On bias

We all need to learn to recognise our own bias and learn about other people, their ways of life, their beliefs, their ways of doing things. Only then can we live together in harmony.

F is for fake – and fortune

Art forgery has been a lucrative trade down the ages, but do its victims only have their own greed to blame?

Women are right to protest

The upsurge of women coming out fighting on the issue of sexual harrassment at work should not come as a surprise.

The opiate of the people

For better or worse, religion remains a pervasive influence on human society around the world, but a strict separation between religion and politics is in the best interest of believers and non-believers alike.

Slavery and society

Society should define tasks best left to humans, as well as what can safely be left to autonomous machines, as once a machine takes over a task it will not be an easy to reclaim it.

Robots and the law

Autonomous machines able to think and act for themselves were once the stuff of science fiction, but now they are becoming reality, we need to delve back into a classic novel series for rules to protect ourselves.

This year – A Victorian perspective

As Victoria finally emerges from its long lock-down and travel restrictions begin to ease between the states, Alan Stevenson looks back at the experience and finds rays of hope for his community in what has been a dark year for the country.

Watch the skies!

The release of footage from US Navy jets tracking fast moving, unidentified craft has rekindled interest in the possibility of alien visitors from distant worlds.

Beware the digital butler

Digital personal assistants from Apple, Google, Amazon and other tech giants may offer a degree of convenience, but users should be wary of them taking an ever greater interest in our personal affairs.

Let’s pause for thought about AI

For specific tasks from language recognition to self-driving cars, narrow artificial intelligence is progressing rapidly, perhaps too quickly for scientists to understand it. The creation of broad AI, which outperforms humans in every task, may create as many risks as it solves problems.

Gods, microbes and men

Iran’s disastrous initial response to the coronavirus outbreak could lead to thousands more deaths, and highlights the problems caused when religion has undue influence over politics.

My world is not your world

While we assume we experience the same unfiltered and objective reality, our senses and brains combine to make sense of the world around us from birth in very complex – and individual – ways.