI hosted by the German-Southeast Asian Center for Good Governance and Public Policy… Read more “Artificial intelligence, data, and the law”
Dungeons & Dragons as History of Religions
In writing Deities & Demigods (and its precursor, Gods, Demigods, & Heroes), James Ward exposed millions of role-players and curious readers to the study of comparative mythology.… Read more “Dungeons & Dragons as History of Religions”
Google, AI, Ethics, and Reality
In a whirlwind of great press (all publicity must be good publicity, right?), Google launched an AI ethics review board and–within just one week–disbanded it in the… Read more “Google, AI, Ethics, and Reality”
Archeologies and Architectures of Technology
My Fulbright-Nehru project–to explore the communities formed through dialogue about sarees, particularly handwoven sarees, on social media–has me thinking a lot about how we conceptualize the terrain… Read more “Archeologies and Architectures of Technology”
Available: sample chapter from Temples of Modernity
I’m delighted to post that the folks at Lexington Books have given me permission to publish an excerpt of Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism, and Transhumanism in… Read more “Available: sample chapter from Temples of Modernity”